i cloud is the one of the cloud computing techniques

1. i cloud
A cloud storage and cloud
computing service from Apple Inc

2. • 1 History
• 2 Announcement
• 3 Features
• 3.1 Backup and restore
• 3.2 Back to My Mac
• 3.3 Email, Contacts, and Calendars
• 3.4 Find My Friends
• 3.5 Find My iPhone
• 3.6 iTunes Match
• 3.7 Photo Stream
• 3.8 Storage
• 4 URL access points
• 5 System requirements
• 6 Name dispute
• 7 Privacy
• 8.Competitors
• 8.1 Other
• 9 References
Contents:

3. History:
iCloud is the latest branding of Apple's cloud computing services. It has
previously been branded as iTools in 2000, .Mac in 2002, and MobileMe in
2008.
iCloud was announced on June 6, 2011, at the Apple Worldwide Developers
Conference (WWDC). Apple announced that MobileMe would be
discontinued after June 30, 2012, with anyone who had an account before
the unveiling of iCloud having their MobileMe service extended to that
date, free of charge.
The official website, www.icloud.com, went live in early August for Apple
Developers. On October 12, 2011, iCloud became available to use via an
iTunes update. iCloud had 20 million users in less than a week after
launch.The iCloud.com domain and registered trademark were bought from
a Swedish company called Xcerion, who rebranded their service to
CloudMe.CloudMe still controls major domains like iCloud.de, iCloud.fr and
iCloud.es.
A class action lawsuit by customers unhappy over the transition from
MobileMe to iCloud was filed in early May 2012.

4. Announcement:
• The first official mention of iCloud from Apple came on May
31, 2011, when a press release announced that it would
demonstrate the service at the WWDC on June 6, 2011. A
banner hung at the Moscone Center for WWDC revealed the
iCloud logo five days before the official launch.
• In the WWDC 2011 keynote speech, Apple announced iCloud
will replace MobileMe services and that the basic iCloud
service will be free of charge.

5. Features
• The cloud-based system allows users to store music,
photos, applications, documents, bookmarks,
reminders, backups, notes, iBooks, and contacts, and
provides a platform for Apple's email servers and
calendars. Third-party iOS and OS X app developers
are able to implement iCloud functionality in their
apps through the iCloud API.

6. Backup and restore
• iCloud allows users to back up the settings and
data on iOS devices device running iOS 5 or
later. Data backed up includes photos and
videos in the Camera Roll, device settings, app
data, messages (iMessage, SMS, and MMS),
ringtones, and Visual Voicemails. Backups
occur daily when the device is locked and
connected to Wi-Fi and a power source. In
case of a malfunction of any Apple device,
during the restoration process, iCloud offers to
restore all data along with App data only if the
device was synced to iCloud and backed up.

7. Email, Contacts, and Calendars
• As with MobileMe (and .Mac and iTools before it), an iCloud account includes an
email account. Unlike MobileMe and its previous iterations, an email address is an
optional part of an iCloud account, in that the user can choose not to use it but
can still use the email as their iCloud Apple ID. The email account can be accessed
using any standard IMAP-compatible email client as well as the web portal mail
client on iCloud.com. Additionally, on an iOS device, iCloud email is push-enabled.
• Users converting existing MobileMe accounts to iCloud accounts kept their existing
"@me.com" email addresses, and users whose accounts pre-dated MobileMe and
had both me.com and mac.com email addresses kept both. In iOS 6 beta 3, Apple
gave notice to developers that new signups would instead get "@icloud.com"
email addresses.[citation needed] As with the .Mac to MobileMe transition,
existing users get to keep their old addresses and also get a matching new
icloud.com address, so messages sent to a valid account with multiple addresses
all end up in the same inbox.
• Users setting up new iCloud accounts, whether completely new or attaching them
to existing non-MobileMe Apple IDs, can opt to not have email with their iCloud
account. These users don't see the iCloud webmail component when signing in at
iCloud.com. They still need a valid email address with another email provider to
sign-up (e.g. a Gmail account), and that existing non-Apple email address becomes
their iCloud login.

8. Name dispute
• iCloud Communications, a telecommunications
company in Arizona, sued Apple in June 2011 for
trademark infringement shortly after Apple
announced iCloud.The lawsuit was filed in the
U.S. District Court of Arizona and demanded that
Apple stop using the iCloud name and pay
unspecified monetary damages.iCloud
Communications changed its name to Clear
Digital Communications in August 2011 and
dropped its lawsuit against Apple shortly
thereafter.

9. System requirements
• iCloud requires an iOS device running iOS 5.x or
later, or a Mac running OS X 10.7.2 "Lion" or later,
to create a new account.Synchronizing with a PC
requires Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) or
Windows 7 using iCloud control panel,optionally
Outlook 2007 or later to sync Calendar, Contacts
and Reminders, and optionally Internet Explorer 8
or later or Safari 5.1.1 or later to sync Bookmarks.
Online access to iCloud requires a compatible
web browser. MobileMe account users could
move their account to be an iCloud account,
keeping the same account details.

10. If any queries