A couple of weeks ago, the Tech Weekly podcast offered a pretty good introduction to the range of conversations, aspirations and fears about Apple’s iCloud service to be offered to Mac and other iProduct owners in a few months.
When it comes to Cloud computing services, Apple is arguably a late starter. Many organisations have relied on Google services for years, while mere individuals have benefited from free services like Dropbox. Even Microsoft offered free online and sharing services for users of Microsoft 2010, which I think is a really good system, as long as you have the cash to install its expensive software on everything you use, and the local library’s or Internet cafe’s browsers are up to date (which you can never really expect). The word is though, that iCloud, together with new iOS for Apple’s mobile devices, will mean that the company will catch up pretty quickly, offering users online storage of music, documents, mobile apps, books.
Apple’s catch-up will represent a real turn in the way all operating system creators and service providers will assume its marketplace to be. Not long ago, say, early this century even, these creators (MS, Apple and the like) invested in development that allowed ordinary people like me to move their media hub from the lounge room shelf to the desktop in the study or the laptop on the coffee table. Digital natives grabbed that bull by both horns. Spaces in the home that housed CDs and DVDs became free space (or replaced by data storage drives), to the extent that listening to CDs has almost become a new definition for “old guy”.
We could expect that in the 2010s the new turn will be away from the household computer to remote storage. Could it be that soon owning a computer with a large storage space and tower in the study will be the new definition for “old guy”?
Our new reliance on access to cloud services has implications that could keep any dinner-table conversation for a little while, and there are debates in the media. One such conversation is over Apple’s “iTunes Match” service, where, for a subscription fee, a copy of any music stored on your computer that wasn’t bought from the iTunes store will be kept in your iCloud storage service, then synced to all your devices. If you’ve obtained that music illegally and it was matched by Apple, some believe this means that Apple has aided and abetted piracy. I disagree with the tone (and indeed the language) of the article that I just linked to, and I think it’s a fair enough comment that doesn’t warrant such an attack.
However the claim may perhaps contain a slight misconception of the culture of illegal media file sharing and distribution. This article, I think, paints a more accurate picture of everyday use and distribution of illegal/unlicensed material, far beyond the hype that pirates are insidious characters who are conspiring to rob people of incomes, take down companies, and launder profits from theft. In any case, music companies are starting to see more investment value in live performances and merchandising than fighting piracy.
