iOS 5 Brings Cloud to All

Posted by Alex Blewitt on Oct 12, 2011

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Today, just over a week since announcing iPhone 4S, Apple has made iOS 5 available for developers and users alike for iPhone 3Gs and later phones and iPods. This release brings integrated Twitter support, iCloud backup service for any application and user created documents, and PC free updating over the air of the operating system without needing a PC to perform the updates.

From a developer's perspective, iCloud and iMessage provide APIs which allow you to store data and communicate with other users, including the ability to start group chats from within an application (for example, enabling support mechanisms for instant feedback). Tweets can be posted from individual applications or using Twitter's URL shortening service. There are also developer tools to allow you to simulate a GPS trace for location oriented services, as well as new tools for detecting leaks.

Graphics support has been updated to OpenGL ES 2.0, along with GLKit, a new API for developing graphical games. The developer tools have also been updated to Xcode 4.2, which provides a number of improvements, including Automatic Reference Counting (or ARC) which allows you to provide a garbage-collected like codebase but with the performance of the reference counting without having to specify the retain/release cycles that many are currently familiar with. The AV Foundation libraries can allow your application to broadcast a stream to an Apple TV or other AirPlay device.

iOS 5 is available for immediate download, and developer documentation and downloads are available from the developer website for those enrolled in the developer programme.

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   "Cloud to All"

   by Stefan Wenig

   I always wonder, if Apple hadn't called it iCloud, would anybody ever have considered this to be about the Cloud at all? Sounds much more like Microsofts old software + services strategy. I would expect any cloud service to be accessible from a browser, even if platform-specific apps exist.

   Reply

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   Re:

   by Serge Bureau

   I always wonder, if Apple hadn't called it iCloud, would anybody ever have considered this to be about the Cloud at all? Sounds much more like Microsofts old software + services strategy. I would expect any cloud service to be accessible from a browser, even if platform-specific apps exist.

   
   
   It is at ICloud.com, what is your point ?

   Reply

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   Re:

   by Stefan Wenig

   It's just a data store, maybe now a message broker too, for Apple devices. It meets no definition of Cloud Computing I've ever seen. But just by calling it iCloud, Apple made us evaluate and discuss it as one.
   
   

   It is at ICloud.com, what is your point ?

   
   What's yours? A domain name is just a name too.

   Reply

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   Re:

   by Serge Bureau

   It's just a data store, maybe now a message broker too, for Apple devices. It meets no definition of Cloud Computing I've ever seen. But just by calling it iCloud, Apple made us evaluate and discuss it as one.

   
   
   For the target customers it is what is needed.
   In fact just see how popular is the DropBox App.
   
   They serve users, not programmers.
   And it is through the cloud, hence ICloud
   
   Cloud based apps are not to only be in the "Cloud Computing" category.
   So the name is well choosen.

   Reply

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   iCloud is hosted in Amazon and Azure?

   by wang yi

   iCloud is hosted in Amazon and Azure?

   Reply

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   Re:

   by Stefan Wenig

   I don't know any definition of cloud that's not about cloud computing in the context of computing. Anything useful that involves the internet is called cloud these days? Well, then it's OK I guess...

   Reply

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   Re:

   by Arman Ozhan

   Cloud computing is something much more than storing data. It's about application and platform sharing.
   Do not waste your time defending apple with and read more about cloud.
   
   The best samples of cloud are google chrome netbook and salesforce platform.

   Reply