Tag: iCloud

Multi-Platform is a Feature

David Sparks writes out loud about something I've thought about since I got both an iPad and an iPhone. Most of the apps I use on my Mac, iPad and iPhone were chosen because I can use or sync information between the devices. I want to be able to pick up any one of my devices and get "work" done. Apple's iCloud strategy is a really a mobility strategy that I think most enterprises could embrace1.

With iCloud, there is no secret incantation, retina scan, or hacking involved. Your data just is. No longer will you have to consider whether the right folder is synced to the right app. Work on one device. Turn it off. Work on another device and pick up where you left off.

  1. Ubiquitous data sync/access scares the crap out of command and controls corporate IT environments. However, an enterprise rights data management strategy could mitigate most of the risks. ↩

The iCloudBook

Andy Ihnatko [writing in MacWorld](http://www.macworld.com/article/160933/2011/07/ihnatko_icloud_macbook_air.html) suggest that iCloud is more than just a replacement for MobileMe.

> It’s so very clear to me now that just as Superman is the living ideal of Truth, Justice, and the American Way, the 11” [MacBook] Air is the tangible ideal of iCloud. You grab it when you leave the office and that’s it. No syncing, no updating, no need to trust that you’ll find WiFi when you get to where you’re going: iCloud kept your iCloudBook’s files up-to-date as you were updating them on your iMac so you’re already good.

The path to the future is paved by iCloud

Shawn Blanc has this to say about WWDC and iCloud:

iCloud cuts the USB cord between our computers and our iPhones. It “demotes” the Mac and the PC to the same plane as the iPhone and the iPad. It lets you activate and update your iPhone from inside the car when you’re on your way home from the Apple store. It is something that lets you listen to a song on your iPod even though you bought it on your work computer.

But iCloud isn’t just a way to cut the USB cable. iCloud is an exciting and ambitious vision. It is the missing piece to get mobile computing to act the way it ought to.