Apple has just released a new ad that shows off the "harmony" throughout its ecosystem that’s thanks to iCloud.
The ad opens with a user choosing to use iCloud upon configuring a 4S. A set of sequences then begin where the user performs an action on their iPhone 4S, and it shows up on their other Apple devices. Here’s what takes place during the commercial:
- A user purchases an album on their 4S, it "appears" on their iPad and MacBook Air.
- A user takes a photo, it shows up on their iMac and iPad.
- A user makes a change to their calendar, the change is applied on their MacBook Air and iPad as well.
- A user installs Flipboard, the app is also automatically downloaded to their iPad.
- A user creates a new contact on their iPhone, and that new contact shows up on their MacBook Air.
- The user downloads three books on their iPhone, the books show up on iPad as well.
The ad ends with the user taking a photo with their iPhone, and multiple photos rapidly showing up on the iPad and MacBook Air, insinuating that a set of photos was taken and automatically synced. In all, various things were demonstrated in this ad; the syncing of song/album downloads, iBooks, apps, calendar syncing, and Photo Stream. And the ad demonstrated just how seamless and thus easy to utilize the features are without any words in the video.
With a focus on the automatic, "in-the-background" part of iCloud, they didn’t even touch on its other services in the commercial. The email and Find my iPhone features — which Apple used to charge for with MobileMe — are now free and under the iCloud brand now as well. There is also a slick web interface where you may use these features at the PC.
Announced at last year’s WWDC event, iCloud has since been touted by pundits as the feature to finally "cut the cord", and liberate iOS from the PC entirely, as iCloud removed the need to plug in your phone to sync your data to the PC to get stuff like photos off of the device, or the need to back up and update iOS through iTunes. Should you need more space, (iCloud currently offers 5GB of free storage for free), you can purchase additional storage upgrades in increments of 10GB, 20GB and 50GB for $20 a year, $40 a year, and $100 a year, respectively.
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