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Connecting an Apple mobile device via USB allows you to "sync" with any Mac or PC that will run the appropriate version of iTunes. It also gives you some control over what gets moved there from iTunes. Each device may have unique settings, and depending on how you set it up, it may or may not sync contacts, calendars and tasks. So you might or might not wind up with the same set of contacts on say your iPad, iPhone and Mac. With iOS 5 it's taken a bit further: now you don't need the USB cable, you can sync thusly over your LAN (assuming wifi, of course).

MobileMe let's you sync from the cloud. It allowed you to adjust some parameters for each Mac or i-device, and could be automatic or manual. Contacts, calendars and tasks were available online as well, unlike the syncing already mentioned. It also allowed pushing, which is a special type of syncing: any time you changed a contact that change is pushed to MoibleMe and any other synced device. So that it was easier to keep the same info on several devices in that it was "synced" in real time.

iCloud also does syncing/pushing, but takes it further. Once activated, it pushes not only changes in calendars, contacts and the like, but also photos (photo stream), apps and whatnot. The goal is to keep all your devices synced all the time. So your backups, music, documents (from certain applications) etc are treated like your contacts in the MobileMe scheme.

So it's important to distinguish plain old syncing, which at the lowest level is just copying from your computer to a device, to more intelligent syncing (copying and making sure all the copies on the selected devices are the same), all the way to pushing, which is sort of aggressive real time syncing.

For me, iCloud is not so hot. It doesn't have the controls I'd like to customize my syncing, and I don't want to do it in real time. If I take a photo, I do NOT want it to instantly go other places, I want to decide where to send it. I, by necessity, have to mix work and home stuff on my devices, yet iCloud seems to assume I'm one of the folks who has no private life. You can't even delete a photo from Photo Stream without deleting all of them and shutting them off…I'm already wondering when I'll see that feature catch someone in an Anthony Weiner moment.

Rob

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