05/18, 1:19pm
Move to iCloud accompanied by headaches, says plaintiff
A new class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple in California, accusing the company of "unfair, unlawful, deceptive, and misleading practices" in promoting iCloud, according to AppleInsider. The case -- filed on behalf of Danyelle Comer in the US District Court for the Northern District of California -- specifically targets Apple for failing to properly transition paid Mobile Me subscribers over to iCloud. "Throughout the migration, Apple failed to adequately ensure that features Mobile Me users were paying for would be accessible, including access to their e-mail accounts for which customers pay additional fees," complaint documents read. "As a result, numerous Mobile Me users suffered damage from the inability to access their individual accounts."
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05/17, 9:41pm
Isolated reports suggest rare breach
A small number of users in the Apple Support Communities have reported that their iCloud e-mail accounts may have been compromised by spammers, even in cases where the user had a strong, randomized password. Reports began flowing in of mostly little-used iCloud accounts sending out spam messages, replies to which alerted users of the problem. Apple has not commented on the issue thus far.
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05/17, 3:28pm
Facility to have two solar arrays, fuel cell farm
Apple's large-scale datacenter in Maiden, North Carolina will run entirely on renewable energy by the end of the year, the company has announced. Currently Apple is in the middle of buying equipment from Bloom Energy and SunPower Corp. to build not one but two solar arrays in the Maiden area; previously, only one was known to be in development. Once the equipment is in place, it should generate 84 million kWh of energy per year. Apple's fuel cell farm should be finished later in 2012.
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05/15, 1:37pm
Campaign over 'cloud' pollution escalates
Environmental activist group Greenpeace has staged a protest at Apple's Cupertino headquarters, notes AppleInsider. Images were projected onto the main building overnight, including supportive messages from users on Twitter and Facebook. Activists also secured themselves inside a so-called "survival device," measuring 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Four activists dressed themselves as iPhones, complete with screens again displaying messages from Twitter and Facebook.
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05/14, 4:31pm
Roughly 15 million people affected
A Monday morning iCloud outage affected 12 percent of subscribers, or about 15 million people, according to the service's status page. Between 8 and 9:30 AM Pacific time, iCloud email was inaccessible for the affected group. As of 9:42 AM, all services were listed as online.
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05/14, 2:49pm
Me.com email to continue after MobileMe's end
Apple will announce several new iCloud feature upgrades at June's WWDC, claim sources for the Wall Street Journal. One of the highlights is expected to be photo sharing. While users can currently sync photos via Photo Stream, these are only accessible under the same Apple ID. The sharing feature would not only allow people to make photosets public, but to make comments on others' collections.
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05/11, 3:28pm
App Store reviewers greenlight revised Dropbox-ready apps
The beta version of iCloud.com is now displaying Reminders and Notes apps, users observe. At the moment, the regular iCloud.com site is limited to Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find My iPhone, and iWork. 9to5Mac notes that the beta code contains hidden strings asking a person to "first sign in to iCloud with the iOS 6 Beta," which may hint that iOS 6 and an updated iCloud.com will premiere simultaneously, possibly at WWDC in June.
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05/08, 3:08pm
Shows Apple attempting to improve site's usefulness
Apple has inadvertently revealed plans to bring banner notifications to iCloud.com, AppleInsider notes. Earlier on Tuesday, some visitors to the site saw an iOS-style banner at the top with a placeholder image and text. "Default Title for English," it read, with "English - This is test message description" underneath. Although clicking on the banner led nowhere, a small X allowed people to dismiss the message.
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04/30, 12:55am
LG Cloud kicks off in Korea
LG has formally launched into the cloud space on Monday with a beta of LG Cloud. The service is intended as a non-exclusive way to quickly shuttle music, photos, and videos between the various devices in LG"s ecosystem, including PCs, smartphones, and TVs. By including the TV, it carries the uncommon advantage of exporting 3D content: a 3D video recorded on an Optimus 3D Max can be remotely shared to a TV that can play it back.
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04/24, 6:35pm
Mobile Me service nearing its end
Apple's high sales of iOS devices, along with continuing Mac growth, continues to push the free iCloud service to remarkable levels of membership, with CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealing during the March quarter analyst conference call that iCloud had reached 125 million users. The service appears to have added 25M users in the two months since CEO Tim Cook mentioned a 100M member figure during an analyst talk in February, and 40M members since the year began.
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04/20, 5:50pm
Apple's Prineville, Oregon plant gets tax break
Apple has reached an agreement with the town of Prineville and Crook County in return for the placement of its Oregon datacenter. The deal will give Apple a 15-year property tax exemption. In return, it will have to invest $250 million in its 160 acres of land and promise at least 35 jobs at 150 percent higher than the county average.
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04/20, 11:55am
Samsung S-Cloud may join Galaxy S III at event
Samsung's once thought frozen parallel to iCloud, informally known as S-Cloud, could still be on tap for the Galaxy S III launch. A claim emerging late Friday from Korea's Maeil Business claimed that it would have at least 5GB of space, but would supposedly be more universal. It purportedly would serve as a general storage space where Apple prefers it for syncing either specific OS-level or developer-specified content.
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04/18, 10:25pm
Free upgrade still only available for Intel Macs
Users of Intel Macs that have not, for one reason or another, yet upgraded to either Snow Leopard or Lion may be rewarded for their lethargy: an e-mail sent out to qualifying MobileMe customers offers them a free copy of Snow Leopard so that they can then upgrade to Lion and maintain their MobileMe account and address through iCloud. Respondent simply click on a special link to log into their MobileMe accounts and are directed to a registration form.
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04/18, 8:40pm
Other iCloud services unaffected
[Updated: Full service resumed at 10:30 p.m. PT] Some iCloud users have been affected by mail and notes outages, according to reader reports and status updates from Apple. The problem is said to affect less than one percent of iCloud users, but causes those users to be unable to retrieve e-mail. The problem began around 7 a.m. (Pacific Time) and was partially resolved late in the afternoon, but delays of incoming mail was ongoing until around 10:30 p.m. PT.
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04/18, 5:40pm
Apple may backup repair units' data on site
A new rumor Wednesday had Apple finding a unique way to safeguard the data of iOS device users visiting the Genius Bar for a replacement. Apple's retail store labs were purported by 9to5 to be testing Wi-Fi nodes that would clone an iCloud backup on to a local server. Once the replacement was done, a Genius technician would simply pull the local iCloud backup, getting it much faster than they would if they had to go to the Internet first.
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04/13, 7:45am
Germany says Motorola ban valid for now
A Mannheim court on Friday reinforced an earlier decision to allow Motorola's ban on iCloud and MobileMe in Germany. The ruling on push services demands that Apple pays Motorola an unspecified amount of damages. Devices themselves are so far unaffected.
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04/11, 4:40pm
ASUS to detail cloud service at Computex?
ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih recently spoke at Business Next in Taiwan about the future of computers and technology. The talk, embedded as a video below thanks to NetbookNews, included talk of the social, location, and mobile experience in future products, though it especially contained an announcement about a cloud service due from the company. Shih said ASUS will unveil its "total solution for the ubiquitous cloud computing at Computex this year."
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04/10, 10:15pm
iTunes 11 leaks surface with first clues
New rumors mixed with more concrete details has pointed to Apple actively testing iTunes 11. Test build screenshots slipped to 9to5 purportedly have a central iCloud panel that would control all iTunes-related iCloud features, such as iTunes Match or device backups. The build would also have iOS 6 compatibility, although it might not be necessary and could be preceded by a 10.x update instead.
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04/06, 8:00pm
Host of syncing options enabled through iCloud
Twitter client Tweetbot has been updated to version 2.2, bringing a host of new syncing abilities to the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch client through the use of iCloud integration (which requires an iCloud account). It also adds some improvements and bug fixes, but the main new features include the syncing of Mute filters, DM read status and Timeline positions when iCloud sync is selected. The program allows for multiple timelines, smart gestures and more.
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03/28, 4:55pm
Box OneCloud lets users save files into the cloud
Cloud document storage company Box will soon streamline the way iOS users can edit documents through existing apps such as QuickOffice. Users can now perform quick edits by hitting the Save back to Box button that will overwrite the file on the cloud server. Earlier, users had to re-import the new file and save it as a separate file on the cloud server.
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03/22, 11:00pm
Was affecting files larger than 15MB
Apple confirmed an issue with iTunes in the Cloud earlier this evening that was preventing some users from streaming or downloading content from their iCloud account for a short period, AppleInsider reports. The issue appears to have begun around 6:30 p.m. Eastern time but was apparently resolved around two and a half hours later, judging from reports in an Apple Support community thread.
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03/22, 6:30pm
Not suitable for HIPAA-level needs, however
An investigation by Ars Technica into the levels of security used by Apple to protect data uploaded to iCloud has found that data should be "at least as safe as data stored on any remote server, if not more so" and that almost none of the data is shared with third parties apart from that required for a credit card transaction, which may compare iCloud favorably to similar cloud storage run by services such as Google or Amazon.
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03/16, 10:35pm
New iCloud service may sync open tabs as well
Testers poring over the second developer preview of Mountain Lion which came out earlier today have already made a handful of discoveries. Among the small but significant changes are automatic Twitter notification options, a new iCloud button in Safari that will let users sync tabs across devices, and more explicit permission in OS X when an app wants to access personal information stores such as the Address Book.
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03/16, 3:55pm
Apple fails in appeal of German push patent suit
Apple's appeal to the ban of push notifications in Germany after a legal spat with Motorola fell on deaf ears this past Wednesday. The ban will continue for a time of at least one year, keeping Apple legally prohibited from using its push notification feature for its iCloud and outgoing MobileMe services. The Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court made the ruling, supporting Motorola's claim to the patent related to push e-mail notifications.
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03/16, 2:00pm
Could be promised second facility
Renewed construction has begun at Apple's datacenter in Maiden, North Carolina, according to local reports. While the main facility has been running for many months, primarily handling iCloud traffic, the Hickory Daily Record notes that part of the site's berm has been demolished for extra construction. A company contracted by Apple, Holder Construction, has also obtained an erosion control permit for over 34 acres at the datacenter, related to "grading for [a] new building."
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03/12, 12:20pm
Fox, Universal, WB tapped for initial deals
HBO is relaxing terms on streaming content to services like iCloud, according to a company spokesman. To attract viewers, the cable network regularly buys exclusive rights to movies; these windows usually start six months after a title's disc release, and persist for roughly a year. HBO's terms frequently prevent movies from being sold online or through video-on-demand services during a window.
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03/09, 4:50pm
Users can retrieve docs until end of July
Now that iCloud offers modern Mac and iOS users a way to store and edit iWork documents across iOS and Mac devices, Apple has sent e-mails to users of iWork.com informing them that the service will be closing down as of July 31st. The letter contains links to detailed instructions on how to retrieve copies of users' documents that are stored on iWork.com before the shutdown. The service began as a free beta in January 2009.
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03/08, 11:15pm
Previous Apple TV hardware still limited to 720p
Users trying out the new Apple TV software update v5.0 have uncovered a significant change in the way the unit (both the previous 2011 version and the new 2012 edition) handle "iTunes digital copies" that are often found on purchased Blu Ray and SD DVDs of movies. Once the digital copy is transferred to iTunes, other devices can just stream the movie from iCloud -- effectively an "iTunes Match" for movies at no additional charge.
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03/03, 12:40am
Apple doubles down on iCloud with new staff
Apple on Friday posted multiple fresh positions that have hinted at another big push for iCloud. The positions touch on backend infrastructure, Game Center, Java, Windows, and more. All of them would work on the "next generation of cloud support" both for iOS users and for OS X.
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02/28, 10:55am
Tech could allow new service, improve iTunes Match
Apple is at work on a new file format that should enable "adaptive steaming" of high- or low-quality audio to iCloud users, The Guardian claims. The format will allegedly adjust itself to the bandwidth and storage on a given device, and it's speculated that it could allow downloading "HD" audio to iOS devices, or else form the backbone of a long-rumored streaming music service. More firm, though, is thought to be integration with iTunes Match, the combination upload and streaming service launched late last year.
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02/27, 6:00pm
Shows off automatic download, Photo Stream, more
Apple has debuted a new TV spot that shows off some of the abilities of its free iCloud service, highlighting the synch and automatic download features that keep calendars, contacts, music and app purchases in sync across multiple devices, along with the similar ability of Photo Stream to put photos taken on one device to show up almost instantly on other devices as specified by the user.
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02/24, 5:35am
Apple forced to drop push e-mail service
Apple has failed in its legal bid to stop Motorola from forcing an injunction against its implementation of push email in Germany. Consequently, Apple has pulled the function from its iCloud and MobileMe services. The Cupertino-based company has posted a support statement on the matter, which now leaves German iOS users having to force e-mail updates by opening their mail application or setting their e-mail client to check periodically for new e-mail.
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02/21, 8:05am
Samsung attempt at iCloud parallel already dropped
New claims late Monday have implied that Samsung's internal attempt at a cloud service, S-Cloud, may have been cut short. Although it didn't directly cite a source, ET News had understood that Samsung thought the cloud backbone was "inappropriate" for a worldwide service. Instead, Samsung would use off-the-shelf systems from others, such as Amazon, various app and virtualization developers, and Korean telecom firm KT.
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02/20, 2:35pm
Microsoft confirms SkyDrive app plans
Microsoft partly confirmed recent rumors with an extensive breakdown of plans for SkyDrive in Windows 8. The service will have a fully Metro-native, touch-aware app in the new OS and will be integrated into the OS, letting any app load and save files to cloud storage. Sharing "charms" in the OS will let users share SkyDrive material directly instead of having to download and attach them first.
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02/16, 9:35am
Mac OS X Mountain Lion adds iMessage, Reminders
In a surprise step, Apple on Thursday gave developers a preview version of OS X Mountain Lion, the next significant update to the core OS. The new version is directly influenced by iOS 5 and includes Notification Center, Reminders, Notes, Game Center, and Twitter integration, with iCloud syncing where it's relevant. AirPlay Mirroring is also new to the Mac and shares exactly what's on screen through an Apple TV.
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02/15, 11:40pm
Sony now controls phone strategy entirel
Sony at early Thursday Japanese time formally completed its buyout of Ericsson's stake in Sony Ericsson. The move now leaves Sony Mobile Communications as a completely Sony-owned company. Bert Nordberg would still be CEO of the mobile group, which it revealed had about 100 million euros ($130.3 million) in stated working capital.
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02/15, 3:00am
Both poised to drive company into the future
During his rare private appearance at an investors and analysts technology conference hosted by Goldman Sachs, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked on a number of topics, but raised some eyebrows when he mentioned that Apple's iCloud service, which was just launched in October, was now at 100 million users. The last time Cook had mentioned iCloud numbers -- during the quarterly analyst conference call on January 24th -- he said it had just over 85 million users.
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02/03, 1:35pm
Info stems from meeting with Apple execs
Apple is likely uninterested in building a MacBook Air with an ARM-based processor, says Citigroup's Richard Gardner. The analyst met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer at the company's Cupertino campus on Thursday, when among other things Cook repeated a view that iOS expansion will eventually result in tablets outselling conventional PCs. "We have wondered whether Apple might offer an ARM-based version of the MacBook Air at some point; we walked away from this meeting with the impression that Apple feels iPad satisfies -- or will soon satisfy -- the needs of those who might have been interested in such a product," writes Gardner in a new memo.
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02/03, 6:20am
Motorola strikes a blow for Android against Apple
Motorola has scored two significant victories against Apple in Germany, the result of two separate legal actions it has initiated in a Mannheim court, according to FOSS Patents. The first of the two cases dates back to a decision handed down in December where Motorola won an injunction against Apple on its implementation of 3G/UMTS technology and has resulted in Apple pulling its iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 as well as all of its iPads from its online store in Germany. The second has resulted in an injunction against Apple’s implementation of push e-mail in iCloud and MobileMe.
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01/25, 3:35pm
Motorola lawsuit swings to newer Apple releases
Motorola has escalated its countering campaign against Apple with a new lawsuit in Florida. Filed Tuesday but only made public today, the complaint focuses on more recent releases and alleges that both the iPhone 4S and iCloud violate six of its patents. These include basics such as having a hidden external antenna, communicating filtered data, managing use, and a "pager status" sync patent also used in Motorola's German actions.
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01/24, 9:30pm
More users than entire active Mac base combined
One revelation from Apple CEO Tim Cook that has largely escaped investor and analyst notice in today's conference call was the remarkable success of iCloud, which now has 85 million users in just a bit over three months. To put the number in perspective, it is a significantly higher figure than the total number of estimated Mac users worldwide (which is thought to be around 60-65 million currently). The service hit 20 million users in its first week.
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01/08, 5:15pm
Services mimic iCloud
Acer has detailed a range of cloud services that offer features similar to that of Apple's iCloud. The PicStream utility enables users to take photos on their Android smartphone and then view the content on a PC without manually transferring files. Conversely, a movie purchased from the company's all-in-one PCs can be viewed on a tablet or smartphone as long as the computer is in standby mode.
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01/02, 4:20pm
Apple may have ad or publishing event this month
Apple is gearing up for a non-hardware special event at the end of January, insiders divulged Monday. The gathering, in New York City rather the Bay Area, had few details from AllThingsD but would be headed up by Internet Software and Services head Eddy Cue. The only proclaimed certainty from the multiple contacts was that it wouldn't involve the iPad 3.
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12/27, 10:20pm
Lenovo dips into Internet TV and cloud early
Lenovo gave a preview of its Las Vegas plans with word of an Internet-aware TV and its own cloud service. To be called the LeTV in its Chinese version, it would ship sometime in the first quarter of 2012. Most details aren't public, although more of these should be coming in January.
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12/27, 5:20pm
Current topics from the forums
Today in the MacNN forums Grizzled Veteran sdilley14 started a thread looking for possible scratch removal products for the iPhone 4. Today Mac Enthusiast mkral was looking for a way to move notes from iPhone to iCloud, a solution has yet to be found.
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12/26, 1:50pm
Includes complete setup guide
Apple's iTunes Match, an add-on service that makes most users' entire iTunes music library available to their other devices for an annual $25 fee, now has its own dedicated website that includes a walk-through video, setup guide, product description and Frequently Asked Questions column. The site may be part of an effort to combat user confusion over what exactly the service offers and to more formally separate it from the company's free iCloud service.
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12/21, 4:50pm
New job position hints at iCloud plans
Apple is planning to a create still more iOS applications connected to iCloud, a new job listing reveals. The company is currently hunting for an iCloud application developer, who will be asked to "develop new and existing iPhone and iPad applications for iCloud services," according to the listing. Successful candidates will also have to "work closely with visual designers to define and implement [the] User Interface," and cooperate with "teams across the company."
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12/16, 9:30am
Resolved by morning
A number of people trying to log into iTunes and/or iCloud accounts overnight were met with error messages, reports note. "The Apple ID you entered couldn't be found or your password was incorrect. Please try again," one message read. Attempting to change the password simply generated a "fatal internal error" at Apple's support site.
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12/10, 2:40am
Samsung ad appears to get Apple cloud facts wrong
The latest in a series of Samsung Galaxy S II ads jabbing Apple also appears to have also gotten key facts wrong. A handful of iPhone fans lined up are asked by a T-Mobile Galaxy S II owner why they're still in line and say that 36 hours is a small price to pay to "keep all my music." He promptly shoots back that he has all his playlists, his music streams from the cloud, and has "tons of places" to buy his movies.
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12/08, 12:20am
Streamed from iCloud, replaces rentals
A silent upgrade has allowed Apple TV units in Canada to allow TV show purchases, using iCloud streaming to store the purchased episode and stream them to other Apple devices. While it was possible to purchase TV shows via iTunes in Canada before, the update makes it possible for Apple TVs to purchase directly, 9to5 Mac reports. TV episodes cost up to $2.50 in standard definition and up to $3.50 in HD.
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