Alongside OS X Mavericks and iOS 7, Apple showed off its new web-based ‘iWork for iCloud’ software suite during its Monday keynote. The suite, similar to Google Docs and Office 360, allows users to view and edit iWork, and other documents right from their browser. And Apple just activated a beta version of it for registered developers… Read More
iWork for iCloud is a brand new product announced by Apple today at the WWDC keynote. It’s a product that will coexist with the currently existing iWork suite. iWork for iCloud exists totally in the cloud, meaning that it runs via Safari and other browsers (IE and Chrome included), similarly to Microsoft’s Office 365.
Editing and viewing documents in iWork for iCloud looks almost identical to the current iWork suite experience. Support for Pages, Numbers and Keynote (along with 3D animations) is included. Read More
I have to admit that, ever since I discovered Wunderlist, I stopped using my Reminders app for the most part. I love Apple’s Reminders application and had used it for a while on all of my devices. I think I just wanted to try something new when Wunderlist came out and it satisfied my listing needs.
When Sebastien asked me to write a how-to guide for sharing Reminders on iCloud, it rekindled my love of the simple list-making app. Not only is it easy to create and edit reminders, but you can also share and collaborate on lists with anyone else in the world, even if they don’t have an Apple device with them. All they need is their iCloud account… Read More
CloudLover is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to easily access your synced iCloud tabs. This tweak primarily exists because the stock method of accessing your iCloud tabs is much too cumbersome to do on a regular basis, so of course, jailbreak developers had to remedy the situation. Read More
Good news iTunes users. It’s been discovered today that Apple has added a new download option for folks purchasing a variety of iTunes content including movies, TV shows (episodes, Season Passes, and complete seasons) and boxed music sets.
Now, when purchasing any of the above items using iTunes 11 or a device running iOS 6+, you’re presented with ‘Later’ and ‘Download’ buttons. This gives you the option to either download your purchase immediately, or delay it to a later date… Read More
Could Apple be preparing a prepaid version of iTunes of sorts, one that could allow users to purchase music and other digital media from the Apple cloud without an Internet connection? Tuesday, the iPhone maker was granted a patent for a system permitting iTunes purchases using offline credits, according to the 2010 filing. At the heart of the system is the ability to buy credits while online. The credits would also get stored locally on your device, not just in your online iTunes account.
Those ‘offline’ credits can then purchase and enable various media that would first have to be cached automatically on your device, based on top sellers, recommendations, past purchases and other criteria.
In turn, people could make iTunes transactions whenever they happen to be, even when being online is impractical. Reportedly, the proposed technology could also increase iTunes sales by offering restricted usage of the material… Read More
I use my MacBook and iPhone all day, every day. If I’m not on one, I’m on the other, and sometimes I’m on both. So I’m constantly using features like iCloud’s Safari tab sync to ensure a streamlined experience as I switch between devices.
The sync feature itself, which Apple introduced last year in iOS 6, works great. But I have to admit, it would be nice if it wasn’t buried in mobile Safari’s Bookmarks menu. Luckily, that’s not a problem anymore with this new jailbreak tweak… Read More
This is kind of interesting. According to a new report from market research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple’s iCloud and iTunes Match are the top cloud media services in the United States.
The firm asked 2,300 Americans which online digital locker storage services they used to store music, video or games online. And believe it or not, iCloud/iTunes Match took the field… Read More
Apple’s data farm – which powers the company’s cloud-computing efforts – is completely solar. That’s the word from the iPhone maker, which Thursday released its annual Environmental Progress report. The progress comes only a year after Apple received a failing grade by Greenpeace International, whose members charged the iPhone maker used coal to power its cloud.
Apple also announced 75 percent of power to its worldwide corporate offices come from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. That is more than double the sustainable energy of two years ago, when the company announced 35 percent of power in its corporate suites was renewable… Read More
Apple’s iCloud, a service that brings together all of your desktop and mobile devices with seamless synch and cloud-based storage, is basically a lock-in, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston opined speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Praising his company’s cross-platform approach to file sharing, Houston blasted iCloud for imposing “bizarre limitations” on what users can do with their files, remarking that people shouldn’t really care what platform they are using in order to access their files anywhere and on any device… Read More
It appears that Apple has begun rolling out TV show and movie support for its iTunes in the Cloud service to a handful of new European countries this week. Users in France, the Netherlands and a few other European countries are reporting that they have just gained access to the feature, which allows you to access previously purchased content… Read More
Cloud computing has really taken off in recent years as a cheap, flexible way for folks to store their documents and data. Apple’s iCloud service, for example, has garnered more than 250 million users in just a little over a year.
But while we’re all busy uploading our lives to the cloud, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not totally secure from prying eyes. A recently renewed Surveillance Act gives US authorities permission to access your data without a warrant… Read More
Hot on the heels of releasing the new iOS 6.1 software with iTunes Match improvements, Siri movie ticket sales and enhanced LTE carrier support, Apple just posted a matching firmware update for its $99 Apple TV set-top box.
As indicated back in December 2012, one of the biggest new features the new software brings out is awesome support for Bluetooth keyboards, making the little hockey-puck much more than a “hobby” device. Other improvements include enhanced iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Up Next. Go past the break for the full breakdown… Read More
I’ve always loved the simplified iOS approach to screenshot taking just by pressing the power and home button simultaneously. This oft-used feature works in absolutely any app and, as an added bonus, iOS stores my screenies in the Camera Roll as crisp, lossless PNG files.
An indispensable part of my daily blogging workflow, I grab app graphics on a daily basis for use in reviews, news articles and guides such as this one. The old-school approach to syncing iOS screenshots (along with your photos) entails connecting your device to a Mac or PC via USB. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve long cut the cord to enjoy the benefits of wireless sync.
Now, iCloud makes photo sync a no-brainer: that is, unless the very thought of firing up iPhoto or Aperture on your Mac just to access your Photo Stream drives you nuts.
There must be a better way to bypass these resource-intensive apps and have the screenshots taken on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch automagically appear just a mouse click away in your Mac’s Finder. Read on for the full breakdown… Read More
With the introduction of iCloud, Apple has made our lives much easier when it comes to managing content on our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch. You no longer need a desktop machine to manage your data as everything can be done directly from the device.
iCloud comes at a price though. Even if the first 5GB are free, you probably will go over this allocated storage, especially if you have several iOS devices, and will be required to pay an annual fee for increased storage. To prevent this, it might be a good idea to delete old iPhone or iPad backups from iCloud.
Another reason why you’d want to delete an old iPhone backup from iCloud is if you know it contains a corrupted file. While this rarely happens and isn’t particularly easy to diagnose, I’ve encountered this situation before, and I believe my only option was to delete the corrupted backup.
This being said, let’s get into it and learn how to delete a backup from iCloud. Note that the process is exactly the same whether you use an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch… Read More
iCloud is great. I use it everyday to keep data synced across all of my devices and, especially, have important docs in perfect sync across my favorite Mac and iOS apps. By design, those files are tied to their creator apps so problems arise when you just wanna access them quickly in your Mac’s Finder, without having to go through the tedious export/re-import process. That’s where Plain Cloud jumps in. Plain Cloud is a free Mac app that acts as a simple front-end to apps that store documents in iCloud… Read More
Apple was presented with a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award last night during a special reception in Las Vegas. The annual event honors innovation in broadcast technology and recognizes companies and individuals whose breakthroughs have a significant effect on TV engineering… Read More
In addition to its iTunes update, Apple has rolled out a new version of its iCloud system status page today. The portal, which once only showed the operating status of iCloud services now offers a comprehensive look at several of Apple’s online assets including the App Store, Apple’s Online Store, and more… Read More
After taking up to the skies early-August to grab high-quality aerial photos of Apple’s 100-acre solar farm and a mysterious tactical data center - both located in Maiden, North Carolina – Wired now has dispatched its “iSpy Plane” in order to take a closer look at Apple’s enormous data center site in the middle of Oregonian high desert. The facility is located right in the neighborhood of another insanely massive data center run by the social networking giant Facebook.
In fact, Facebook already operates twin data centers in the area whereas Apple less than two months ago started construction on the first of two 338,000 square-foot buildings planned for the site. Though construction just got started, a mysterious “tactical data center” is already up and running… Read More
Recently, a pattern has begun taking shape that I fear signals something worryingly awful is afoot as excellence takes a back seat at Apple in favor of mediocre web services. It’s always been that way, critics might add. Indeed, here we are, at the end of 2012, and yet weekly outages of key iCloud services such as iMessage and FaceTime are still a norm rather than a rare exception.
While iCloud storm is raining on users, Apple seemingly struggles in figuring out how to sprinkle its magic dust on Internet software. With over half a billion iOS and Mac devices straining its data centers, something clearly had to give. The iPhone maker isn’t an isolated example: competitors experience outages, too. But Apple’s different in that its online woes are symptomatic of a much larger set of problems the company faces.
Cupertino’s infrastructure is lacking. For all the computational power its array of super data centers provide, Apple’s software underpinnings are outdated and increasingly incapable of handling high load. Software shortcomings are putting Apple at risk at a time when competitors like Google tap their massive scale and expertise to successfully marry hardware to Internet software in ways Apple cannot… Read More
