APPLE: iCloud revealed

We’ve listened to music on the iPod, made calls on the iPhone and surfed the web on the iPad. Now Apple is introducing iCloud.

This free cloud computing service lets iOS users upload their pictures, apps, music and other files to one server. This allows them to instantly access them from other devices, whether its their iPad, PC, Mac, iPod or iPhone.

iCloud also lets users keep their emails, contacts and calendars up to date across all their devices. There is no need to synch an iPhone to a PC anymore.

Those who sign up to the service – which arrives when the latest operating system iOS 5 goes live – will receive 5GB of free storage. And music, apps and the photo stream don’t count towards the 5GB – only mail, documents, pictures and account information do.

Apple revealed iCloud at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2011, where it also announced updates for Game Center and more details about iOS 5.

It also showed off its new iTunes Match service. For $24.99 per year, users can scan in up to 25,000 songs which are tracked by Apple and matched to versions of the songs the firm already has. This makes it quicker for listeners to access higher quality songs.

Thanks, Engadget