This Week's Sponsor:

Incogni

Put an End to Spam, Scams, and Robocalls on Your iPhone

Snow Leopard To Get Basic iCloud Compatibility with 10.6.9

In a somewhat expected turn of events, a notice appeared on an old Mac running Tiger seems to confirm Apple will provide basic support for iCloud sync on Snow Leopard machines. As reported by MacRumors, a developer testing the MobileMe to iCloud transition with Tiger’s .Mac preference pane noticed a message about a 10.6.9 requirement for calendar, bookmark and contact sync.

You will no longer be able to sync with this machine because you’ve upgraded to iCloud.

iCloud requires a computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.9 or later for Contacts, Calendars, and Bookmarks.

Whilst Apple made no mention of Snow Leopard compatibility when detailing iCloud and the transition from MobileMe (actually indicating “some features of iCloud” will require iOS 5 and OS X Lion), it would certainly make sense to provide an additional 10.6 upgrade to ensure basic former MobileMe functionalities under the new iCloud brand. Apple has already started migrating MobileMe developer accounts to the new iCloud ecosystem, providing a desktop add-on for testing on the 10.7.2 developer seed. iCloud is expected to go public this Fall alongside the aforementioned 10.7.2 and iOS 5, whereas MobileMe will be officially discontinued on June 30, 2012.

Developer accounts that are being transitioned from MobileMe are automatically given free storage regardless of the previous subscription until next year, and considering Lion is still touted as an “upgrade to Snow Leopard” (which is required to purchase Lion from the Mac App Store) and that Snow Leopard is still available on Apple’s website, it would be an optimal solution to provide 10.6 users with one last software update to migrate from old MobileMe services to some new iCloud free offerings. There’s one caveat, however: assuming the MobileMe to iCloud transition goes as planned and Apple will really push 10.6.9 to enable iCloud sync, some old MobileMe features like syncing of Mac Dashboard widgets, keychains, Dock items, and System Preferences won’t be available on OS X anymore, as Apple explains here.

Join

Access Extra Content and Perks

Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.

What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed every MacStories fan.

Learn more here and from our Club FAQs.

Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.

Federico is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MacStories, where he writes about Apple with a focus on apps, developers, iPad, and iOS productivity. He founded MacStories in April 2009 and has been writing about Apple since. Federico is also the co-host of AppStories, a weekly podcast exploring the world of apps, Unwind, a fun exploration of media and more, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about portable gaming and the handheld revolution.

@viticci
@viticci
@[email protected]
@viticci.macstories.net
[email protected]