A new front has opened in the smartphone war, and for the first time in many years, Apple is both outnumbered and outgunned.
I’m not talking about the phones themselves. iOS is still better than Android, although the gap has narrowed. The next iPhone will doubtless be the best phone in the world when it’s released, as ever. It won’t be as customizable – no Swype, no Facebook Home – but those… → Read More
It’s hard to gauge how popular Apple’s iCloud really is, but the idea behind it is solid: give developers a place to save their users’ data, give users control over this data and allow developers to focus on their apps and not storage. NimbusBase, which is launching at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 today, had built exactly that, with the ingenious twist that the data is stored in… → Read More
Apple announced today that it now has 300 million users for iCloud, up 20 percent from the 250 million that it announced in January.
iCloud, which allows users to sync their content and data across devices, was launched 18 months ago to replace the MobileMe service. Company executives said today that they will “continue to invest in the ecosystem” with new features and capabilities coming… → Read More
Apple announced today that there are now 250 million users on its iCloud service. That’s a big increase from the 190 million users that it reported back in October, which itself was up from 150 million in July.
The numbers were revealed during this afternoon’s conference call discussing Apple’s earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year. → Read More
Apple is still pretty new to the cloud computing and storage game – and sometimes it shows. The company’s various iCloud services have been suffering from numerous outages lately, but thanks to the company’s new System Status Page, which it quietly rolled out today, its users will at least be able to get a comprehensive view of how Apple’s online services are doing. → Read More
Apple just released long-awaited iTunes 11. After downloading, users should expect a totally redesigned version. In October, the company said that there would be a one-month delay. Little has changed over the years, but today’s new version represents a major milestone and a much needed simplification in some ways. → Read More
During its Q4 2012 earnings call today, Apple announced that iCloud, its cloud storage and backup service for documents, contacts, photos, music and other data, now has 190 million users. That’s up significantly from the 150 million users the company cited during its last earnings call in July and the 125 million it announced in April. → Read More
If you’d been following Mat Honan’s harrowing story this weekend, you’ve learned that the Wired writer was completely hacked by a pair of 19-year-olds who targeted him because he had a cool Twitter handle. Honan has updated his tale and posted it on Wired where he goes through the seemingly innocent processes used to eventually wipe out his laptop hard drive, erase his digital identity, and… → Read More
During Apple’s Q3 earnings call today, the company’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced that Apple now has 150 Million iCloud users. That’s up from 125 million users the company cited in its last quarterly earnings call in April.
As Apple announced at its annual developer conference earlier this year, iCloud will be tightly integrated into Mountain Lion, the next version of OS X that’s scheduled… → Read More
With Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference just weeks away, expect plenty of reports of new features to come crawling out of the woodwork. In fact, here’s one from the Wall Street Journal — they claim that Apple has been doing some major tinkering with their iCloud storage service, the fruits of which will be unveiled on June 11.
First up is the ability for users to share and comment on each… → Read More
Well, that was fast. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer just announced on Apple’s Q2 2012 earnings call that the company’s iCloud service has attracted 125 million users in the roughly six months since the service launched.
It seems like just yesterday that Oppenheimer revealed that the service had 85 million users, and the service’s subscriber base continues to grow at a seemingly steady pace. → Read More
Yandex may be in line to become the default search engine on devices that Apple sells in Russia. But for now it’s engaging in a little competition with Cupertino, and others. Today the Russian search giant is launching its own answer to iCloud: a free web-based storage product it’s calling Yandex.Disk.
Users of Yandex.Disk get up to 10 gigabytes of space that they can use for personal… → Read More
At this morning’s Apple’s event in San Francisco, the company announced an update to its iCloud service, which will now support – at last – movies! The movies you purchase on iTunes will be stored in the cloud and made available for re-download to any of your iOS devices – the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. → Read More
iCloud just works. That’s the message of Apple’s latest commercial titled iCloud Harmony. The service took off like a rocket when it first launched late last year. Partly fueled by the massive success of the iPhone 4S, Apple claims to have more than 85 million users on the service. But as awesome as iCloud is now, it’s set to get even better and this commercial is likely just the first of a larger… → Read More
With today’s reveal of the next version of OS X - OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion – Apple is more deeply integrating its iCloud service into the operating system itself. No longer will storing your documents in the cloud feel like an extra, value-added feature – it will feel like part of the OS itself. The cloud is just another drive, Apple seems to say, and saving to the cloud should look and feel… → Read More
Apple has built a search engine for apps. It’s called iCloud – or more technically, it’s one aspect of the overall iCloud service. Using it, you can search through every app you have installed on your iOS device or have ever purchased in the past. And it’s available on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch right now.
The average smartphone user has 64 mobile apps installed on their mobile device. I’m… → Read More
The smarts in Siri turn out to be about context, all the more powerful as the service flows through apps. Regular updates will give developers impetus to wire in their app to the notification bus. Shouldn’t a New York times alert also search the major news sites for live video as it happens? I’d pay more for a notification-aware app, and even more for an uber notification routing service that I… → Read More
Cloud Engines, Inc., makers of the Pogoplug line of devices and accompanying software, are launching a new hardware product today called Pogoplug Mobile. The device works like the company’s current Pogoplug product – you attach your hard drive or drives, plug it into your router and instantly have your own personal cloud. In short, it’s like a NAS (network-attached storage) box for your… → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — explored the legacy and impact of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. @dsearls called him the Beethoven of Business, and we spent the hour and 15 minutes matching that to what I called Jobs’ ability to listen to the future. In recent years, Jobs has turned his focus on perfecting the microcomputing experience… → Read More
As we approach the fall, all the rumors of the Apple empire descend upon us. And this year may be the craziest yet because for the first time since the iPhone’s inception, Apple did not release new hardware in the summer. And there are still whispers of an iPad revamp as well. iOS 5 is coming. iCloud is coming. And then there are the iPods which are traditionally updated in the fall timeframe… → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Robert Scoble, Danny Sullivan, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — talked patents and PR, Spotify, and everything except Google+ for the first time in months. It’s not that G+ has jumped the shark; in fact, it is the shark on which realtime video streaming will emerge when YouTube finally goes live. It’s a race with iCloud to get there, with AirPlay-enabled Spotify stoking the… → Read More
Perhaps you recall that back in June, there was some confusion as to whether or not there would be web apps for Apple’s upcoming iCloud suite of products. While we maintained from the beginning that we had heard that there would be, some were certain there wouldn’t be — something which we again refuted. Anyway, this eventually led Apple to clarify that yes, there would be web apps for iCloud. → Read More
This week’s episode of OMG/JK is a long one — the longest yet, in fact, at 30 minutes. Jason and I apologize for going on and on but we had a lot to talk about. It’s been roughly three weeks since we last recorded an episode and a ton of stuff has happened.
And while we don’t even come close to getting through all of it, we do go pretty in-depth on some of the major things: iPhone vs. Android… → Read More
Apple has just published a MobileMe to iCloud transition FAQ. Of note, there has been a lot of confusion as to whether or not iCloud apps would be accessible on the web. We had previously heard that yes, they would for sure be available via web apps on icloud.com (similar to the ones currently found on me.com) set to launch at an undisclosed date in the future. But plenty still refused to… → Read More
If you’ve been staying up all day and all night in hopes of picking up a brand new 3TB Apple TIme Capsule before the world ends next October, you’re in luck. According to FCC filings, we can expect to see the following new SKUs hit the Apple store sooner than later:
MD031LL/A – AIRPORT EXTREME 802.11N (5TH GEN)- USA
MD032LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 2TB (4TH GENERATION) – USA
MD033LL/A – TIME… → Read More
Over the weekend, The New York Times ran a piece entitled Lessons in Longevity, From IBM. In it, author Steve Lohr looks back at the past 100 years of IBM and points out the keys to their longevity: shifting and adapting to new markets and times. He then lays how three tech powers today — Microsoft, Google, and Apple — may make similar moves to weather the inevitable storms.
At a high level… → Read More
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about consumer cloud services. There’s Apple’s recently-announced iCloud, Amazon’s Cloud Drive, Google’s Music Beta (which is your music in the cloud) and, of course, Microsoft’s SkyDrive. All of these to one extent or another are moving away from simple online lockers, and we see that today with the release of the latest update to SkyDrive.
The navigation is less… → Read More
Earlier today, I was reading Joshua Topolsky’s editorial on This is my next about Apple’s “mistake” in turning their back on the Web and I kept stopping. I disagreed with basically everything.
First of all, his entire argument is based on what I believe to be a fallacy: that Apple is going to completely turn their back on Web support for iCloud. I have reasons to believe this is not the case, as… → Read More
Usually Apple launches are all about new product, and the WWDC keynote by Steve Jobs and crew was no exception. IOS 5, OS/X Lion, and iCloud were the tech version of a triple play, mainlining the iPad into the Mac and virtualizing the two product lines via the Cloud. What this means for Apple’s competitors is being debated right now, particularly in Redmond and the GooglePlex. But The Company… → Read More
On Monday, Steve Jobs introduced iCloud to the Apple developers at WWDC, and we’ve been absorbing what it means ever since. John Biggs and I devote this entire episode of Fly or Die to iCloud, explaining what it is, why it’s important, and where it falls short. Watch the video above.
At it’s heart, iCloud demotes your computer as your digital hub and moves that hub online. This is not just for… → Read More
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