Posted by The Blogging Desk on Tue, May 31, 2011
BusinessWeek:
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs will address an annual conference on June 6 to unveil a service that lets users store content online and tout a new version of the software that runs the iPad and iPhone.
Jobs, in the midst of his third medical leave since 2004 as he battles a rare form of cancer, will deliver a keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the Cupertino, California-based company said in a statement. It will be Jobs’ second appearance this year, after the iPad debut in March.
Apple follows rivals Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. in creating services to make it easier for customers to store and access music and other content via the Internet. So-called cloud computing lets people keep their songs and other content on remote servers rather than a hard drive. Cloud options will help the iPhone compete with phones powered by Google’s Android software, said Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital.
Save us Steve Jobs, you're our only hope.
As far as I can remember, this is the first time that Apple has announced a product in a press release before an actual event. Maybe to boost stock? Maybe to downplay the hype and assure folks there won't be a new iPhone as has been their custom? All I know is Steve is coming on a grand steed to save us from a dark, desolate, wired future.
I'm pretty excited to see what iOS 5 holds for iPhone users, and by association, iPad owners. I think the main reason I'm eagerly anticipating iOS 5 is for Apple to completely overhaul the native notification system. Have you even been buzzed several times by an app and have to dismiss 5 consecutive notification windows? It's hell on Earth. I'm positive nobody in the country has it worse than someone that has to dismiss a slew of Facebook notifications. Nobody.
But what about this iCloud business? The internet "blogosphere" at large assumes that iCloud could be a revamped model of their MobileMe services. For those not in the know, MobileMe is their emails, contacts, and calendar services. Sort of like Windows Live, but people actually use it. I had a Windows Live email for about 10 minutes until I snapped out that depressed, dreary state. I woke up in front of a Gmail window and never looked back.
Hopes for iCloud? Wireless syncing to your PC/Mac of your iPhone. Streaming music from your computer's library without having to upload music to any server. Essentially, the opposite of Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player.
Rest assured our good friend Steve Jobs will once again climb the mountain to save each of our souls. Thanks, Steve!
Posted by The Blogging Desk on Wed, May 11, 2011
This article originally appeared on Technorati.
It's finally here - Google Music Beta is official.
Amazon and Google have gone forward without the A-OK of the music labels and are allowing you to upload your music to their "cloud" for streaming. Excellent! I'm glad both companies will stick it to the labels. It seems like Google Music Beta won’t be letting in many users, though, so we’ll have to wait to be able to upload 20K songs into the cloud. Is that a good or bad thing?
What’s the difference between those and Apple's possible streaming service, though? Label support.
Apple is said to be in talks with labels about their own version of iTunes streaming and may even have their full support. What does that mean for you? For starters, it may mean you won’t have to wait a day and half uploading all of your music. Presumably, label support will mean that Apple’s servers can read over your library, and if it’s for sale in the iTunes store, that track will become instantly available to you for streaming - no upload necessary, your songs are tracked via your Apple ID, too.)
I’m willing to bet a large majority of the folks reading this don’t pay for their music, or have ripped a ton of CDs to their HDD. If Apple has indeed gotten labels on their side, you won’t have to worry about uploading a single track to their servers. They already have just about every song out there available for purchase inside of iTunes for sale.
Why bother having the user upload anything when they already have the track on hand? My bet is this will be the differentiator among the services. Your Apple ID will now know what files you have inside of iTunes and that info will then follow you around on all of your iOS devices and most likely a new web version of iTunes.
Can you imagine Steve Jobs uploading his iTunes collection to a server? Not me sir, not me.
