Apple questions

[FLA]

Do most people fill up their 5gb of iCloud storage? It's 99c a month for 50gb. I've hit the limit, I think it's mostly photos and 99c seems reasonable, especially since I am very bad at backing up devices using Time Machine and an external hard drive.

Also, I heard they are going to stop making the iPad mini. I have an16gb entry level model that is probably 4-5 yrs old, I use it all the time. The bottom half of the screen is shattered and covered by a glass protector. I don't want a bigger iPad, I will eventually want another mini. When do you think would be the best time to get the best price on a new mini with more gbs? Do you think Apple will drop the price on them?

[Jluke]

Have you checked out the Apple website for refurbished models?

I saw a regular iPad at BJs for $299 but that would be the larger screen.

Have you considered turning off the iCloud storage or do you use it across your devices? If so then $12/year is a good deal.

ETA: I would never pay for this service.

[disneysteve]

I am very bad at backing up devices using Time Machine and an external hard drive.

What is there to be bad at? You plug in the drive and turn on Time Machine and that's all you ever need to do. From that point on, everything is automatic. You can get a 1 terabyte drive for $50-60. My daughter just got one a few weeks ago. It was Time Machine ready. She plugged it in, it asked if she wanted to activate Time Machine, and she clicked Yes. That was it.

Get yourself a drive and be done with it. It's $12/year for 50GB or $50 once for 1TB.

[Singuy]

An external HD cannot be compared to a cloud service. Those are essentially apples and oranges. The biggest benefit of a cloud service is that those back up solutions are operating in a raid configuration in which you'll never lose your data. An external HD on the other hand is a ticking time bomb. You'll need to replace the external drive every 3-5 years so in the end as well, so the cost is not as cut and dry as Steve have put it.

Also with a cloud, you can stream your pictures and videos right into your phone so you can bring your data on the go. You can also do this with external drives that are connected to the network but again, the reliability thing is an issue.

[greenskeeper]

all of our important stuff is on flash drives put in the safe

[porkpistol]

Download Google Photos and backup all your videos/photos to there. It is free with unlimited HD storage. Don't pay for Apple's storage.
Don't back up to a physical drive. Google Photos will backup everything when connected to Wi-Fi, or if you have unlimited data you can set it to backup instantly over cell service as well.

[corn18]

Download Google Photos and backup all your videos/photos to there. It is free with unlimited HD storage. Don't pay for Apple's storage.
Don't back up to a physical drive. Google Photos will backup everything when connected to Wi-Fi, or if you have unlimited data you can set it to backup instantly over cell service as well.

I have 1.5 TB of photos and videos, so Google drive no work for me.

I use iDrive for our phones because it is simple. Time Machine does not backup phones unless you plug them into a Mac or enable wifi sync, which I do not (everyone is all over the country at college or my MIL). Sometimes the convenience is worth $12 a year.

For my Mac, I have a 4TB RAID 1+0 external thunderbolt array for primary storage. Another 4TB external drive for backup (direct mirror image). Another 4TB external drive for Time Machine. And once a month I backup to an external drive and put it in my fireproof, flood proof safe. Twice a year I backup to an external drive and ship that to my MIL. Am I being paranoid? Nope. I lost all of our digital pictures from 1994-1996 and my wife has never forgiven me.

[porkpistol]

I have 1.5 TB of photos and videos, so Google drive no work for me.

I use iDrive for our phones because it is simple. Time Machine does not backup phones unless you plug them into a Mac or enable wifi sync, which I do not (everyone is all over the country at college or my MIL). Sometimes the convenience is worth $12 a year.

For my Mac, I have a 4TB RAID 1+0 external thunderbolt array for primary storage. Another 4TB external drive for backup (direct mirror image). Another 4TB external drive for Time Machine. And once a month I backup to an external drive and put it in my fireproof, flood proof safe. Twice a year I backup to an external drive and ship that to my MIL. Am I being paranoid? Nope. I lost all of our digital pictures from 1994-1996 and my wife has never forgiven me.

Google Photos is not Google Drive.

How Google Drive works with Google Photos
You can upload or back up photos and videos from both Google Drive and Google Photos, but here are some ways we recommend using each:

You can use Google Photos to:
Edit and share photos and videos.
Organize with albums.
Search by date, place, or people.
Back up photos and videos.
Learn more about Google Photos.

You can use Google Drive to:
Organize photos and videos into folders.
Keep all your files in one place.
Share or insert photos into Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Upload or sync files to view them anywhere.
Back up photos & videos
You can back up your photos using Google Photos or Google Drive. To avoid storing duplicates, we recommend backing up using one app. Learn how to back up using :

Google Photos
Google Drive

[Gailete]

I think Amazon stores my Kindle books on the cloud, but other than that, I am not aware of using it or being connected to it or even how to connect to it. I remember years ago when they had those goofy commercials about the cloud, I would look at them wondering what in the world they were talking about. Still barely know.

[Gaston]

I pay for the 50Gb iCloud storage yes and it works great. I reckon there is not much difference between all the different cloud services there are these days, but since most of my tech is Apple I find it logical to use iCloud.

[porkpistol]

I pay for the 50Gb iCloud storage yes and it works great. I reckon there is not much difference between all the different cloud services there are these days, but since most of my tech is Apple I find it logical to use iCloud.

Price is a difference.