Do I need iCloud?

[MacAndMic]

I have an iMac and an iPhone 4 I sync with. I backup my iMac regularly. Are there any benefits that iCloud will give me (other than another backup source)?

 

[dpetree]

yes

 

[darster]

It's a nice feature. Needed? No.

 

[NWI73]

yes

Can you further clarify ?

It's a nice feature. Needed? No.

Can you further clarify?

 

[MacAndMic]

I seen find my mac in there. Nice to have if it ever got stolen I guess.

 

[dyn]

iCloud is free e-mail and syncing services. That means that you don't to hook up the iPhone and iMac to exchange contact and calendar information. Since I have a desktop, laptop and an iPhone I use iCloud (and previously MobileMe) to keep the information on all those 3 devices the same (contacts, calendar and mail). There are other solutions like what Google offers (really bad contact sync) or what hosted Exchange companies offer (it is simply exchange which gives you good contact, calendar sync and mail).

 

[aphexacid]

i'm using it only to back up my contacts so far. I love that i'll never lose them again. I never wanted to integrate them with my gmail, so they've never been in the cloud before.

 

[Shadow2k]

I use it for email and to sync my contacts and calendar.

The rest is rather useless unless you like unflexible sync services that dictate you on what gets synced and which apps are able to access it or not. (I want my iDisk back!)