Beta iCloud site adds iOS-like Notes, Reminders as web apps
updated 03:02 am EDT, Tue July 3, 2012
Joins Calendar, Find My iPhone as being 'in beta'
Apple developers working on the iCloud beta version saw two new apps added to the array of iCloud services today, with online versions of the iOS apps Reminders and Notes going live with a "beta" tag on them. Also featured as being "in beta" are updated Calendar and Find My iPhone, both brought over from the Mobile Me service that was recently closed. Reminders, as with iOS, now has its own app separate from the Calendar program.
The Reminders and Notes web programs are virtual duplicates of the iOS and "coming soon" OS X version (set to appear in Mountain Lion, which is being released this month), and continue the controversial but elegant-looking "skeuomorphic" designs, using a paper feel in the Notes and the OS X Lion "leather" look in the iCloud version of Calendar. The continuity between the looks on iCloud, iOS and Mountain Lion should provide for a very consistent experience for users of all three, and an easier transition for those adding an iOS or Mac to their other Apple products.
The web versions of Reminders and Notes use the "two page spread" version seen in landscape mode for the iPad. An interesting addition to the iCloud version of "Find My iPhone" is a battery indicator (as with the iOS version), showing users checking on a device from a web browser the power status of their lost device, an indication of how long they have to locate it.
Quick tests of the service by MacNN staffers indicate that updates are very fast, with Notes and Reminders in particular working identically to the iOS versions. Calendar updates still took a bit longer to "reach" synced devices in our testing, and the separation of reminders into its own "app" is the only real change to the iCloud version of the Calendar.
The new additions to iCloud are expected to be formally unveiled this fall with the release of iOS 6, though Find My iPhone may come out of beta earlier, perhaps in time for the release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, expected later this month.
