Apple CEO Steve Jobs briefly emerged from a medical leave Monday to
unveil a free service that lets customers share calendar entries,
songs and other files among their devices more easily.
The company also announced new software to make Mac computers behave
more like mobile devices and Apple's mobile devices more like rival
smartphones.
Jobs received a standing ovation as he appeared at Apple Inc.'s annual
developers' conference, his second major public appearance since he
went on medical leave in January for unspecified reasons and duration.
Jobs left many of the specific announcements to top executives. In the
first hour, he appeared on stage for only a few minutes. Typically,
he's on stage longer at major public launches.
Apple's stock was down $4.38, or 1.3 percent, at $339 in afternoon
trading. The stock was up in the morning, but fell soon after Jobs
left the stage.
James Brown's "I Feel Good" played over the loudspeakers just before
Jobs walked on stage, looking thin, in his signature outfit of mock
turtleneck and blue jeans.
One audience member shouted out, "we love you."
Jobs returned to stage about 80 minutes into the presentation to
announce a service called iCloud.
An iCloud account will store user information from several devices,
including iPhones and iPads, and make sure the same contacts, calendar
events and files are available on all of them. It also backs up the
data on Apple's servers. It mimics Google's Docs system for online
files, and products from smaller online-storage companies like
Dropbox.
iCloud will also allow customers to store their music online. Buy a
song on iTunes once, and it will be available on up to 10 devices.
The basic service will be free for now and replaces a $99-a-year Apple
service called MobileMe, which Jobs said "was not our finest hour."
For $25 a year, iTunes will be able to scan a computer's hard drive
for music files that have been converted from CDs. If the same songs
are available in the iTunes store, they'll be added to the iCloud
locker. That means there's no need to purchase the songs again or
upload them. The service, known as iTunes Match, will upload any songs
to iCloud if it's not already available through iTunes.
The company has been in talks with the major recording companies to
make the service possible.
iCloud could give users a wide array of music for their iPhones, iPads
and Wi-Fi-capable iPods, without having to connect them to their home
PCs to transfer songs. Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have launched
similar services.
The music portion of iCloud is available right away, with remaining
features coming in the fall.
Jobs seemed animated as he unveiled iCloud, walking back and forth on
stage and making many gestures during the presentation. He walked off
stage briefly to let an executive demonstrate an iCloud feature. After
about five minutes, he walked slowly back up the steps to the stage to
continue.
Earlier, Apple unveiled an operating system update for Mac computers
called Lion. With it, Apple is expanding the ways finger-touches can
be used to control the software. For instance, with the swipe of the
fingers over the Mac trackpad, the user can switch from one program to
another.
In another nod to bringing the computer closer to the iPhone and iPad,
Apple is adapting more of its programs to run in a special full-screen
mode, in addition to the traditional "window" mode.
Lion will be available to consumers next month for $30. A preview
version was made available Monday to software developers.
Apple also unveiled updates to its software for iPhones and iPads. It
will present notifications of new emails, missed calls and other
events in a more intelligent fashion, reminiscent of the way Google
Inc.'s Android smartphone software already does. The software will
present all pending notifications in a list, accessible with the swipe
of a finger.
The new mobile software, iOS 5, will have a newsstand for newspapers
and magazines that you subscribe to on iPad. New issues are
automatically downloaded and placed there.
Apple also announced greater integration with Twitter, so that you can
tweet photos, for instance, directly from a photo app.
iMessage in iOS 5 brings the functionality of iPhone messaging to all
of iOS devices - iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iMessage allows users to
send encrypted text messages, photos, videos or contact information to
other iOS 5 devices over Wi-Fi or 3G.
The software would be available to consumers in the fall. iPhones,
iPads and iPod Touches will now able to get operating system updates
directly from the Internet, without having to connect to a PC running
iTunes. It's something Android phones can now do.
Apple didn't announce a new iPhone model. In recent years, it has
revealed one in at the developer's conference in early June, then
launched it a few weeks later. This year, a new iPhone model isn't
expected to reach stores until the fall.
Jobs made a public appearance in March to announce a new iPad. On
Monday, Apple said it has sold more than 25 million iPads since they
went on sale 14 months ago.
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