Access from anywhere

Stay connected even on devices that you don’t own

The iCloud.com website replicates many of iCloud’s most compelling features, so you can access your info from pretty much any computer. The crown jewels of this web-based version are the iWork apps that let you edit your synced documents from any Mac or PC, even in a web café – and Find My Friends, which helps you keep track of friends and family members.

Beyond replicated features, there are some exclusives. News Publisher lets you take the raw content from a regularly updated website (using itsRS feed or data in Apple News Format) and push it to the News app for iOS (and macOS Mojave this autumn). Successful publishers can embed their own adverts, retaining 100% of the revenue, or they can outsource sales toApple, which will take a 30% cut.

Elsewhere, the web version of Mail is more than just a convenient interface for when you’re away from your personal devices. You can use it to apply rules that process incoming messages on the server, before they reach your devices. To start, click the cog at the bottom of Mail’s sidebar, pick Rules, and then click the Rules tab.

Rules match attributes in the header of messages, such as the sender’s email address or keywords in the subject line. Any messages that turn up a match can be deleted, moved to a folder, redirected, or marked as read.

In the adjacent tab, Vacation, you can set a response – the contents of which you get to choose – that’ll be sent automatically to anyone who sends a message to your iCloud email address. This can be ongoing, or only between start and end dates that you specify.