When Apple announced iCloud last year, it told MobileMe users that they could keep their current storage in addition to the free 5GB they’d get with the new service for 12 months to help with the transition.
That promotion was set to expire at the end of September, knocking previous MobileMe members back down to the standard free 5GB. But it looks like Apple has decided to extend the deal another year… Read More
Good news today for folks in Germany and Switzerland. Reports are coming in this afternoon that Apple has recently started rolling out ‘TV shows in the Cloud’ in the two countries.
For those unfamiliar with the feature, it allows users to replay previously purchased TV shows through the Purchased tab in iTunes and on iOS devices, including the Apple TV… Read More
A fan of Apple’s iCloud but happen to be tied to Microsoft’s Windows? No problem, because Apple has just updated its iCloud for Windows app to version 2.0, just in time for the iPhone 5.
With iCloud offering syncing capabilities across iOS devices as well as Macs, Windows users need not be left in the cold thanks to Apple’s software which seeks to bring the iCloud features to those not sporting a Mac.
The release, bringing iCloud for Windows up to version 2.0, brings iOS 6 compatibility to the game just in time for the next generation iPhone to be unleashed upon the masses… Read More
According to a new report today, Apple just laid out $3 million to purchase 200 acres of land in North Carolina near its Maiden data center for a second major solar farm.
As you may recall, Apple is nearing completion of its first 20-megawatt solar farm just across the street from its North Carolina campus, which is the largest of its kind… Read More
Yesterday, buried amongst updates to a slew of Apple developed apps, was an update to Find My iPhone. With the update comes a new look and feel, that’s similar to Find My Friends, and a new Lost Mode to help track down lost iCloud enabled devices.
Apple has made it really simple to go about tracking a lost device, protecting the data from prying eyes, and communicating with whomever may have found said device.
Check inside, as we go hands-on with the new Find My iPhone, along with a detailed video showcasing the new Lost Mode. Read More
One of the more under the radar items in iOS, is the TextExpander inspired Keyboard Shortcuts feature. Keyboard Shortcuts allow you to create quick shortcuts, which then expand to larger words or phases. It’s a feature that’s best used for stuff that you tend to type over and over again, which helps reduce repetition, therefore making you more productive.
In the past with iOS 5, these shortcuts resided independently on each device, meaning you had to setup all of your shortcuts on each device individually. If you do a lot of blogging or other forms of writing on your iOS device, then chances are, you can benefit from having a decent array of shortcuts. With that thought it mind, it’s a headache to have to setup each device manually with the same shortcuts.
We already knew that iOS 6 would feature custom dictionary iCloud syncing, but it was never really clear whether or not Keyboard Shortcuts fell within that area. It’s been one of the features that I’ve been saying would benefit from iCloud syncing for a long time now, and thankfully, it looks like Apple took care of that with iOS 6. Read More
Apple’s already building another 500,000 square foot data center and a smaller tactical data center, both adjacent to its existing $1 billion iCloud facility in Maiden, North Carolina (which almost didn’t get built). In addition, the company operates a data center in Newark, California and has revealed plans to build another 500,000 square feet data center in Prineville, Oregon and an additional $1 billion facility in Reno, Nevada. And if that wasn’t enough, a report out this morning has it that another massive data center will crop up in Hong Kong SAR, China… Read More
Interesting new aerial shots of Apple’s $1 billion iCloud data center in Maiden, North Carolina show that the company’s 100-acre solar farm is nearly complete. Filed as the nation’s largest end-user owned solar energy farm (take that, Greenpeace!), it will provide 20 megawatts of power when completed.
Thanks to these new aerial shots, we can now tell just how massive the facility is going to be. Compared to images take from an airplane on August 2, these new photos indicate that the solar farm is getting close to being completed… Read More
Remember back in July when we told you about the new updates coming to iCloud? We went hands-on with the beta, which included new apps and other improvements.
Well this afternoon, Apple pushed the update to the public version of the iCloud web portal. So if you go to iCloud.com and login, you should see the new additions… Read More
Apple is moving the ball forward to build a new data center in Prineville, Oregon. Having purchased an 160-acre parcel in Prineville from Crook County for $5.6 million back in February, the company has now filed paperwork with the city officials revealing plans to build a monster 500,000 square feet data center facility akin to that in Maiden, North Carolina which powers iCloud… Read More
If it were any other company, an executive going on the record with an unfavorable comment regarding the cloud when his or her company was a major player in that space would have been met with swift punishment. But this is Apple and the executive in question is Steve Wozniak, the outspoken tech activist and everyone’s favorite geek who doesn’t shy away from criticizing anything and anyone, even the company he co-founded.
Following a special performance of Mike Daisey’s monologue “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”, the Woz took the stage for a Q&A session with the audience. His take on the cloud (and consequentially Apple’s iCloud)?
It’s a ticking privacy bomb waiting to explode and nuke our digital selves from orbit. We cannot even begin to wrap our heads around such a security nightmare because most of us haven’t been through a mass-scale cloud disruption (yet). Those BlackBerry email server outages and T-Mobile’s Danger incident? Just timely warning signs of things to come.
TIMELY: Conveniently, AT&T just suffered what one blog described as a “massive outage”. Read More
As we continue to upload more and more of our lives to the web, the dangers of being hacked multiply. Our credit card numbers, our home addresses — they’re all there for the taking. That’s why so many security experts preach using a complicated password.
But sometimes, using a strong password isn’t enough. Just ask former Gizmodo writer Mat Honan. Mat’s world was turned upside down this weekend when a hacker gained access to his iCloud account, wiping his Mac, iPhone and iPad, thanks to Apple… Read More
Apple has officially closed the door on its MobileMe cloud service today. The move comes after a several month-long transition period that allowed users to move their accounts to iCloud and download their remaining files.
As of this morning, the MobileMe site no longer offers users the option to transfer their accounts over to iCloud, or download their remaining data. Instead, MobileMe visitors are redirected to the existing iCloud website… Read More
Looks like something is amiss with that $1 billion North Carolina data center as Apple just acknowledged that a limited number of iCloud users are having issues accessing their iCloud email. A bunch of people reported the problem earlier today on Apple’s discussion forums.
The Cupertino, California company is working to resolve the problem “ASAP”, reads a notice on Apple’s iClod status page. It appears that the issue is not contained just to iCloud email as some users are beginning to complain about hiccups with the App Store and iMessage services as well. Moreover, looks like FaceTime is down for some, too…
UPDATE: All services are now back online… Read More
iWork users will be happy to know that Apple has updated the iOS versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote today, to support the new Documents in the Cloud feature in OS X Mountain Lion.
The highly-anticipated feature keeps documents in-sync across both Mac and iOS versions of the apps in the iWork suite, and automatically keeps them up to date with the latest changes… Read More
Earlier today, Apple rolled out iTunes Match, and movies for iTunes in the Cloud, to a number of new countries. And it looks like it’s still not finished with the updates.
Tonight, reports are coming in that Fox movies are finally showing up in the Purchased tab of iTunes, meaning that users can now re-download them via iCloud… Read More
Apple is moving forward with plans to build a new, smaller data center next to the existing $1 billion iCloud facility in Maiden, North Carolina. The company has just filed for building permits, a story today revealed.
The upcoming 20,000 square feet facility will have tight security measures, such as “man trap” security doors and chain-link security fence, and will be t-boned to the existing iCloud facility. Official documents refer to it as the ‘tactical’ data center, whatever that’s supposed to mean… Read More
Apple sure has been busy today. Hot on the heels of this morning’s iTunes Match expansion, it appears that the company has added movies to its iTunes in the Cloud feature for users in 30+ new countries.
Folks from the UK, Ireland, Brazil and other areas are reporting that they are now able to stream previously-purchased films to their iOS devices, using iCloud. Keep reading to see if your country made the list… Read More
As pointed out by MacRumors, Apple today began a long-expected transition from old @me.com email addresses hosted at the discontinued MobileMe service over to new iCloud addresses. People who are signing up for new Apple IDs will automatically get an @icloud.com email address. Those with a @me.com email address will also get a matching iCloud email, provided their devices run the just-released iOS 6 Beta 3… Read More
Apple has been taking a lot of heat regarding its environmental policies over the past week. This due to the news that the company has recently pulled its products from the EPEAT registry.
But despite the fact that its products will no longer be EPEAT-certified, environmental groups say that Apple’s ‘green’ polices are improving. Greenpeace, in fact, just upped the company’s CEI score… Read More
