It's something Microsoft would never do - essentially, they're giving you one less reason to own (or go anywhere near) a computer. Since Apple makes computers, this seems to make no sense (and it would never make sense to Ballmer), but it actually makes perfect sense. It explains completely why Apple spent so heavily on a data center. Essentially, they're giving people who hate computers (especially around the home) a way to get rid of them completely. That means Apple might sell fewer computers, but only to people who didn't much care for them much anyway. In exchange, they will sell a TON more iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches. A ton.
This theory also rather neatly explains why, after having built their data center, they moved to add capacity before they even announced what it was for. It was because the iPad sold so much better than anyone expected that Apple realized the brand-new data center they'd just built would be insufficient to do the job.
The data center 'cloud' will probably do other things too. It's pretty well established that it will distribute music and probably movies, and probably email too. But the Big Idea is: What iTunes on your computer used to do, will now be handled more or less automatically, wirelessly, and remotely by Apple. The average iPad buyer will love it, and it will place Apple miles ahead of everyone trying to keep up.
Best post I've read on these boards this year. Or probably any year. Where's the follow button?
Gruber says or has heard said: "Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes". I think, if as you guess; they add e-mail to iCloud too he'll have to adjust that to: Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes and MobileMe. We might be about to enter the post-PC era. Or what I prefer to call the era of casual computing.
Recommending an iPad to Granny (i.e. my Aunts) is about to get real, I hope.
I would love to have my iTunes library on a time capsule type of device with all of my Macs, ATVs & iPhones being able to access it. But it would have to have redundant storage. I know this can technically be done now. But it's very cumbersome. And iCloud helps to orchestrate access while I'm on the go? Could Apple please consider cramming an airport extreme into a Drobo like redundant solution with an iTunes server software pack? I would be in heaven.
I really hope they update Time Capsule in any capacity because I was just getting ready to buy one anyways. Hell, if it could just get me to the point where I don't need iTunes running to access my media on Apple TV 2, I'll be thrilled. I log in to my desktop remotely on my iPad to open iTunes if need be, so this is really just laziness to the extreme, but none the less, it'd be cool.
I do agree about the coolness of a sort of Time Capsule/Drobo hybrid. Hopefully tomorrow will bring exciting news on this end.
I think it's more than that. Sticking my neck out here, but iCloud just may enable multi-user IOS. Think about a family sharing an iPad, each with separate iCloud accounts containing unique settings, data, apps. These could be cached from the cloud onto local storage based on e.g. frequency of use (new ios-based Time Capsule and/or OSX-based cache server/daemons managed through new system prefs, e.g. how much to cache, how long to cache it, etc).
Let's go further. Let's think of the new iCloud as iCloud and iTunes as dead.
You mean: let's make iTunes sync and media management wireless and cloud based and rename iTunes to iCloud? The problem with that is iCloud may not have an App, the same way MobileMe doesn't have a default App per-se.
My one worry, as someone mentioned earlier, is limited bandwidth caps from both broadband and mobile providers. The (i)Cloud based future sounds awesome, but not very usable if you don't have the bandwidth available without your connection being slowed to a crawl or being charged an arm and a leg extra for going over it.
Thus I suspect in many places where this is the case we'll still be doing things much the same way as we do now.
And Apple's policy of not telling their customers when someone steals their data from their servers is just the cherry on top!
Quote:
Originally Posted by magicj
That's what the testified to Congress. No policy of telling customers when their data is stolen.
There's a world of difference between a "policy of not telling their customers when someone steals their data" and "No policy of telling customers when their data is stolen."
The first is: yeah, we're dicks?even though we know customer data has been stolen, we have a policy in place not to inform the customer when that has happened.
The second is: sorry, we have not yet put together a policy of informing customers when their data has been stolen.
The two biggest things here that may come from this are:
1. I'll finally be able to wholeheartedly recommend an iPad. If we get wireless out-of-the-box activation, free iCloud and an e-mail address. It would complete the picture. Then, I would tell me Aunt to get an iPad knowing she will have a complete solution from Apple.
2. Hopefully now my podcasts will stay in sync across devices without a headache.
It will be interesting if comes Monday the iPad can be a stand-alone device but somehow I don't hold my breath for it. Yeah I'm that pessimist.
I'm usually pretty optimistic, but I get you on this one. Just like they never quite did Safari Extensions right, I have a sinking feeling about this too.
If iCloud is able to scan your iTunes library and give you access to the songs you purchased from iTunes and perhaps more then it's even more likely that the same technology will be deployed for apps.
In essence if iCloud is able to separate the data from the application but still keep things in sync then it only needs to store the metadata (i.e what app, what version, what data) only the data would be backed up because the app itself would be on an Apple server somewhere. When you restored your iPad iCloud would be smart enough to "reassemble" your setup.
Thus instead of a 300MB backup the typical backup would be less than 50MB.
Suddenly iPads could sell to anyone, people with Macs, people with PC and now ..people without a computer at all.
What iCloud might be is the death of iTunes the client. For all the people on Windows complaining about the performance of iTunes, I suspect one of the reasons it hasn't been properly optimized for Vista/7 or even a 64-bit OS X version is that they're moving completely to the web. With the power, speed, and sandboxing available in current browsers there's no reason to require a native desktop client. Limit installers to those for device support and Quicktime for Windows and it should be fine.
I remember having a discussion with one of my bosses about transitioning from a native app to web. In many organizations it's such an overhaul that it always ends up on the backburner while web standards are employed by the native app. Eventually it's a good idea to pursue just from a support and service delivery standpoint. Imagine how many petabytes have to be served up every time an iTunes update has to be delivered. The transition may be daunting, but there's plenty of reason to do it and iCloud makes sense as the backbone for the change.
Finally someone has figured out how to solve the hassle of having all my data, songs, apps, books, and movies available with me at all times and replaced it with the convienence of downloading it all over and over again over slow public wi-fi!
And for just $25.00 per year I will be able to listen to music I've already paid for whenever I want (after I download it over said slow public wi-fi)! That's lightyears ahead of what I'm forced to do now: listen to it instantly for free.
And Apple's policy of not telling their customers when someone steals their data from their servers is just the cherry on top!
magicj - as usual, your comments are offensive, ridiculous and generally clueless. Says a lot about you. The benefits of cloud storage go way beyond a ridiculously low price of $25 per year. And you haven't even seen or heard about the full features and benefits of the new service but you still have your head all the way up your....
Comments
You'd stream mostly, and they may not get the rights to sync to iCloud songs you didn't buy through the iTunes Store.
No, I want my media on my MacBook Pro!
It's something Microsoft would never do - essentially, they're giving you one less reason to own (or go anywhere near) a computer. Since Apple makes computers, this seems to make no sense (and it would never make sense to Ballmer), but it actually makes perfect sense. It explains completely why Apple spent so heavily on a data center. Essentially, they're giving people who hate computers (especially around the home) a way to get rid of them completely. That means Apple might sell fewer computers, but only to people who didn't much care for them much anyway. In exchange, they will sell a TON more iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches. A ton.
This theory also rather neatly explains why, after having built their data center, they moved to add capacity before they even announced what it was for. It was because the iPad sold so much better than anyone expected that Apple realized the brand-new data center they'd just built would be insufficient to do the job.
The data center 'cloud' will probably do other things too. It's pretty well established that it will distribute music and probably movies, and probably email too. But the Big Idea is: What iTunes on your computer used to do, will now be handled more or less automatically, wirelessly, and remotely by Apple. The average iPad buyer will love it, and it will place Apple miles ahead of everyone trying to keep up.
Best post I've read on these boards this year. Or probably any year. Where's the follow button?
Gruber says or has heard said: "Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes". I think, if as you guess; they add e-mail to iCloud too he'll have to adjust that to: Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes and MobileMe. We might be about to enter the post-PC era. Or what I prefer to call the era of casual computing.
Recommending an iPad to Granny (i.e. my Aunts) is about to get real, I hope.
I would love to have my iTunes library on a time capsule type of device with all of my Macs, ATVs & iPhones being able to access it. But it would have to have redundant storage. I know this can technically be done now. But it's very cumbersome. And iCloud helps to orchestrate access while I'm on the go? Could Apple please consider cramming an airport extreme into a Drobo like redundant solution with an iTunes server software pack? I would be in heaven.
I really hope they update Time Capsule in any capacity because I was just getting ready to buy one anyways. Hell, if it could just get me to the point where I don't need iTunes running to access my media on Apple TV 2, I'll be thrilled. I log in to my desktop remotely on my iPad to open iTunes if need be, so this is really just laziness to the extreme, but none the less, it'd be cool.
I do agree about the coolness of a sort of Time Capsule/Drobo hybrid. Hopefully tomorrow will bring exciting news on this end.
No, I want my media on my MacBook Pro!
I've bought the best music and moving video because they deserve it. To others I say FUCK YOU.
I think it's more than that. Sticking my neck out here, but iCloud just may enable multi-user IOS. Think about a family sharing an iPad, each with separate iCloud accounts containing unique settings, data, apps. These could be cached from the cloud onto local storage based on e.g. frequency of use (new ios-based Time Capsule and/or OSX-based cache server/daemons managed through new system prefs, e.g. how much to cache, how long to cache it, etc).
Let's go further. Let's think of the new iCloud as iCloud and iTunes as dead.
You mean: let's make iTunes sync and media management wireless and cloud based and rename iTunes to iCloud? The problem with that is iCloud may not have an App, the same way MobileMe doesn't have a default App per-se.
Quit complaining, if it were something useless and inconvenient, they wouldn't be launching it. It's not like were talking about Microsoft BOB!
Lame first post.
Thus I suspect in many places where this is the case we'll still be doing things much the same way as we do now.
And Apple's policy of not telling their customers when someone steals their data from their servers is just the cherry on top!
That's what the testified to Congress. No policy of telling customers when their data is stolen.
There's a world of difference between a "policy of not telling their customers when someone steals their data" and "No policy of telling customers when their data is stolen."
The first is: yeah, we're dicks?even though we know customer data has been stolen, we have a policy in place not to inform the customer when that has happened.
The second is: sorry, we have not yet put together a policy of informing customers when their data has been stolen.
No, I want my media on my MacBook Pro!
It's called optional. Remove the tin-foil hat and step away from the Microwave.
I've bought the best music and moving video because they deserve it. To others I say FUCK YOU.
You're as a aggressive as an angry crow in a tree with a machine gun.
1. I'll finally be able to wholeheartedly recommend an iPad. If we get wireless out-of-the-box activation, free iCloud and an e-mail address. It would complete the picture. Then, I would tell me Aunt to get an iPad knowing she will have a complete solution from Apple.
2. Hopefully now my podcasts will stay in sync across devices without a headache.
Conceptually, I like the idea. iTunes being the main sync point han't made sense for a while.
So do I, if they can execute it well but that's a big "IF".
The two biggest things here that may come from this are:
1. I'll finally be able to wholeheartedly recommend an iPad. If we get wireless out-of-the-box activation and free iCloud that is.
2. Hopefully now my podcasts will stay in sync across devices without a headache.
It will be interesting if comes Monday the iPad can be a stand-alone device but somehow I don't hold my breath for it. Yeah I'm that pessimist.
It will be interesting if comes Monday the iPad can be a stand-alone device but somehow I don't hold my breath for it. Yeah I'm that pessimist.
I'm usually pretty optimistic, but I get you on this one. Just like they never quite did Safari Extensions right, I have a sinking feeling about this too.
If iCloud is able to scan your iTunes library and give you access to the songs you purchased from iTunes and perhaps more then it's even more likely that the same technology will be deployed for apps.
In essence if iCloud is able to separate the data from the application but still keep things in sync then it only needs to store the metadata (i.e what app, what version, what data) only the data would be backed up because the app itself would be on an Apple server somewhere. When you restored your iPad iCloud would be smart enough to "reassemble" your setup.
Thus instead of a 300MB backup the typical backup would be less than 50MB.
Suddenly iPads could sell to anyone, people with Macs, people with PC and now ..people without a computer at all.
ca'ching.
I remember having a discussion with one of my bosses about transitioning from a native app to web. In many organizations it's such an overhaul that it always ends up on the backburner while web standards are employed by the native app. Eventually it's a good idea to pursue just from a support and service delivery standpoint. Imagine how many petabytes have to be served up every time an iTunes update has to be delivered. The transition may be daunting, but there's plenty of reason to do it and iCloud makes sense as the backbone for the change.
Last I checked we don't generate electricity from petroleum.
Not directly, but we do use petroleum for moving coal to power plants.
Not directly, but we do use petroleum for moving coal to power plants.
Actually, there's a diesel-powered electrical power plant in my town.
But it's small, and usually kicks in only on summer days when peak air-conditioning demand is high.
Yay!
Finally someone has figured out how to solve the hassle of having all my data, songs, apps, books, and movies available with me at all times and replaced it with the convienence of downloading it all over and over again over slow public wi-fi!
And for just $25.00 per year I will be able to listen to music I've already paid for whenever I want (after I download it over said slow public wi-fi)! That's lightyears ahead of what I'm forced to do now: listen to it instantly for free.
And Apple's policy of not telling their customers when someone steals their data from their servers is just the cherry on top!
magicj - as usual, your comments are offensive, ridiculous and generally clueless. Says a lot about you. The benefits of cloud storage go way beyond a ridiculously low price of $25 per year. And you haven't even seen or heard about the full features and benefits of the new service but you still have your head all the way up your....