iCloud is here! But it may take a while to get…

Ian | Latest News | October 13, 2011

Apple have now released the long anticipated updates to OS X and iOS to enable iCloud, it's cloud based syncing and storage system.

iCloud, which will enable users to effortlessly sync there content wirelessly between their Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, is now live for public consumption, having been in Beta since the summer. It takes elements of Mobile Me and becomes the syncing method for iOS 5 devices, just as Google Chrome allows you to keep it synced across different computers. The update became available yesterday, with Mac users running Lion having to download the 10.7.2 update, with others needing the latest copy of iTunes in order to install iOS 5 onto their devices. For many, this may be the last time they need to connect to iTunes to update, from now on iOS 5 means that your iPhone or iPad will be able to update itself, over the air.

Best pop the kettle on...

Downloading 10.7.2: Not this quick for long...

It's not been a quick process for many though. It was inevitable that traffic for this update from Apple would be high, but not this high. With the update to Lion weighing in at over 800mb itself, there has been a big spike in internet traffic over the last 24 hours. When we commenced the update on our MacBook, we had an initial estimated download time of 19 minutes on our 16mb broadband. This soon leaped to nearly 3 hours, meaning it was left to finish overnight.

Apple have been pushing much of its software distribution to online recently, most notably Lion itself, which is primarily available through the Mac App Store. The download figures show much success for this, but the experience has highlighted the need for Apple to make sure its servers are up to it. If the cloud is the future, then the bandwidth needs to be able to cope with this much demand.

Is it worth the wait?

Definitely worth the wait. Ok, so to get your Mac and iOS device fully up to date, its going to take some time. Stick with it though, as iCloud based backups of your iPhone are worth it alone.

iOS 5 is available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 4S, iPad 1 & 2 and the 3rd and 4th generation of the iPod Touch. iCloud requires an iOS 5 compatible device, a Mac running OS X Lion or a Windows Vista or 7 PC.

iOS 5 is coming… get ready!

Ian | Cool Tips | October 10, 2011

We are not far now from what is probably Apple's biggest day of software releases ever.

On the face of it, there seems to be little that is groundbreaking in iOS 5 over iOS 4, however the impact is in the details. Although the look and the feel of Apple's OS for the iPhone and iPad stays the same bar the new Notifications or tabbed browsing in Safari, what goes on underneath the surface changes dramatically.

For the first time, iOS will be independent of umbilical cord to iTunes. You'll be able to buy an iPad and just start using it without connecting to a Mac or PC. This goes further, it will no longer need to be plugged in to get software updates, a luxury Android and Blackberry users have had for some time. Ok so this is quite geeky, but the biggest impact will be from Apple's cloud computing initiative: iCloud

iCloud is hugely significant. For a start it will take the responsibility away from all of us to back up our data. If you have plugged your iOS 5 device into the mains and it's on WiFi, it'll backup without your intervention. Unlucky enough to kill your iPad? Then when you buy a new one, you can just log into your Apple ID and it will restore it exactly how you last used it over WiFi. It'll keep your photo's synced over your devices. Apple will roll this out to OS X and will provide Windows support too, along with most of the previous features of Mobile Me, but without charge.

So this means not only an update to iOS, but also to OS X Lion, to iPhoto, in fact a whole range of Apple's software. See, it's bigger than it seems.

So how should you get ready for this? Well it's simple. Make sure you have plugged in all your devices lately and sync them with iTunes. Every time you do this, iTunes makes a backup itself. In the unlikely event that your upgrade to iOS 5 goes awry, then you can easily restore from a recent backup. As we always preach though, a backup is only ever good if it is that: recent.

So it's about to get a hell of a lot easier to keep your data safe on your iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S or iPad, even if you don't choose to use iCloud for your email or calendars. You don't need to, but you can still take advantage of all the backup infrastructure. So will any Apps you use that support it such as Pages or Numbers.

So make sure all your devices are recently synced before October the 12th. Then you can get updating to the latest version of iOS 5, iTunes, iPhoto and Lion 10.7.2 with full confidence. It's going to be a big upgrade!

One More Thing… iTunes Match

Ian | Latest News | June 6, 2011

So Steve has finished off at this years Worldwide Developers Conference with the One More Thing...

Having told us about the iCloud syncing of the songs you have purchased from iTunes, he then went on to talk about what happens for those tracks you have ripped or added yourself:

It's called iTunes Match

This is Apple's response to Amazon's Digital Locker and Google's Music Store. It's their solution to trying to put your entire iTunes Library into iCloud. With Google's Music Store you need to upload every track manually. This is fine if you have a very fast upload rate, however many of us don't. So instead they will use the same technology that Musicbrainz and CD Track Names uses to look at your own iTunes library then match it up to those tracks that Apple already have on their servers. It saves you an upload and it saves them on storage space.

This also means Apple don't need to store your songs, instead it will just match them up to the ones they already have in the iTunes Store. This also saves you having to upload if on a poor connection. It will all be iTunes Plus quality: so 256k AAC. If you have lots of Apple Lossless then you'll have to just put up with the lower quality. In our experience though iTunes Plus is transparent to a CD. Let's not forget the benefits of being able to have your music everywhere...

How about if you have a song they definitely don't have? I know I do. Lots of them. Well they will get uploaded to iCloud too.

It seems a small price to potentially pay Apple to 'legitamise' your iTunes Library, just don't forget it isn't a one off price, this is an annual subscription.

How much? Well we only know US prices so far:

iTunes iCloud service will cost $24.99 a year and be available from Autumn

Steve Jobs to announce iOS 5, OS X Lion and ‘iCloud’

Ian | Latest News | June 4, 2011

Here's a sentence you don't expect to write very often: It's a very exciting time in the world of computer operating systems.

We are but 2 days away from the start of WWDC - Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference where the people that make software on Apple's products come to discuss and learn the next direction for their platform.

We already know that Steve Jobs himself will be on stage to announce 3 major new releases: iOS 5, OS X Lion and the hotly rumoured 'iCloud' that's expected to update Apple's cloud computing offering: Mobile Me. Over in PC world, Microsoft have teased us about Windows 8.

Why is the cloud element important? Syncing is the new black. From Chrome to webOS rivals to Apple are showing users how syncing their accounts to the cloud make it easier than ever to move between devices whilst retaining their saved passwords, bookmarks and files.

So the fact that Apple will announce its mobile OS, Mac OS and its cloud service together potentially means some joined up thinking. We already know that many iOS features are making their way into Lion. iCloud could be the missing link to join your MacBook up with your iPad or iPhone to enable Wi-Fi syncing and a seamless experience moving between devices.

We expect Apple to catch up with rivals such as Dropbox by improving its iDisk offering and for some time now there has been hungry speculation on the web that iTunes will launch a music streaming service in the style of Spotify. We'd like to see iCloud bring syncing to Safari to catch up with Google Chrome. It should expand on the capability of Mobile Me and allow your iPod or iPad to update iTunes or Apps without needing a physical bit of copper in the way of the USB cable.

What do we know about iOS 5? Well speculation points to Twitter being heavily integrated into the experience. Notifications are in need of an overhaul in order to not fall behind the improvements that Android and webOS have made in this area. Background syncing is long overdue and could enable you to wake up with your Apple Store subscriptions of Newspapers or Podcasts waiting for you.

This is of course just our wanting. We'll find out what is in store from Steve himself soon.

The WWDC commences on the 6th June at Moscone West in San Francisco

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