A first look at iCloud:
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=16287
.. basically looks like an iPad in the sky! By that I mean the web UI is
better than average, easy for Apple users, but basically a "google docs" for
iWork and mail/calendar.
I was surprised they didn't take a DropBox approach too, but I guess it's
early days yet and certainly what they did is polished, and appropriate for
phone/pad/computer users .. the convergence of which is the point of Lion &
the iOS evolution.
The pricing is interesting: free for the first 5GB then pretty simple
incremental pricing.
Neither of the videos showed the iTunes/iTV part, which may be much more
important. If apple really does a good job, as reported (free cloud storage
for all your iStore purchases and for-pay for all your ripped music (they
don't upload, just use metadata and a sample of bits!)) .. that could be a
draw for folks with a lot of music on there phones/pads. The TV/Movie
streaming/download service could put them ahead of the game, at least in
terms of google and others (Amazon and Netflix are pretty spotty still, not
sure about Hulu's TV coverage).
ICloud does have an interesting niche: Apple ecology crowd wanting a better
fit with Lion/iOS/iTV/iTunes.
-- Owen
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