iCloud

ICloud is the company Apple, which was launched presented on June 6, 2011 at the WWDC developer conference and on October 12, 2011, a cloud service. iCloud replaces Apple's previous MobileMe online service, which was completely shut down on 1 July 2012.

• 2.1 Power Consumption

Functions

With iCloud, it is possible to keep the data on a maximum of ten Apple devices and Windows computers in sync. In addition to mail, contacts and calendar entries that have already been synchronized with MobileMe, photos, documents, and settings can be automatically uploaded to iCloud and synchronized between all devices of the owner. For iOS devices, iCloud serves as a backup.

ITunes Store purchases multimedia content can be downloaded by all devices of the user.

The " Find My iPhone " is to determine the whereabouts of an iOS device, something in case of loss possible. " Find My Friends " function, the current location to other persons will be announced.

Each user are free 5GB of storage available in iCloud. Own Photos into Photo Stream and purchased at Apple content such as music, apps or books will not count towards this space. Additional space can be purchased with costs.

Comparison with MobileMe

Together, the two services have the following functions:

• Mail: The service includes an e -mail account (eg firstname.lastname @ icloud.com, [email protected] ), which can be queried via IMAP.
• Contacts: access to the synchronized via iCloud contact information
• Calendar: Access to synced via iCloud Calendar data.
• Bookmark: synchronization of the managed iCloud bookmarks.
• Find My iPhone: a function that allows the iPhone or iPad locations and can be locked with a four- digit access code from a distance.
• Back to My Mac: remote connection to the Mac over the Internet.

Other features of MobileMe as iWeb publishing, iDisk and gallery, as well as the synchronization of Dashboard widgets, Dockobjekte, keyrings and settings from Mac OS X coincided with the introduction of iCloud off first. Some of these features have been added later iCloud.

New Features

With the launch of iCloud are compared with MobileMe Added the following functions:

• ITunes in the Cloud: synchronization of purchased iTunes songs
• Photo Stream: synchronization of photos
• Documents in the Cloud: Synchronization of own documents
• Automatic downloads and list of purchased apps and books
• Backup and Restore iPhone or iPad
• Find My Friends

At WWDC 2012, the following functions were presented, which were introduced with OS X 10.8 and iOS 6 in the fall of 2012:

• Memories: memories Synchronizes between all Apple devices
• Notes: Dubbed notes btw all Apple devices
• (i ) Message: Synchronizes last read iMessage between all Apple devices
• Safari: Synchronizes tabs from Safari web browser between all Apple devices with Safari 6
• Divided photostream: photo streams can be made available to other users ( " shared ").

At WWDC 2013 additional functions were presented, which were introduced in iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 " Mavericks " in the fall of 2013:

• ICloud Photo release: In a joint Photo Stream other people now can share photos.
• Find My iPhone: To disable the service or reactivation of the device, it is now necessary, the Apple ID and password.
• ICloud keychain: All user names, passwords and credit card numbers are encrypted stored in the iCloud.
• IWork for iCloud: All iWork documents can now be created, edited and presented in the iCloud web interface.

Applications

With the introduction of iCloud for iOS, there has only been supported by iWork for iOS, since the release of Mac OS X 10.7 is the use even under iWork for Mac possible. iCloud can also be used in third-party software that offer these on the App Store.

ITunes Match

The service iTunes Match launched in the U.S. for first 24.99 U.S. dollars per year in Germany ( € 24.99 ) and Switzerland ( CHF 35) it has been available since demm 16 December 2011. GEMA, which represents many musicians in Germany, had initially completed a one-year experimental agreement with Apple.

ITunes Match created for each title in the music library of the user an acoustic fingerprint and balances the library so as to the offer available on the iTunes Store. If a title is also available in the iTunes Store, it is treated immediately, as it had been purchased from the iTunes Store. Music low sound quality can be exchanged for better copies and can also be kept when the iTunes Match subscription is not renewed. Not available in the iTunes Store can be uploaded; they can be streamed or downloaded during the term of the iTunes Match subscriptions to all devices of a user.

Data centers

Apple operates several data centers in different U.S. states.

In iCloud uploaded data will be encrypted using the AES-128 algorithm. The so- encrypted files are then stored in storage services such as Amazon S3 or Windows Azure, while the keys and metadata such as the file name and access rights in Apple's data centers are stored.

Since the servers are in the U.S., they are not subject to the German, but the much weaker U.S. data protection law. Stiftung Warentest therefore evaluated the data protection at all U.S. cloud providers only to be sufficient.

Power consumption

The power consumption of data centers has been greatly debated. A report published in April 2012 Greenpeace report criticized the fact that Apple is very selective and transparent is what concerns the publication of energy data. The report also criticized the applications used by Apple fuels. Greenpeace had estimated the energy requirements of an Apple data center in the U.S. state of North Carolina on the basis of investment costs in the amount of 1 billion U.S. dollars to 100 megawatts. Of these, only 10% come from environmentally friendly sources, the rest came from coal and nuclear power plants. The industry side DataCenterKnowledge.com pointed out, however, that the investment costs and costs of a solar system and fuel are included that will generate part of the electricity required on site. The actual cost of the data center and thus the energy consumption so be considerably lower than assumed by Greenpeace. Apple said the data center need at full load, about 20 megawatts of power, 60 % of which would be generated from renewable sources on site. The remaining 40 % were purchased and also from renewable sources. Even for a new data center in the state of Nevada Apple uses only renewable energy sources.

System

To activate the service at least an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is required with the Apple operating system iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, or Windows Vista or Windows 7 with additional iCloud software.