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Tag: icloud

  • Amazing iOS Features that will Benefit your Business

    Amazing iOS Features that will Benefit your Business

    Apple has announced several revolutionary measures stretching across enterprise IT, developer and consumer spheres.

    Among the features is an interesting one known as continuity. This feature allows you to start a given activity on one device and complete it on another. This means you can start working on a document on your iPad and finish it on a Windows PC. Any changes made from one of your devices are replicated on all the others.

    Other interesting features are he HomeKit and HealthKit platforms which depend on a range of technologies to incorporate personal data and functionality, that is, your health and your home. Although both do not have an instant enterprise impact, both make iOS devices, such as an iPhone, more personal than they have been in the past.

    The incorporation of the HomeKit and the HealthKit, though largely accepted, have their own fair share of concerns. For instance, users are more concerned on what information IT professionals or employees can access or see on a managed device. In view of this concern, Apple has designed features that protect user privacy as they have done with iOS 7. In addition, with iOS 8, the policy has to change from full wiping to wiping only the corporate data. This will prevent wiping off of the user’s personal data.

    The introduction of Mail Drop and iCloud Drive is big news to OS X, the iCloud interface, and iOS. The Mail Drop is a welcome addition to iCloud as it has the ability to load huge attachments automatically into your iCloud account.

    Other features that you stand to enjoy with the new iOS 8 include AirDrop, Auto-Hotspot, iOS app extensions, and Markup, among others.

    Apple currently dominated the enterprise mobility space and it seems it will remain so for a long time to come.

  • Apple introduces iCloud Drive

    Apple introduces iCloud Drive

    icloud-drive

    At the WWDC 2014 Apple has introduced iCloud Drive that will be available this fall with the newly announced iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

    What does iCloud Drive bring to the table?

    There are a lot of features and benefits that comes with the drive, but one that is really dominant is the freedom. With iCloud Drive you can access, edit, and safely store your data across all your devices. You can also edit one of your documents and the changes reflect on all other devices, including iOS devices, Mac and Windows.

    iCloud Drive brings with it a next generation level of cooperation and collaboration between apps, enhancing the ability to work, edit, and access the same file across multiple apps and devices.

    How to Store

    The storage process of any file/document is as easy as promised. To upload, you just have to drag your item/s to your drive on your Mac, PC or any iOS powered device. You can also start a new document on any of the iCloud-enabled apps and they will be stored on your drive.

    With iCloud Drive, you can also open/start working on a document on one app and finish it on another. For instance, if you are creating a picture, you can start it on a sketching app and move it for painting on a paint app and so on.

  • Is Apple Manufacturing an HDTV?

    Even though it’s yet an unconfirmed rumor, it’s difficult not to get excited. According to a series of Tweets from industry insiders and an upcoming report by Jeffries, Apple is currently in production on their own HDTV, to come to market in 2013.

    The Jeffries report has not yet been released, so regrettably none of the details can be confirmed. But according to an industry analyst with access to the report, Apple will partner with Verizon and AT&T to handle the service for the Apple HDTV, or iTV as it will be called.

    Customers who don’t want to change out their current cable provider will still be able to get on the Apple bandwagon. The iTV will also sell as a set-top box for Comcast and the other regional providers. Initial reports put the first iTV at a retail price of $1,250, and Apple expects to ship as many as two million units by the end of 2013.

    Of course, this isn’t the first report on an Apple HDTV to come from Jeffries. Near the beginning of the year they suggested a forthcoming product called the iPanel, at around that same price break, and that five million of the devices would be produced by the end of 2012.

    Those rumors seem to be picking up more support as the months pass. The Wall Street Journal has started discussing Apple’s HDTV release, even suggesting it would link directly to the iCloud, to allow for both live and on-demand television services.

    Time will tell if any of these rumors are true. Hopefully Apple will shed some further light on their HDTV at this fall’s new product release conference.

  • LawCaseXchange Offers a "DropBox for Lawyers"

    Cloud storage has become a viable option for all businesses, but some industries need services more closely tailored to their needs. Thanks to a startup that just launched on Friday, lawyers should soon have what they’re looking for.

    The company is called LawCaseXchange, and the goal of Founder Shayn McFarland is to create a service that can share case documents quickly and securely online. McFarland has spent the last decade working as a paralegal, observing the inefficient way that case files were emailed or sent by physical couriers.

    Many cloud storage services have cropped up over the past few years, but none of the big titles, such as Dropbox, iCloud or Google Drive, focused enough on organization and collaboration to fit the needs of legal professionals.

    LawCaseXchange addresses those issues directly. Case files can be organized inside of specific case folders, with the proper parties invited to check out a new document as soon as it is uploaded. All files are available for the life of the case, and if new counsel comes on board, they have the complete history at their disposal.

    The startup utilizes Amazon’s S3 cloud, and it’s 256-bit encryption technology. McFarland said that they needed that massive might in case the company’s stored data is ever subpoenaed. It’s a similar level of support that the big companies enjoy, and is currently being put through the paces by a large legal firm based in San Diego.

    According to some attorneys that commented on the new product release, LawCaseXchange should be a fantastic resource for smaller firms that can’t afford to build out an internal management system for the massive amount of documents that pour through their office.

    Companies looking to pick up the service can get started for only $10 a month, which buys 5GB of dedicated storage and 30GB of downloads. At the highest level, $60 a month will buy 200GB of storage and 200GB of downloads.

  • iPhone 5 Arrives Today!

    Today is the day when the long-awaited launch of iPhone 5 will take place, during the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event held in Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, at 10:00am PDT.

    The new smartphone is expected to be presented by the new Apple's CEO Tim Cook, but it’s possible that Apple’s founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, will make his appearance at this much-coveted event.

    Apple hopes to produce five, maybe six million units in October, and by the end of the year to reach the impressive number of 22 million.

    According to sources inside the company, cited these days by international media, the new iPhone 5 would feature a 4-inch retina display, with a resolution of 960×640 pixels, 1 GB RAM and a new A5 Dual Core processor of 1.4 GHz, 60% faster than the one used on iPhone 4. Apple’s new product is expected to have an 8-megapixel camera, capable of HD recording in 1080p.

    The new smartphone would also include the iCloud technology, which allows user to store music, movies and other files, that can be accessed remotely. In addition, the new iPhone 5 would have the possibility of being charged wirelessly.

    The same sources said that iPhone 5 will be available in only two versions, black and white, of 16 and 32 GB respectively. The pricing would start from $639, according to a screen capture that represents a mock-up post which “came to surface” on the telecom operator’s website, Cincinnati Bell.

    Interestingly, Apple representatives might launch today a cheaper version too, called iPhone 4S, which will cost only $99. This one will have a 3.5-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera and A5 Dual Core processor, according to the rumors.

    What the market expects and what Apple has to win

    Brian White, analyst at the financial intermediation company Ticonderoga, believes the demand will be so big that Apple might establish a new sales record by launching iPhone 5, after its predecessor has sold in 1.7 million units in the first three days of presence in stores. The analyst also said that he expects the new model to have a casing similar with MacBook and that Apple will need to upgrade the speed of its processor in order to face the competition with Samsung Galaxy S II.

    Apple has become in the second quarter of this year the producer with the biggest sales of smartphones worldwide. Thus, the company sold 20.34 million units in the second quarter, surpassing Nokia, which was leader in smartphones sales in the first quarter with over 24 million units.

    Even though Apple became leader, the most significant increase in units sold was recorded by Samsung, by selling 19.5 million smartphones in the second quarter. Apple has sold only with about 2 million units extra in the second quarter, while taking the leadership was also caused by the huge loss of Nokia.

    We think that after today’s launch and by enlarging the supply chain, Apple will definitely maintain its leading position. We also expect the launch of the new generation of iPhones to stimulate the sales of the previous Apple’s models by putting them on sale.

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  • Apple Presented the iCloud Service

    Steve Jobs returned from his medical leave to present in San Francisco more novelties, including the iCloud service through which users’ files can be stored on Apple’s servers, they being able to easily access them from anywhere, using iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or other Apple products.

    Companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft have massively promoted the cloud computing, and Apple hopes to catch them up, helped by their efficient marketing.

    “The iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices," said Steve Jobs, who held a presentation in his style. He admitted that it’s annoying to have to synchronize with your PC order to transfer various files on them and added that iCloud is the solution because if the user buys a song from iTunes for example, it will be loaded automatically "in the cloud" and a user can easily access it via internet using any Apple device, without needing to synchronize these devices separately.

    Jobs says that iCloud was necessary because the PC is no longer the center of the "digital life", the PC drops in rank, being a simple device. He added that iCloud “is not only a hard disk in the sky", but is wanted to be "the latest great idea of us".

    iCloud is free except for an option that an iTunes version, called Match, scans and then sends into the cloud songs that users owned on their Apple devices without being bought from iTunes. Users will be able to listen to those songs anywhere, on any Apple terminal, but will have to pay an annual subscription fee of $ 25 for the privilege of listening to these songs.

    The free iCloud services include:

    • The former MobileMe services—Contacts, Calendar and Mail—all completely re-architected and rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. Users can share calendars with friends and family, and the ad-free push Mail account is hosted at me.com. The inbox and mailboxes are kept up-to-date across all user’s iOS devices and computers.
    • The App Store and iBookstore now download purchased iOS apps and books to all your devices, not just the device they were purchased on. In addition, the App Store and iBookstore now let you see your purchase history, and simply tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10 devices) at no additional cost.
    • iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up your iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when you charge your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data. If you replace your iOS device, just enter your Apple ID and password during setup and iCloud restores your new device.
    • iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all your devices. When you change a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all your devices. Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps already take advantage of iCloud Storage. Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup—the storage for music, apps and books purchased from Apple, and the storage required by Photo Stream doesn’t count towards this 5GB total. Users will be able to buy more storage, with details announced when iCloud ships this fall.
    • iCloud’s 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. Photo Stream is built into the photo apps on all iOS devices, iPhoto on Macs, and saved to the Pictures folder on a PC. To save space, the last 1,000 photos are stored on each device so they can be viewed or moved to an album to save forever. Macs and PCs will store all photos from the Photo Stream, since they have more storage. iCloud will store each photo in the cloud for 30 days, which is plenty of time to connect your devices to iCloud and automatically download the latest photos from Photo Stream via Wi-Fi.
    • 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, a service that replaces your music with a 256 kbps AAC DRM-free version if Apple can match it to the over 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, it makes the matched music available in minutes, and uploads only the small percentage of unmatched music. iTunes Match will be available this fall for a $24.99 annual fee.

    According to Apple, they are ready to ramp iCloud in its three data centers, including the third recently completed in Maiden, NC. Apple has invested over $500 million in its Maiden data center to support the expected customer demand for the free iCloud services.

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