With Mountain Lion, Apple has finally tied iCloud to the Mac desktop. While iCloud has worked seamlessly on iOS since launch, moving documents between iCould and your Mac was embarrassingly awkward, involving web browsers, dragging and dropping.
Now, it has been shoved deep into the heart of the OS, in the form of a kind of alternate Finder.
One of the big threads in the Mountain Lion features that Apple has posted is much deeper integration with iCloud that Lion offers. That isn’t a surprise given Lion began a trend of bringing iOS functionality to the Mac, but it may raise some concerns for Macs in the workplace.
In Mountain Lion, Apple is bringing the iOS document syncing feature to OS X along with Mac versions of the iOS Notes and Reminders apps. There’s also a Mac version of the iOS 5 Notification Center. These are all tremendously valuable features for business users, but the fact that they function by passing business content to Apple’s iCloud servers and onto the devices of employees and their family members is likely to be a big concern for CIOs.
There’s no doubt that iCloud offers some great value to Mac and iOS users. It even has some potential as a business tool. Unfortunately, like many other personal cloud services, iCloud presents some major securtiy concerns when it comes into the workplace – either on a user’s iOS device or on a business Mac or PC. Those concerns stem from the ability to sync business data to outside devices and computers as well as its capacity to archive some of that data on Apple’s iCloud servers.
Unlike most personal cloud products, which can be difficult to effectively disable in corporate or business settings, iCloud use can be restricted or blocked. That leaves IT departments with the question of whether or not iCloud access should be managed or disabled. It’s a tricky question, particularly in BYOD settings where the device belongs to a user and not the company. It’s made even trickier because the choices involved in managing iCloud are rather blunt in approach and don’t offer much in the way of fine tuning to specific needs.
Today BYOD and the consumerization of IT aren’t just buzzwords on the horizon, they’re fact of business life and have begun transforming the workplace for millions of professionals. Many solutions exist to deal with managing user-owned mobile devices and integrating them to varying degrees with corporate resources and shared data – something that the explosion of cloud products is helping to drive. Many enterprise cloud solutions (public and private) exist to meet these demands while ensuring data management and security.
Unfortauntely, cloud solutions aren’t limited to the workplace and consumer cloud products including Apple’s iCloud, Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs and many others have become staple parts of our daily lives. That’s great news for all of as consumers. It gives us access to our files and data anywhere at anytime on almost any device. But consumer cloud technologies pose a big headache for IT professionals who are responsible with keeping business and workplace data both readily available and appropriately secured.
As of this point, the current version of iWork for Mac has absolutely no iCloud functionality, while the iOS version fully supports it. This tends to be frustrating when moving files around, as it makes what should be a straightforward process into a disaster. In this video, I’ll show you how you can upload your documents directly to iCloud, to make file sharing much easier.
Motorola Mobility sued Apple in a Florida court on Wednesday for violating 6 wireless technology patents found in the iPhone 4S and iCloud. The patents in question relate to antenna, software, data filtering, and messaging technology.
Google recently acquired Motorola for $12.5 billion and is in the process of merging with the company. While Google is not directly involved with this specific case, Motorola’s lawsuit can definitely be seen as another attempt to protect patent ammunition for the ongoing legal war between the top smartphone manufacturers. In fact, this is the closest Apple and Google have ever come to fighting in the courtroom.
Despite rumors that suggested its previous seed would be the last one before a public release, Apple has seeded another build of its OS X Lion 10.7.3 software to registered developers. The latest release sports the build number 11D46, and is available to download now from the Mac Dev Center.
Apple has expanded the reach of iTunes Match this week by adding support for an additional 19 countries across Latin America and Europe. The music matching service, which only launched late last year, is now available to users in 37 countries in total.
All that was missing was Steve Jobs. That’s how close Acer’s promotion of its new AcerCloud service was to Apple’s iCloud. Although imitation is flattering, some observers charged Acer of a ‘blatant ripoff’ of iCloud – down to even the promotion images used by netbook kingpin.
As Apple pulls us all forward into the Next Great Thing, some widely-used Previously Cool Things get left behind. It’s happened with HyperCard, PageMill, and all PowerPC-only applications. Today one reader ponders the uncertain future of his favorite program, iWeb:
I bought my first Mac in ’85… Being an Old’nAging Geezer I saw that an encroaching Class of ’61’s 50-year Reunion deserved a website so I volunteered, commandeering iWeb for the very first time (successfully aided by FileZilla and my generous wonky Mac-pal Greg) to ultimately be rewarded by several of my classmates and a few fanboys’ sporadic kudos–AND proving once again that old, time-proven saw of Macintosh’s unassailable user friendly superiority.
All that to bring me to this QUESTION: Will iWeb live?
Paul
Yesterday we showed you how to conserve iCloud storage space by removing old backups from your iOS device. But what if you don’t have old backups eating up your storage, and you’re still going over your limit?
Today’s tip will show you how to manage your iCloud storage by disabling backups for selected iOS apps that you don’t necessarily need to backup with iCloud, quickly providing you with more storage for your important data.
Thanks to iCloud and iOS 5, we no longer have to plug our iOS devices into our computers to back them up. With iCloud backups enabled, all of our precious data is sent to the cloud and is easily retrievable when we need it — providing we have a data connection.
But we only get so much cloud space, so we need to look after it. If you’ve got backups saved from old devices you’re not using anymore, it’s important to delete them so that your existing devices have plenty of storage for their own data. Here’s how to delete iCloud backups on your iOS device!
Apple is planning a media event in New York this month, according to AllThingsD. While we shouldn’t expect to see the iPad 3 or a new Apple TV, AllThingsD’s usually-reliable sources have indicated the event will be “important,” but not “large-scale.”
Apple’s iCloud exec, Eddy Cue, is expected to show at the event in late Janurary. The last time Cue took the stage in New York was to help launch the iPad-only magazine by News Corp called The Daily.
Launched a few weeks ago, the Pogoplug Series 4 ($100) is Cloud Engines’ latest attempt at making their network-attached storage device as ubiquitous as the microwave oven. Like its predecessors, the S4 allows you to attach a hard drive or flash drive to create your own cloud, which you can use to stream media, share files or create slideshows, all of which can be accessed over the Internet and shared with others. Additionally, it can also be used for remote backup.
As 2011 comes to a close, it’s interesting to look back on Apple’s accomplishments throughout the year.
In this video, Cult Of Mac takes a look back at the top Apple events of 2011.
Wow! 2011 has been one of the most interesting years in recent memory for Apple Inc. Of course the death of Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, stands out as one of the most important events of the year for Apple, but there have been a load of other stories too that have made 2011 a very memorable year for the fruit company. From one controversy to the next, to record-breaking earnings, and new products, Apple has plowed through 2011 with a steady determination to be the best technology company on the planet. Only one device underwent a redesign (the iPad), while other form factors stayed the same. Instead of focusing on making pivotal leaps forward with hardware, Apple’s main focus of 2011 was to fortify their strong foundation in the software game.
Here’s Cult of Mac’s look back on the Apple in the year 2011.
Just got an iPad for the holidays? You lucky sod! You scored the crown jewel, the Big Tamale — the most marvelous gadget Apple has ever made. Yes, go ahead, pick up its slim aluminum frame and dive right in — Steve knew that’s what you wanted to do, and he designed the iPad so you could do just that.
We want to make sure you get everything right though, and we know there are a few key setup tricks along the way that new (and even some not-so-new) iPad users miss. So take a look at the short list of steps we’ve lined up here. They won’t take long, and they’ll make sure you get the best out of your iPad 2. Ready? Here we go.
A certain proportion of shameless scammers have their eyes set on your iCloud account. They are sending phishing emails in which they claim to be Apple and request your login information. They say that if you do not provide it, your account will be terminated.
Warner Bros. has updated the critically acclaimed Batman Arkham City Lockdown for iOS to add two new Batman skins, iCloud support, and to fix a number of minor bugs. While the new skins are certainly a treat, iCloud support is undoubtedly the most welcome feature for iOS gamers, who can now sync there game between their devices.
Pogoplug has been busy. For a company that focuses really intently on a single concept — namely, putting your stuff in the cloud — it has released a prolific number of products since the original Pogoplug first debuted in early 2009. Today brings their latest offering: The Pogoplug Series 4 ($100).
Cloud Engines, the outfit that makes the Pogoplug, sent us an Series 4 to check out, and we got a little hands-on time with it before the launch today.
Porn star Jesse Jane has become one of the latest iOS users to recover a stolen purse — with her iPhone inside — using Apple’s Find My iPhone feature. After her device was stolen, Jane took to Twitter to inform her followers that she had successfully tracked down her device, and she kept them updated on its recovery.
Apple has begun issuing an update to its second-generation Apple TV that finally allows users in Australia, Canada, and the U.K. to stream TV shows they’ve purchased on iTunes directly to their television.
Apple appears to be in the final stages of deciding to create a second data center. The tech giant is reportedly eyeing 160 acres in Prineville, Oregon for a 31-megawatt facility. The location would make Apple neighbors with Google, Amazon and Facebook, companies also locating data hubs in the Northwest state known for enticing tech firms with lucrative tax breaks.
Despite early grumbling about how it was unveiled, users of Apple’s iPhone 4S are overwhelmingly satisfied with the smartphone, ranking the Siri voice-recognition system as their favorite feature. At 96 percent satisfaction, the iPhone 4S is Apple’s most popular handset, besting even the iPhone 4.
Sometimes when moving to a newer computer, you realize only after the old system is gone that you’re missing some data. With the proliferation of iPhones and iPads, cloud based services can help transfer things like Contacts and Calendars if incomplete:
My old Mac Pro was running OS X 10.4.11 and my new MacBook Pro came with Snow Leopard. Using Migration assistant just about everything except Contacts transferred correctly. Now the Mac Pro is across the country in NV and I am near DC. The only thing that has my old Contacts is my iPad. How do I transfer my old Contacts from the iPad to the new MacBook Pro without losing them when I sync?
Clint
