Now, Steve Jobs took the stage on Monday to show off Apple's latest products,
but he didn't show off a new phone or computer; the focus was solely on software.
Now, Jobs took the wraps off the next version of the Mac operating system, the next version of its mobile operating system,
and the product that will tie it all together -- the iCloud.
Now, the long-awaited iCloud is essentially an online storage space, but Jobs explained how it is much more than that.
Some people think the cloud is just a hard disk in the sky, right?
And you take a bunch of stuff and you put it in your Drop Box or your iDisk or whatever,
and it transfers it up to the cloud and stores it and then you drag whatever you want back out on your other devices.
We think it's way more than that. And we call it iCloud.
Now, iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices.
Now, iCloud is built off the back of Apple's digital hub strategy. Now, Jobs first unveiled the digital hub in 2001.
Now, the idea was that your computer is at the center of your digital life, and all your data is collected and stored on your computer,
and your computer is the central hub that synchs all that data to all your devices.
But, as Jobs explained, Apple's digital hub doesn't work anymore.
Devices have changed. They now all have music. They now all have photos. They now all have video.
And so if I acquire a song, I buy it right on my iPhone.
I want to get that to my other devices, right? I pick up my iPad, and it doesn't have that song on it.
So I have to synch my iPhone to my Mac, then I have to synch my other devices to the Mac to get that song.
But then they've deposited some photos on the Mac, so I have to synch the iPhone again with the Mac to get those photos.
And keeping these devices in synch is driving us crazy.
So what is the solution? Well, you take the Mac from the center of the hub, and you demote it to being just another device, and the cloud becomes the center.
And the computer joins your phone or tablet as just another gadget that needs to be synched.
But there are many limits to iCloud. Now, it is not a streaming service.
Now, if you want to access your data on a certain device, iCloud, it makes it easy to download songs to a gadget, but you actually have to download it.
You can't save space by leaving it in the cloud and streaming it.
Also, no Web access.
Now the iCloud will freely share things like documents between your devices, but you'll need an Apple device and the right app to access them.
Unlike Google Docs, you can't access documents through the web.
And lastly, the storage is limited, iCloud will only keep the last 30 days worth of photos on its servers.
Now remember, Jobs said that the computer has been demoted from being the central hub to just another device,
but the only device that will store all your photos is... your computer.
Now, whether those limits will affect the popularity of iCloud, now that remains to be seen.
Now, we'll find out when Apple releases iCloud later this year.