Apple iCloud: Price Announced, Site Opened For Some

The iCloud is here (for some people, at least).

Apple has set up a landing page for icloud.com, where developers can log in and try out the Cupertino company's newest cloud storage effort. The service will allow users to sync up to 5GB of personal data in the cloud for free, as part of what Steve Jobs' called an initiative "to move your digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud." iCloud adopters can upload photos, emails, contacts, and other digital content into Apple's cloud, so that the information can be accessed wirelessly across a number of devices.

Though users can upload up to 5GB of data for free, after that they have to pay, and Apple has announced its prices. For $20 per year, you get 10GB of storage; 20GB is $40 per year, and 50GB is $100 per year. According to tech blog MacRumors, "purchased music, apps, and Photo Stream" do not count against your free 5GB. Amazon, which launched its own cloud music service earlier this year, cut prices for its music storage service ahead of the launch of iCloud and iTunes Match, according to All Things D.

You can't play around with this Beta release of iCloud unless you're a developer, but our friends at TechCrunch posted screenshots of several iCloud features for you to check out. And MacRumors posted this video by YouTube user helpfulmactips2010, which shows off iCloud's iOS-like interface and Lion-like Calendar and Keynote apps:

iCloud will launch out of Beta to non-developer users in the fall, alongside the updated iOS 5 according to MacRumors. There is no word yet on iTunes Match, the $25 per year service that syncs all of your music into the cloud, which was announced along with iCloud at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2011. The Apple site still says that Match is "coming this fall."

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Comments

[plages]

08:34 PM on 08/03/2011

Be very careful, because once you start to seed those clouds, it will really rain apple sauce, and that could really be a mess to clean up!

[MIKEinNYC]

09:50 AM on 08/03/2011

I don't want my content in this pernicious Cloud. I want my content stored locally. I don't need any entity knowing what I'm using or exercising even the slightest modicum of control over what I want to use, see, or listen to.

[ZenSufi]

06:29 PM on 08/02/2011

Yay, cloud.

[maxwelldog]

06:01 PM on 08/02/2011

am I missing a point?
The last time I was at the electronics store, the latest hard drive back-ups were speaking in terms of terra-bytes. Given the leaps of technology, shouldn't we be seeing terra-byte storage?

[jilljackson4545]

04:34 PM on 08/02/2011

It escapes me as to why anyone would want and/or need this product.

[14tavoliberal]

04:20 PM on 08/02/2011

"Cloud needs cookies" ad there's a cloud eating a cookie. That is awesome

[Jaime01]

03:59 PM on 08/02/2011

Another Apple product that has been around for years. Just like mp3 players, tablets, touchscreen smartphones, etc. But I'm sure Apple will make their version magical.

[Draekia]

11:21 AM on 08/03/2011

Apple actually has had the product out for years as well, they've just added a couple more features and made it free. (@mac.com addresses can attest to how long)

As for making a better version than others, well, that's a matter of opinion and there's nothing wrong with market diversity. It's healthy even!

[tskfce1]

03:32 PM on 08/02/2011

i am turning off the computer in 2013,,for good!!! ill get my info from the wind,,done!!

[gfs5541]

03:15 PM on 08/02/2011

Actually, iCloud seems to be a good deal and it would resolve the issue of synching my data to all my iDevices. I await the eventual full deployment.

[JoshLSmith]

02:41 PM on 08/02/2011

Grew tired of Apple and their totalitarian control over products I bought a long time ago. I'll stick to the devices that allow me to use them to their potential.

[Draekia]

11:22 AM on 08/03/2011

Aside from the idevices, what in tarnation are you blathering about?

[JoshLSmith]

12:08 PM on 08/04/2011

The idevices is where it starts. Apples control over ATT, having them remove certain apps from the android market, their patenting of touch screen devices to drive up competitors prices. Including updates to make other manufactures hardware incompatible so that you have to buy an use apple products... I could go on. If you're not an Apple sheeple, It's pretty easy to see.

[pepper1311]

02:18 PM on 08/02/2011

I have my music on a desk top and brough onto this I-pad via the cloud. There also time machine for hard back ups.

[Mister Wu]

02:15 PM on 08/02/2011

So it is finally 1984.

[NerdyStudent]

02:15 PM on 08/02/2011

Never miss an opportunity to charge for something that is freely available elsewhere do they?

[timotay89]

02:27 PM on 08/02/2011

most of icloud is free. What are you talking about?

[CaptainObvvious]

04:02 PM on 08/02/2011

Don't pay attention to them. They don't actually read the articles just skim it for something to hate Apple for.

[anotherbowlplease]

02:10 PM on 08/02/2011

I wouldn't use it if it was free.
And believe you me, it's not going to be.
This guy is a traitor to the United States of America.

[CaptainObvvious]

04:02 PM on 08/02/2011

Another piece of baseless garbage with no basis in facts or reality.

[Draekia]

11:24 AM on 08/03/2011

Huh?

You have no idea what you're talking about do you? And using a word like "traitor" have you no perspective?

[deaddisnee]

02:09 PM on 08/02/2011

I already have a cloud service it's called dropbox

[CaptainObvvious]

04:03 PM on 08/02/2011

Is Dropbox completely integrated into the OS and does it perform sync things between devices with no effort or input from the user automatically.

No... It doesn't.