Apple has today rolled out additional offerings for their iTunes in the Cloud service to 11 new European countries. The company has made available new movie support for iTunes in the Cloud meaning that users are able to re-download content that they have already purchased and downloaded from iTunes (via MacRumors). The addition of this new functionality joins the existing ability to re-download music from iTunes in the Cloud.
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Tag Archives: iCloud
Movies Via iTunes In The Cloud Launches In New European Countries
Apple Adds Windows 8 To iCloud Required Operating Systems On PC
With the launch of Windows 8, many PC users looking to take advantage of using many of the awesome features of iCloud with their Windows 8 device will be wondering about compatibility. The good news is that Apple has made a very small change to the small print on their iCloud Features page to confirm that iCloud on the PC will require either Windows Vista, Windows 7 or, most significantly for those users, Windows 8.
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To Be Honest, It Would Be Great If iCloud Was More Like Dropbox
There was a problem today, in that Dropbox connectivity was sporadic and, even when connected, incredibly and painfully slow. At one point some users couldn’t even connect to the Dropbox servers and even now, although downloads of shared files are running at normal speed, in my instance it’s still taking several minutes to sync even the smallest files. In order to share some data between a MacBook Air and an iMac, I quickly shifted over to Google Drive (which I hadn’t used before). The file transfer was quick and easy, as it had been when Dropbox was working.
What was an irritation was the fact that I couldn’t go straight to iCloud because the files were in PDF and PowerPoint format. The document sharing in iCloud is limited to those applications that have been granted iCloud functionality, instead of universal file access. There’s reasons and arguments as to why Apple has done this (which many people have covered before), but with 5GB sitting right there and unable to be utilized, it was a crying shame.
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Rumorific: Apple Job Posting Pointing Towards iWork Document Editing In iCloud?
Apple may be looking to expand the functionality of iWork on the web as it has just posted a job opening for an iWork Software QA Engineer that will work on the next generation of Desktop, Mobile and, notably, Web Applications and Services. This could potentially represent a new way of managing and editing iWork files stored in iCloud, beyond the ‘view-only’ function that it currently offers.
The iWork functionality on iCloud as it currently stands is actually pretty limited as it only allows the syncing of iWork documents and files to separate devices, which generally need iWork to be installed on them for any editing or content creation. An iWork web application, as referenced in the job posting, could potentially allow a limited feature version of iWork to run within the iCloud web framework, and therefore give users the ability to edit their documents directly in iCloud.
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Me Me Me: Apple Issues iCloud.com E-Mail Addresses
Apple is starting to roll out a new e-mail domain for customers of iCloud which is named, surprisingly enough, @icloud.com. As spotted by MacRumors, the company is now handing out @icloud.com e-mail addresses to new users of iCloud, as well as customers setting up novel Apple IDs for the first time. The report also suggests that users that already have me.com e-mail addresses will also be receiving an iCloud.com e-mail address that matches the me.com e-mail address.
Ever since the shutdown of MobileMe and the universal adoption of iCloud, it was expected that at some point, Apple would start to issue icloud.com e-mail addresses. However, whether they retain the ‘awesome factor’ of the me.com e-mail addresses is another matter. Apple obtained the me.com domain name in 2008, and starting offering me.com e-mail address that year.
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Dropbox Storage Upgrades Take A Swing At iCloud And Google Drive
Dropbox has announced that they will be making significant upgrades to the amount of storage space that they offer with their Dropbox Pro plans. As announced on the Dropbox Blog, the company will begin doubling the space offered to existing customers and new customers. That means that, instead of paying $9.99 per month for 50GB of space, customers will receive over 100GB of space for the same price. This is also applies to the 100GB plan which now becomes 200GB. In addition to the upgrades, Dropbox is now offering a 500GB plan as well.
The upgrades look like Dropbox is starting to fire off a competitive salvo at Google Drive and iCloud. For comparison, iCloud offers 55GB of storage space for $100 per year, whereas a Dropbox customer can get 102GB for around $120 per year. However, it still loks like Google Drive customers are getting the best deal as they can secure 100GB of storage space (+25GB GMail storage) for $4.99 per month or around $60 per year.
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Opinion: iWork’12 Could Be Released In A Matter Of Weeks
Apple could be on the verge of releasing a major update to iWork for OS X, perhaps even releasing iWork’12, in the coming weeks, particularly in the context of the impending iWork.com shutdown. The company recently issued a warning to users of the iWork.com beta site offering a reminder that the iWork.com Beta will be discontinued on July 31st 2012. The service is being shut down due to the fact that iCloud is now predominantly responsible for online storage and syncing iWork files across multiple devices. As a result, iWork for OS X devices is going to require two major changes in the coming weeks to ensure full integration with iCloud.
The first change is actually relatively straightforward at first glance, but becomes more complicated if you look at it closely. If you look at the iWork suite of programs on Mac OS X, in pride of place, in the very center of the menu bar, there is a ‘Share’ button. If you hit this button then you will be invited to share your document, spreadsheet or presentation on the iWork.com Beta site. Obviously, with the site being shut down, the Share functionality for iWork apps will have to be revamped, but it will have to be revamped in such a way that it takes into account iCloud document storage and, given the recent precedent set in iOS, likely integration of Facebook and Twitter.
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Apple Warns Users Of Impending iWork.com Shutdown
Hot on the heels of the MobileMe shutdown, the iWork.com website will be suffering the same fate at the end of July. As such, with only one month until that takes place, Apple has begun sending reminder e-mails to registered users of the iWork.com beta site, reminding them that all documents that are stored on iWork.com will soon be removed and, as such, should be downloaded to a computer. Continue reading
Apple Shuts Down MobileMe For Good
As they have been saying they will do for almost a year, Apple has finally hit the ‘kill’ switch on MobileMe and has finally shut down all accounts. All users have been encouraged to migrate their MobileMe accounts to iCloud, but if you are one of the people who have not yet done so, your data can still be moved by going to the MobileMe home page and clicking the ‘Move To iCloud Now’ button. As is shown above, the MobileMe homepage has now been replaced by a ‘Closed’ sign.
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Is Apple Going To Launch An iTunes Web Application Through iCloud.com?
Apple has published a rather interesting job posting on its recruitment website, suggesting that they could be looking to launch a web application for iTunes, perhaps allowing users to access and stream their iTunes libraries through a web interface, such as a new tab in iCloud.com. The posting is for an iTunes software engineer, with specialization and experience in Java and, notably, in ‘architecting web applications that scale to millions of requests per second’.
One possible opportunity for this person, therefore, could be to work on an iTunes web interface that would allow users to stream iTunes content directly from iCloud but without having to go through the iTunes software itself. Such an application would likely serve millions of users every minute. iTunes Match, for $24.99 per year, matches all tracks that are stored in a users’ iTunes catalog and gives them the opportunity to access them on any device. Is it possible that Apple is looking into a web-based iTunes interface for this, perhaps with streaming access via the iCloud portal at iCloud.com.
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