iCloud

Give Apple a solid 'B' to 'B+' at WWDC 2013

If you were expecting a wow moment during the opening of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, odds are that the litany of incremental changes to its hardware and software disappointed. No big surprises. No "one last thing" sort of announcements were in the offing.

But this year's developers conference also occurs at an unusual time for Apple. The company that brought the world smartphones and tablets is in the unfamiliar position of fighting the perception that Samsung and others are winning the technology race. And when the opportunity came to give voice to that frustration … Read more

iWorks gets iCloud treatment for Google Docs-like functionality

Google Docs has been around for a while, but later this year, Apple will give its iWork suite of apps the iCloud treatment, letting you create, access, and edit Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents from a Web browser on a Mac or Windows PC. Apple calls it iWork for iCloud.

Naturally, Apple would prefer if you used its Safari Web browser to access your cloud-based iWork content, but you'll also be able to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome browsers (Apple says iCloud for iWork is optimized for those browsers).

Apple is releasing a developer beta … Read more

Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote: Join us Monday (live blog)

Editor's note: Apple cranked out the news during the WWDC keynote, from the Mac Pro and MacBook Air to iOS 7, Mac OS X Mavericks, and the long-awaited iTunes Radio. Follow all the news from WWDC 2013 here.

Apple kicks off its annual developers conference Monday, June 10, and we'll be there to bring you all the news.

The press conference, where the company has promised a first look at new versions of iOS and OS X, kicks off at 10 a.m. PT at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. We'll also be running a … Read more

Apple's WWDC 2013: Rumors and expectations

Apple's 24th annual developers conference kicks off next week, and will be the company's first event in more than seven months.

The conference lasts the entire week, but the highlight is Monday's keynote address, where Apple typically announces new products and services. This year, Apple has only said it will give developers new versions of iOS and OS X software, though there's likely to be a surprise or two.

CNET's live coverage of Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote

Expectations are high, in no small part because it's been so long since Apple has released … Read more

Apple's iCloud jumps 20 percent to 300 million users

Apple's iCloud online storage jumped 20 percent in the most recent quarter, the company noted on its earnings conference call with analysts.

Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company now has 300 million iCloud users. In January, Apple noted that iCloud had 250 million users.

The service stores and syncs data from Apple customers, such as calendars, email, photos and more across the various Apple devices that users own. Last month, Strategy Analytics reported that Apple held 27 percent of cloud storage usage in the United States during the third quarter of 2012, leading rivals.

Apple's Q2: By the numbers

Wall Street will have to make up its mind about Apple's downbeat forecast for the next quarter. But the company came in ahead of estimates during its first second quarter. Here's how Apple fared in the quarter compared:<>uct:

iPhones: 37.4 million iPhones compared to 35.1 million year-over-year iPads: 19.5 million compared to 11.8 million year-over-year Macs: 3.95 million, compared to 4 million year-over-year iPods: 5.7 million compared to 7.7 million year-over-year iTunes revenue up 28% App Store now in 155 countries and 350,000 apps 91 million visitors … Read more

Apple iOS users hit by online access glitches

Apple iOS users bumped into some trouble with several online services today.

Updates on Apple's status page this morning revealed that users might get an error when signing into their iCloud accounts or creating new accounts.

Users may incorrectly receive an authentication error when attempting to use iCloud. Setting up a new iCloud account from an eligible device may be temporarily unavailable.

Additionally, some people were unable to create new Apple IDs or sign into the Game Center app. Some iTunes users had been unable to access the iTunes store or make purchases, but Apple's status page indicates … Read more

Apple's iMessage, FaceTime hit with second outage this week

Apple's iMessage and FaceTime networks are once again experiencing outages.

The outage, which is the second this week, began just before 8 a.m. PT, and once again affects "some users," according to Apple's system status page.

Both services experienced a similar outage this past Tuesday that lasted more than five hours.

iMessage is Apple's proprietary messaging platform that works between iOS and OS X users. FaceTime is the company's live video chat service, also for those two platforms. In January, Apple said that iMessage users were sending more than 2 billion messages a … Read more

Apple's iMessage, FaceTime experiencing problems

Two of Apple's communication networks, iMessage and FaceTime, are currently experiencing outages for some users.

According to Apple's fancy system status page, the issues for the two services began just after noon PT.

iMessage, of course, is Apple's proprietary messaging platform that works between iOS and OS X users. FaceTime is the company's live video chat service, also for those two platforms. Affected users report being unable to send or receive iMessages or FaceTime video calls.

This is not the first outage for either service, though iMessage has historically experienced more problems. This latest follows one … Read more

iCloud nearly back to normal after early morning outage

Apple's iCloud had a major outage this morning, but things are slowly but surely returning to normal.

The outage was reported this morning on Apple's Status page, showing that 11 percent of users were affected. All of iCloud's services, including Mail support, Notes, and sign-in weren't working. Since then, the services have made a comeback and fewer users have been affected.

As of this writing, just Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, and Backup are not working. Apple says that it's affecting "less than 1 percent of users."

Apple's iCloud is no … Read more