Apple’s Free Cloud services include a host of freebies that work
seamlessly with applications on iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, Mac® or
PC, to automatically and wirelessly store content in iCloud and push it
to all these devices. When anything changes on one of the devices, all
are wirelessly updated almost instantly.
“Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your
information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” says 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!”
The free iCloud services include:
• The former MobileMe® services—Contacts, Calendar and Mail—all
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. Inbox and mailboxes are kept
up-to-date across all iOS devices and computers.
• The App Store™ and iBookstore℠ now download purchased iOS apps and
books to all devices, not just the device they were purchased on.
• iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up iOS devices to
iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when charging the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll
(photos and videos), device settings and app data.
• iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud
Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all devices. Users get
up to 5GB of free storage for mail, documents and backup.
• iCloud’s innovative Photo Stream service automatically uploads photos
taken on any devices and wirelessly pushes them to other devices and
computers. So use the iPhone to take a dozen photos of friends during a
football game, and they will be ready to share with the entire group on
an iPad (or even Apple TV®) when you return home.
• iTunes® in the Cloud lets you download previously purchased iTunes
music to all iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases
can be downloaded automatically.
iCloud will be available this fall concurrent with iOS 5. Users can
sign up for iCloud for free on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running
iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS® X Lion with a valid Apple ID. iCloud
includes 5GB of free cloud storage for Mail, Document Storage and
Backup. Purchased music, apps, books and Photo Stream do not count
against the storage limit.
