Posts Tagged ‘iTunes’

Apple’s got their head in the clouds!

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

This week at the Apple World Wide Developers Conference a new cloud based storage service was revealed: iCloud. Apple’s iCloud is a new system that will automatically synchronize and backup all of your files across all your apple wireless devices. For the multidevice lifestyle we have all embraced with Apple products, this new way of storing and sharing information will revolutionize how we communicate with each other and how we interact with our devices.

iCloud will be a free service available for users to download this fall. The user will be able to automatically synchronize all their information including music, photos, documents, apps, and books to all wireless devices within range. This will create an automatic backup system similar to Google Docs and Dropbox.

By including the user’s iTunes library in iCloud, when a song is purchased on one device it will automatically be available on up to 10 other devices. So that means you can be listening to a song in a cafe, purchase it on your iPad and then go for a run later that day and listen to it on your iPod touch or iPhone without ever connecting your devices. All of the music purchased through iTunes will be automatically saved to the user’s cloud locker. For £25 a year Apple also has iTunes Match which will scan through all your music not purchased through iTunes and find a copy in their music library of over 18 million songs to replace your song with an iTunes Plus quality copy at 256 Kbps, even if your original copy was of lower quality.

Synchronizing your playlists is just one of the new features of iCloud. All your photos will also be synchronized and updated to each device immediately. With iCloud users can easily share photos and even upload directly to Facebook and Twitter from any device. It will be easier than ever to capture baby’s first beach day and send photos and video to grandma and grandpa immediately from any device.

Music and photos can take up a lot of memory on the iPhone and iPad, but Apple’s thought of that too. There will only be a rolling stream of 1,000 photos saved directly on the smaller devices at any time; the rest of the photo stream will be accessible through the cloud locker through a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. This does pose a problem for users who frequently travel in zones with weak wireless signals. It does not appear that iCloud will be able to stream music from the iTunes library, so there may only be a limited cache of songs accessible when on airplane mode.

iCloud will protect even the laziest users from losing their data. Apple does all the work for you constantly updating and syncing your data. All documents can be easily shared and edited so you are always working on the most up-to-date version no matter what device you use. Sharing and updating calendars and email accounts is another new feature. Text messages and SMS messages are also saved in your cloud locker along with saved ringtones and apps.

We all remember Mobile Me and how that system never really lived up to our Apple expectations. We at MadBid think iCloud is a very different product and will become a formidable competitor in the cloud based storage industry.

We can’t wait to try iCloud out on our Apple products this fall. Which Apple products will you be synchronizing? The benefits of cloud storage and synchronization can only really be optimized when you have more than one device to update, so why not pick up another i-something? At MadBid.com users have picked up the iPad 2 for just £2.52 and the iPhone 4 for £2.34. Those are just a few examples of the deals our users are wining every day, see for yourself.

The BlackBerry Torch- The best of both worlds?

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

As smarphones continue to take over our work and personal lives, and two of the world’s biggest phone manufacturers go head to head, many of us face a dilemma. Do we choose the sleek, fun iPhone, jammed-packed with apps making it one of the most multi-functional gadgets around? Or do with opt for a more grown-up, professional-looking and reliable BlackBerry model?
BlackBerries may not seem quite as exciting as they hold a stigma of office-bound grumpy commuters, chained to their desks by 24/7 email alerts. However, they have in recent years become one of the most popular brands of phones for teens and young adults alike, drawn in by the lure of free instant messages to other Blackberries and the easy to use full keypads. So it seems the battle is on! And now Blackberry’s manufacturer RIM has confused us even more, by launching the company’s first 2-in-1 touch screen and keypad phone, The BlackBerry Torch.

RIM has made great improvements to its previous attempt at a touch screen model, The Storm, which made a click sound every time the screen was touched. In fact, the Torch screen is now comparable to those of the leaders in the touch screen market, Apple and HTC.
Inevitably, due to having both a sliding touch screen and a keypad, the Torch is slightly chunky, but BlackBerries have always been stocky phones so that shouldn’t come as a surprises, and the iPhone 4 is rather boxy and heavy anyway. So with issues of size and screen type sorted, the real deal-breaker seems to be the extras.

It doesn’t seem plausible that BlackBerry could ever take on the mighty iTunes and App Store as they provide over a quarter of a million different ways to make a standard phone more exciting. They have certainly tried with BlackBerry App World, and maybe now, with this new handset, they have a chance to challenge Apple, as the touch screen should allow for better games.

The BlackBerry Torch is RIM’s attempt at a middle-ground, providing us with both the style of a touch screen and alongside the conventional QWERTY keypad, which seems to be reaching out to a different generation of BlackBerry users and hoping to provide an answer for those stuck in the middle of the BlackBerry versus iPhone war.

Top 4 Apps for all iPad users!

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

ipad_rgbIf you are one of the lucky owners of an iPad or are looking to add one to your collection of gadgets. Here we list the top 4 apps that you can’t live without:

1) Facebook – With 1 in 3 people in the world registered on Facebook, the app for the iPad is a must for many. The Facebook app for the iPad offers a much more in-depth experience than the iPhone app. It is free and is much more streamlined than the iPhone.

2) Air Video – With the size of the screen coupled with the quality of the display the iPad really is a great media player. Although you can transfer movies and music to your iPad via iTunes it can be a long and complicated process. That’s where Air Video comes in, just install the free app on your iPad and then download the free server client on your PC and tell it what you want to transfer and in no time at all you will be watching your favourite movies on the go.

3) KindleApples IBooks app is good but when it comes to to content selection, Amazon is still king. Kindle for the Ipad is a really good e-reader app, and makes it easy to browse through books. It seamlessly launches the web-based book store to make purchasing a snap.

4) Mondo Solitaire – Mondo solitaire comes in two varieties, a pack of the most popular games or the whole shebang. If you like card games, we recommend getting the full package and then having a blast playing through tons of your favourite games.

Sony PS3 to stream Indie Films

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

ps3+playstation+3_2524_19766585_0_0_7032420_300Both the Playstation 3 and XBox 360 have been streaming mainstream blockbusters for a while now. However Sony has just announced that from Autumn this year PS3 owners wil be able to stream films from MUBI.

Mubi is known as an online cinemateque for quirky movie lovers. With 1,000’s of acclaimed independent, foreign and classic films available it is a welcome addition to the PS3. It is believed that initially there will be around 300 films available to download at launch.

Andrew House, European Playstation boss stated ‘Playstation is about great entertainent, from games to content, delivered straight to the living room or enjoyed on the go’.

PS3 owners will simply need to download the application from the PS Store and then download the films. Although prices are yet to be confirmed it is thought there will be a varied pricing structure similar to iTunes. However some films will be free to download.