Jobs takes Apple into the cloud: This is going to be pretty big, he says
For once there was no new hardware, but the Apple CEO left the crowd in San Francisco in no doubt that their digital world was about to be transformed for the better
"Cloud computing" is of course not in a cloud. The data will be on Apple's new giant data center in North Carolina . But all Apple devices -- iPhones, iPads and Mac computers -- will sync wirelessly with iCloud. Users will have access to their documents, photos, apps, calendars and e-mails from any location, not just on a specific gadget.
"We are going to move the digital hub, the centre of your digital life, into the cloud," said Jobs,
Jobs, co-founder of Apple, who has been on medical leave since January, looked frail but spoke confidently - and with a twinkle in his eye- to the audience of 5200. He told the Worldwide Apple Developers' Conference in San Francisco, "We think this is going to be pretty big." You can see Mr Jobs's reception on www.apple.com. But there are restrictions. iCloud stores photos for only up to 30 days. Mobile devices store the most recent 1,000 photos. Users can store only five gigabytes of documents (more than competitors allow, said CNN). And if you want to sync music not purchased from Apple's iTunes store, you have to pay Apple $25 per year. All iCloud services - except for the music add-on - are free, said Jobs . Consumers can use the iTunes portion of iCloud now, but only if they have iOS version 4.3. The rest of the features will be available to everyone in the autumn. The service replaces Apple's MobileMe, which cost $99 per year. Daily back-ups on iCloud will be automatic when a device is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi. Apple until now has used its Worldwide Developers Conference to announce a new version of the iPhone. But there was nothing this year. Instead expect a new iPhone in September. Jobs, wearing his trademark black mock turtleneck and jeans told the audience, "Todaywe are going to talk about software." While cloud services are not new, the difference is that Apple's iCloud technology is built into its operating systems for the iPhone, iPad Touch and iPad and Macintosh computers. "This ensures the service is seamlessly tied into Apple's ecosystem," said the San Jose mercury News Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies said,"That is going to be the Apple magic: It just works.It's done in such a way the user doesn't even have to think about it." As well as iCloud, Apple announced new versions of its operating systems, Mac OS X Lion, for laptop and desktop computers. It will be available next month for $30, the company said. The system will make computers work much more like tablets and touch-screen mobile phones. "If anyone was doubting that iOS and OS X are converging, the use of the trackpad for gestures should convince you," Gizmodo said on its live blog. A new version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 5, will in the autumn introduce a system of alerts for iPhones and iPads - popping up at the top of the screen where they can be more easily ignored. The mobile operating system also integrates with Twitter. Apple's Scott Forstall said, "We want to make it easier for all of our customers to use Twitter." . And here's a money saver: The new mobile operating system will also introduce an app called iMessage, which will let iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users send text, photo and video messages to each other without having to pay the cellphone texting fees.