iCloud

Apple's App Store and iTunes have sprung back into life, after technical issues brought the download stores offline in the early hours of this morning. Downloads of apps, music, and video resumed at approximately 1:30pm Pactific today, after what Apple described as a DNS issue left users not only unable to get to the App Store and iTunes on their iPhones and iPads, but temporarily killed the Mac App Store and iBooks Store too. In total, the services were offline for more than ten hours.

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Apple may have had a good Monday with the launch of the Apple Watch and the new MacBook, but Wednesday is proving to be a downer with App Store and iTunes problems meaning new downloads and updates are unavailable for many. The downtime began more than five and a half hours ago, according to Apple's own service status page, with users unable to access not only the App Store and iTunes for software, music, and video downloads, but the iBooks Store and Mac App Store also affected.

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One of the things Apple had working against them when it came to creating files for use in the cloud was actually creating files in the cloud itself. Though you could save a Pages document or presentation made via Keynote in iCloud, creating one via iCloud.com wasn’t really a thing. Until now. Today, Apple is rolling out file creation in iCloud, all via a browser. Now, you don’t even need access to an OS X or iOS device to use Pages, Keynote, or Numbers.

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Apple surprisingly seems to be starting to open up some parts of its walled garden experience to those unfortunate enough to find themselves outside. Although it's not exactly the full Monty, which may never happen, of course, at least now some users on other platforms using other browsers will now be able to get a taste of Apple's iWork suite for the cloud, with a few caveats. And provided they agree to using beta version software that may or may not eat your homework.

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Now that iOS 8.1.3 is out, Apple also pushed an update for OS X Yosemite. Now at 10.10.2, Apple’s desktop update brings with it some bug fixes we’re happy to find. The update isn’t massive, but fixes a series of things users have been wanting Apple to fix for some time, now. Apple has addressed a WiFi bug that caused disconnections, and resolved a few issues with Safari; most notably one that caused webpages to load slowly. There is also an interesting new feature for iCloud Drive.

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While the concept of "the cloud" has been around for more than a few years now, it still feels like the idea, and use, of "cloud storage" was adopted at such a rapid rate. And that makes sense, looking at how the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets has exploded in the last 7-8 years. As evidence of the importance of cloud storage these days, a new report has found that half of all mobile photographers rely on cloud services in some way for keeping their photos.

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In the wake of Apple’s iCloud security issues, CEO Tim Cook released a statement that said, in part, “when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product.” In an interview with Time magazine, Facebook’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, has a retort for that. With Facebook ramping up their own ad network, Zuck has taken offense to Cook’s comments, and challenges that Apple is who’s really out of touch with consumers. His proof? Your expensive iPhone.

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As far as cloud storage solutions go, Apple’s iCloud is among the oddest. A company with massive resources and deep pockets should be able to provide a clean, cohesive experience for users. They can’t; iCould and iDrive are just not as good as other cloud storage offerings. From layout to syncing — even down to pricing — iCloud is a mis-hit from Apple. They’re sticking with it, though, so a silver lining exists. A new report details why the cloud in front of iCloud is so dark, though.

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This week it was reported that Apple’s iCloud servers were under attack by China - as it turns out that’s not entirely true. Apple has made clear in a statement that there were indeed "intermittent organized network attacks" this week, but that they were done on people attempting to access the iCloud webpage. There weren’t any attacks on the iCloud servers themselves, nor were there any drops of user information. Apple does, however, suggest that you pay attention to "certificate warnings."

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While Apple fans, both around the globe and in China, might be celebrating the availability of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones in the country, they should probably start rethinking their merry thoughts, depending on their beliefs on how much the government should be able to access about their personal lives. A report is now surfacing that the Chinese regime is using its famous (or infamous) "Great Firewall of China" to compromise the security and privacy of iCloud users using an age-old man-in -the-middle attack.

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With Monday's scheduled release of Apple's iOS 8.1 update, the first major upgrade for the latest version of the iPhone/iPad operating system, to include a new iCloud Photos service, it appears the web version has rolled out a few days early for those with beta access. Registered developers who log in to their account on iCloud.com should now find themselves able to use the beta release of the iCloud Photos web client.

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This week Apple has made with the iPhone and iPad update with iOS 8.1. This system update will bring several new features to the iPhone and iPad world, including the return of Camera Roll and the first release of Apple Pay for mobile NFC payments with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This system also works with the public beta of the new iCloud Photo Library app and system. This iCloud Photo Library system uses iCloud storage for space - of course, and that might cost you.

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