iCloud Reviews: Critics Take On Apple's New Service

Apple on Monday took the wraps off its iCloud online storage and synching service, which lets users move up to 5GB of personal documents (as well as 20,000 iTunes-purchased songs) to the cloud for free.

Coupled with Apple's $24.99-per-year iTunes Match service, which allows users to store music purchased (or ripped) outside Apple's iTunes store, the new system may be a blow to competing media storage and streaming services.

After an early look at the service, critics are weighing with their first impressions of the iCloud. Check out our roundup of opinions from Engadget, the Times, Fast Company, Wired and Read Write Web.

Read on for more details about how Apple's iCloud stacks up against its biggest competitors. Then, view our slideshow of Apple's other major announcements from the WWDC 2011 keynote event.

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Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired

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"Apple's music iCloud is nice, not revolutionary," according to Buskirk's early review of Apple's big announcement. Furthermore, he wrote, the lack of a streaming service "leaves the full promise of cloud-based music up in the air," though he appreciates that this also means users can listen to their music anytime--even without WiFi. Buskirk admits, however, that iTunes Match is the system's silver lining. "$25 isn't much to pay, considering that it means you can download nice, clean, 256 Kbps AAC versions of even your dodgy bit-torrent-downloaded MP3s from iCloud to any iDevice or iTunes-running computer for a year," he wrote.

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"Apple's music iCloud is nice, not revolutionary," according to Buskirk's early review of Apple's big announcement. Furthermore, he wrote, the lack of a streaming service "leaves the full promise of cloud-based music up in the air," though he appreciates that this also means users can listen to their music anytime--even without WiFi.

Buskirk admits, however, that iTunes Match is the system's silver lining. "$25 isn't much to pay, considering that it means you can download nice, clean, 256 Kbps AAC versions of even your dodgy bit-torrent-downloaded MP3s from iCloud to any iDevice or iTunes-running computer for a year," he wrote.

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