Hasta La Gadget!

A cloud. Photo: Karen Ka Ying Wong/Flickr

Apple has confirmed maybe the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley: It’s been working on a cloud service, and will announce it at the June 6 Worldwide Developers Conference.

So now we know annual developer’s conference will unveil “iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering,” but we don’t know yet what it is, or what exactly will reside at the domain name it may have bought for $4.5 million in April.

iCloud could be the mythical iTunes streaming service, a possibility that is looking increasingly likely now that Apple has most of the major record labels signed up for it, in a space pioneered by Amazon and Google, which has no such deals. Or it could be Apple’s version of DropBox, the amazing sync and storage service that currently glues together the whole iOS ecosystem along with its desktop service.

Or it could be yet another abortion of an internet service, like Mobile Me, iDisk and Ping before it.

Whatever it is, it’ll have to be good. DropBox is already the default file system for iOS, and can be used by any developer, on almost any other OS. If iCloud is to succeed, it needs to be just as available to developers. ITunes streaming, too, needs to be something special. A “cloud locker” service like Amazon and Google’s is almost pointless, and we already have amazing streaming services like Spotify and Rdio.

Still, this won’t stop endless speculation during the next week, as pundits work up theories like a shaving brush works up a lather from a tiny, almost nonexistent nubbin of soap. And then on Monday — boom — we’ll know for sure.

Apple also said the keynote will be delivered by Steve Jobs, who is currently on medical leave, and that the WWDC will also focus on the new version of OS X 10.7 Lion, and the upcoming iOS 5.

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6 [Apple PR]

See Also:

• Apple’s Purchase of Lala Could Signal Cheaper, Streaming iTunes
• Why Apple Might Be Your Best Bet for This ‘Cloud Music’ Thing
• Apple Rumor Watch Part Infinity: Cloud-Based iTunes on June 7

This article was written on October 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal released his review of Apple’s Leopard operating system which is set to launch on Friday evening. His verdict? Leopard is both faster and easier to use than Vista. He was able to test it on two different computers – a MacBook Pro Laptop with Leopard pre-installed (provided by Apple), and then on his own iMac Desktop in which he made the upgrade to Leopard. While he says that it may be faster and easier, he called Leopard “Evolutionary,” not “Revolutionary” meaning that the features aren’t breath-taking nor earth-shattering.With Apple listing over 300 “new” features with this operating system, there are only a handful of “core” new things.

Among those new core features are Time Machine, Quick Look, and Cover Flow. Mossberg calls Time Machine the “Sexiest thing” about Leopard saying it’s the simplest way to backup your computer with no additional work required. It’s automatic and just works in the background backing up everything without the user needing to do anything. Quick Look allows you to see what’s in a file without ever needing to launch the program.  For example, if you’ve got a Microsoft Word document saved and you’re wanting to know what’s in it, just press the spacebar.  Once you do this, you’ll get a preview of the file and it’ll be large enough where you can read it and look through the pages. Cover Flow isn’t exactly new to Apple, but it’s new to the Mac operating system.  If you use iTunes, you’ll know what Cover Flow is — it’s the graphical display that allows you to see and flip through album covers. With Leopard, it will work similarly.

From Apple’s recent financial report, we know that they’ve seen an increase in the sales of Mac computers. With the bad rap Vista has been getting lately, the ease of use that Mossberg talks about with Leopard just might help push Mac sales even further, especially because Boot Camp (allows Macs to run Windows) is now built right in. For those who want to experience Leopard but for whatever reason (work?) can’t completely ditch Windows, it can’t get any easier for them to use both.

The bottom line though, says Mossberg, is that while not revolutionary, Leopard is an advance and it does make Mac better and easier to use. (Just as a side note- had Microsoft come out with an OS that was just evolutionary, they would have been criticized to no end). While Apple’s share of the market is still rather small, they’ve got room to grow. With the momentum that they currently have going with the iPhone and the new line-up of iPods, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least it we see their share of the market increase with the launch of Leopard.

Source: Gizmodo

Now, just for fun – Roughly Drafted Magazine has put together a list of what you expected vs what you got – Windows Vista vs Mac OS X Leopard. Here’s a quick sampling:

What you expected:

What you got:

Source: Thanks for the tip Andrew!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberNet’s Year in Review: September-OctoberThis Just In: Vista & Leopard Both Suck!How Does Windows Vista Compare To Mac OS X Leopard?New Mac Leopard Dock on WindowsOpen Computer Preinstalls Leopard, Calls Apple a Monopoly

Samsung lawyers recently asked the court to make Apple show them the as-yet-unannounced iPhone 5 and iPad 3, claiming that they need to know what Apple’s products will look like ahead of time to avoid future lawsuits and uncanny similarities.

If only it were this easy.

Visualized: Samsung wants to see the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 20:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We figured Apple’s firm response to Lodsys earlier this week regarding its claims against iOS devs would prompt the patent holder to move on to its next target, and sure enough, it looks as if said target has been selected. Unfortunately, a group of Android app devs have now found themselves in the Texas-based company’s crosshairs, which is citing the same patent infringement that Apple recently addressed, relating specifically to in-app upgrade purchases. As was the case with the last round of letters, Lodsys is demanding licensing fees from small, individual developers, who don’t have the resources to fight back. Lodsys appears to be maintaining its trend of ignoring media requests, so we’re keeping an eye on the patent troll’s blog to see if anyone comes up to the surface to defend this latest round of allegations. In the meantime, plugging your ears while humming and ignoring the mailman might not be such a bad idea… you know, if you do this kind of thing for a living.

Lodsys shifts in-app purchasing target to Android devs following Apple response originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 May 2011 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on March 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft recently added birds eye coverage of cities around the World to their Virtual Earth service.  More than 3.8 TB of information was added, and my home-town Chicago is one of them with great shots of Wrigley Field, Soldier Field (pictured below), and other great landmarks. (They’ve also created a collection of Landmarks in Chicago to help you get started with your tour).

You’ll also find great bird’s eye views of many European cities within the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the list goes on. The complete list of cities is here. The image below is the bird’s eye view of Exeter in the UK.

This was a pretty massive update (in size anyways!) and the bird’s eye views look great.

Along the same lines, Google Earth has been offering users interesting directions. For example, as Google Operating System points out, when you get directions from Standford,California to Stockholm, Sweeden, one of the instructions says “swim across the Atlantic Ocean”. It’s only 3,462 miles, you could do it, couldn’t you?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

New Version of Live Maps Released – Includes Firefox Support for 3D MappingMicrosoft Shows off their 3D MapsMicrosoft’s Virtual Earth 3D A Little DisappointingGoogle Earth Takes Us Back CenturiesGoogle Adds World Cup Scores To Search Results