[[SS]Grifter]

Thought this was interesting for anyone else with a Mac - just announced this morning here in San Francisco.


Apple unveils 'iCloud' storage, new operating systems

LINKY

San Francisco (CNN) -- Apple's Steve Jobs on Monday announced a new produced called "iCloud," which lets Apple product owners store documents on the Internet instead of on their own computer hard drives or mobile phones.

The free service replaces a product called MobileMe and piggybacks on the idea of cloud computing -- which means computer users are storing more of their information "in the cloud" of the Internet rather than on their own gadgets.

All of a person's Apple devices -- iPhone, iPads and Mac computers -- sync with Apple's iCloud, giving users access to their documents, photos, apps, calendars and e-mails from any location, not just on a specific gadget.

"We think this is going to be pretty big," said Jobs, who is the co-founder of Apple and who has been on medical leave since January.

iCloud only stores a maximum of 1,000 photos for up to 30 days, and it appears that it will store music that users have purchased directly from iTunes, Apple's own music store.

"This is the first time we've seen this in the music industry," Jobs said.

Jobs has not announced when iCloud will be released. Apple's press event at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco is still ongoing, and you can follow live updates from the event on the @CNNTech Twitter feed.

Apple typically uses WWDC, as the event is called in tech circles, to announce a new version on the popular iPhone.

But not this year.

"If the hardware is the brain ... of our products, the software is their soul. And today, we are going to talk about software," Jobs said before a packed audience, wearing his standard uniform of a black mock-turtleneck and jeans.

Analysts expect a new iPhone in September.

The company on Monday announced new versions of its operating systems.

Mac OS X Lion, the company's new operating system for laptop and desktop computers, will be available next month for $30, the company said.

That operating system features new "gestures" that make computers work much more like tablets and touch-screen mobile phones.

"If anyone was doubting that iOS and OS X are converging, the use of the trackpad for gestures should convince you. It's incredibly tablet-like. But I wonder how much getting used to it'll take?" Gizmodo wrote on its live blog of the event, which started at 1 p.m. ET.

A new version of Apple's mobile operating system -- called iOS 5 -- introduces a system of alerts for iPhones and iPads. A "Notification Center" organizes alerts by app, and these alerts pop up at the top of the screen where they can be more easily ignored. Currently these alerts show up in the center of the screen and interrupt users.

The mobile operating system also integrates with Twitter, allowing users to tweet photos from within the Camera and Maps apps.

"We want to make it easier for all of our customers to use Twitter," Apple's Scott Forstall said at the event in San Francisco.

A new built-in app called Reminders lets users create to-do lists; and an update to the iPhone and iPad e-mail system will let people create messages in bold or italics, as well as encrypt the messages they send from mobile devices.

An update to the Camera app lets people take photos by pressing the volume-up button on the side of the iPad or iPhone. Previously, users had to open up the Camera app to take photos, which was seen as cumbersome.

The new Camera app also lets users edit photos on the fly, simulating features already available from many third-party app developers.

iOS updates will be available for the first time "over the air," meaning users won't have to sync their devices with desktop computers to get new software.

Users can also sync phones with iTunes over Wi-Fi.