iCloud

For a couple of years now, before every major release of iOS, I've begged and pleaded for a native iOS documents repository. Not a file system like OS X, but something that would do for documents what Photos.app and the photo picker do for images.

Right now, even absent a file system and hierarchy, it's still too complex, confusing, and unwieldy for users to remember, find, and attach documents in iOS. iOS 6 is a chance for Apple to change that, and a Files app and documents picker are simple, consistent, convenient ways to do it.

I get to use most of the newest devices and test out all the platforms in my job. My "go-to"  phone is the iPhone 4S, but there are features I see on other devices that I really wish were present in iOS. At the top of the list of wants is rich contact integration with my social networks.

Apple might just be ready to add photo and video sharing and commenting to iCloud.

It's been almost a week since Apple released iOS 5.1.1 but not everyone seems to have heard about it right away. Some may not have received or noticed the popup notification or badge on the Settings app to advise them it was available. Others may have been waiting to see what, if anything, iOS 5.1.1. did to battery life and performance before updating. Still others aren't updating until a nicely packaged, unthethered jailbreak is available for iOS 5.1.1.

If you're in the first two groups, however, our latest reader survey shows that iOS 5.1.1. is about the same, if not a little better, when it comes to battery life and performance, so you can go ahead and update without any worries. If you still haven't received your update alert, or you missed it, or simply haven't gotten around to it yet, it's really easy, and really fast, to manually start the updating process using iCloud.

Earlier today a beta version of iCloud.com accidentally leaked 2 new web apps, Notes and Reminders, presumably coming to iCloud web-portal. These apps make perfect sense to be on iCloud.com, as they already sync over iCloud across iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices, and Apple has added them as apps to the upcoming OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

The Reminders and Notes web apps weren't functional, nor was the login, and Apple quickly pulled the developer site offline. In other words, we weren't supposed to see this yet.

Apple appears to be in the early -- yet strangely public -- stages of testing Notification Center-style banner alerts on iCloud.com, the web portal they provide for remote email, calendar, and contact access.

When Apple announced their free iCloud service at WWDC 2011, users of the previous, paid, MobileMe service were given a temporary boost in storage. The extra storage was previously set to expire in June of 2012. According to a recent change in Apple's MobileMe to iCloud transition FAQ, however, that's now been extended until September.

While Apple never meant iCloud to work like Dropbox or Google Drive, if you don't mind polishing up your ninja-skills you can get it to do just that!

There's no shortage of online storage solutions -- Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync, Microsoft SkyDrive, Apple's soon-to-be end-of-lifed iDisk, and now, Google Drive. Apple's new iCloud isn't meant to be online storage at all; it's designed to abstract away messy concepts like file systems and folders and tuck everything away neatly behind apps. Did you know, however, that you can also (with a little tweaking) upload movies, audio files and pictures to store in iCloud for safe keeping?

June 11. That's the date we've long suspected but just this week had confirmed. Apple's 2012 World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) is now official hurtling towards us (or us towards it). But it's not the only things going on this week, so let's get to it.

Everything you need to know about setting up, backing up, restoring, and updating your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and managing your iTunes apps, books, music, TV shows, movies, Match, and Photo Stream in the cloud

iCloud is Apple's online service designed to make managing your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV, and your iTunes content easier and more automatic than ever. Like the name implies, iCloud is based in the "cloud", which is a trendy way of saying giant data centers filled with servers that you can access from your device over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G internet, wherever you are, whenever you want. It consists of several services that work with the apps on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and with iTunes and a handful of desktop apps on Mac and Windows. Most iCloud services are completely free, although additional storage and services are available for purchase.