More and more musicians are using iPad as their tool for production and recording. Many are churning out entire songs solely on iPad. If you have doubt if iPad can produce anything decent, check out the videos.
With the introduction of iOS 5 and iCloud, it is possible to use your iPhone and iPad without owning a Mac or PC. In iOS 5, a number of features are introduced to fulfill the “Post PC” era of iDevices.
Activate from within device. Instead of having to plug your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad into an iTunes running Mac or PC to activate the device, iOS 5 allows you to activate directly from within the device.
OTA (Over-The-Air) Software Update. OTA Software Update will make it possible to update iOS system software wirelessly. When Apple release a new update let say iOS 5.1, just go to Settings > Software Update to upgrade. No iTunes and Mac/PC required. Apple implements delta update mechanism. Instead of the whole iOS, you only download what’s changed, which significantly reduced the size of the update.
Purchased apps, music and books in the cloud. Apps, music and books that you purchased from the iTunes store are now in iCloud. You can re-download them into your iDevice without relying on iTunes backup.
Backup to iCloud. When you enable backup to iCloud, it backs up daily over Wi-Fi your photos and video in the camera roll, device settings, app data, home screen and app organization, ringtones and text/MMS messages. This backup can be used to restore your phone data and settings such as when changing a new phone.
Apple probably just had its greatest software updates in its history. For the past 2 days, Apple software relating to iOS 5 and iCloud are updated, together with few new apps. Here are the list:
With iCloud enabled, you can store your data such as mail, contacts, calendar, iTunes music, movie, books and apps on iCloud, bypassing the need to use iTunes on your Mac/PC to sync to your iOS devices. There are however contents on your Mac that you still need to sync to your iDevices, such as your movie, music, PDFs collection. iTunes 10.5 together with iOS 5 make it easy with wireless sync over Wi-Fi without the need of a USB cable.
To enable wireless sync, connect your iDevice using USB cable to the Mac. Under iTunes, on the “Summary” page for your iDevice, tick the option “Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi”.
You can now unplug your USB cable. Then click the Sync on iTunes to start data sync wirelessly.
You can also initiate the sync directly from your iDevice. From the Settings app, navigate to General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Tap the “Sync Now” button to start wireless sync.
Apple will release later today iOS 5, iCloud and OS X Lion 10.7.2 with iCloud support. Without a doubt, iCloud is the core feature of these releases. So what is iCloud? You might have read many things about it. This is a concise layman’s guide to what is iCloud.
“Cloud computing” is a buzz term used by tech geeks to describe computing services provided over the Internet. iCloud is Apple’s service to provide you ways to store and sync your data on the Internet. Once your data is in iCloud, you can access them via Internet on Mac or any iOS devices.
iCloud can be loosely view as an upgrade of MobileMe. However iCloud is so much more than just MobileMe. Apple integrates iCloud tightly with iOS 5 and OS X Lion, to give users seamless data sync across Apple devices. For developers, iCloud is also a data store and sync platform with API to allow development of apps and services.
Apple off course is leading the pack with a number of native apps riding on iCloud. You can store your mail, calendar, contacts, notes, reminders, Safari bookmarks on iCloud and access them from multiple Mac or iOS devices. “Find My iPhone” is one of the earlier MobileMe app ported to iCloud. You can find out your device’s location with this app, remotely lock or even wipe the data of the device. Apple is also launching a new “Find My Friends” app that allows you to check out your friends location.
PhotoStream is another new service in iOS 5 from Apple riding on top of iCloud. PhotoStream will sync your photos in iOS devices’ camera roll to the iCloud, so that you can view them from multiple iOS devices and also from AppleTV. iWork is the first major productivity apps that can store your documents in iCloud. So you can compose your Keynote file on the Mac, and pop over to show the presentation using your iPhone.
iCloud is also an internet website at iCloud.com. This website as shown above allows you to access your iCloud data over a browser. Essential when you do not have an iDevice with you.
Apple is also storing the music, apps, books that you purchased on iTunes App Store on iCloud. If your music and books are all from iTunes App Store, you can essentially bypass iTunes app on the desktop and access those content from iCloud. You can now choose not to use iTunes desktop app. iOS 5 is the first iOS that can be operated without first plugging into your Mac/PC and iTunes.
For many years, iTunes app on your Mac/PC is considered the hub where you store your iTunes data, and sync the data over to your iOS devices. iCloud is poised to take over this place to be the central hub for these data.
Apple will be launching iTunes Match end October for US. This subscription based iCloud service will match your iTunes library, allowing you to convert your private music collection over to iCloud, and download them as and when needed over iCloud for listening.
With an API opens to third party developers, we expect more and more apps and services will be build on top of iCloud.
Apple has released iTunes 10.5 ahead of tomorrow’s iOS 5 and iCloud launch. iTunes 10.5 is required for the upgrade to iOS 5. Include in this new release is also the ability to sync your iOS 5 devices wireless to iTunes. Missing in iTunes 10.5 is iTunes Match, which is part of iCloud. Apple has mentioned in its iPhone 4S launch that iTunes Match will be released end October. Guess we will receive another iTunes update for the launch of iTunes Match.
Apple has released a beta for its iTunes Match service for its developers in United States. iTunes Match is a service that scans your music in your iTunes library, and makes the same music available on iCloud so that you can access your music anywhere, anytime on iOS devices or computer.
iTunes Match is expected to launch together as part of iCloud when the service is live later this year. Subscription is $24.99 per year.
Apple has canceled TV show rental on iTunes and Apple TV, as “iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows”.
“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”
Priced mostly at 99-cent per episode, TV rental debuted as an option when Apple launched its second generation Apple TV last September. With only ABC and Fox joining the program, Apple has not been able to get other studios such as Warner, NBC and Viacom to offer their programming on TV rental.
Apple has pushed out a new version 4.3 firmware update to Apple TV. New in this update is the ability to purchase TV shows. This is a shift in direction as 99 cents rental-only approach is the only option when Apple released second-generation Apple TV back in September 2010.
You can now buy TV episodes directly from Apple TV and your purchase will appear under the “Purchased” section of iTunes on both desktop and iOS devices. You can redownload and restream the purchased shows for repeat viewing.
TV shows is generally $2.99 a pop but most will welcome there is such an option. Fox and ABC remains the only two major networks offered in Apple TV, with CBS and NBC missing. With the offering for purchase option, lets hope more studio willl offer their contents in Apple TV.
The new update also adds Vimeo as a service accessible directly from Apple TV. A strong endorsement for Vimeo video site.
Apple has released iTunes 10.4 which supports full-screen mode and 64-bit cocoa under Mac OS X Lion. iTunes however remains 32-bit under Snow Leopard.
You can now use iTunes with OS X Lion’s new Full-Screen App capability, which allows you to use iTunes and other apps without distractions. Navigate between your full-screen apps with a simple gesture.
Note: iTunes is now a 64-bit Cocoa application on OS X Lion and includes a number of important stability and performance improvements. Some iTunes plug-ins may no longer be compatible with this version of iTunes. Please contact the plug-in developer for an updated plug-in compatible with iTunes 10.4.
Apple also releases iWork Update 6 which adds support for Mac OS X Lion’s Full Screen Mode, Resume, Auto Save and Versions features.
