Q: If i cant upgrade to Lion how can i effectively use i cloud?

You can't

To do what?  You need either Lion or an iOS device to create an iCloud account.  You can use it on your iOS devices without Lion.  In OS X 10.6 you can still use iCloud email as it is plain IMAP email - servers and settings are on Apple's web site and you'd set it up the same way as any other IMAP email account.

I have OS X Lion on my MBP and the single iCloud feature I use is email - everything else in iCloud settings is disabled.  Computer works just the same as it did under 10.6 for 99.99999% of what I use it for.

"My computer effectivly just became a paperweight????"

A bit melodramatic, don't you think?  So your saying your computer now does nothing, none of the things it did yesterday will work today because you do not have Lion and iCloud?

Does it still do everything it did before iCloud?

If it does then Iseriously doubt that your comparison of it to a paperweight is doing it justice.

Allan

I run an even older computer and don't regard it as a paperweight. I just don't have any use for iCloud so I don't care if i can't have access to it.  What do you need it for?

For that matter I stopped upgrading iTunes after I got to 7.5  I never saw a need for anything in the nwer versions.  Just because they bring out something new doesn't mean you have to use it.

Why not???!!!

Seriously, you should have a reason to upgrade. It must offer you something that the old version doesn't or else it is a waste of time.

I would be interested in hearing Roksearch's reason for coming down so hard on that Mac.

Allan

The features since iTunes 7.5 have been marketing "improvements", namely feature improvements in the iTunes Store.  Most of the music in which I am interested is only sold by bands at their gigs, and even the ones that are on the ITMS I prefer buying on CD where I get a full quality copy (maybe if Apple sold AIFF or ALE quality I would have considered it) with complete album notes I can read wherever I like (e.g., in the kitchen where I do NOT have a computer but do have a CD player).  Movies we borrow, for free, from the library which has a state-wide, free interlibrary loan with a pretty extensive collection.  Even then we only have my G4 Quicksilver 2x1GHz in my office with 17" CRT monitor, and a tube TV downstairs.  I don't think we want to watch movies huddled behind the desk in my room (which wouldn't meet Apple's specs anyway), and Apple's movies won't play on the DVD player downstairs.

I never set up an iTunes account, and of course now running Tiger OS  I am one of the ones left behind by Apple's updates so I couldn't open one even if I wanted to.

Genius requires ITunes account (and never saw a need for it). I know what I want to listen to when I want to listen to it so I don't need suggestions.

Ping? I'm not even sure what that is, and it is so rarely mentioned here that it must either be perfect or not many other people use it.

My camera is a compact style which while it can make movies, they aren't the greatest.  They are in AVI and I make so few that it isn't worth the hassle converting to iTunes friendly format.  I know where they are when I want them and NicePlayer does a better job of playing them as they are.

So, with ITMS out, as are Genius, Ping, movie library creation (which iTunes 7.5 can do anyway), what's left?  Playing music and listening to online radio.  7.5 does both nicely.  It fits in nicely with the age of my equipment and my OS.  In 7 years of using it I have never had a single problem with it.  Why fix it if it ain't broke?

OK paper weight is harsh, but i made the upfront investment to have longevity ....

Reality:

- We can't predict what Apple will do, we can only go on past behavior.

- For the past decade Apple has stopped pretty much all support for anything except the current and previous operating system (OS) version.  Apple has brought out a new OS version roughly every 2 years.  This translates to roughly 4 years of update support.  In some cases Apple may stretch it a bit such as iTunes also still working under OS 10.5 (we're now on 10.7), but iTunes isn't an OS.   I do know with the recent malware incident Apple did not bring out a fix for any OS earlier than 10.6.  Now there's an interesting change ahead. Apple brought out Lion last year and is likely to bring out Mountain lion this year. We're now on a 1 year upgrade cycle. If Apple continues past pattern on only supporting the last two OS versions it means your OS basically only has an effective lifespan of 2 years instead of 4. Longevity?

- Hardware.  We bought an iphone last December. I asked the person in the store about battery life. He said, "Oh, at least two years but you'll be thinking about getting rid of this one by then and getting a newer one."  Two years.

I don't remember the exact criteria, but Lion won't run on the earliest Intel Macs (2006) and Mountain Lion likely won't run on some of the middle aged ones.  Snow Leopard (ca. 2009) won't run on any Mac made prior to 2006. Reviewing OS releases for the past 6 years or so it seems to me you get roughly 5 years before new OS releases won't run on your hardware any more.

So, we have software support dropping out after 4 years or so (maybe now down to 2 years???) and hardware becoming obsolete after 5 years.  Is that longevity?

Here are some other interesting articles:

Vintage and obsolete products - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1752  - Apple's official perspective.

http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-im acs - hard drive upgrade issues.

Apple is a very "now" company.  I don't know of a better way to put it.  When you go into a store they tell you all the things a device can do, but it simply does not occur to them that you may not have all the other gadgetry to make it possible.  That's why you come here.   When buying our phone, the mid-twenties assistant told us how it could store things on iCloud which we could then get on our computer, and sync items to our computer, and..., and...  I told him we had a G4 running Tiger and he looked baffled.  He had never worked with anything earlier than his MacBook Pro and could not picture anything outside of the last 2 years or so of Apple products.

There are alternatives, though you can get locked into proprietary technology or where an artificial barrier is created. Such as with DropBox

I use tablets (Samsung and iPod Touch), Macs, PCs but I don't use Lion or iCloud.

Think outside the boxes.

It's so hard with so many littler boxes ... opps..little boxes