iCloud 5.1 beta: is this possible?

[jimthing]

(NOTE: For a few software reasons, now sorted-out, I have not yet update my Mac to Lion (from Snow Leopard), nor iPhone 4 to iOS 5.x (from iOS 4.x))

Wikipedia quote:
"Users can now enter any Apple ID to sign up for an iCloud account. Previously, users had to create a new MobileMe account."
link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history#iOS_5.x:_fifth_major_OS_release

Some background...
• My current Apple ID is "firstname.lastname", which I then have a MobileMe email address associated to it as the Contact Email (ie. "firstname.lastname@me.com").
• Please note here that I have therefore deliberately NEVER used the Apple ID (in my case "firstname.lastname@me.com") given to me automatically when I purchased & set-up a MobileMe email a few years ago.

So is the Wikipedia comment correct?
AFAIR, when I helped my sister a while ago to move her Mac and iPhone (Lion & iOS 5 were done at the same time), it asked for a MobileMe email (she has her Apple ID set-up the same as I do above, but on trying to use her "firstname.lastname" Apple ID it refused, instead then working using the FULL "firstname.lastname@me.com".)

Now this was annoying as it meant she (and from online reading, many users were annoyed by it!) had the 2x Apple IDs issue:
[1] "firstname.lastname" - for anything iTunes/online store related (ie. media/apps purchases/updates).
[2] "firstname.lastname@me.com" - for anything iCloud related (ie. sync of mail/contacts/calendar/other app syncs/etc.).


If I wait a bit longer for iOS 5.1, as a current MobileMe user, does this mean that I could use my Apple ID "firstname.lastname" to set-up & use iCloud (and also iTunes store content), when this update is released? In order to avoid completely the 2x separate Apple ID's issue mentioned above.

Very curious on this, as it would seem a good idea if correct. As I don't really believe the press reports that Apple are going to definitely put an Apple ID merging system in place (either soon, or perhaps even ever!).
Thoughts...?

 

[benguild]

I have a separate @me.com email that I reserved, but want to keep my GMail as my Apple ID. I'm hoping they'll sort this out for us.

 

[jimthing]

Pretty much the same as you Smash, except I wanna keep my "firstname.lastname" Apple ID instead, that has my me.com email under the "Contact Email", so I can change that in the future if I ever need to, but keep my simple non-email version as my Apple ID username in perpetuity.

The one thing I've been wondering about is whether they will still make you sign in with a FULL email address, regardless of whether it is a me.com or not — I *REALLY* hope not otherwise I'm not gonna be happy!)

Anyone else have some idea on the likelihood of this being true? Or guess a timeframe for iOS 5.1 to get released? (yes, I know, crystal ball time. But I'm guessing soonish; beta devs got any info? ;-)

 

[jimthing]

Anyone?

 

[jimthing]

Someone?

 

[Kyotoma]

Make sure that you have read the forum rules. It is against the rules to bump threads.

Anyway, I have my apple ID set up as my @gmail.com address. I had no issues keeping that when I set up iCloud. However, when I set it up, it would not let me use my gmail to push email. For that I had to create a separate @me.com address, which I just use for email. Kinda useless to me, but I didn't care.


Question: why would you set up your apple ID separate to your MobileMe email in the first place? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[jimthing]

Apple FORCED us to, that's why.

Question: why would you set up your apple ID separate to your MobileMe email in the first place? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Very simply; because Apple FORCED me (and a few hundred thousand other MM users!) to do so.


Before using MobileMe, I had my Apple ID as "firstname.lastname@gmail.com". Then I signed up for the MM service and wanted to use my new MM email address as this A-ID (I was stopping the use of my gmail address), so tried to change it in My Apple ID (https://appleid.apple.com).

But Apple already automatically set-up a new A-ID for all MM users, whether they liked it or not. So I couldn't change my original gmail A-ID to my new MM email address. Instead all I could do (before iCloud was announced, as they have new hidden rules for what an A-ID can actually be) was change the gmail A-ID to just "firstname.lastname".

The key here was it would allow you to add a preferred "Contact email" address for any Apple communications about your A-ID account purchases or issues, where I added my new MM email address "firstname.lastname@me.com".

This worked fine, as I just ignored the A-ID Apple had automatically set-up for me when I signed up with the MM service.

Stupidly ill thought out logic by Apple, in AUTOMATICALLY setting-up new A-IDs for a great many Apple users who already had one they used for all their purchases beforehand (in my case, NOT Apple's crappy lossy music format, but certainly apps and other stuff).

 

[jimthing]

Well 5.1 has now arrived.

Users can now enter any Apple ID to sign-up for an iCloud account. Previously, they had to use (or create a new) me.com email Apple ID.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history#iOS_5.x:_fifth_major_OS_release)


Can someone confirm you can use *any* Apple ID now to set-up an iCloud account?

 

[Prodo123]

Well 5.1 has now arrived.


(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history#iOS_5.x:_fifth_major_OS_release)


Can someone confirm you can use *any* Apple ID now to set-up an iCloud account?

That's how it was in the past, that's how it is now, and that's how it's going to be.

Wikipedia is clearly wrong. You always could use any Apple ID to set up iCloud.

What I want is for iCloud to completely replace my Apple ID. I don't like my Gmail address anymore...

 

[jimthing]

Wikipedia is clearly wrong. You always could use any Apple ID to set up iCloud.

That's not wholly true actually. You could only use Apple ID's that were FULL email addresses, so not just "firstname.lastname" (or similar) aliases, without the @whatever.com domain.

And as it turns out, even after iOS 5.1 was released yesterday, I have since found it remains the case (unfortunately).

So basically we still have to use separate A-ID's:
[1] "firstname.lastname" – for anything iTunes/online store related (ie. media/apps purchases/updates).
[2] "firstname.lastname@me.com" – for anything iCloud related (ie. sync of mail/contacts/calendar/other app syncs/etc.).

...and today, after TWO detailed long calls with Apple's "Apple ID support" via Express Lane today, they told me for [1] above, I couldn't even solve the problem by upgrading the Apple ID itself to a full email address, and have the Primary Email Address remain as my me.com one. As iCloud would take the Contacts and Calendars from the Apple ID email address, ie. "whatever@whatever.com".
(the issue being, that even though I could then separately set-up my me.com email address up, it would be separate from the Contacts and Calendars from the Apple ID email address iCloud used first.)

To be truthful, the Apple staff were very honest in both saying that even they were confused by the whole situation themselves, as Apple has endless knowledge-base articles on Apple ID's with/without iCloud/iTunes Store, and the issues were often confounding them. And they then had to try and deal with the endless field of calls/emails from confused users across the board!

So let's say Wikipedia is partially wrong, in fact.

What I want is for iCloud to completely replace my Apple ID. I don't like my Gmail address anymore...

Yes, it looks like this is the situation we're all in (well certainly a few hundred thousand users, at least ;-)
— *two* Apple ID's, with no way of joining them together! (and I for one will never believe the rumours that Apple is working on an Apple ID merging system until I see it for myself!!)

Apparently hardly anyone could follow Apple's 'recommended option' of getting away with using a *single* Apple ID for both iTunes AND iCloud.