TS4006 icloud isn't in my system preferences, how can i get it?

Question

icloud isn't in my system preferences. only mobile me, which when i click on brings me to the icloud webpage that tells me how to set up icloud. step 2 is to locate it in system preferences, which it is not there, only mobile me. and thus begins the cycle again.

Answer 1

The minimum requirement for iCloud is Lion 10.7.2 (Mountain Lion preferred): the iCloud Preference Pane does not appear on earlier systems - the MobileMe pane appears on Lion and earlier but is non non-functional - MobileMe closed In July 2012 and you cannot now open or access a MobileMe account.
You can set Snow Leopard up to access the email on an existing account which you have set up on a compliant device (you cannot open an iCloud account on Pre-Lion Macs), and you may be able to sync iCal using an unsupported (and possibly unreliable) hack, but no other facilities will work.
This page outlines the limited use you can make of an existing iCloud account with Snow Leopard:
http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudSL.html
To make proper use of iCloud you will have to upgrade your Mac to Leopard or Snow Leopard, provided it meets the requirements.
The requirements for Lion are:
Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
2GB of memory
OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)
7GB of available space
To purchase it you will have to ring Apple at the number given at the bottom left of this page.
The requirements for Mountain Lion are listed here:
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
It is available from the Mac App Store (in Applications).