At last week’s WWDC conference in San Francisco Apple made important announcements, including the launch of iCloud, features of the new iOS5 for mobile devices and the new Lion operating system for Mac computers.

iCloud is a set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all these personal devices. When anything changes on one of these devices, all of your devices are wirelessly updated almost instantly.

The free iCloud services include the former MobileMe services like contacts, calendar and mail, which have been re-engineered. The App Store and iBookstore now download purchased iOS apps and books to all the personal devices, not just the device they were purchased on.

iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch are charged. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, camera roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data.

When a document is changed on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all other personal devices.

iCloud’s innovative Photo Stream service automatically uploads the photos you take or import on any of your devices and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices and computers.

iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices. In addition, music not purchased from iTunes can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match.

iCloud will be available this autumn concurrent with iOS 5.

At the same event Apple previewed iOS 5, the latest version of the mobile operating system, and released a beta version to iOS Developer Program members. The iOS 5 beta release includes over 200 new features that will be available to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users this autumn.

New iOS 5 features include: Notification Centre, an innovative way to easily view and manage notifications in one place without interruption; iMessage, a new messaging service that lets you easily send text messages, photos and videos between all iOS devices; and Newsstand, a new way to purchase and organise your newspaper and magazine subscriptions. With the new PC Free feature, iOS 5 users can activate and set up their iOS device right out of the box and get software updates over the air with no computer required.

With iOS 5 and iCloud, users just enter their Apple ID and password and iCloud will seamlessly integrate with your apps to automatically and wirelessly keep all of your mail, contacts, calendars, photos, apps, books, music and more, up-to-date across all your devices without ever having to connect to a computer.

Safari web browser also gets new features, such as tabbed browsing.

iOS 5 includes built-in Twitter integration, so users can sign in once and then tweet directly from all their Twitter-enabled apps.

iOS 5 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth generation) and iPod touch (third generation) this autumn. Some features may not be available on all products.

Another major announcement was the Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the operating system for Mac computers with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs. It will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac App Store for $29.99.

Some of the new features in Lion include new multi-touch gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on the Mac; the Mac App Store, to find and explore software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all the apps; a completely redesigned mail app; Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and re-launch an app; and Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work.

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorised personal Macs.

The iCentre of Pieta’ is Apple’s authorised service provider in Malta.

www.icentre.com.mt

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