icloud Preview

iCloud.com is open, and finally if you have a developer account at least. Preview the new images.  The site provides access to webmail, calendar and address book online to all who have an account icloud. If you have a MobileMe account, you will have to transfer the data to icloud, but the link is idle. We note in passing the use of pop-up identical to those of IOS.

Behind the login screen, there are the traditional choices of application. There is Mail, Address Book, Calendar, Find My iPhone and a newcomer with iWork. As expected, the iDisk has disappeared, as well as the MobileMe galleries.  All web applications have been updated with each time an alignment IOS versions. Mail Webmail is similar to the iPad, the Address Book Contacts on iPad, the Calendar to iCal. The rendering is really excellent and is very close to native applications. 

The tab does iWork is currently only highlight the integration of the three applications icloud IOS. We assume that we can then access documents stored on the cloud from the Apple interface. iCloud.com is wide open to all modern browsers: the site works on Safari course of Chrome that uses the same rendering engine, but on Firefox, Internet Explorer. An error message appears with Opera 11.50, but the site is still accessible. The animations are still largely reserved for Safari ... Not surprisingly, JavaScript is essential for the proper functioning of the site as not fail to explain an error message if you try to use without iCloud.com. We should not imagine not feeding icloud: You must accept cookies to access the site.

Final version of OmniPlan 2 is available now

OmniPlan 2, the project manager is finalized at The Omni Group [149.99 Euros]. The update is free for licensees of 1.0 purchased between January 6 and July 17. For purchases prior to this time the update is 99 dollars.

This version focuses on the collaboration: we can synchronize a database using a WebDAV server, with MobileMe or through Omni Sync Server, a new service offered by the publisher and currently in beta. Synchronization can then be done automatically, and that Omniplan will also manage a CalDAV server to retrieve the schedules of all employees.

OmniPlan manage two fiscal years in addition to the normal years and will be able to plan a project for the second fiscal quarter rather than for a particular month. Many other improvements have been made in planning the project, could for example create tasks that will start automatically after other tasks. The publisher has also added filters and the print function is more flexible. The demo version runs for 15 days but the application is still only in English.

Is iCloud going to use Windows Azure!?

In recent weeks, Mary-Jo Foley, a journalist specializing in Windows for ZDNet, has received several indications that Apple would use Windows Azure, the platform-as-service Microsoft. She was dismissed out of hand these rumors, but the assumption seems to be confirmed now iCloud was presented.

Sending an image IMessage causes authentication to servers Windows Azure. The study of communications network connected to IOS devices icloud indeed shows contacts with Windows Azure servers and Amazon AWS in addition to Apple's servers, as shown, for example Apple Infinite. GigaOM has sought advice from three experts from the cloud: if two do not think that such communications be sufficient evidence, the third draws an explanation of interest.

Apple already has data centers, used especially for MobileMe and updates of software. They are however not sufficient to properly distribute the content around the world: Apple relies on a distribution network (CDN), provided in particular by Akamai and Limelight. The contents are duplicated on thousands of servers around the globe to accelerate downloads. So according to this third expert, Apple would use a similar strategy to icloud: the data center of Maiden would host the master files, but copies are placed on servers Windows Azure (and Amazon AWS) as a cache.

In light of new observations of network traffic on an iPhone with iOS 5, Infinite Apple has another theory: Apple's servers would not be used to store files, but to manage the links between different files, scattered servers, Windows Azure and Amazon AWS, as close to their users.

In any case in detail, the use of external services for icloud is not surprising. While the data center of Maiden is the ninth largest in the world, but Microsoft up three data centers in the top 10: the Redmond Company has one of the largest accommodation capacity in the world, with a system, Windows Azure that has nothing to prove. Apple is pragmatic on the matter: she knows the world of data center is not his strength, and does in fact not a single Mac in the Maiden. Windows Azure is also a product that Steve Jobs knows well: his other company, Pixar, had worked in the cloud version of its rendering engine, system demonstration in the Microsoft cloud.