The 9 Apps of iCloud – RIP MobileMe

iCloud is the new age MobileMe replacement. It integrates the existing Contacts, Calendars and Mail apps with 6 new apps. These apps are:

• App Store: Provides a Full Purchase history of all applications ever purchased from the iStore.

• iBooks : Will download and sync all books with furthest read location to all iDevices. You don’t have to worry about where you stopped reading on your iPhone. Just pick up your iPad and continue.
• Backup: Takes a daily backup of your iDevices which include the following: pictures, settings, contacts, messages, apps, app data etc. When you switch to a new phone, you simply log-in and your iPhone gets synced from your account on the Cloud. A truly wireless experience
• iTunes: This is one of the most amazing implementations from Apple. They will sync your entire music library across all devices to the cloud. All music purchased from any iDevice is available to sync with upto 10 iDevices, with an infinite number of downloads. The system will also sync your ripped library for an additional $24.99 per year. It will check its database for songs that already exist and add them to your account through its Match service, which means that if the iTunes Store doesn’t have your song, only then will it upload the track.
• PhotoStream: A new way to share photos on the cloud. Photos taken on any device are synced instantly with all other devices. The iCloud will store the last 1000 images online  while your Mac will store all photos forever. If you want to save the images then simply create an album and the photos will stay forever. The PhotoStream option is available within the Photos app so you don’t have to launch a separate application and there’s nothing new to learn. It also works with the PC using the My Pictures folder.
• Documents: Finally you have Documents. This app syncs all Pages, Numbers, and Keynote data between all of your iOS devices.

iCloud is an amazing service launched by Apple today. The service is free for all users with a 5Gb limit on data. PhotoStream doesn’t count towards this data limit. There will also be no in-app advertising as was previously suspected. This incredible service is the next incarnation of Apples now obsolete MobileMe service.