DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Apple's Jobs makes big push into an everyday cloud

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SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs unveiled services for people to store more of their photos, music and other data online, giving the iPad and iPhone maker the lead in a fast-expanding new consumer market.

Jobs entered to a standing ovation from more than 5,000 Apple faithful at its Worldwide Developers' Conference on Monday and showed off Apple products meant to help customers keep their iPhones, iPads and computers in sync.

The Silicon Valley icon and pancreatic cancer survivor -- animated but again looking very thin -- unveiled remote computing services that for now at least push Apple ahead of rivals Google and Amazon.com, which recently launched their own moves into music storage and streaming.

Jobs, whose decision to headline the event assuaged some concerns on Wall Street about his health, didn't say a word about his condition but strode briskly onstage after James Brown's soul classic "I Got You (I Feel Good)" blasted over the sound system.

"We're going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud," Jobs said. "Everything happens automatically and there's nothing new to learn. It just all works."

In cloud computing, data and software are stored on servers, and devices like smartphones or PCs access them through the Internet.

With its knack for designing easy-to-use gadgets, Apple hopes to make cloud computing -- right now a term tossed about mostly by corporate IT departments and Silicon Valley geeks -- an everyday convenience for many people.

As more and more people use smartphones and tablets with limited storage, demand for cloud-based services is growing, and technology companies from Amazon to Zynga are rushing to stake out their turf.

Beyond storing music online, Apple's revamped operating systems for its Macs, iPhones and iPads integrate cloud storage in everything from word processing to calendars and to-do lists, going beyond what other companies have done.

"For the average consumer it makes cloud computing real," said Mike McGuire, a media analyst with Gartner. "What we saw from Amazon and Google were features, not services."

Apple's new iTunes Match service will also scan users' hard drives and automatically make the songs it finds available on the iCloud. In contrast, users of Google and Amazon cloud-based storage have to upload every song themselves.

"This is potentially game-changing," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. "It's a whole new way of computing where you're less dependent on PCs and local storage."

PIE IN THE SKY

Monday was only Jobs' second public appearance since he went on medical leave in January. He shared the spotlight, letting his executive team showcase new features in Apple's mobile and computer operating software.

"He is looking thin but as energetic as usual," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said, adding that Apple's expansion into remote computing "is very powerful stuff."

Apple's iCloud service is not a huge revenue generator for right now and it is tough to quantify longer-term impact, but it lays the foundation for future products with the push into cloud computing, Wall Street analysts say.

With that infrastructure in place, Apple can look to streaming video, a lucrative opportunity rivals also covet.

But complex licensing requirements for distribution of video content mean that the business may be farther off than music cloud services.

The most immediate impact might come from the iTunes Match feature that Jobs introduced with his signature "one more thing" line. Costing $25 a year, it yields a fresh source of revenue for Apple and the music industry -- and from songs that customers would be unlikely to buy again. Apple has been busy wrapping up negotiations with major record labels to secure licenses for its cloud service.

Apple's move to cloud services could also ignite more demand for devices from the iPhone to the iPad, while helping sales of music through iTunes.

"Relative to iCloud, Google and Amazon are far behind. Nobody else can do what Apple's doing today," said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co.

"They are doing music, they are doing photos, documents. The next will certainly be video," Marshall said.

Jobs' decision to headline such events often is news in itself, and his appearance likely heartened investors worried about his health after the pancreatic cancer survivor went on his third medical leave for an undisclosed condition.

Apple's share price fell 1.6 percent to close at $338.04 on the Nasdaq stock market. The stock traditionally gains before a major event -- of which there are only a handful through the year -- before dipping on the day itself.

"They telegraphed in advance what they were going to say and that Steve Jobs was going to show up," said Daniel Ernst at Hudson Square Research. "It's pretty boring, which is, for Apple, bad. It's all good, but everybody always expects them to walk on water unfortunately."

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew and Paul Thomasch in New York, Writing by Edwin Chan. Editing by Robert MacMillan, Gary Hill)

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I completely fail to understand the concept.

Why would you want to take any important data, or even fairly unimportant data, remove it from your local storage, store it "online" god knows where, and then pay somebody else to access it?

Like online backup, I mean this is like making long-term investments in Afghanistan, this just does not seem like a good plan to me.

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Maybe because it's accessable from anywhere you can hook to the net.

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Maybe because it's accessable from anywhere you can hook to the net.

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Yeah, but you can get 32 GB of memory on a micro SD card, and carry that around with you on a phone. Why even fuss with the net security/connection issues/privacy concerns?

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Maybe because it's accessable from anywhere you can hook to the net.

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Yeah, but you can get 32 GB of memory on a micro SD card, and carry that around with you on a phone. Why even fuss with the net security/connection issues/privacy concerns?

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Because if you lose that phone, you're screwed.

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In a few years, the "cloud" will be the norm.

but

"Apple's new iTunes Match service will also scan users' hard drives and automatically make the songs it finds available on the iCloud. In contrast, users of Google and Amazon cloud-based storage have to upload every song themselves."


This sounds great, except for the millions of users who illegally downloaded music may find themselves suddenly under watchful eye. Sounds like the old "invite wanted felons to be an extra in a movie, then arrest them when they all show up" trick.

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Because if you lose that phone, you're screwed.

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Yeah, but you can get 32 GB of memory on a micro SD card, and carry that around with you on a phone. Why even fuss with the net security/connection issues/privacy concerns?

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This is my problem with the cloud concept [security]. Privacy is but a thing of yesterday. I am old enough to remember a time when it was improper to put ones private affairs public.
Spam will most likely become worse then it already is.
It will come to pass that much I am sure of, but not without unforeseen quirks.

Also it resembles a Sci-Fi movie where the Machines take over the world and have complete power over humans and then try to exterminate us

I will still keep my hard drive that will not be excess able to the cloud. It might get old and outdated, but it will still be safe. The portable devices however will have to go with the cloud if that's were my service provider is I guess.

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In a few years, the "cloud" will be the norm.

but

"Apple's new iTunes Match service will also scan users' hard drives and automatically make the songs it finds available on the iCloud. In contrast, users of Google and Amazon cloud-based storage have to upload every song themselves."


This sounds great, except for the millions of users who illegally downloaded music may find themselves suddenly under watchful eye. Sounds like the old "invite wanted felons to be an extra in a movie, then arrest them when they all show up" trick.

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You're failing to see what has actually occurred here. The purpose of this service isn't to "trick" users into turning themselves in for downloading music. The Apple iTunes Match service is I believe $24.99 a year. If iTunes Match finds a song in your library that matches one in it's library, it replaces your song with a high quality version. Once it replaces the song, you now own the rights to it forever.

In the end, it means that Apple has suddenly given these large record companies a way to recoup some of the money they have lost through file-sharing. The music companies had to agree to all of this. They get a percentage of the subscriptions fees from the iTunes Match service. Apple could never do something like this without agreement from all the major record companies, and if all this was an elaborate way to sue people for illegally downloading music, there would be an incredible backlash from consumers.

The fact that you own the song once it is replaced by iTunes Match means this has the O.K. from all parties involved. You literally could just download any song you want from a file-sharing service and then replace it in iTunes Match and never have to buy another song again. Obviously the record companies would prefer that you actually buy the songs, but the subscription fee will still provide a new stream of revenue that wasn't previously there. This is a huge step in the right direction and tells me that the big-wigs in the recording industry are finally seeing that their business model is old and needs to be replaced.

The future of the music industry is in subscription services such as these. They've been trying to operate in the digital age on a business model that was created when vinyl was still king.

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I am old enough to remember a time when it was improper to put ones privates public.

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Maybe because it's accessable from anywhere you can hook to the net.

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Yeah, but you can get 32 GB of memory on a micro SD card, and carry that around with you on a phone. Why even fuss with the net security/connection issues/privacy concerns?

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Because if you lose that phone, you're screwed.

Everything is going to the cloud. Might as well embrace it.

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When the cloud goes down you're screwed. See the amazon cloud outage in late April. I'm not on the whole cloud bandwagon. I may use some services, but will never rely on them.

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When the cloud goes down you're screwed. See the amazon cloud outage in late April. I'm not on the whole cloud bandwagon. I may use some services, but will never rely on them.

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It's not a matter of "may," you will be using the Cloud for just about everything in the next 10 years.

There is no alternative. You might as well lay back and accept it.

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Suffice it to say I will not be using cloud. Not today. Not in 5 years, not in 10 years.

I just don't get why people are so hung up on having instant access to, say, music. Hell, for that matter, I don't understand people that think the world will end if they aren't instantly available at all times, anywhere.

I just don't get it. Heck, a person can accomplish more in a 1 minute phone call than they can in 20 text messages.

So you have to have instant availability to your music????? Hell, I have an ipod shuffle. My music is instantly available to me.

I have one of the cheapest cell phones around - all my contacts are on it...........and I don't carry it with me at all times, because - get this - I don't want to be instantly available to anyone and everyone.

This country was great way before cell phones. "smart" phones haven't helped anyone or anything. Instant availability hasn't created a single job - yet people go gaga over the "newest and latest"......"hey, I can get the weather on my phone, and I can get game scores, and I can search the web....all on my phone...." etc.


I can do all that - on my computer. In my office. When it's convenient. Being tied to a cell phone? Not for me. Having to have my music available at all costs? What??????? I have a life. And it's not tied to my music or my cell phone - or my ability to access the internet.

I just don't get it.

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Bank account info. Airline tickets. Sporting event tickets. Driver's license info, credit cards, even house and hotel keys

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It's not just music. Work documents. Bank account info. Airline tickets. Sporting event tickets. Driver's license info, credit cards, even house and hotel keys, etc.

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Yeah ... I can't see any problems happening with that kind of info stored online.

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All this will be in the clouds. Your mobile device (not a phone, it's a mobile device) becomes your gateway for everything.

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Wait, so you're saying if you lose your mobile device, you're screwed anyway? Might as well get a card-drive for your phone.

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This is happening sooner rather than later and there is absolutely no avoiding it.

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Bullcrap there's "no avoiding it" ... will it be a readily available option? Definitely. That doesn't mean everyone will be forced to use it, and there's no way in heck everybody is going to go along with storing every single peice of electronic data they own on an "online" database that hackers will attempt to break non-stop. It just WON'T happen.

Heck, there are still newspapers around today, because people still prefer that method of reading over looking at something online ... and that has nothing to do with storing your entire livelyhood on some magic online server. Sure, there will be many Apple Zombies that will walk around and happily do this, as Steve Jobs tells them what to do through the earbuds stuck in their ear, but I can't see the majority of the population willingly go along with storing everything they own online and risking another PSN incident.

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This is happening sooner rather than later and there is absolutely no avoiding it.

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putting all that data up there is like leaving a sign on your front yard that you are on vacation and the back door is unlocked.

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So true.

And what becomes of your old files.

Example; I converted some Old rock concert footage some years ago to Real player format. One day a pop up message told me that there were up dates available for download. I downloaded and re booted my computer and when I opened the player to see what the difference would be (if any) I found that they deleted all my files
so I had to back date my system to an earlier date. Same thing happens with Adobe files copies if I chose to upgrade my program.
Change is not always for the better good of all.

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This is happening sooner rather than later and there is absolutely no avoiding it.

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putting all that data up there is like leaving a sign on your front yard that you are on vacation and the back door is unlocked.

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So true.

And what becomes of your old files.

Example; I converted some Old rock concert footage some years ago to Real player format. One day a pop up message told me that there were up dates available for download. I downloaded and re booted my computer and when I opened the player to see what the difference would be (if any) I found that they deleted all my files
so I had to back date my system to an earlier date. Same thing happens with Adobe files copies if I chose to upgrade my program.
Change is not always for the better good of all.

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I can do all that - on my computer. In my office. When it's convenient. Being tied to a cell phone? Not for me. Having to have my music available at all costs? What??????? I have a life. And it's not tied to my music or my cell phone - or my ability to access the internet.

I just don't get it.

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You don't get it because you don't use it. It's not convenient for you because it's not a want/need.

I want to be able to access my bank account at any time from my phone to check my balance or make a payment. It's convenient to me because I need it to manage our checking and savings accounts.

And I can go on and on about how it's very useful to access a map on my phone to see where I am, send a picture, post a movie, buy movie tickets, check the weather, and other countless things.

One can still have a life with a multi-purpose phone my man. I just went on a 5-state motorcycle trip with my dad. We used our phones to help find restaurants, make hotel reservations (not talking to someone), send text messages to my wife about where we were using a pin locator on the map so she could track our process, send pictures, post movies, check the Tribe scores, and I was also able to keep in touch with my work e-mail too. I was able to do all that and still have a life.

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All this will be in the clouds. Your mobile device (not a phone, it's a mobile device) becomes your gateway for everything.

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Wait, so you're saying if you lose your mobile device, you're screwed anyway? Might as well get a card-drive for your phone.

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Yeah ... pass.

My phone is for making calls. Most of my friends use theirs for calls and/or texting. That's it. I know very few people, my own age or not, who use their phone for the internet, email, and so on.

I can't see using a little phone for writing out presentations and such, That would be idiotic. I also cannot see anyone saving personal and financial data online under someone else's control. Certainly not when even video games are hacked for financial records. That would be quadruple stupid.

There may come a day when the "cloud" is all ..... but I don't think it'll be for quite some time to come.

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If you lose your mobile device you can get a new one and it will instantly sync to your files, contacts, songs, etc. in the cloud.

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We will at some point probably come to work, sit at our desk, plug the phone into a dock and start working on a standard screen and keyboard. You won't have a standard PC at your desk, but will be assigned a smartphone.

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Sort of your own "personal cloud",

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So Mick Jagger was being prophetic in 1965 when he first sang..


"HEY! YOU! Get off of my cloud!"