Category Archives: iCloud
Add tasks to productivity apps using Siri and CalDAV
Last month, Remember the Milk published a quick tutorial showing their customers how to use Siri’s voice control with the Reminders app and CalDAV to send tasks to RTM.
A slightly different Siri workaround can be used by iOS owners to send their tasks to other third-party to-do apps. All you need is an app that syncs with iCal and an iPhone 4S with an active iCloud account.
This method requires you to sync your to-do list with your reminders list in iCal. These iCal lists are then synced with iCloud which shares them with your iOS device. It’s bi-directional so any task you create using Siri will be sent to the Reminders app then to iCloud, iCal and finally your to-do app. Pretty handy, isn’t it?
It works with Things and The Hit List says Oliver Collet who posted this little trick after his friend Antoine mentioned it on Twitter.
It will likely work with other to-do apps like OmniFocus that also sync with iCal. If you get it to work with other To-Do apps, let us know in the comments.
Analyst suggests iCloud’s services as important as iTunes
Analyst Ben Reitzes of Barclays Capital has released a report declaring iCloud as the most important service Apple has put together since iTunes.
iTunes revolutionized the way people buy music and content online; Reitzes suggests that iCloud will be a similar revolution that transitions the main hub for digital content from the PC, iPad, or TV into the cloud itself.
We already know Apple is planning on making a big investment into iCloud and its infrastructure, and Reitzes says that investment will come in many forms, including connections with partners to share and spread the data stored on Apple’s servers.
It’s hard to argue with an estimation like this one. iCloud’s effects aren’t quite as obvious as a downloadable application like iTunes, but the service has already come in handy a few times for me. It certainly seems like Apple is aiming to make iCloud as dependable and seamless as possible, which is exactly what you want with a cloud service.
We’ll have to wait and see whether it becomes quite as revolutionary as iTunes, but if you buy into Reitzes’ analysis, iCloud has a big part to play in Apple’s future.
Apple has missed iTunes Match launch date
Did you notice this morning that it was November 1st? Did you also notice that iTunes Match isn’t working yet? Yep, Apple missed a deadline date, having “promised” that the new iTunes service would be available “by the end of October.”
That date was set at the October 4, 2011 “Let’s Talk iPhone” event by Apple’s Senior VP of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue.
iTunes Match is a US$24.99 annual feature that scans your iTunes library for titles, matches them with copies in the cloud, and then offers you the best possible recording to replace whatever copy you may currently have in iTunes. It acts as kind of an “online music locker” to store high-quality renditions of any music you may currently own.
The feature has been in wide use by developers, who were asked last week to make sure that they turned off iTunes Match on their various devices before October 27th as the cloud data was going to be wiped. In addition, the beta version of iTunes 10.5.1 that contained iTunes Match expired yesterday, which was a bit of a shock to some developers who weren’t happy about having to revert to an earlier version of iTunes.
The service appears to be close to launch, as retail staff have been instructed in how to use iTunes Match, but they definitely missed the month of October as a deadline.
As one commenter
Apple launches three new iPhone 4S ads (VIDEO)
Apple has kicked its iPhone 4S ad campaign into high gear with three new commercials featuring Siri, the new 8 megapixel camera, and integration with iCloud.
All three ads are available on Apple’s official YouTube channel, and they’re also embedded below for your viewing pleasure.
The new iCloud ad does a really good job of explaining the service in simple terms easy enough for the general population to understand, and the new ad for Siri does a better job than the first iPhone 4S ad in showing off what the “personal assistant” actually does.
Expect all three ads to end up in heavy rotation over the next couple of months as Apple pushes sales of its latest device through the busy holiday season.
Apple to build a solar farm next to North Carolina data center
Apple is reportedly building a solar farm to provide energy for its North Carolina data center.
An erosion permit granted by Catawba County, North Carolina gives Apple permission to transform 171 acres of vacant land across from the data center into a solar farm. The area will be resloped and will inlcude multiple gravel roads that provide access to the solar panels.
It’s the first step in a larger plan called Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded. Project Dolphin is the codename given to the consturction project behind Apple’s billion dollar data center.
The constucton is in the early stages of planning and very little in known about the farm. Scott Millar, president of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp. and the man who helped bring Apple to Maiden, North Carolina, was not aware of the solar farm plans.
He did not know of the permit until the Charlotte Observer brought it to his attention and said he has “no communication” with Apple about these plans. A building permit which would contain construction details has not been filed.
The only people aware of the solar farm are neighbors of the data center who are complaining about smoke from the property. Apple is burning the field to clear it and, according to residents, is producing a thick smoke that blankets the surrounding area. The burning is also driving animals out of their habitat. “I had a snake on my steps,” says local resident Zelda Vosburgh, “I’ve seen rabbits and squirrels everywhere.”