Apple iOS 5 and iCloud service to launch October 12
At its iPhone event today, Apple announces that the iOS 5 update and iCloud storage service will be available next week.
Apple's latest software update for iOS and the iCloud storage service will go live on October 12, according to several live blogs reporting the news from the Apple event in Cupertino, Calif., today.
Apple announced the new iOS 5 and the iCloud music service in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference. iOS 5 will come with a slew of new features, including notifications and iMessage, a new messaging service for iOS users. Apple also announced a new app for iOS 5 called Reminders, which offers location-based reminders. It could do things like remind you to stop by the grocery store when you're leaving the office.
Apple also showed off its deep voice-integration app that in the future will be part of the iOS software for Apple devices. The app uses natural language to offer voice commands. This means that people can ask: "What's the weather like today?" And the device will answer. The app also can read text messages to you. Another example in the demonstration of the application is that you can set your alarm clock by saying: "Wake me up tomorrow at 6 a.m." And the app will respond, "OK, I set it for 6 a.m." This is still beta software and Apple is still testing it. But it's much more intelligent than other voice recognition technology.
The iCloud service is a storage service that is free to iOS users and ferries data between devices and stores device backups in the cloud. Developers have had access to iCloud since then, and a public rollout was promised for the fall.
The iTunes Match service that is part of the iCloud service is expected in late October.
More to come.
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