Monday, June 13, 2011

Apple Puts the Cloud into All Its Devices - Technology Review

Apple Puts the Cloud into All Its Devices - Technology Review


"Apple's Steve Jobs extended his company's technology in a new direction today by announcing iCloud, a service that means music, photos, and documents saved onto an Apple device will soon appear almost instantly on any other Apple product that a person owns.

'Apple's iCloud works in the background to keep music, photos, and documents in sync across all Apple devices, mobile or otherwise,' said Jobs. He announced the new service at the annual WWDC conference, an event aimed at developers who create software for Apple products. New versions of Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems, OS X Lion and iOS 5, respectively, will contain iCloud and move it to the heart of the company's. Lion is to be released next month and iOS in the fall.

Contrary to many expectations, iCloud will not make it possible for people to stream music purchased on iTunes over the airwaves from any device—leaving it short of a feature found in recently launched services from Amazon and Google. However, iCloud's capabilities extend beyond music and will become a central feature of all Apple products. Apple's previous cloud service, MobileMe, 'no longer exists as a product,' said Jobs."

Using Wi-Fi for Navigating the Great Indoors - Technology Review

Using Wi-Fi for Navigating the Great Indoors - Technology Review

A phone can locate you indoors to within a few paces by combining Wi-Fi signals and the jolt of your footsteps.

Android or Windows? Now You Don't Have to Choose - MIT Technology Review

Android or Windows? Now You Don't Have to Choose - MIT Technology Review

A startup lets smart-phone apps run as fast as normal on a PC or laptop.