Unravelling the iCloud mystery, peel by Apple peel...

The much-ballyhooed Apple Worldwide Developers Conferences (WWDC) starts on Monday in San Francisco, and while it’s no secret that Steve Jobs is slated to announce a mysterious new service called iCloud, some new details have emerged.

As had been previously suggested , iCloud will give Mac users greater portability by allowing them to save their music-and then, eventually, other media like TV and videos-in the cloud. (The Los Angeles Times reported that Apple recently inked deals with all four of the major U.S. record companies, whereby Apple would keep 18% of the revenue generated via this new service, while the labels get 70% and the music publishers earn 12%.)

[caption id=“attachment_20792” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“There’s a buzz around iCloud, which Steve Jobs is to unveil today. Beck Diefenbach / Reuters”]  [/caption]

Perhaps most interestingly, any media stored via iCloud will not exist in the cloud in the way that had previously been thought (that is, through Apple’s new data centre in North Carolina). Instead, files will be saved onto a “personal cloud server” through Time Capsule, Apple’s wireless router and hard drive back-up, according to the Cult of Mac, a website that covers Apple.

More from World

Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

According to one of the blog’s unnamed sources:

If you make any changes on any computer, those changes are updated through iCloud and stored on your Time Capsule. The Time Capsule archives and serves up your files even when your computers are off. When you get home and fire up your desktop computer or laptop, the files are automatically synced across your devices.

Nothing like the words “automatically synced across your devices” to make a geek smile.

Let there by LED light

In non-WWDC buzz, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday that though it “may not seem a sexy frontier of disruptive innovation,” lighting is the New, New, New Thing in the Valley, which has “emerged as a robust and fast-growing cleantech sector.”

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched

Oli resigns: Who Nepal Gen Z protesters will accept as next PM, Deuba, Prachanda or Koirala?

Venture capital group Vantage Point Venture Partners is among the biggest players in his space, the newspaper reports, pouring $100 million into seven lighting companies. It continues to look for new start-ups to fund.

Why such growing interest? Well, money talks, of course. The annual global lighting market is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion.

Even Google is getting involved. Last month, the search company announced that it had partnered with a Florida lighting company to launch a LED bulb that can be controlled by an Android device. Efforts like these are part of the developing greentech-meets-domesticity “ smart home” industry.