Amazon Upgrades Cloud Drive, Now Includes iPad Support

On July 7, 2011, in iPad, by admin

Amazon announced today that they would be upgrading their Cloud Drive online music service in three distinct ways. Amazon will offer storage plans that include unlimited space for music, free storage of MP3s purchased through Amazon and support for the iPad with their Cloud Player for the web.
Now, for a limited time, Amazon customers who purchase a Cloud Drive storage plan will receive unlimited space for their MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files. Any music not purchase though Amazon MP3 will have to be manually uploaded to the site. With plans starting at $20 a month for 20GB of storage space, Apples iTunes Match service may be a better deal at $25 a year for some people. Amazon has yet to revealed how long this unlimited offer will be available.
It would appear that Amazon is beefing up its cloud based music service ahead of the launch of Apples iCloud in the fall. With the latest upgrade, Customers can now store all of their Amazon MP3 purchases for free in Cloud Drive, including future MP3 purchases as well as all purchases made before the launch of Cloud Drive and Cloud Player. None of the music purchased through Amazon MP3 will count against a users total amount of storage capacity. Previously, Cloud Drive would count all music files against the total storage limit, including music purchased through Amazon.
Although Apple has yet to launch iCloud officially, they have already implemented some of the same features that Amazon now offers. Currently, iTunes lets you re-download any song that youve already purchased, to any device that you own. When iCloud is released in the fall, Amazons Cloud Drive service may not look as appealing to some customers.
Amazons third new feature is Cloud Player for iPad. Amazon has decided to forgo Apples App Store in favor of a web based music player. This makes sense for them because Apple has no reason to approve an app that will directly compete with iTunes and iCloud. Currently, iOS devices can listen to music through Safari, but the process is less than elegant. With a dedicated Cloud Player for iPad, streaming music will be a much more enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, the iPhone and iPod Touch will have to wait for the next upgrade to enjoy the native web player. Hopefully, we wont have to wait too long.
Source: Amazon

 

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Wi-Fi Hotspot Support Coming to AT&T iPhones?

On January 13, 2011, in iPad, by admin
Click the image to open in full size.With all eyes fixed on the release of the Verizon iPhone today, speculation is growing as to whether or not the included Wi-Fi hotspot feature will be coming to other carriers as well. The iOS has been capable tethering for some time now, but it has been limited in the US at least, by AT&T and its overly stressed network. Even though AT&T continues to assure customers that they are in fact working to improve their network, customer satisfaction remains quite low.

Rumors are now circulating that Apple will finally bring the hotspot feature to all GSM iPhones with the next iOS update. The only thing that may block this feature is carrier support. In the US, this means that AT&T will have to let Apple include this feature as part of the operating system and give users the right to use it. AT&T currently charges $20 for the privilege. However, jailbreakers have been able to tether their iPhones for some time now using MyWi, and there’s only a one-time charge of $20. It’s very unlikely that AT&T will change their stance on this and give users something for free.

Click the image to open in full size.

With so many other carriers offing phones that can be used as Wi-Fi hotspots, it makes sense for the iPhone to have this feature as well. We’ll have to wait and see what AT&T decides to do, but hopefully they will finally relent, if only to keep customers from migrating to Verizon in February. Now that the iPhone is available on more than one carrier in the US, AT&T will hopefully feel the need to stay competitive with Verizon. Whatever happens in the next couple of months, one thing is certain, competition in the marketplace is always beneficial to the consumer.

This technology is nothing new. I was tethering as far back as the iPhone 3G, using a hack that I downloaded directly from the internet. It did prevent me from accessing my voicemail, so I finally had to remove it. This just proves that the iPhone has been able to tether almost from the beginning. At long last we’ll finally be able to use our iPhones as hotspots, just as long as AT&T doesn’t muck it up somehow.

Source: MacRumors

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Why No Facebook Support in Ping?

On September 2, 2010, in iPad, by admin
Click the image to open in full size.Many Apple users worldwide have spent some time scratching their heads over the new iTunes feature called Ping. Apple’s so-called “social network for music” is supposed to let users follow artists and bands, as well as find out what their friends are listening to. However, there’s no way to connect with friends, other than spamming them with email, because despite the fact that Facebook interconnectivity is still – up to this moment - advertised on Apple’s site, Ping still doesn’t have it. Steve Jobs blames Facebook, claiming they wanted too much.

In an interview by Kara Swisher at All Things D, Jobs says Apple was in talks with Facebook over Ping, but the two companies were unable to come to an agreement. He was quoted as saying Facebook wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to.” When Swisher asked what the hangup was, Jobs declined to elaborate. She pressed him on whether iTunes could support Facebook Connect to allow sharing between the two platforms. The Apple CEO was noncommittal. ‘We could, I guess,’ he shrugged.

It seems pretty clear that the hooks were in for Facebook support, and that they were only pulled at the very last minute when negotiations broke down, as Facebook connectivity was touted on slides during Steve Jobs’s presentation yesterday. The tutorial video on Ping promises that “once you get set up, you can find your Facebook friends who have Ping profiles,” and the Ping page on Apple’s website says you can “find even more music fans with a quick search, by sending email invites, or by connecting to your Facebook account.” And according to several Cult of Mac readers, the Facebook Connect button appeared on Ping yesterday, though it didn’t allow them to find any friends.

Steve Jobs bragged about the “160 million credit cards” Apple has on file through iTunes, so maybe he’s trying to make sure he doesn’t have to share too much of the booty with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Whatever the cause, it’d be surprising if Apple remains aloof much longer. Having a Ping page right now is like having a fax machine in the early 70s: useless unless you can find someone else who has one. Whether Jobs likes it or not, Facebook and other social media platforms like Twitter are how people find each other these days.

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