iCloud

Confirmed: Bloom Energy to power iCloud cell farm

Itćs been officially confirmed today that Apple will use cutting-edge, power-efficient, eco-friendly fuel cells from California-based Bloom Energy startup to power its huge iCloud data center located in Maiden, North Carolina.

Hopefully this move will appease Greenpeace, whose recent report titled How Clean Is Your Cloud slammed Apple over the company's use of "19th-century coal energy” for its data centers...

iTunes Match goes live in new markets across the globe

iTunes Match, Apple's $25 a year cloud locker and scan-and-match music service, is being rolled out in additional countries, according to web reports. Last time we heard, Apple expanded iTunes Match to 19 countries, with a focus on the Baltic states, Latin America and the Netherlands.

Macstories first spotted that the iTunes terms and conditions for Italy have been updated with new terms suggesting an imminent launch in the country. Other web reports confirmed a similar changes to iTunes terms and conditions for Greece, Portugal, Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria and other markets...

Cloud storage price comparison: iCloud vs. SkyDrive vs. Dropbox vs. SugarSync

Microsoft yesterday updated its iOS SkyDrive client and released a brand new app for both Windows and Mac desktops while putting into effect paid storage upgrades.

At the same time, Dropbox released an updated iOS client with new sharing capabilities and Google upped Google Docs storage to 5 GB.

iDownloadBlog thought you might be interested to check out how major cloud storage services fare in terms of value so we've put together a handy comparison matrix providing an at-a-glance overview of paid tiers available from iCloud, Dropbox, SkyDrive and SugarSync...

Tweetbot’s iCloud sync is brilliant

A couple of weeks ago version 2.2 of Tweetbot — my favorite Twitter client for iOS — was released to the public.

While that update included a number of interesting new features and obligatory bug fixes, the new iCloud sync capabilities stand head and shoulders above everything else.

One of the things that has always annoyed me about Twitter clients, and by extension Tweetbot, is that there was no reliable method for picking up where you left off across multiple devices. I know Tweet Marker support was there before, but I've never had very much success with it, and it only works with timelines.

I have Tweetbot installed on two iPhones, two iPads, and an iPod touch. As you can probably imagine, it doesn't take long for things to get really messy when tweeting from all of those different devices at various points in time.

That's where the beauty of iCloud comes in. The new iCloud sync makes Tweetbot a seamless Twitter experience, able to sync timelines, mute filters, and even DM read statuses across multiple iOS devices...

Apple Stores reportedly readying local iCloud backups for iOS devices requiring replacement

A new report out yesterday alleges that Apple is working on an interesting new solution for Geniuses at its retail stores that would bypass the need for tethered desktop iTunes or wireless iCloud backups for people seeking iOS device replacements.

The solution would let Geniuses to quickly and effortlessly backup your entire iPad, iPhone or iPod touch prior to the device exchange process. Likewise, Geniuses would later on be able to easily move that data back onto the replacement devices.

The solution is reportedly being prototyped at Apple’s top-secret Apple Store labs near the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters...

Greenpeace activists protest outside Apple’s Irish HQ, winning employees’ support

Just a day following an unpleasant report from Greenpeace, activists with the non-governmental environmental organization gathered outside Apple's Irish headquarters to distribute leaflets and place banners urging the company to "clean our cloud".

Greenpeace singled out Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter for using dirty coal energy while praising Google for their eco-friendly data centers and environmental consciousness.

PadSync: a great looking iTunes file sharing alternative

PadSync from ecamm is yet another way to access the documents folders of apps on your iDevice. The interface is very similar to iTunes File Sharing, located in the device view of a synced device. The main advantage is that you don't need iTunes running to use it.

Maybe not enough apps you use have added iCloud support yet. Or perhaps you want to be able to easily drag and drop movie files into your movie app from your computer without performing a full iTunes sync. The rest of you might need an easy way to drag a document from your iPhone or iPad to your desktop. Let's take a look at how PadSync can help…

Greenpeace slams Apple over “19th-century coal energy”, praises Google

Non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace has taken issue with Apple's $1 billion iCloud data center in North Carolina, accusing the Cupertino company of running a facility that operates on "dirty, 19th-century coal energy".

In addition, Greenpeace wrote in its latest report, Microsoft and Amazon are also running server farms that operate on dirty energy.

The slap in Apple's face came just as we learned the company is building the nation’s largest end-user owned solar energy farm to partially power the iCloud data center.

Google to launch new iOS-compatible cloud service next week

You can never accuse Google of not trying. Successful or not, the search company has tried its hand in several markets over the past few years. And it's not showing any signs of slowing down.

TheNextWeb is reporting today that it has gotten its hands on a draft release from a partner of Google's upcoming Google Drive service. That's right. Google's about to take on DropBox in the cloud-based storage space...

How to Enable OmniFocus Siri Reminders on iPhone 4

OmniFocus for iPhone4 Siri

OmniFocus for iPhone is a great productivity tool. With Apple’s new iPhone OS came integration with Reminders and Siri. When enabled, OmniFocus will check the Reminders app for new tasks, add them to your Inbox, and remove them from your Reminders list. This holds true for Reminders created using Siri in addition to those entered manually.

However, for some reason, The Omni Group limited the powerful new iOS 5 integration to iPhone 4S users. The good news is if you’re an iPhone 4 user, you can enable Reminders and Siri integration with a little bit of preference file editing. This trick does not affect the OmniFocus app’s performance, stability or existing functionality. Here’s how to do it…

How Apple can solve the multiple iMessage alert conundrum

If you've taken advantage of iOS 5's iCloud functionality, you understand how much potential is on tap. iCloud coerces all all of your iOS devices to stay in sync; at least that's the theory.

While the potential is certainly there, iCloud still has a way to go before all of its issues are ironed out; though I definitely commend Apple for being gung-ho about its rollout.

One of the main issues that I've personally experienced — and no doubt countless others share similar sentiments — is with iMessage. More specifically, since iCloud can sync every iOS 5 device you own, all of your devices alert you when you receive a new iMessage.

Now I know; why not just disable alerts altogether for all but one device? Well, there's a number of reasons why I would not want to do that. The main reason being is that you shouldn't have to select one feature over another. iCloud is meant for convenience, and taking such a step would certainly be a leap backwards.

Instead, let's examine a more proactive approach — utilizing the iPhone's built in technology to solve the issue. That's exactly what we tried to do. Introducing our solution to the multiple iMessage alert conundrum — Alert Priority.

Court upholds ban on iCloud push email in Germany

Earlier this year, a German court slapped Apple with an injunction, forcing the company to disable iCloud's push email service in the country. The move was the direct result of a Motorola lawsuit, who claimed Apple was using its patented technology in the feature.

Well things got worse today for the iPad-makers. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a German regional court has upheld the previous decision of the ban on Apple's iCloud service, essentially granting Motorola a victory in the ongoing patent war...