Apple made steps this week toward the eventual release of iCloud. They launched iCloud.com, a test site for some of iCloud’s new features. The site is meant for developers who need to test iOS app compatibility with iCloud. Web-based versions of services such as Mail, Contacts, Calendars and iWork document storage are reportedly all part of the test. This shows that Apple is close to releasing iCloud as other portions of the free service, such as iTunes in the Cloud are already available.
In addition, Apple announced pricing for iCloud storage upgrades. You get 5GB of storage for free. Since music, apps, books and photo storage are not counted against your total, then it is hard to imagine needing more. But if you store a lot of iWork documents, then you can get an additional 10GB for $20/year, 20GB for $40/year and 50GB for $100/year.
iCloud is expected to launch at the same time as iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The Apple web site says “Coming this fall.” MobileMe users will be allowed to stick with MobileMe until June 30, 2012, if they wish. Many may choose to wait so they can keep using features like iDisk and MobileMe Web hosting and Photo Galleries.
I have never had so many complete strangers comment on my iPhone case before. And I think you can see why. That’s right, it is a “Lego” case. Actually, it is the Brickcase from Smallworks. But the idea is that you can add Legos to it. Decorate the back as you wish. Or, build your own tripod or iPhone stand and click your iPhone to it.
While the realistic forward view and accelerometer controls of most racing games fantastic on the iPad and iPhone, sometimes top-down with on-screen controls works too. That is the case with the super-fun Death Rally. You race around short courses for the best time, while trying to destroy your AI opponents with weapons. It is top-down, but the graphics are excellent, so you quickly forget that. I like that the courses are short so you can play a quick race as a break at any time.
Click on the + button at the top of iCal in Lion, or press Command+N, and you can add events without having to use anything but plain text. For instance, you can say “Meet with Joe at 1 pm Tuesday.” It will add the event and bring up the event editor so you can add an alert or other information. See the iCal help for details of exactly what iCal understands. If yo uphold down the click over the + button, you get to choose a calendar before entering the event text.
My brother became a patent troll and he now lives under one of those billion-dollar fancy suspension bridges.
Google has launched its competitor to Facebook and with it a new iOS app, Google+. If you are using Google’s new social network, you can use the app to view your circles, upload pictures, and so on. Updates should be coming quickly to this new service and app, including an update to better support the iPad at some point. We’re still waiting for Facebook to do the same.
Apple’s launch of Lion was a success, even if everyone isn’t completely happy with it. The online distribution allowed for more than a million downloads in the first day, and millions more since. Many have been surprised at the speed of the download, while others have needed to stop by an Apple Store or borrow a faster connection.
Professional reviews of the new OS have been positive, as well as many user reviews. Some users complain of issues with the new OS, particularly when it comes to software that is no longer supported. Lion doesn’t include Rosetta, which was used by Snow Leopard and Leopard to run older PowerPC applications. Others have been caught off-guard by having an older copy of Flash that then didn’t work in Lion. The most recent version of Flash does work, but isn’t fully supported. A new version should be coming soon according to Adobe.
Lion is available now in the Mac App Store for those running Snow Leopard. Apple will be releasing a USB disk version of the OS installer next month that should allow for installation without a download and on Macs running Leopard as well.
In Lion, the user Library is hidden by default. But you can still get there easily if you need to. In Terminal, you can type open ~/Library. Or, you can hold the option key down while selecting the Go menu in the Finder. This adds the Library to that menu and you can select it.
Using gestures is the key to getting the most from Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Knowing them can make you much faster at getting to things and working with your apps. You can find them all by just looking through the System Preferences under Trackpad or Mouse.
But it can be useful to have a printout handy while trying to master them.
So MacMost has compiled a list of gestures for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). Here they all are on a single PDF page, downloadable and printable: The MacMost Guide to Mac OS X Lion Gestures. Download it and pass it along!
Before Lion, you could drag and drop to move a file, and you could copy and paste a file from one location to another — leaving two copies of the file. But in Lion you can copy a file, and then use Command+Option+V to move the copied item to another location. The result is what you would expect from Cut and Paste, but you make the decision in the final action instead of the first one.
