ABC7 Tech Blog

Data Center

New data center is completed in North Carolina.  Jobs says Apple is ready to support this cloud service.

Jobs is summarizing now and wrapping up this two-hour long presentation.  

End of keynote.

ENd of blog.  Join us for a wrap-up later today online and on ABC7 News at 4 and 6.00 today.  

Thanks for joining us.  

One More Thing

Songs you have ripped yourself (not purchased)...

iTunes Match service.  18 million songs in the iTunes music store.  Chances are, they have the songs that people ripped.  Takes just minutes to upload, not weeks).  Scan and match your library (no upload).  Upload the rest.  

$24.99 per year for songs you didn't purchase.  

Library in the cloud - Apple does it in minutes.  Amazon and Google -- takes weeks.  They will also upgrade to 256 kbps AAC.  

 

iTunes in the Cloud

All of your purchased music will be in a directory.  You can then download them to any device at no additional charge.  No charge for multiple downloads on multiple devices.  A first, Jobs says, for the music industry.  

Eddie Cue, VP of internet services, is doing a demo on stage.  

Up to 10 devices can download your purchased music.

App's for iCloud are free.

5GB of free storage (music, photo stream and books don't count)

Developer beta available today.  iTunes in the cloud works on iOS 4.3 beta, so people can start using it today.  

 

More on iCloud

iCloud storage developer tools will be available today.  Works with Macs and PC's, too.  

Photo Stream.  Allows photos from any device to be automatically stored in the cloud and automatically downloaded to all other devices.  Can import photos as well and do the same thing.  Built it into Apple TV as well, bypassing your computer.  

Apple will store the photos for 30 days in the cloud.  There will be different amounts of photo storage based on the device (less than an iPhone but all photos on a MacBook Pro, for example).  

More on iCloud -- it's Free!

iCloud service will do more than sync music collections.  It will also sync calendars and contacts and mail.  No ads.  

iCloud will be free.  Adding 3 more app's to iCloud -- app store, iBooks, wireless backup.  

(Note:  Jobs' voice is stronger than an hour ago when he first went on stage; the raspiness is gone.)  

Steve Jobs on iCloud

About 10 years ago, Jobs says, they recognized that the PC would become the center of your digital life -- photos, music and video.  It worked fine but it has broken down in the past few years.  Why?  Because the devices have changed.  THey all have music & photos & video.  So if a consumer acquires a song, you have to sync it to each of your devices.  

Keeping these devices in sync "is driving us crazy," Jobs says.

Demote the PC and the Mac to be just devices.  We're going to move the digital hub into the cloud.  Won't have to think about it as cloud handles the work.  

iCloud stores your content and wirelessly pushes it all your devices.  Everything happens automatically.  "It just works," says Jobs.  

He's poking himself now, saying we also brought consumers MobileMe, which has not been a success.  We learned a lot, Jobs says.

 

200 New iOS Features

Apple has outlined about 10 of the 200 new iOS 5 features.  Developer version will be available today of iOS 5.  Public will get iOS 5 this fall.  For the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2, and iPod touch.  

iCloud is next, and Steve Jobs is back on stage.  

PC Free

Ushering in the era of the Post-PC world where people don't use computers anymore.  When you set up an iOS device, you won't need to sync it with a computer anymore.  Also all software updates will be done over the air, not via a tethered connection to a computer.  

Game Center.  More than 100,000 entertainment and game app's available in the app store.  In nine months, 50 million Game Center users.  Adding photos so you can see photos of your game opponents.  See photos of friends of friends.  Also adding game recommendations.  

iMessage.  New messaging service between all iOS users.  Supports iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.  Text, photos, video, contacts & group messages.  Adding delivery receipts, read receipts, typing indication, pushed to all devices (so you can pick up a conversation as you switch from one mobile device to another).  

 

Even More iOS News

Other iOS new features:

Reminders app.  Store lists of things.  It will remind you, and it will integrate location services to trigger reminders.  E.g., if you want a reminder when you leave the office, it will be triggered when you leave the office.

Camera.  iPhone 4 is the most popular camera on a phone and soon will be the most popular camera, period.  New feature will let you bypass password to take photos quicker -- and use the volume up/down buttons to zoom in and out.  Auto exposure and auto focus lock.  You can edit phones right on your iPhone or iPad.  Red eye reduction, cropping, and one click enhance.  

Mail.  Adding rich text formatting so you can underline, boldface, etc.  draggable addresses.  Flag messages.  Search entire message.  Added support for S/MIME for enterprise customers.  

More iOS News

More new iOS 5 features:

Newstand.  Single place in the app store to find news publications (magazines & newspapers).  Background downloads.  if a new issue comes out, it will be downloaded automatically.  

Twitter.  1 billion tweets per week.  Integrated Twitter with camera and other app's.  So you can tweet photos quickly and easily, even adding location if you so choose.  Can tweet maps, videos from YouTube, etc.  

Safari.  64% of mobile browser usage is done on Safari, versus 27% for Android.  Safari Reader will allow you to take one story in a newspaper, for example, and make it a full screen and scrollable.  Reader will also allow you to email complete articles, not just the links to them.