Apple WWDC 2011 – iCloud announced, Apple’s new data cloud
iCloud – the new way to store and access your iData
iData… did I make up a new word? Or have ‘they’ already got that one trademarked?
Of course I’m referring to the data on all your Apple devices. Your songs, photos, music etc.
iCloud i’s new and was unveiled by Steve Jobs at the recent Apple World Wide Developers Conference. It is integrated into all the apps and allows you to access all your content on all your devices. Seemless syncing.
What is iCloud
- Stores content and wirelessly pushes it to all devices
- Integrates with your apps, so everything happens automatically, nothing new to learn, “it just works” (Apple marketing cry for iCloud)
You used to store all your data on your Mac or PC. Now all Apple devices have similar apps like iPod, photos etc, therefore you want them all synced. The Mac will now just be another device and the digital hub will be the iCloud.
“So what features does iCloud have?”
Contact – Create new or update contact, it is sent to cloud to store and then pushed to other devices. Change on any device, updated on all devices.
- Calendars – Calendar sharing possible, so if you add a new one within sharing, goes to cloud then to other person’s device.
- Mail – mail account @ me.com, new messages pushed to all devices, inbox/folders kept up to date on all devices. No ads!
Remember – those three apps were within MobileMe (& was $US99/yr). Mobile me will be phased out. Now $free via iCloud.
Other new features
Phot
o stream – Photos taken are sent to iCloud and then pushed to all devices or Mac automatically. You can also import photos on Mac etc and push to other devices.
Photo Stream is a new menu option within existing photo apps. (Pictures folder on PC). Also built in to Apple TV.
- Photos you take or import stored in iCloud
- iCloud stores photos 30 days
- Devices store last 1,000 photos (If you want to save more than that, you have to move them to your PC / Mac folder structure)
- Macs and PCs store all photos
Apps store – For existing apps, you will see new download from iCloud (no extra charge) on other devices. New apps downloaded/synced to to all devices – no additional charge.
iBooks – Same as above, send to all. You can now bookmark pages (pick up where you left off on other devices).
Back-up – wireless back-up daily to cloud for those who want to be pc free. Get a new iPhone? Add new device, your ID and your new phone will be automatically updated with all the data. Daily back up of purchased apps, books, music, camera roll, device settings, app data.
Documents
- iWork for iPhone recently introduced. iWorks effortlessly with iCloud.
- Create a page, numbers or keynote doc, uploaded and stored in cloud, pushes to all devices with pages.
- Saves documents from any apps.
- Documents works on all devices plus Mac and pc.
iTunes – New music app. Previous purchases can be downloaded for free to all devices.
- Same as above, for those already purchased, you’ll see a purchased button, shows purchase history on any device. Search by all songs, recent songs, artists. You can download any of the already purchased items to a new or other existing device, or go in and download particular individual songs to the device, at no additional charge.
- Switch auto download to “on” and any new purchase will be pushed to all devices immediately.
- Music purchased from iTunes, on up to 10 devices, high quality.
All nine apps – $free in iCloud.
How do you get them?
iTunes in iCloud available straight away within iOS 4.3. (beta)
For all other apps, simple. Update iPhone to iOS5 when available, put in your Apple ID and you can turn on or off.
5GB free storage for mail, documents and backup. Not counting purchased music, apps or books, or photo Stream.
Developer beta available immediately.
“One more thing – it’s a small thing”
Steve finished with his “one more thing…”
“It pertains to iTunes in the Cloud. It’s just for the music you’ve purchases from the iTunes Store. But you may have some you’ve ripped yourself (ie purchased elsewhere). There is 3 ways to deal with that.
- Sync new devices via WiFi or a cable (once)
- Want a few songs only that were non-iTunes? Buy the songs you’ll miss on iTunes,
- or iTunes Match (the new way)
It uses the fact that we’ve got 18 million songs in the iTunes music store. The chances are good we have the songs in the store that you’ve ripped. So we have software to scan your music and match it with the store. We give that music the same benefits as purchased music. And it takes just minutes, not weeks to scan/match your library)
We’ll upload the rest (those that remain that we can’t match)
iTunes Match will upgrade those songs to 256 kbps AAC DRM-free.
iTunes Match (ie uploading your own library to cloud etc) costs $24.99 a year for storage on the cloud regardless of size / amount of songs. Very competitive compared to ‘others’.“
Other WWDC related posts
- OS X Lion – Mac Operating System
- iOS5.0 – available in Spring
- WWDC Wrap Up – see the full keynote
Related posts:
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