Apple iCloud: Top 5 Features and What They Mean For You

This whole “cloud-computing” thing has really become a popular buzzword lately, and with Amazon, Google, and Apple all joining in on it, it’s set to really take off. This week, Apple announced its new iCloud service, which is a really cool thing that means you never have to worry about syncing your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch ever again! You also get a ton of really cool things for free along with the service. Here are 5 that you’re sure to love.

So, what are the features that will actually matter to normal people? Almost all of them actually.

#1 Take a photo, it magically appears on all your Apple devices.

This one is really cool. Once iCloud is released this fall, you won’t ever need to plug your iPhone or iPod into your computer to get your pictures on it. The photos will just magically appear on your computer or iPad instantly. It uses the internet, so as long as you have WiFi or 3G, you’re good to go.

#2 All your music, upgraded instantly, and available everywhere.

When you use Apple’s new iTunes Cloud service for $25/year, you get all your music available on all your devices, instantly, no matter where you are. Also, even if you just have a really low quality, scratchy song, Apple upgrades the song to perfect quality instantly, for free. It’s pretty amazing. If you want to listen to the song on your iPod or iPad, just tap on it and it downloads and plays instantly, without ever needing to be plugged into your computer. Awesome.

#3 Pick up right where you left off, on any device you own.

Ever start reading a really great article on your computer at home, and then have to run out the door in the middle of it? Then, by the time you got home, it was old news, or you’d lost interest? Well, Apple wants to fix that. Now, when you walk out the door, your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch all know exactly what you have open on your Mac, and they sync with it. So you can finish reading that great article right where you left off. It’s one of those things that just seems like it should have worked that way all along.

#4 All your settings, set automatically, just for you.

It gets really annoying having to enter in all your settings on each and every device you own, doesn’t it? Every account, every password, even every to-do list item, having to be re-entered over and over and over again. So annoying. Well, they’ve decided to try and fix that too. Now, all your apps will just sync across your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac, wirelessly, automatically, all the time. So you’ll never need to worry about any of that stuff ever again. Great, isn’t it?

#5 Free email, calendars, contacts, and storage for everybody!

It used to cost $100 every single year to get Apple’s fantastic web email, calendars, contact management, and online file storage. Now, they’re all free for everyone! Starting this fall, you can sign up for your very own @me.com email account free of charge. Automatically, your email will be up-to-date and synced across all your devices, along with all your contacts, calendars, to-dos, files, and more. You’ve gotta love free stuff.

Apple has announced a ton of really cool stuff this week, and we’ll keep you up-to-date on the coolest things that will mean the most to you. Also stay tuned for some really awesome video games and consoles coming out of E3 this week too!