Apple reveals aggressive 'iCloud' plans

At a developer conference in San Francisco this morning NZ time, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs outlined plans for a new 'iCloud' service that will let users store songs and other files online.

Details of iCloud have been sent to software developers today, with a full launch expected later this year - although the iTunes component should be available immediately as part of iOS 4.3 (the latest version of the software that run the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch). Other features, including online photo and file storage, and online backup, added with iOS 5.0 due "this fall" (that is the southern hemisphere spring).

Free
Unlike Apple's current $US99 Mobile Me service, iCloud will be free - an aggressive move.

Today, an iTunes song that gets accidentally deleted, without backup, has be re-purchased. The new service will mean that your music library will be stored in the "cloud", or on the internet - or, even more specifically, a 46,000 square metre (500,000 square foot) data centre that Apple opened in North Carolina earlier this year.

Other key developments announced today:

• Apple will "cut the cord" with iOS 5. Users will be able to update to the latest software for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch without being tethered to a Mac or PC
   
• A new iTunes Match service ($US25 a year) will let you store digitised CDs (that is, music not bought from iTunes originally) on iCloud. Licensing agreements with all the major record companies mean if a song is already stored on the cloud, Apple simply "matches" it; you don't have to upload the track. Match will initially only be available in the US.

• iTunes Match gives iCloud a leg up on equivalent services already launched in the US by Google and Amazon, neither of which has the necessary licensing agreements in place to offer a similar feature.
   
• Songs on iCloud can be synced between multiple devices, such as an iPhone and iPad, without tethering.
   
• A coming iCloud service called Photostream will sync your last 1000 pictures between devices
   
• iCloud will also support wireless daily backups

Mr Jobs said there were now more than 200 million iTunes users.

“Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy,” the Apple boss said.

“We have a great solution for this problem. We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”

He added, “Everything happens automatically and there is nothing new to learn.”

The company also used the event to announce that 25 million iPads have been sold since the product's launch.

Virtual newsstand
A new iTunes Appstore feature was also unveilled today. Called Newsstand, it lets people see all their subscriptions to newspapers and magazines in one place. New issues can be downloaded in the background.

Magazines and newspaper icons on the "shelf" of the Newsstand will be the actual covers of the publications.