Category Archives: iCloud
iTunes Match Settings Visible On iOS 5 Devices; Launch Imminent
One important feature that was missing from Apple’s launch of iOS 5 and iCloud last week was iTunes Match.
But it looks like Apple is gearing up to launch the music service soon.
iTunes Match is a new service that Apple had unveiled along with iOS 5 and iCloud at the WWDC 2011 Keynote address in June. It allows users to store their entire music collection (up to 25,000 songs), including songs that they’ve ripped from CDs or purchased from anywhere else in iCloud.
Here’s how it works:
iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud.
All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. And all the music iTunes matches plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.
iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year. iTunes Match has been available to developers for beta testing. However, it looks like Apple is gearing up to launch the service soon as users in the U.S. who have upgraded to iOS 5 can now see a toggle to turn the iTunes Match service on and off in the Music section of the Settings app.
iCloud prompts a look back at “cloud” icons
Apple introduced iCloud earlier this year, and its announcement kicked off a renewed interest in the iconic cloud logo.
Articles espousing the icon’s Golden Ratio-based design and Apple’s attention to detail followed shortly. Though Apple undoubtedly chose this icon for its precision design, it’s likely that Apple’s design team can’t take full credit for the look.
A post by Scott Hanselman points out the cloud icon may have its roots in the Pictos 1 icon collection. Though it’s been modified some, the basic circular cloud design has been widely used. It appears on Microsoft’s ASP.net website and in many iOS weather applications.
A very similar cloud design even showed up on a BBC weather segment almost thirty years ago. You can check out his post for even more examples of this cloud configuration.
Box offers 50 GB storage to iOS users
Box.net is taking advantage of the hype surrounding the iPhone 4S and iCloud by offering 50 GB of free storage to iPhone and iPad owners.
The promotion is live now and will last for 50 days so you have plenty of time to sign up.
To claim your 50 GB account, you have to download the Box.net app to your iOS device and login with your account credentials.
If you don’t have an account, you can sign up for one on your device.
Once you login, your account will be upgraded to 50 GB. These extra 50 GBs are yours to keep for as long as you have your box.net account.
iCloud now features Find My Mac service
Find my iPhone and Find My iPad have been around for awhile via MobileMe, and we’ve heard dozens of success stories where people used the service to recover lost or stolen iOS devices.
Macs have been reliant on third-party solutions or clever hacking to enable the same functionality — until now.
With iCloud comes Find My Mac, a feature that’s essentially identical to what’s been offered for iOS devices. If you have a free iCloud account and your Mac is running OS X Lion 10.7.2 or greater, has Wi-Fi access, has a recovery partition installed (more on that later) and has been set up beforehand in the iCloud preferences, you can use Find My Mac to locate your computer anywhere in the world using either iCloud.com or the Find My iPhone app on an iOS device.
Find My Mac is not enabled by default (possibly out of privacy concerns), so once you’ve met all the relevant prerequisites, go into System Preferences on your Mac, navigate to the iCloud preference pane, and tick the checkbox next to Find My Mac to enable it.
iWork apps updated with new features, iCloud integration
Apple’s three iWork apps have been updated alongside iOS 5 going live. The updates are available now through the App Store and include the following:
Keynote
- Automatically store presentations in iCloud and keep them synced among multiple iDevices.
- Download presentations to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork as Keynote ’09, PowerPoint, or PDF files.
- Drag and drop Keynote ’09 or PowerPoint presentations to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on iOS devices.
- Airplay added
- New builds and transitions including Anvil, Blinds, Color Panes, Comet, Confetti, Diffuse, and Sparkle.
- Advanced presentation controls including looped slideshows and autoplay.
- Support for slide-to-slide hyperlinks.