Posted: 03 Aug 2011 07:30 AM PDT

Although it had been rumoured for years that Apple would somehow finally fully embrace the cloud, it was only recently that it felt as though Cupertino was moving in the right direction.

Steve Jobs took to the stage for the WWDC 2011 keynote on 6 June 2011 and announced the Apple iCloud service.

iCloud will indeed store your content and wirelessly push it to all your devices. Apple says it's serious about the cloud and even showed pictures of the company's third data centre during the keynote.

You can check out T3's Apple iCloud video here:

"Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

"iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it's integrated into our apps you don't even need to think about it - it all just works."

Check out our full guide to iCloud features:

iCloud price

Apple says that iCloud will be completely free for 5GB of storage - it will be set up by default on new iOS 5 devices.

Users get up to 5GB of free storage for mail, documents and backup. Music, apps and books purchased from Apple, and the storage required by Photo Stream doesn't count towards this 5GB total.

You will need to pay for bigger iCloud storage though. 10GB of additional space will cost £14 a year, 20GB extra will be £28 a year, while 50GB of space on top of the free offering will be £70 every 12 months.

However, don't fret, this doesn't include any media files, such as photos from the Photo Stream functionality or music.

iCloud release date

iCloud will shop at the same time as iOS 5 in the Autumn for the public.

The service has gone live for registered Apple developers, with those lucky few able to test the functionality using iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion.

Feedback so far from the developer community has been mixed with some parties disappointed that full document editing in iWork using iCloud doesn't offer Google Docs-like solution many had hoped for.

iCloud replaces MobileMe

During the keynote Jobs also noted that as of today, MobileMe - which cost $99 - is no more. MobileMe apps have been rewritten to work with iCloud.

The former MobileMe services - Contacts, Calendar and Mail - have all been completely re-architected and rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. Users can share calendars with friends and family, and the ad-free push Mail account is hosted at me.com. Your inbox and mailboxes are kept up-to-date across all your iOS devices and computers.

iCloud Documents in the Cloud

there's a number of features with iCloud, including Documents in the Cloud. This is a Google Docs rival, where you can access all your documents uploaded to iCloud. If you edit them, then you edits will automatically sync.

iCloud iTunes in the Cloud

iTunes is also being made available on iCloud, so you can share purchased songs on all your devices."You know, it's the same old story," said Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. "I buy something on my iPhone, and it's not on my other devices. I grab my iPod and it ain't there.

"For the songs you've already bought, we've added a purchased button. It shows the history of all the songs you've bought on any device. I can download any song to any device by pushing that little cloud button.

"It shows the history of all the songs you've bought on any device. I can download any song to any device by pushing that little cloud button. At no additional charge.

"This is the first time you've seen this in the music industry: multiple downloads to different devices for no charge. So in the future, it will push it to all of my devices."

The files are high quality 256 kbps AAC, and it only works with music purchased from iTunes, so if you buy elsewhere for the cheaper prices, you won't be able to make use of the iTunes iCloud service.

iCloud music

iCloud iTunes Match

Music not purchased from iTunes can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match, a service that replaces your music with a 256 kbps AAC DRM-free version if Apple can match it to the over 18 million songs in the iTunes Store - so that means any rubbish

It makes the matched music available in minutes, and uploads only the small percentage of unmatched music. iTunes Match will be available this fall for a $24.99 annual fee - we've no word on UK pricing as yet.

Reports are saying this is US only for now, but no doubt it will come to the UK at some point.

iCloud Photostream

As you might expect, iCloud will allow the syncing of photos to the cloud. This is just displayed as aseparate album in Photos, so it's not actually a different app - which is handy. Photos are stored on iCloud for 30 days, forever on your Mac or PC (of course) while the last 1,000 pictures can be stored on each of your iOS devices or Apple TV so they can then be moved elsewhere. Photostream doesn't count within your 5GB of storage.

Photostream automatically uploads the photos you take or import on any of your devices and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices and computers.

Photo Stream is built into the photo apps on all iOS devices, iPhoto on Macs, and saved to the Pictures folder on a PC.

iCloud photostream

iCloud Contacts

Contacts are stored in the cloud and pushed to all devices. Changes are automatically replicated on your other devices. This sounds so much better than Google Sync.

iCloud Calendars

There's also full calendaring support in iCloud - calendars can also be shared between users, too.

iCloud backup

iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when you charge your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data. If you replace your iOS device, just enter your Apple ID and password during setup and iCloud restores your new device.

iCloud Storage

The service seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all your devices.

When you change a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all your devices. Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps already take advantage of iCloud Storage.

iCloud apps and books

The App Store and iBookstore now download purchased iOS apps and books to all your devices, not just the device they were purchased on

Want to look back? Check out the iCloud rumours we looked at before the event:

Apple's rumoured to have splashed out $4.5 million on the Cloud.com domain. The company is also said to be striking deals with a number of record labels (in stark contrast to the gung-ho approach taken by Google and Amazon for their respective cloud-based music services) and has even posted a job advert for a 'Media Streaming Engineering Manager'.

Latest rumours also suggest that iCloud could be free to Mac OS X Lion users.

Here are the 10 things we want to see from Apple when it unleashes iCloud:

1. Cross-device support

Apple's often championed for its integrated approach. Apple kit isn't perfect, but it generally works well with other Apple kit, software and services. Therefore, when Apple's iCloud ambitions are revealed, we'd like them to work with Macs and iOS devices, offering similar features to all (although we're not crazy enough to hope anything running less than the latest versions of Mac OS X or iOS will be supported).

2. iOS data back-up/restore

Cloud services could be the means to detach iOS devices from PCs and Macs, finally making iPhones, iPods and iPads truly standalone units. You'd be able to store data in the cloud and access it from a range of apps.

Apple should also back-up and enable you to restore iOS app data. It's absurd that when you delete an app or a game, your data and progress is gone for good - you should be able to optionally reinstate these things on an app reinstall.

iPad

GET IT BACK: Delete an app and your data disappears. With cloud-based data restore, this needn't happen in future

3. Music locker

Apple's iOS devices are hardly known for their generous storage, and now Macs are going the same way, embracing SSD. If you've tons of music, chances are your iTunes library is the biggest folder on your Mac, and you can't fit much of your music on your iPhone. But if Apple can figure out what music you own and enable cloud-based access to it via iCloud, problem solved.

4. Label participation

Of course, any major shifts in how Apple deals with music will need label backing. Rumours suggest Apple's in talks with the 'big four', which should give Apple more options than its rivals. It remains to be seen whether labels would allow playback of content not purchased through iTunes, but remember when DRM was removed and iTunes enabled you to 'upgrade' your tracks for a small cost? Perhaps Apple could do the same again with iCloud - a few pence to enable you to play a track from the cloud.

5. Music streaming

For people who don't really want to buy music but still enjoy listening to it, Spotify's more appealing than iTunes. While Spotify is still struggling to expand into the USA, Apple already has worldwide presence and ongoing discussions with labels. Perhaps another string to its music bow will be a streaming subscription service to complement a music locker.

6. Movie and TV streaming

Historically, the movie industry has been even more bone-headed than music labels when it comes to new technology. Therefore, we're not holding our breath about Apple announcing movie and TV-show streaming through its iCloud services, but this would be great to have, again dealing with storage issues on iOS devices and SSD-equipped Macs.

7. Fast media playback

One problem with cloud-based media playback is speed - too often, you have to wait while files buffer. Rumours suggest http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/apple-music-streaming-to-be-sped-up-by-local-storage--957549 Apple might deal with this problem by storing small portions of files locally on your device. Playback would start locally and then sync with a downloaded file, reducing caching problems.

8. Improved existing services

Apple's been pretty bad at unveiling new online services and letting them die a long, lingering death. We like the concepts behind the likes of iWork.com, Ping and Game Center, but the execution in all of them is lacking; a new iCloud offering would be a great excuse to beef up and integrate these services.

Game center

NEW AND IMPROVED: Unveiling new cloud services gives Apple a good excuse to improve mediocre existing offerings

9. Document storage

When using iOS devices, moving documents between them is a pain. Even worse, if you want to move something between your Mac/PC and an iOS device, you have to use email or hideous iTunes File Sharing.

Many apps now get around such problems by using Dropbox for storage, but Apple doesn't control this and it's not fully integrated. It'd therefore be great to see Apple provide a service of the same quality in iCloud. (Sorry, iDisk - you just don't cut it.)

10. Optional sync/merge

Finally, if Apple offers even a fraction of these things with iCloud, it must enable users to more easily manage their computers and devices, along with the information on them.

You should be able to easily sync and merge app collections, music, movies and documents. Using iOS devices and Macs is typically simple and intuitive; Apple must bring similar thinking to the complexities of document and media management across a number of devices and computers.

In Depth: OS X Lion problems solved

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:10 AM PDT

OS X Lion is a great operating system, but as with any new large-scale software project, some people will encounter OS X Lion problems and issues.

Some of those issues will be incompatibilities, others will be bugs, and still others will be minor niggles that could all too easily become major OS X Lion annoyances.

Read on to discover our pick of the problems together with our solutions. And, afterwards, why not read our OS X Lion tips and tricks?

Q: I'm worried that my apps won't work

Some apps, such as Office 2004 and Logic Pro 8, aren't supported by Lion (officially, anyway: there's a way to make Logic Pro 8 work). Find out whether your apps will still work before you upgrade by visiting Roaring Apps.

Q: Lion's download only, and my broadband is slow and capped. How do I get it?

Get thee to an Apple Store, where you can use the free Wi-Fi to download Lion. If that's not an option, Apple plans a USB stick version for later this year - although it'll be two or three times Lion's £20.99 download price.

Q: How do I install Lion on multiple Macs?

You'll need to be running Snow Leopard for this one. Download but don't run the Lion installer (it zaps itself once you've used it) from the Mac App Store. Find it in your Applications folder, right-click and choose "Show Package Contents". Look for Contents > SharedSupport > InstallESD.dmg. Now, launch Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities and drag InstallESD.dmg to the sidebar.

If you're burning a DVD, all you need to do now is insert a blank disk, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar and click on Burn.

Q: I don't have a DVD drive either!

Make sure you have an 8GB USB drive - smaller capacities aren't sufficient - and follow the steps above to locate InstallESD.dmg. Now, go to Disk Utility, select your drive, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for its format and click Erase. Make sure you've got the USB drive selected here!

In Disk Utility, drag InstallESD.dmg, control or right-click and select Restore. The source is InstallESD.dmg and the destination is your USB drive. Once it's done - it takes a while - stick it in the machine you want to install Lion on, reboot and hold down the Option key. Select your USB drive and Lion will now install.

Q: Lion says "some features of Mac OS X Lion are not supported for the disk" during installation

During installation, Lion creates a recovery partition on your hard disk, and if it encounters problems doing that you'll get the error message above. It's often the result of fiddling with Boot Camp, although we encountered it on an unfiddled-with MacBook Pro. Reinstalling Snow Leopard and running the Lion installer again fixed the problem for us, although as Apple notes, if you're using RAID drives the partition won't work. It won't stop Lion from working, but it means you can't use FileVault or Lion's disk repair tools.

Q: Lion freezes when I play video clips

The Internet is full of people whose computers lock up at the first sniff of a YouTube clip, and Apple's working on a fix. We found that updating the third-party QuickTime codec collection Perian solved our non-Flash freezes, while the ClickToFlash plugin stops unwanted Flash videos from playing in Safari. If you're using Chrome, you can disable Flash by typing about:plugins in the address bar.

Q: Where's Front Row?

It's gone - but a nice man can get it back! But not if you've upgraded to iTunes 10.4!

Q: My Mac won't sleep

Your Mac may be trying to share with other computers. Have a look in System Preferences > Sharing and untick any services you don't need. Internet Sharing seems to be the culprit on many people's machines.

Q: LaunchPad is full of crap!

The free LaunchPad Cleaner is your friend.

Q: How do I stop All My Files appearing in new Finder windows?

You can change the default in Finder > Preferences > General.

Q: How do I Save As?

In Lion-friendly apps, Save As is no longer there. Instead, you have to choose Duplicate. You can then save the duplicated file with a new name.

Q: How do I get the Dock in full screen mode?

Scroll to the bottom (or to the left or right if that's where your Dock lives), and then try to scroll again in the same direction. Behold the dock!

Q: Where's my Library folder?

Library is hidden by default. Bring it back by launching Terminal and typing chflags nohidden ~/Library - or just navigate to it by Option-clicking the Go menu in Finder.

Q: How do I stop applications re-opening everything?

Quit by using Command-Option-Q or press Option when you select Quit from the menu bar. When you reopen the program it won't open all your previous windows.

Q: How do I make Lion work like Snow Leopard did?

If you don't like natural scrolling and wish you had the keyboard repeat back, it's easy to change: in System Preferences > Mouse and > Trackpad, untick "Move content in the direction of finger movement" to return scrolling to normal. To disable the accented characters pop-over and get your keyboard to repeat, open Terminal and type: defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false. Logout and login for the change to take effect.

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Apple announces iCloud pricing

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 05:59 PM PDT

Apple has announced the pricing tiers for its iCloud service, which was launched in beta for developers on Monday.

The company has already confirmed that it will be offering all iOS and Mac OS X users 5GB of cloud-based storage for free, but if you want a little extra, Apple is offering multiple solutions.

10GB of additional space will cost £14 a year, 20GB extra will be £28 a year, while 50GB of space on top of the free offering will be £70 every 12 months.

However, don't fret, this doesn't include any media files, such as photos from the Photo Stream functionality or music.

Plenty

Apple anticipates that the 5GB will be enough to comfortable hold all of your iWork documents and plenty of space to sync contacts across your devices.

"5GB of free storage is plenty for most people. But if you need extra space, you can always buy additional storage," says a post at the back-end of the iCloud website.

iCloud went live for registered Apple developers on Monday, with those lucky few able to test the functionality using iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion.

Feedback so far from the developer community has been mixed with some parties disappointed that full document editing in iWork using iCloud doesn't offer Google Docs-like solution many had hoped for.

via: Venture Beat, Zdnet

Yahuui Blog

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Apple : Updated: iCloud: all the latest details

Apple : Updated: iCloud: all the latest details

Plenty

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