This past week Apple introduced iTunes 10.3. Now, normally, a new iTunes release is not something to really write about. But, this release was a significant release. It basically gave you a flavor of what iTunes in the cloud is going to look like. And let me tell you, it is going to be sweet! There were three main features that came out in this iTunes release.
The first feature was automatic downloads. Basically, the way this works is that when you download an app, song, or book on one of your Apple devices, it will get automatically pushed to the cloud. Then it will get downloaded to all your other Apple and iOS devices. For example, I own an iPhone, iPad 2, and a Macbook. Let’s say I buy a song on my iPad 2, the song will now automatically be downloaded to my Macbook and my iPhone. No more having to sync up my devices to my Mac in order to make sure I have all my songs.
The second feature is being able to download previous purchases. Let’s say you are on your iPad and there is an app that you previously had on there, but is not on there any more. And you want to try out the app again. Instead of sycing your iPad with your Mac, you can now download a previous purchase of an app straight from the iPad. The same thing goes with music as well.
And the third and final major feature in this new iTunes is having the iBookstore on iTunes. Before, you could only access the iBookstore on your iOS device. Now you can actually get it on your Mac through iTunes. You can search and buy books the same way you would on your iOS device. And since books is part of the automatic downloads feature, when you buy a book from the iBookstore on your Mac, it will automatically get downloaded to your other iOS devices.
This is just a flavor of what Apple is doing in the cloud. For more on what they are doing with the cloud, check out this link. Go and get iTunes 10.3 here. Get ready for some great things to come from Apple regarding your “stuff” and the cloud. It is going to be game changing and affordable. Also, stay tuned for tutorials on the first two features as well.