Our photos and videos are some of our most valuable possessions. They capture the memories of our lives, and it’s important to store them securely. That’s why cloud storage services are so popular. Companies like Apple and Google offer these services, and they have many features. However, Apple has recently increased the prices of iCloud+ subscriptions in many countries. This may upset some users. Here are the details…

Apple Hikes iCloud+ Subscription Prices in Many Countries Around the World

iCloud+ is a premium subscription that offers a variety of features to help you protect your privacy and keep your data safe. These features include iCloud Private Relay, Hide My Email, and HomeKit Secure Video. iCloud+ also offers more storage space than the basic iCloud plan. Now, Apple has recently increased the prices of iCloud+ subscriptions in many countries.

Apple has increased the price of iCloud+ storage in some countries, including the UK, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The price hike is about 25%. The new prices for iCloud+ storage in the UK are:

• 50GB: £0.79/month → £0.99/month
• 200GB: £2.49/month → £2.99/month
• 2TB: £6.99/month → £8.99/month

The price hike has also happened in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. The price in the US, Canada, and the EU is still the same. Apple has not said why it is raising the prices. It might be because of rising costs for data storage and bandwidth.

Some people are upset about the price hike. Some people have also pointed out that Apple’s competitors, like Google and Microsoft, offer similar storage plans at lower prices.

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(via)

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WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app, and almost all of us use it for daily communication. As a result, many of our conversations with loved ones are stored within the app. Therefore when we get a new phone, one of the first things we do is transfer our backed-up chat history to the new device. Up until recently, this process was done using iCloud or Google Drive. However, according to the latest information, WhatsApp now allows chat transfers to another iPhone without using iCloud. Here are the details….

WhatsApp to allow chat transfer to another iPhone without iCloud

WhatsApp has long been using cloud storage services to back up chat history. However, the developer Meta decided to make a change. Not long ago, we mentioned that WhatsApp would stop using Google Drive to back up Android users’ data. Now, WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow users to transfer their chat history to another iPhone without using iCloud.

Let’s say you’ve decided to upgrade from your current iPhone to an iPhone 14 and want to transfer your WhatsApp chat history to your new phone. The current method requires iPhone users to create a Chat Backup and upload it to iCloud before migrating their chat history and media to another iPhone. However, the upcoming “Transfer Chats to iPhone” feature eliminates this necessity.

To transfer their chat history, users will only need to download WhatsApp on their new iPhone, register using the same phone number, and then scan a QR code displayed on the new device with their old iPhone. This change will make a significant difference in the lives of users with limited iCloud storage space. Many of us may not realize it, but our accumulated chat history takes up a lot of space over time, and the free storage offered can fill up quickly.

At the moment, the chat transfer feature is available to a select group of beta testers who have installed the latest version of WhatsApp beta for iOS via the TestFlight app. The feature is expected to be rolled out to a broader audience in the coming days

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(via)

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New Users of Apple Watch and HomePod are facing activation issues according to a report. The issue seems to be on the server-side as iCloud is probably receiving a lot of traffic on the occasion of Christmas.

First reported by Macrumors, users are reporting “Verification Failed” on their new devices be it Apple Watch/HomePod. One of the users says the Apple Watch SE that they purchased isn’t going past the iCloud sign-in process. Despite starting the pairing process using an iPhone, the verification fails multiple times.

To this, Apple reportedly shows a solution of resetting the encrypted data. This would normally delete old passwords and data which isn’t the advisable thing to do. Another user also reports that his HomePod is stuck in the “configuration” stage after multiple attempts. None of the solutions like removing it from iCloud seems to work.

EDITOR’S PICK: Gmail, YouTube, and other Google services restored after outages in several regions

All this points to an iCloud Account and Sign-in Issue on the server-side of Apple. We personally checked on Apple’s support page to see the status of the issue. And to our surprise, the issue still seems to be live(at the time of writing this) as you can see above. On clicking the status card, we get a message that the issue is “ongoing” since Dec 25, 3:15 PM PST.

We can only imagine the frustration of not being able to use a new product despite having it in hand. Besides, this is not the only issue Apple Watch SE users faced. A previous report said users of South Korea experienced wrist burn due to overheating.

In any case, we hope that Apple fixes the iCloud issue soon so that people can use their gifts/purchases at least for New Year’s eve.

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