Tuesday, August 2, 2011

iCloud.com goes live

iCloud.com goes live

iCloud.com is now live… if you have an Apple ID that works with iCloud. Here’s the thing — it’s meant for developers right now, and Apple IDs are still fragmented to the extent that for some people, iCloud might not be too useful yet.

For example, you may try to login with your MobileMe ID and be told it hasn’t been migrated to iCloud yet. You might try to login with your iTunes ID and then, once you’re in, be told you need a MobileMe address to access Mail. You can set up a new, free iCloud ID, but then all of the content you have connected to your existing Apple ID(s) won’t be there.

So, yeah, meant for developers. Still, it’s nice to see it up and running, and get a preview of the design (which we’re guessing is a fairly straight front-end port of the SproutCore web app code from Me.com, now running on the all new iCloud backend.)

Current web apps available include Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find my iPhone, and the new Documents, which currently offers Apple’s iWork formats for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. (The last three of which require the new iWork for iOS beta apps, downloadable via Apple’s developer site.)

Gone are iDisk and Gallery. iCloud is no doubt an attempt to abstract away the file system-like behavior for the former, but will a web front end for PhotoStream be made available to replace the latter?

Meanwhile, on iPhone you just get a placeholder card, nicely rendered, and the ability to get more information and a link to the developer beta.

Gallery of screenshots after the break.

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