Steve Jobs Introduces iCloud

Apple Head In The iClouds

As widely reported, STEVE JOBS took the stage of the WORLDWIDE DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE in SAN FRANCISCO to introduce updated versions of MAC OS X 10.7 (LION), iOS 5 -- and of paramount interest to the record community, the iCLOUD.

iTUNES in the CLOUD lets users download any albums or song purchased on iTUNES, then lets them automatically download the music to up to 10 devices at no additional charge. "This is the first time we've seen this in the music industry, no charge for multiple downloads to different devices," JOBS said. "And for the future, there's a switch where you can tell it to sync all of your songs bought on any device to all of your devices."

What about music that the user has "ripped" from other sources? "There are three ways you can deal with that," JOBS said. "[You can] Sync new devices [over WiFi or via a cable] ... sync 'em once to get the music there, then use iCLOUD to put new purchases on that device ... [the] third way is iTUNES Match ... the chances are good that we have the songs in our store that you've ripped. We wrote software to scan your non-iTUNES music and match it up with the songs we have in the store [upgrade to 256kbps per second], so we can give that music the same benefits as music purchased from iTUNES.

"And it takes just minutes, not weeks .. because we're scanning and matching your library, you don't need to upload it. Scan & match your library (no upload), and upload the rest."

iTUNES Match costs $24.99 per year

The iCLOUD apps are available in beta form for all current APPLE products (that are upgraded) for free -- and will be already installed in all new APPLE products this fall.

JOBS cited the paradigm shift to the CLOUD by noting, "About 10 years ago, we had one of our most important insights. That was: PC was gonna become the digital hub of your digital life ... that's where you're going to put your digital photos, your digital video from your camcorder ... of course, your music   but it's broken down in the last few years ... why? Well, because devices have changed keeping these things in sync is driving us crazy

"So i sync my iPHONE to my MAC, then my other devices to my MAC to get that song, but they've deposited some photos so now I have to sync my iPHONE again to get those photos. We think it's way more than that ... All these new devices have communications built into them and they can talk to the CLOUD whenever they want.

"The iCLOUD stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices ... also, iCLOUD is integrated with your apps, so everything happens automatically."

APPLE executives also showcased an improved MAC OS 10.7 Lion, a major release with over 250 new features, and  the iOS 5, which now offers more than 1500 new APIs for developers, over 200 new user features.

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