Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
MobileMe to iCloud Transition Gives You 25GB Storage Until June 30th, 2012
With the MobileMe to iCloud transition service launched for developers tonight, Apple has revealed what it plans on doing with existing MobileMe accounts moving over to iCloud.
While MobileMe and iCloud accounts are quite different there are some overlapping parts. iCloud will continue to house Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Bookmarks, Find My Phone, and Back to My Mac, while dropping support for iWeb Publishing, Gallery and iDisk. Meanwhile, iCloud adds iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, Automatic downloads of apps and books, and iOS device backup and restore.
During the transition, Apple has promised to keep existing MobileMe accounts active until June 30, 2012. What wasn't entirely clear was how the storage requirements would shift over to iCloud. Current individual MobileMe customers have 20GB of storage included in their yearly plan.
Apple has decided to move this one-to-one over to iCloud and is automatically signing up MobileMe users to the 20GB (+ 5GB free) tier plan in iCloud at no charge. We previously detailed the iCloud additional storage pricing which puts 25GB of storage at a normal yearly price of $40 USD per year.
Users are automatically signed up for recurring billing with the next payment date for the plan to be June 30th, 2012 -- the same date that the rest of MobileMe shuts down. You may choose to downgrade before that time, and not get charged.
It's not clear how much an average user will need on iCloud. Apple claims 5GB "goes a long way". With the loss of MobileMe's iDisk, individual storage requirements could easily go down with iCloud, but the addition of iOS backups could easily push you over the free 5GB limits. Apple is expected to launch iCloud in the fall alongside iOS 5.
While MobileMe and iCloud accounts are quite different there are some overlapping parts. iCloud will continue to house Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Bookmarks, Find My Phone, and Back to My Mac, while dropping support for iWeb Publishing, Gallery and iDisk. Meanwhile, iCloud adds iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, Automatic downloads of apps and books, and iOS device backup and restore.
During the transition, Apple has promised to keep existing MobileMe accounts active until June 30, 2012. What wasn't entirely clear was how the storage requirements would shift over to iCloud. Current individual MobileMe customers have 20GB of storage included in their yearly plan.
Apple has decided to move this one-to-one over to iCloud and is automatically signing up MobileMe users to the 20GB (+ 5GB free) tier plan in iCloud at no charge. We previously detailed the iCloud additional storage pricing which puts 25GB of storage at a normal yearly price of $40 USD per year.
Users are automatically signed up for recurring billing with the next payment date for the plan to be June 30th, 2012 -- the same date that the rest of MobileMe shuts down. You may choose to downgrade before that time, and not get charged.
It's not clear how much an average user will need on iCloud. Apple claims 5GB "goes a long way". With the loss of MobileMe's iDisk, individual storage requirements could easily go down with iCloud, but the addition of iOS backups could easily push you over the free 5GB limits. Apple is expected to launch iCloud in the fall alongside iOS 5.
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105 months ago
So there is no iDisk equivalent in iCloud? That really sucks. I use mine for random file transfers and was essentially the one convenience I felt justified paying for. Guess I have to jump on the dropbox bandwagon :(
105 months ago
This doesn't answer how they'll handle merging MobileMe accounts to existing Apple IDs or if that's even an option, nor does it explain what they're going to do with mail aliases. Those are the two things I'm concerned about.
I'm worried about this as well.
I have a MobileMe account that I use for mail, contacts, and calendar.
And then I have another Apple ID (that I had before MM) that has all my songs, apps, and videos on it.
Why isn't there a way to merge these?
What am I supposed to do when iCloud comes out if I want my calendar synced with my MM and my music synced with my AID?
105 months ago
the renewal date in the article incorrectly says '2011' and probably a correctly 2013. Something that proof-reading should have caught.
2012
105 months ago
I have both iDisk and dropbox, but much prefer iDisk!! It was one of the best things about MobileMe. I am sooooo disappointed with Apple for taking it away.
Oh well.
Oh well.
105 months ago
I started with iTools. Then dot-Mac. Now MobileMe. I guess I'll be going to iCloud next. I just hope Apple allows those of us outside the United States to use Music Match as well.
105 months ago
This doesn't answer how they'll handle merging MobileMe accounts to existing Apple IDs or if that's even an option, nor does it explain what they're going to do with mail aliases. Those are the two things I'm concerned about.
105 months ago
So there is no iDisk equivalent in iCloud? That really sucks. I use mine for random file transfers and was essentially the one convenience I felt justified paying for. Guess I have to jump on the dropbox bandwagon.
You should've jumped over a long time ago. iDisk isn't in the same league as Dropbox, it's that much better.
I don't agree. Dropbox is not better, its faster. But when you read the Terms and Conditions of DropBox and how impossibly difficult and blurry it is to permanently delete files that you've already apparently deleted, not to mention where are your files and how long they stay online and who's property they've become, then it's obvious that the iDisk was much clearer on this and had no ambiguity what so ever. Apple did no such thing as to claim files you downloaded on iDisk theirs, whereas "you grant [Dropbox] (...) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (...) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service". A deleted file on iDisk was deleted, period, and it didn't belong to anyone but you.
In short, DropBox is worst from a T&C and privacy concern point of view, which is what really matters.
OK, granted, they've changed it since then. But the mere fact that they've put it in the first place makes it untrustworthy. How do the new terms and conditions prove they still don't do it anyway ? Just because it's written otherwise ?
That's the reason I don't like "cloud-only" companies, because you never know and can never know what becomes of your files in the long way. And it has nothing to do whether you have something to blame yourself about or not. Even if you're clean, who wants one's pictures sold unbeknown for commercial purposes ?
Overall, "The Cloud", frankly, I think that's a stupid name. How are you suppose to trust a cloud ? If it's suppose to be a metaphor or rather an analogy, there's nothing more unstable than clouds. Apart from making shadow, a heavy sky is nothing but trouble ahead: rain, snow, hail, thunder, and it's very close.
105 months ago
Documents in the Cloud: EXACTLY what I've been looking for
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/06/inside_icloud_apples_new_documentsdata_cloud_service.html
How iCloud's Documents & Data feature works
Apple outlined publically in general terms what Documents & Data does: it propagates changes made to a file on one device across every other. Similar to Photo Stream, creating a new Keynote presentation on your Mac will result in a magical multiplying of the document and an immediate background delivery of the new document on your iPad, on your iPhone or iPod touch, and within the iWorks web app so you can access it remotely from any browser.
There's no need to manually save the document to something like iDisk, or to look for where it might be stored in the file system, and no need to perform any manual sync between devices. It just happens. When you edit that presentation on your iPhone, all the changes you make similarly appear in every other instance of that file across your devices, again without needing any sort of thinking or involvement on your behalf.
The concept is deceptively simple, but it involves quite a bit of thoughtful engineering on Apple's behalf. There needs to be support built into both the desktop and mobile operating system, as well as a web interface for the cloud-based storage. Third parties also have to incorporate support for iCloud's Documents & Data in their apps. Apple has demonstrated how to do with with its iWork apps, the first to incorporate support for the new feature.
Rather than just throwing up a way to copy around files automatically, Apple took an carefully considered approach that borrows from its experience in curating the iOS and Mac App Stores. This isn't just a network-synced iDisk. Instead, each app that opts in to the iCloud Documents & Data feature is accorded a secure storage space of its own, just as iOS apps each live in their own secure sandbox, inaccessible from other apps.
Using iCloud-aware apps therefore won't eat up users' free storage on iCloud, just as Photo Stream or iTunes' media, apps and iBooks use won't count against the free 5GB of storage every iCloud user gets.
More importantly, a rogue app created to prey upon Mac users won't be able to destroy or corrupt the documents or data stored by iCloud-savvy apps, adding a new level of security within the user realm of the computing model. Currently, any piece of malware (or simply a buggy app) that a user installs has the capacity to stomp all over that user's files and any network shares he or she has mounted. With iCloud, that huge vulnerability is now possible to contain in a way that hasn't been possible before in mainstream desktop computing. Under iCloud, only the app that creates the data can change the data, and must do so securely.
Apple has also indicated that it will be relatively easy for third parties to add support for iCloud Documents & Data. In fact, it appears that Apple is leveraging the existing Versions and Auto Save mechanisms new in Mac OS X Lion to also enable iCloud to efficiently deliver updates to the cloud as you make them and subsequently push those incremental changes down to all your other devices to keep them all on the same page.
Within a week of iCloud's announcement at WWDC, prominent Apple blogger John Gruber revealed how iCloud would handle file sync conflict issues, noting that it would seamlessly resolve file conflicts that occur between devices while backing up each version of the file.
iCloud will "make a decision and it will decide which one is the best," Gruber stated. "iTunes will decide which one is right and thats it. iCloud will push that right one to any device that has this account that has a different version."
And so, essentially, iCloud Documents & Data will work something like Time Machine in the Cloud, except that rather than being focused on traveling through the past looking for lost versions, the new feature will keep users' documents up to date in the present, with push updating of changes as they happen to all devices they own. Again, think of it as push messaging for version controlled documents.
---------------------------------------------------------
This is probably the best explanation I've found about "Documents in the Cloud."
This is exactly what I've been looking for. For those of us looking to edit our documents from any device, anywhere, this is mana from heaven, at least that's what it seems to be.
I tried to replicate this with iDisk, but it was a little clunky. This time around it looks like everything will be seamless.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/06/inside_icloud_apples_new_documentsdata_cloud_service.html
How iCloud's Documents & Data feature works
Apple outlined publically in general terms what Documents & Data does: it propagates changes made to a file on one device across every other. Similar to Photo Stream, creating a new Keynote presentation on your Mac will result in a magical multiplying of the document and an immediate background delivery of the new document on your iPad, on your iPhone or iPod touch, and within the iWorks web app so you can access it remotely from any browser.
There's no need to manually save the document to something like iDisk, or to look for where it might be stored in the file system, and no need to perform any manual sync between devices. It just happens. When you edit that presentation on your iPhone, all the changes you make similarly appear in every other instance of that file across your devices, again without needing any sort of thinking or involvement on your behalf.
The concept is deceptively simple, but it involves quite a bit of thoughtful engineering on Apple's behalf. There needs to be support built into both the desktop and mobile operating system, as well as a web interface for the cloud-based storage. Third parties also have to incorporate support for iCloud's Documents & Data in their apps. Apple has demonstrated how to do with with its iWork apps, the first to incorporate support for the new feature.
Rather than just throwing up a way to copy around files automatically, Apple took an carefully considered approach that borrows from its experience in curating the iOS and Mac App Stores. This isn't just a network-synced iDisk. Instead, each app that opts in to the iCloud Documents & Data feature is accorded a secure storage space of its own, just as iOS apps each live in their own secure sandbox, inaccessible from other apps.
Using iCloud-aware apps therefore won't eat up users' free storage on iCloud, just as Photo Stream or iTunes' media, apps and iBooks use won't count against the free 5GB of storage every iCloud user gets.
More importantly, a rogue app created to prey upon Mac users won't be able to destroy or corrupt the documents or data stored by iCloud-savvy apps, adding a new level of security within the user realm of the computing model. Currently, any piece of malware (or simply a buggy app) that a user installs has the capacity to stomp all over that user's files and any network shares he or she has mounted. With iCloud, that huge vulnerability is now possible to contain in a way that hasn't been possible before in mainstream desktop computing. Under iCloud, only the app that creates the data can change the data, and must do so securely.
Apple has also indicated that it will be relatively easy for third parties to add support for iCloud Documents & Data. In fact, it appears that Apple is leveraging the existing Versions and Auto Save mechanisms new in Mac OS X Lion to also enable iCloud to efficiently deliver updates to the cloud as you make them and subsequently push those incremental changes down to all your other devices to keep them all on the same page.
Within a week of iCloud's announcement at WWDC, prominent Apple blogger John Gruber revealed how iCloud would handle file sync conflict issues, noting that it would seamlessly resolve file conflicts that occur between devices while backing up each version of the file.
iCloud will "make a decision and it will decide which one is the best," Gruber stated. "iTunes will decide which one is right and thats it. iCloud will push that right one to any device that has this account that has a different version."
And so, essentially, iCloud Documents & Data will work something like Time Machine in the Cloud, except that rather than being focused on traveling through the past looking for lost versions, the new feature will keep users' documents up to date in the present, with push updating of changes as they happen to all devices they own. Again, think of it as push messaging for version controlled documents.
---------------------------------------------------------
This is probably the best explanation I've found about "Documents in the Cloud."
This is exactly what I've been looking for. For those of us looking to edit our documents from any device, anywhere, this is mana from heaven, at least that's what it seems to be.
I tried to replicate this with iDisk, but it was a little clunky. This time around it looks like everything will be seamless.
105 months ago
No iDisk, Web Space
So true.
There are two primary things I use MobileMe/.Mac for. First is web storage. I've been hosting my website on the included server space for a long time. Why would I want to now pay for server space PLUS money to Apple for storage?
Second is iDisk. It's the easiest, most reliable way I have for moving files from work to home and back. Sure, I could use a flash drive, but I also could forget that flash drive or lose that flash drive. And no, DropBox is not the equivalent. Plus, it's blocked at work.
So Apple is taking away significant services from me, a long time paying user. It can't possibly be that expensive for Apple to maintain a few servers for us using their service. How do we get them to change their mind? I've already left my comments at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ . Perhaps we should all flood them with comments?
The loss of iDisk sucks big time.
So true.
There are two primary things I use MobileMe/.Mac for. First is web storage. I've been hosting my website on the included server space for a long time. Why would I want to now pay for server space PLUS money to Apple for storage?
Second is iDisk. It's the easiest, most reliable way I have for moving files from work to home and back. Sure, I could use a flash drive, but I also could forget that flash drive or lose that flash drive. And no, DropBox is not the equivalent. Plus, it's blocked at work.
So Apple is taking away significant services from me, a long time paying user. It can't possibly be that expensive for Apple to maintain a few servers for us using their service. How do we get them to change their mind? I've already left my comments at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ . Perhaps we should all flood them with comments?
105 months ago
Just let me access iCloud with Snow Leopard. Please, Apple!
"I'm sorry, Morod. I'm afraid I can't do that." :D:apple:[ Read All Comments ]
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