Learn iPad Week: Set up iCloud in six simple steps

With the recent launch of iOS 5, iCloud was finally unleashed on the world, and now is the time to take advantage of its features if you own more than one Apple device. iCloud makes it very straightforward to keep all of your data in sync across a Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch thanks to a clever sharing system that will update everything at once whenever you make a change. However, setting up your devices correctly is very important. Setting up iCloud itself is relatively simple, whether you own a Mac or just convert a current email address to the new system. But you will need to decide carefully what you want to sync before you input your iCloud address into your iOS device. Do you want your mail in the cloud, or do you just want your contacts to be updated regularly with new data? Do you want photos you take to be saved and beamed instantly to your other devices, and will you need documents and data to be saved between iDevices? All of these are possible, but only optional when you sign up to iCloud, and you can pick and choose what your 5GB of free iCloud storage space will be used for. Read on to find out exactly how to set up each of your devices with iCloud, and how to get everything syncing instantly across your setup.