Interested in getting a closer look at Apple’s new iCloud logo, as spied behind the closed doors at the Moscone Center in preparation for Monday’s WWDC kick-off?. Check out this version of the logo mocked up by letemsvetemapplem.
This year’s WWDC is now just a weekend away, and with announcements for iCloud, iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion already confirmed, I can barely contain my excitement. I’m not too bothered that there (probably) won’t be a new iPhone this summer – for me, it’s all about iCloud and iOS 5.
What are you most excited for?
With the last remaining label having just inked a deal with Apple to launch iCloud, music industry insiders are now talking to the press about what they know about Cupertino’s upcoming music streaming service. Specifically, they’re answering the question everyone’s been asking all along: how much will iCloud’s music streaming cost?
The last major music label has finally been wooed by Apple, just in time for Steve Jobs to present iCloud at Monday’s WWDC.
While much has been made over Apple’s uncharacteristic pre-conference spilling of the beans regarding the impending announcement of a new, web-based service called iCloud, no one really knows what this “amazing,” “fantastic” and “magical” new service is going to look, feel or sound like — and won’t — until Steve Jobs unveils it to the audience at San Francisco’s Moscone West auditorium next week.
Still, we can put together a reasonable idea of the service iCloud will provide based upon Lala, the streaming music service Apple bought back in 2009. Assuming that Apple is basing iCloud on Lala and filling in the blanks with the latest industry reports and rumors, here’s a complete overview of what we think iCloud will look like when it’s announced on Monday.
When MobileMe gets rebranded as iCloud on Monday, it’s most anticipated feature is the ability to scan your iTunes library and automatically mirroring it in the cloud without uploading a single audio file. The big question about scan and sync has been whether it will only work with tracks purchased in iTunes, or if it’ll work with tracks ripped from CDs, purchased from Amazon MP3 or — yes — even pirated. Apparently so… because Apple will pay the record industry for every pirated track.
With just 4 days to go until this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference and the unveiling of Apple’s new iCloud service, the company decided now would be a good time to take control of its $4.5 million purchase for the domain.
Next week, Apple will finally confirm years of rumors of taking iTunes to the cloud and unveil iCloud, their media locker service that will automatically scan and match your existing iTunes library for streaming to any iOS device.
In some ways, though, iCloud’s taken too long to get here. The era of unlimited bandwidth is over. In the last year we’ve seen both mobile carriers and ISP broadband providers impose severe data caps on their users. The vast majority of iPhone and iPad customers only have 2GB of data per month to play with. How much media can you really stream with a 2GB data cap?
Let’s find out!
Here’s an added incentive to upgrade to Apple’s soon-to-be-released Mac OS X ‘Lion’: free iCloud services.
While most of the mystery of Apple’s North Carolina data super center comes from the fact that we’re still not really sure what Cupertino will be using it for, let’s not underestimate another contributing factor to the intrigue: the fact that Apple’s Maiden, North Carolina data center appears as a big, gaping hole in the Earth under Google Maps. But no longer!
If you weren’t already excited about Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference – which kicks off on Monday – these images of the Apple logo going up on Moscone West in San Francisco are guaranteed to get you in the mood.
Apple’s iCloud music locker will not require users to laboriously upload all the music in their iTunes libraries, but will instead rely on “scan and match.”
When Steve Jobs unveils iCloud at next week’s WWDC, we know that all four major music labels will be onboard Apple’s streaming music service… but what about Hollywood?
Up until now, it looked as if iCloud would launch as a music-only affair without the proper deals inked with video content providers, but in a surprise development, it looks like Cupertino may be scrambling around Tinseltown trying to round up signatures after all.
Where will you get the fastest streaming speeds once iCloud launches? Most likely at the new retail location Apple is opening up a stone’s throw from its North Carolina data super center.
U.S. record labels are dragging their feet in negotiations to bring music streaming service Spotify to American shores, a move reportedly aimed at give Apple a first crack at a similar subscription plan.
Good things come to those who wait. While Google and Amazon rushed to offer simple cloud storage services, Apple apparently was working on something bigger. Much bigger. Get ready for iCloud, a full-featured service streaming your iTunes collection to your iPhone, iPad – eventually even your car.
If Apple Computers had been founded over a hundred years ago, not by Steve Jobs, but by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, iTunes might very well have looked like this: the theatrophone, an 1890s invention that allowed you to “download” music into your living room, just fifty centimes per song.
Cupertino now has three out of the four big music labels signed, but even so, could Apple’s iCloud music locker and streaming service be delayed even later than its rumored WWDC launch? The music business is a tricky one, and although Apple’s got most of the labels signed, the negotiations with publishers are still in their early stages.
Apple’s plans to bring music streaming to the upcoming iCloud service are coming together swiftly this week as the company signs up a third major record label.
With all the deals getting inked and all the right hires in place, Apple is increasingly ready to jump iTunes into the cloud… possibly as early as next month’s WWDC. But how exactly will it work?
As this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference approaches, it seems Apple’s plan to bring us a magical cloud filled with a never-ending collection of music called ‘iCloud’ is getting its final touches. Sources say a licensing deal with music label EMI is now in place, but what about the other labels?
A new job listing on Apple’s website reveals the company is in search of a media engine guru who may help the company kickstart its cloud-based media streaming service dubbed iCloud.
Although it’s working for us, we’re getting reports from users that MobileMe email is down, with users unable to log into me.com and unable to send or receive messages by IMAP.
Cult of Mac has learned Apple could be scheduling secret employee meetings with retail staff on May 28th between 8 and 10am. Is this just pre-WWDC preparations, or something more?
Amazon.com has just stopped all sales of MobileMe. It’s almost as if they know something’s coming that could blast their recently unveiled Cloud Locker music streaming service out of the water. There’s an iCloud on the horizon.