At today’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple’s Steve Jobs announced a new set of cloud services, dubbed iCloud [1], that will integrate with iOS-based devices, such as the iPad and iPhone, and Mac OS X. The new services will bring tight cloud-based data synchronization to Apple’s desktop, laptop and mobile device lineup.
iCloud will allow you to store all of your documents, calendars, emails, photos, and more in the cloud, and will automatically synchronize this data to all of your devices. Additionally, iCloud will make your music available across all your devices.
Backup services will also be incorporated into iCloud. Rather than having to back up to a PC or an external backup, users of iCloud will be able to directly back up their iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches to the cloud. Likewise, device activation and software updates, which previously had to be performed via PC-based tethering, can now be done “over-the-air”.
Jobs famously described the arrival of the iPad as the beginning of the “post-PC era.” Until now, however, iPads, iPhones and other so-called post-PC devices have heavily relied on PC-based syncing for installation, configuration, updates, and media synchronization. With the introduction of iCloud, Apple has helped usher in a truly “post-PC era.”