iCloud Detailed

Earlier this morning, Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s revolutionary new iCloud service at the company’s WWDC event. This free set of cloud based services vastly surpasses anything previously available from Apple or its competitors.

Although the details and features of the service may seem complex at first glance, the underlying concept is essentially a perfection of the MobileMe cloud services Apple debuted in 2008. Offering deeper integration with both OS X and iOS, iCould effortlessly works with Apple’s range of mobile and desktop products. Pushing and pulling information and media as its added or updated, iCloud syncs information across a range of devices—keeping them all in sync with one another. While unveiling the new service at this afternoon’s keynote address, Steve Jobs commented:

Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.

iCloud includes a wide offering of services—old and new—that look to officially usher in the era of cloud computing for Mac and PC users of all levels. Formerly features exclusive to Apple’s MobileMe service, Contacts, Calendar and Mail have been completely rewritten for Apple’s new service. Users are allotted 5GB of free storage for this information, and all services are ad-free.

Additionally, iCloud integrates with the App Store and the iBookstore to make managing app and iBook purchases significantly easier. Content will be pushed to all devices in a given user’s collection—not just the device initiating the download. Users can also view a purchase history and download any uninstalled apps to a device for no additional cost.

Among its more revolutionary features, iCloud supports wireless backups of iOS devices while they charge. Apple has essentially “cut the cable” on its mobile devices eliminating the need for manual iTunes syncing. Now, information such as purchased content, photos and videos, settings and app data will be wirelessly stored in the cloud. iCloud users can also upload documents created in Pages, Numbers and Keynote as well as other apps utilizing Apple’s iCloud Storage APIs. This data collectively contributes towards a user’s 5GB total.

Photo Stream automatically uploads photos taken on one device to other iOS devices and computers. Further reducing the need to manually sync content from a device to a computer, iCloud’s Photo Stream transfers photos over the air. The last 1,000 photos taken are stored on a device for immediate viewing or transfer to a Mac or PC for permanent storage. Additional photos will be stored in iCloud for 30 days, affording users plenty of time to download them via Wi-Fi.

iTunes in the iCloud rounds out the new service’s features. iCloud users can download previously purchased iTunes music to any of their devices for free. Additionally, any new content purchased from the iTunes Music Store will be downloaded across all devices. For a $24.99 annual fee, users can take their cloud based music experience further with iTunes Match. This revolutionary service—subject to significant speculation leading up to the keynote—matches songs obtained outside the iTunes Music Store with Apple’s collection of over 18 million available songs. Subscribers will be granted instant access to high quality versions of their music via iCloud. Only if a given song is not available on iTunes will a user be required to upload it in order to listen.

iCloud will debut this fall alongside iOS 5, and requires an iOS 5 compatible device or a Mac running Mac OS X Lion. To learn more about iCloud, click here.