iCloud Coming October 12

ByMike Moffit

iCloud stores your music, photos, documents, and more and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. Automatic, effortless, and seamless—it just works.

Well, Apple, that’s what we’re waiting for! And come October 12, the wait’s over.

What is iCloud? Here are some of the highlighted features:

iTunes in the Cloud
Automatically download new music purchases to all your devices over Wi-Fi (or 3G). No syncing necessary. Download anything you’ve already purchased in the iTunes Store to all your devices.

Photo Stream
iCloud pushes any photo from your iOS device or computer to the other—without syncing. Photos from your computer will automatically show up in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Same for the Aperture or iPhoto Library on your Mac or Pictures Library on your PC. With Photo Stream, you’ll have access to the last ~1,000 photos on your device stored on iCloud (not your computer or iOS device—unless you want it).

Documents in the Cloud
It keeps your documents up-to-date automatically—“so you don’t have to!” You’ll have access to your docs (and most recent updates) wherever you are on whatever device you’re using. By signing into icloud.com/iwork, you’ll be able to view and edit your iWork files—and even download in iWork, Word or PDF format.

Apps, Books and Backup
Your apps will be everywhere you are—no need to download any multiple times on each device or computer you have. Same with books. iCloud will push all apps and books (including any notes, highlighted text, etc.) automatically (sensing a theme here?). iCloud will back up your data daily over Wi-Fi so you can rest assured that all of your data is safe.

Calendar, Mail, and Contacts
iCal, Mail and Contacts will all also be pushed automatically, plus any bookmarks, notes or reminders that you’ve written to yourself will be included.

Find My Friends and Find My iPhone (or iPad, iPod touch and Mac)
Turn your device into a location device—by sharing data, you can pinpoint where your friends and family are, making events, ski trips and more convenient and worry-free. Same goes for your iOS device should you misplace it or it gets stolen. Piece of mind in the digital age!

More to come on iCloud, but look for it October 12. Visit apple.com/icloud for more details and icloud.com on October 12th.

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