• Amazon Launches Web-Based Kindle Cloud Reader

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Books, Cloud, News 1 Response

    While Apple was harsh with their recent changes to the iOS terms. many expected the big players in eBook world will have to pull their apps. It seems Amazon’s popular Kindle app adheres to Apple’s terms But at the same time, they were also working on an alternative.

    Amazon and its Kindle brand are making some new moves today on iOS with a brand new amazing WebApp.

    Branded Cloud reader, Amazon’s new Web-based Kindle reader is one of the most accomplished HTML5 WebApps you’ve probably seen so far. As its name indicates, it’s an eBook reader that lives in the clouds, or more precisely, in your browser. It’s aimed to work with any browser (besides the iPhone for now), but the app seems to feel particularly at home on the iPad, especially once you add it to your home screen and get rid of the url bar.

    As you would expect, the app lets you log in to your Amazon account, access all your books, and read them. It’s very well done, and while the animations and looks of the reading mode aren’t as good as iBook’s, the WebApp is still fully capable of downloading books for offline reading, changing fonts, or accessing your notes. Downloading books will even count against your download limit. Swiping through pages is done through simple taps or gestures.

    On the downside, purchasing books is still done through Amazon’s website, and the experience isn’t as great as it could be. This is a smart move by Amazon, isn’t it?!

    [via TechCrunch ]

  • Apple’s iCloud is Powered by Windows Azure and Amazon S3 Services

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Cloud, Featured, Gadgets, Microsoft, News, Rants & Raves, Rumors, Tech. 5 Responses

    It looks like Apple has turned to Microsoft and Amazon for help in the cloud services. The hints of this came from an anonymous source who sent a set of screen shots to InfiniteApple. The screenshots supposedly show Apple’s new iMessage service in action – specifically, the HTTP traffic log. The images seem to indicate that iCloud is getting some assistance from S3, Amazon’s cloud storage system, and Azure, Microsoft’s cloud service.

    PUT https://mssat000001.blob.core.windows.net:443/cnt/1234.5678 HTTP/1.1
    Host: mssat000001.blob.core.windows.net:443

    HTTP/1.1 201 Created
    Content-MD5: [redacted]
    Last-Modified: [redacted]
    ETag: [redacted]
    Server: Windows-Azure-Blob/1.0 Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
    x-ms-request-id: [redacted]
    x-ms-version: 2009-09-19
    Date: [redacted]
    Connection: close
    Content-Length: 0

    Exactly how the Microsoft Azure and Amazon S3 cloud systems may be helping Apple’s iCloud is unclear, but whats there is that both companies involvements is merely related to iCloud’s back-end and it’s unlikely they had major involvement in developing iCloud per se.

  • Google Launches Streaming Cloud Service ‘Music Beta by Google’

    // Gradly // Android, Apple, blog, Cloud, Featured, google, News No Responses

    Google debuted its own streaming music service at its I/O developer conference Today morning. The service dubbed “Music Beta by Google,” will act as a “digital locker,” where users are able to store their music in the cloud instead of on their local hard drives or mobile devices.

    After uploading your existing music library to a remote server, you’ll be able to stream your music to your Android phone or web-connected PC. As long as you’re connected to the internet, you’ll be able to access your music wherever you go. You’ll be able to add up to 20k songs, and it’s free while its in beta mode.

    “We’ve been in negotiations with the industry for a different set of features, with mixed results,” she told Billboard the night before the announcement was made. “[But] a couple of major labels were less focused on innovation and more on demanding unreasonable and unsustainable business terms.”

    According to sources familiar with the matter, Google had hoped to let users “beam” their digital music collections into a cloud-based locker system by recognizing the files and mirroring them in the cloud. Google has a reputation for getting what it wants, but instead, due to a breakdown in negotiations with major labels Sony Music and Universal Music Group, Music Beta by Google reportedly lacks label licensing for its Music Beta service.

    As we posted before, he service is currently invite only, with priority given to those attending Google I/O as well as those who own Motorola’s Xoom tablet. Registration can be found at Google.music.com.

  • Google To Announce Music Cloud Service At Google I/O Conference Today

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Cloud, Featured, google, Rants & Raves, Rumors 1 Response

    It seems as though Google is going to launch Google Music today at it’s annual Google I/O developer conference. and why Google rushed it out is only to beat Apple and keep up with Amazon Cloud Service.

    Google will be taking the same approach to streaming music as Amazon. This means that they will not have a master copy, but rather they will have the user upload their library. AKA, Google has no licenses with the record labels.

    Google’s service is rumored to be flash only, so no iOS devices or Android devices running anything lower than 2.2. would run it. Google is going to launch this as an invite-only beta for Google I/O attendees, Motorola Xoom owners, as well as people who want to sign up for a beta. remember, No “official” announcement has been made yet.

    We will wait now for Apple to launch their licensed, and more secure, cloud that is rumored to also have video, photos, contacts, calendars, etc. which expected to be shown off at WWDC 2011 on June 6th!