Can’t wait to test out iCloud? The service, which has been rolling out slowly in the Mac developer community, has made another baby step today with the release of iCloud Beta 7 and OS X 10.7.2 to registered Apple developers.
As you might expect, both of these packages are designed to ready the just-released OS X Lion for iCloud, Apple’s new online cloud-based service. Among many other things, these new packages add support for many of iCloud’s features, including an updated Back to My Mac service, which allows users to access shared files on authorized Macs even if they’re not on the same local network, as well as Documents and Data in the Cloud and Find My Mac, which should both be self-explanatory.
There’s no word on what other improvements OS X Lion 10.7.2 (build 11C37) contains, yet the bug fixes and performance enhancements typical of the first update to a newly-released operating system are expected. Apple urges all developers who were running previous builds of OS X 10.7.2 to make sure they run the built-in “revisioner” before you’ve installed the new update, prior to restarting your system.
Keep in mind that these are developer “seeds” which won’t be available through Software Update, or any other way publicly. In order to download these updates, you must become a registered Apple developer, which will set you back $99 per year. This registration, which you can obtain from Apple’s developer website, won’t only give you access to pre-release software bits, but as well as gold master software before the general public gets their hands on it. It will also let you get developer-oriented tools and documentation. While only aimed at developers, a Mac developer subscription should be in every enthusiast’s arsenal.
iCloud is Apple’s new service aimed at keeping all Macs and iOS devices registered under the same Apple ID in sync. This service allows users to keep everything from content purchased from iTunes to email, contacts and calendar events to be displayed across a multitude of Apple devices and keep all of it in sync via iCloud. In addition, Documents in the Cloud, which is built right into iWork on both OS X and iOS, allows changes to documents to be displayed in real-time as they’re made on all devices, even while the document is still open. Still confused? Don’t worry, just check out our comprehensive write-up.
iCloud is scheduled to be available this Fall along with iOS 5 final.
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