

iOS 5 Likely Pushed To The Fall After A Cloud Unveiling At WWDC - aaronbrethorst
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/26/ios-5-likely-pushed-to-the-fall-after-a-cloud-unveiling-at-wwdc/

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ctdonath
Can't do it yet. The bandwidth isn't there.

When the iPad 1 arrived, one of the biggest selling points was the "no
contract $30/mo unlimited 3G". Only took about 30 days for AT&T to realize
that wasn't going to work out. As one of the few who got and still has that
plan, I can assure you the very same reason it's awesome is the reason the
"cloud tablet" won't happen (at least to the degree pundits expect) without a
major breakthrough in wireless bandwidth: data traffic will be enormous.

I'm sure someone could better run the numbers than I, and I expect it would
quantify the intuition. Upshot is: to get thru the cloud computing barrier
requires bandwidth not just available, but in use, to an astounding degree.
Oh, I'd like a real cloud experience, as my 64GB iPad is getting a bit cramped
for want of instant access to my entire music, movie, book, photo, and video
collection, along with remote desktops to four computers, high res videophone
the norm, and at some point real 3D teleconferencing. All this demands a user
experience buttery smooth, which requires significant buffering orders of
magnitude more data than anyone will in fact use (it's just there if they want
it). Times millions of users, you don't run this over 3G, what passes for 4G,
and maybe not even what most assume 5G will be.

Now, Apple is smart folks with lots of connections and clout and cash. Maybe
they can do it. They almost had it with the iPad 1 launch, but then the
unlimited plan was capped at 2GB - and that makes all the difference. I'm
thankful I can throw around gigabytes of data without worry ... and then
remind myself most tablet users can't. I wish this freedom was available to
all, but it's not and I don't see it showing up by 2012.

~~~
cwp
So? Apple hasn't been shy about making bandwidth-intensive features Wifi-only.
Not having to sync with a computer would be a huge improvement to both iPhones
and iPads.

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daeken
You know, it sort of baffles me that we don't yet have a functional music
locker. From 2005 to 2007 I worked for MP3tunes, who built a damn solid music
locker. Despite a complete lack of tech budget, marketing budget, etc we
managed to build a great service. In late 2005, after our massive push to pull
this off, I was able to sync in all my music and play it all from "the cloud".
Why, in 2011, do we not have this?

It's odd, but we spoke of Amazon and Google in hushed voices, as we saw them
as our biggest competitors -- we figured that both of them would have services
shortly, and we saw our early mover status as our predominant advantage. Yet
nearly 6 years later, neither of them have _anything_ comparable.

The tech was there then, and it's here in massive force now. Why does this not
exist?

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billpaetzke
It's all about licensing agreements between the record labels and the
distributors (Apple and Amazon).

Apple is trying to get a repeat-download license for songs sold on iTunes.
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/04/apple_negotiat...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/04/apple_negotiating_for_repeat_downloads_of_itunes_music_purchases.html)

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zdw
From a hardware perspective, now that they have the iPad and iPhone versions
of iOS synced up, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a fall release of
version 5. As the iPhone 5's hardware is probably nearly identical to the iPad
2's, it wouldn't be hard to release it with iOS 4 and a promised upgrade as
was done with the original iPad.

Add into this that they're probably in crunch time to get Lion out the door,
and a fall release seems even more likely.

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depoisfalamos
For me it doesn't really matter "when" it's coming out but rather that it will
kick some serious ass. The previous updates do iOS where all great and
introduced a lot of great new features but the all look and feel stayed the
same. I'm not criticizing, just an observation. It is great to keep everyone
in the same boat and to provide some universal user experience. But it's time
to something new and i'm hoping that this news are really true. iOS is
'almost' perfect but innovation can't stop just because they got it right the
first time. I'm looking forward to see what the guys in cupertino came up
with!

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justincormack
It is easier to use iOS devices untethered once you stop using Apple's rather
poor cloud services. I unsubscribed to MobileMe a while back and no longer use
iTunes except for software updates.

I use Spotify for music now, use Google calendar synced via the exchange
integration, Plaintext for dropbox synced notes, etc.

A few months after that I didnt buy another Mac and switched to Ubuntu...

Apple are so far behind on cloud services and still charge $99 for mobile me.
Switched that spend to spotify instead... They need to come up with some very
compelling services to compete.

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billpaetzke
Hopefully they'll be able to fit in their "radically improved" Maps and
location services.
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/25/apple_looking_...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/25/apple_looking_to_radically_improve_iphone_mapslocation_services.html)

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consultutah
The iPhone 4 is a solid device that easily beats the competition on price,
performance, quality and ease of use. Apple could probably hold off another
year before releasing a new device, but I'll bet they stick to pretty much the
same schedule as always.

There will ve plenty of us that would buy whatever they release in June and
the new thing released in September.

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bonch
Why do sites like TechCrunch use "cloud" in place of "internet?" Is it another
buzzword to make old things seem new in order to make money?

~~~
scrod
The "Cloud" concept is much more profit-friendly than that of the general
"Internet". Whereas the latter emphasizes decentralized control and is, in the
most fundamental sense, a product of the cooperation of all participating
network operators, the former largely subverts that concept in the name of
walled-gardens, rented software, massive centralized server farms, and
pervasive, coordinated surveillance. More specifically, the "Cloud" represents
a great achievement in deploying open-source software (which was otherwise
built for anyone to use) in closed server-based environments such that its
users: 1) lose the freedom to run that software in any way they choose, 2)
lose the freedom to modify that software, and 3) even lose control of their
own information that they produced with the software.

