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Lion Server to be $49.99 From the Mac App Store

What was thought of as an extension to OS X Lion will be a full blown upgrade for $49.99 from the Mac App Store: Apple has just launched a brand new Lion Server page detailing all of the management features you can expect from the Server App to Xsan support.

Let’s start with the basics: you get to manage AirPort wireless base stations and Time Capsules, monitor traffic and bandwidth, all while controlling who gets access to the server with simple account management options. The server supports VPN for encrypted access to your network, an internal wiki, private iChat services, Time Machine for company backups, calendaring, file sharing, email support, and contact sharing all in one place.

For iPad file sharing, there’s webDAV file sharing (which doesn’t sound as tasty as the features iCloud promises), but there are push notifications so Lion Server can notify users of important email or assigned meetings. Time Machine backs up on the server can be conducted for WiFi, ensuring everyone’s company essential goods are backed up in a safe place.

iCal Server 3 and Mail Server 3 are updated to take advantage of push notifications in Lion Server. While iCal Server 3 gives anyone the power to update a schedule or a meeting (which is subsequently updated on everyone else’s devices), Mail Server 3 allows you to search attachments on the server, and also includes a webmail component so you can check those corporate messages outside of the office in a secure environment.

Wiki Server 3 is another big feature in Lion Server that’s a cross between your standard wiki and 37 Signal’s Backpack, giving users the ability to upload files to a page and download them when needed. Wikis can contain information about people, podcasts, specific company pages, and more that can be easily navigated from the navigation bar. A special People Browser gives you web browser and computer independence for looking up contact information that can be browsed anywhere.

Lion Server also includes a profile manager that allows you to remotely manage iPhones and iPads from a central location. If you’re away from the office, the profile manager is available from a web browser so you can manage devices from anywhere.

Look for Lion Server to be released with Lion this July.

[via Apple]

MobileMe No Longer Accepting Subscribers, Runs Until June 30, 2012

Following the massive iCloud announcements at WWDC, Apple just updated the official MobileMe page to inform users that new subscribers are no longer accepted as Apple moves everything to iCloud, but existing apps will be usable until June 30, 2012. Furthermore, Apple has posted more details on a new support document available here. All accounts have been extended to June 30, 2012, free of charge and all data from MobileMe (including email addresses and contacts) will be automatically transitioned to iCloud when you sign up.

Can I create a new MobileMe account?

You can no longer create a new 60-day trial account or start a new subscription using a code contained in a MobileMe box. However, if you have a Family Pack subscription, you can still create new family member accounts.

Can I upgrade to a Family Pack or purchase additional storage?

Effective June 6, 2011, you can no longer upgrade your Individual account to a Family Pack or purchase additional storage for your MobileMe account.

I purchased a MobileMe box and have not used the activation code inside. Can I get refund for it?

Yes. If you have an unused activation code from a MobileMe box, you can submit a refund request.

For more info about iCloud, check out our coverage here.

iTunes In the Cloud: Free, Or Scan Your Library and Match Songs at $24.99 Per Year

Once again, the rumors were real – Apple has just introduced iTunes In The Cloud at its WWDC keynote. The new system will allow you to get access to all your previously purchased songs on device from a new Purchased tab in the iTunes Store (similar to Purchased apps in the new App Store) and download items at any time. More importantly, the new cloud will allow you to push a single purchase to multiple devices at once – a first in the music industry, Steve Jobs said.

But the real new feature was unveiled on stage as a “one more thing” by Apple CEO. As previous rumors and speculation suggested, iTunes in the cloud would be more than simple pushing and updating of songs from the iTunes Store. Besides the usual sync (and the new WiFi one?) and iTunes Store, Apple will offer a new iTunes Match service that scans your music library, and matches it with Apple’s catalogue of 18 million songs in the cloud. iTunes Match comes at a price: $24.99 per year.

In additions, iTunes Match will upgrade the songs to 256k AAC DRM free. And it costs just $24.99 per year. So if you’ve got a bunch of music that you didn’t get from iTunes, you can get it in the cloud. Now if you look at some competitors, you’ll be surprised. We scan and match, the other guys you have to upload the whole collection. The other guys only have web apps. For 5000 songs, Amazon is $50. Even up to 20,000 songs, we’re one flat price.

The new iTunes in the cloud will be available as developer beta today.

Update: it looks like “some music features” of iCloud will be available in the US only while in beta. We assume the new iTunes Match service will be US-only during this period. From Apple’s official iCloud page:

Features are subject to change. Access to some services is limited to 10 devices. See www.apple.com/legal/itunes/ww/ for more information. Some features of iCloud require iOS 5 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac computer with OS X Lion or a PC with Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Outlook 2007 or 2010 recommended). Some music features of iCloud are available in beta now in the U.S. only and require iOS 4.3.1 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3.

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iCloud: iWork Apps, Document Storage, Developer API

iCloud is currently being demoed at the WWDC keynote in San Francisco, and besides being a full replacement for MobileMe that does a lot of things (including App Store downloads and backups) for free, new features have been demoed as well. For instance, iWork integration: the iWork apps on the iPhone and iPad will get the possibility t0 push documents to iCloud and download them – it runs on all devices, iCloud will update the documents you’ve been working on and push them to all your other devices. The functionality has already been implemented in the iWork for iOS update from last week.

Then, iCloud features document storage and an API for developers so all apps can store documents in the cloud, push them around to devices, and automatically update those documents as changes happen on a user’s end. It works on Macs and PCs as well, and we’re expecting several developers to take advantage of this API (which is said to be very easy to implement) within the next few weeks through the iOS 5 betas.

Photos courtesy of This is my Next.

iCloud: Photo Stream

Another cornerstone feature of iCloud that was just unveiled was ‘Photo Stream’ which will bring all your photos to the cloud. It works so that as soon as you take a photo with your iPhone, that photo will instantly be whisked away to the cloud and then pushed back to all of your other devices - whether it be a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or even a Windows PC!

How many times have we taken photos on our iPhone and wanted to share them on the iPad. Wouldn’t it be great if they were already there?

Photo Stream is built right into the iOS Photos app so there is “nothing new to learn” and on the Mac it is built right into iPhoto whilst on a PC it integrates with the ‘Pictures’ folder. The Apple TV won’t miss out either, Photo Stream is integrated straight into it.

Each photo will survive on iCloud for 30 days, at which point old photos will no longer be pushed to devices. iOS devices will be able to keep the last 1,000 photos but Macs and PCs will keep all photos.

Apple Unveils iCloud

UPDATE: You get access to iCloud when you upgrade or buy a new phone. Everyone gets 5GB of iCloud storage for Mail, but don’t worry because Apps, Books and Photo Stream do not count. Developers can try out iCloud from today.

Steve Jobs has just unveiled iCloud and it is a service that frees all your devices from having to connect to your Mac to get updated media and data. The Mac is being demoted, and in its place is the iCloud which will become “the hub of your digital life”. iCloud will be free!

We’ve got a solution for this problem. We’re going to demote the PC and the mac to just be a device. We’re going to move your hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”

iCloud stores all your content, so that if you have something new on your iPhone it is sent to the cloud immediately, iCloud will then push it back to all your other devices.

And it’s completely integrated with your apps, and there’s nothing new to learn. It just all… works. It just works.

Whether it be new events on your calendar or a new message in your @me account (which will remain), all of it gets pushed to the cloud and then pushed back to all your devices. The App Store, which is integrated within iCloud will let you see all your purchased apps, even if they are from another device. The same will occur for iBooks

Now what about for devices you buy in the future. The cloud downloads it to all of your devices.

Backup too will be dealt with by iCloud, it will take daily backups of all your devices over WiFi including all the purchased music, apps and books, photos, videos and app data. If you ever lose your device or get a new one, it can all be restored from iCloud.

iOS 5: Beta Today, Ships This Fall, Runs on 3GS

After all the previewed features and great news about iOS 5 (OTA updates, wireless sync, new apps, iMessage), Apple confirmed that iOS 5 will ship this Fall (perhaps with a new iPhone?), with a first developer seed available later today. The best part? Just like iOS 4, iOS 5 will run on your iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (unlike a previous report claimed, 3GS is supported), iPad and iPad 2, iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen.

Photos courtesy of This is my Next.

Apple Unveils iMessage For iOS 5

A new service to hit iOS 5 is iMessage, a service that will allow any user on an iOS 5 device to send text, photos, videos, contacts and more to any other iOS 5 user. It’ll work fine regardless of whether they are using an iPhone, iPad, iPad Touch or even a mixture of those devices.

Our customers have been asking us for a new messaging solution. We’re launching a service that works for all iOS 5 customers

iMessages has support for delivery receipts, optionally read receipts, typing notifications and all messages will be pushed to all devices you own, “so that you can pick up where you left off”. It’ll work on 3G and WiFi and everything will be encrypted.

Apple Finally Brings Wireless Sync and OTA Software Updates to iOS

Following direct Twitter integration, Newsstand and all the new features of iOS 5, Apple has just announced what many were hoping for in the months leading up to today’s keynote: wireless syncing. Dubbed PC Free by Scott Forstall, the new feature will allow for a variety of cord-free functionalities such as no iTunes required for activation, over-the-air software updates, Delta updates to only download what’s changed in the new OS.

From This Is My Next:

We said, why do people go back to a computer? Calendars, people create or delete them. You can do that now. Photo editing, you can do it on the devices. Even mail — you can create folders. So if you want to cut the cord, you can. So you no longer need to plugin to update your software. And they’re now Delta updates. Instead of downloading the whole OS, you only download what’s changed.

More on this later when Apple will seed the first iOS 5 beta.

Update: new cloud-based features have also been introduced in the App Store app without needing an update. The App Store application on iOS 4.3 already has a new Purchased tab that, similarly to the Mac App Store, allows you to get a list of all the app you’ve previously bought, also from other devices.