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
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org
Locked
