On the eve of the official launch of iOS 7, Apple has rolled out a new version of iCloud.com to the public. The redesign, which has been in beta for several months now, brings new icons and other elements inspired by tomorrow's update.
Additionally, every web app has been rebuilt to match its mobile counterpart, including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders and Find My iPhone. And the wallpaper now mirrors the dynamic, slow-moving wallpaper in iOS 7 as well...
Yesterday, Apple seeded its registered iOS developers with a so-called Gold Master version of iOS 7, which is essentially the same version owners of iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices will be getting come September 18.
Unfortunately, it seems the company has quietly pulled the useful iCloud Keychain feature from the GM build. The company did not provide an explanation as to why exactly the feature got yanked.
For what it's worth, it's entirely possible the company leadership didn't feel confident enough to declare iCloud Keychain ready for prime time. We have another theory...
This past weekend Apple launched iWork for iCloud Beta to developers and non-developers alike, who could check out the suite as long as they had a valid Apple ID account set up to use iCloud on iOS devices. The web apps have reportedly garnered lots of interest, so much so that the company on Monday was forced to limit access to iWork for iCloud.
In other words, Apple's online productivity suite has already become too popular, even though it's currently in beta. Attempting to sign up for the service yields an error prompt with the message saying, "We've had an overwhelming response" to iWork for iCloud apps...
Previously available only to Apple's registered developers and and later on to some select users, Apple has today decided to open iWork for iCloud web apps to everyone ahead of its September 10 keynote. That's right, you can now log in to the web interface at iCloud.com using your existing Apple ID, regardless of whether you are a developer or a regular user.
The service provides Apple's suite of iWork apps - Pages, Keynote and Numbers - that run in any standard web browser such as Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer and support editing functionality...
In what's quickly becoming a worrisome pattern for Apple, a number of iCloud services are down as of this morning. The iMessage system is acting up (all over again), as are Photo Streams, Documents in the Cloud, Backup services and iPhoto Journals, according to Apple's iCloud Status Page.
The downtime started at around 12:30am Eastern / 9:30pm Pacific. None of the services have been restored as of post time.
As things stand now, the affected users have been unable to access the aforementioned services for more than ten straight hours. Fortunately, only a small percentage of users appear to have been affected by Apple's ongoing cloud woes...
Apple's streamlining, redesigning and flattening efforts go beyond iOS 7 or Jonny Ive's title. Today, the company has issued a major revamp to its iCloud.com Beta website. The enhanced experience focuses on an all-new yet familiar look which takes more than a few clues from iOS 7, to put it mildly.
But rather than draw snippets of inspiration from the forthcoming iOS 7 refresh, Apple has taken it upon itself to actually recreate the complete iOS 7 look and feel, right in your web browser and down to the flattened icons, minimalistic look and light fonts.
I've taken a bunch of screenshots so do check out the full gallery right below...
Apple has rolled out movie support for its iTunes in the Cloud service to a number of new countries this morning. The list features Japan and seven additional European countries including Italy, Lithuania, Austria and Spain.
For those unfamiliar with the service, it allows you to stream and re-download previously purchased iTunes content on all of your registered iOS devices. It's available for all content, but today's rollout is restricted to movies...
Oh Microsoft, you're so cunning. Taking advantage of the impending iCloud storage downgrade, the Windows maker has tweeted out a tempting offer meant to promote its SkyDrive cloud storage service whilst luring customers away from Apple's iCloud.
If you are a former MobileMe member and have received an email from Apple announcing your complimentary iCloud storage is expiring soon, just forward it to HelpMeSkyDrive@outlook.com to claim your fifteen gigabytes of SkyDrive storage, free for a year.
You should take advantage of the promo because Microsoft otherwise sells an additional twenty gigabytes of SkyDrive storage for ten bucks a year so that's nearly ten bucks saved right off the bat...
Apple's troubled MobileMe online services suite was officially shut down on this day a year ago. Following the iCloud announcement back in the summer of 2011, Apple originally told MobileMe users they could keep their current storage, in addition to the five free gigabytes of iCloud storage to help with the transition.
As the August 1, 2012 deadline was approaching, Apple had changed its mind and extended MobileMe users' complimentary iCloud storage upgrade to another year. As that plan is now set to expire on September 30, the iPhone maker has started emailing former MobileMe account holders to inform them of the impending iCloud storage downgrade...
During its June WWDC keynote, Apple introduced a new version of its popular productivity suite called iWork for iCloud. Just as the name suggests, the offering brings Apple's iWork apps—Keynote, Numbers, and Pages—to your browser.
For a while now, developers have had access to iWork for iCloud through Apple's beta iCloud portal. But today, the company has reportedly begun inviting non-developer users to join in on the fun by giving them access to the software...
We thought Apple by now has figured its customers have come to expect better than this, but here we go again: in a massive outage earlier today, the company's messaging service for iOS and Mac devices went offline for nearly one-third of its installed user base, by Apple's own admission.
Now, I know iCloud now has more than 300 million accounts (Tim Cook labeled it “the fastest growing cloud service ever” at WWDC last month). Likewise, I'm aware that with 800 billion iMessages sent and more than 7.5 trillion push notifications received, Apple no doubt has the scale and computing power to drive iMessage.
But something seems to be amiss here. The more I think of it, the more I tend to be bothered by the frequency and sheer reach of these outages. At the very least, I'm beginning to question Apple's ability to cope with such an exponential growth of its cloud service...
Along with a host of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks announcements, Apple spent some air time during its WWDC 2013 keynote talking about the much-improved cloud component of its iWork productivity suite for Macs and iDevices.
iWork for iCloud, as it is called, for the first time provides rich Pages, Keynote and Numbers web apps that run smoothly in a web browser like Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer, much like Google's Docs suite.
After making iWork for iCloud Beta available to its registered developers via the beta.icloud.com web page, the company has just started dogfooding the software to all its employees...