Coming Soon - Apple iCloud
Offering a new way to manage content, Apple is featuring a fall release of iOS 5 and its accompanying cloud service, iCloud. Designed for Apple's full array of advanced mobile devices (iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone), as well as PCs, iOS 5 is designed to enhance the performance and functionality of all mobile apps.
Replacing MobileMe, iCloud should fill the previously existing gap that prevented seamless integration of different forms of data from one Apple device to another. This latest creation in a long list of technological innovations by Apple takes cloud storage to the next level for Apple users. It goes well beyond the sharing of music files, since it has been created specifically to manage all forms of data currently being stored by Apple users across the globe.
Apple's iCloud is designed to function in the background without any input from users. It offers a unique way to manage data while making it fully accessible across multiple devices. Apple's iCloud software is designed to enable the storing of all types of content including photos, music, documents, calendars, contacts, emails, and more while syncing them across all Apple devices. Everything users have available on one Apple device becomes available on each of their other devices.
How does iCloud work? How does a users photos, music, and documents travel from one device to another? How much data storage can iCloud handle?
In order to get the iCloud software, Apple users must update to iOS 5 in the fall when it becomes available. The software for iCloud is included in the update along with 5 GB of free storage. Users don't need to pay a fee for this particular download.
Apple isn't going to count purchased apps, music, books, or Photo Stream toward the storage capacity, so 5 GB should be plenty of storage to hold music, photos, documents, emails, contacts, and calendars. Of course, it is rumored that photos are only going to be stored across all Apple devices for a month.
Once an iCloud users places a file or photo onto one of his Apple devices, it is wirelessly uploaded (cellular network or Wi-Fi) immediately to his iCloud storage, where it becomes available to each of his other Apple devices. Any data or files available on an individual's iPad are also going to become available on his iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, or PC. As soon as the other device is able to do so, it downloads the files so that users have ready access to them.
One of the interesting aspects of iCloud is the fact that music files will be available on multiple devices at no extra charge. How is this possible? Most likely, the rumors that Apple made some type of arrangement with major record labels are true.
Summary: When is Apple's newest form of cloud service making its debut? What is it capable of doing for Apple users? What do users need to do in order to get it?