Apple iCloud Service Goes Beta

Apple’s cloud service, iCloud, is now on its beta phase and has already been launched for developers.

iCloud.com is now live and those who have Apple account, even not a registered dev, can also logon to the service. I just logged on to iCloud prior to writing this post and there you’ll see web applications for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find My iPhone, and iWork. The interface is quite simple and there is even a functionality which resembles that of iOS’ like the screen shot below.

Click to enlarge

For those who missed the announcement of iCloud back in June, iCloud is actually a cloud service which syncs data automatically between iOS devices and computers. To put it into perspective, if you’re editing spreadsheet in iPad, you can continue the task and finish it in your iPhone. Or if you got a new iPod Touch, iCloud can set it up according to your older iPod Touch’s settings, apps, contacts, and etc. Or in other words, iCloud takes the “synchronization” as well as the “backup” functionalities of iTunes through the internet.



Apple offers a 5GB of free iCloud storage for documents, backups, contacts, calendars; but if you need more than that, an additional 10GB will cost you $20 per year, $40 for 20GB, and $100 for $50. Purchase of additional storage is available through the settings panel of the iOS5 iCloud. iOS 5 is expected to arrive in fall.



It's cool really, but I think this iCloud-thingy will work best for those who have at least two iOS devices.



If you have an Apple ID, you can explore the service by logging in to iCloud.com.

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