More iCloud News: Recently Uncovered Apple Patent & Job Listing Hits The Web
by Joe White
May 19, 2011
Today, more news on Apple's upcoming cloud based service - which many are calling "iCloud" - hit the Web. First, a recently uncovered patent application suggests that the service will patricianly sync cloud-based tracks to iOS devices, in order to decrease loading times. Second, an Apple job posting is calling out for a "Media Streaming Engineering Manager."
As you can see in the above image, the patent ("Local Storage of a Portion of Streamed Media Items") displays a new tick-box in a future version of iTunes, which is labeled: "Sync Partial Music." This suggests that users will have the option of syncing "pieces of songs" (which are stored in the cloud) to iTunes, which is kind of like offline caching. As outlined by Apple Insider, who uncovered the patent:
Segments of the song would be stored locally, and the iOS software would fill in the gaps by obtaining the rest of the track from a file stored in the cloud.This means that Apple fans would be able to reduce the amount of space used on their iOS devices (by storing tracks in the cloud), but will also be able to bypass waiting times when streaming, via "partially syncing" tracks to their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The second piece of iCloud related news to hit the Web today (again via Apple Insider), involves a recent published Apple job listing, which advertises the position of "Media Streaming Engineering Manager." As outlined by Apple in the job listing:
We are looking for an excellent engineering manager to join our team and help develop our media streaming engine for our iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows products.The position will form part of Apple's Interactive Media Group, whose technology is present within QuickTime, Safari and iTunes. So, when are we hoping for iCloud to launch? Could we expect to see a preview - at least - as early as WWDC? We certainly hope so. Be sure to let us know your iCloud expectations in the comments below.