Wall Calendars Obsolete

Live Blog: Apple's Unveiling of iCloud

Called iCloud, the storage service allows users to sync things like apps, documents and purchased music across different Apple devices. ICloud is free, but a more heavy-duty music-syncing service called iTunes Match will let users sync songs even if they weren’t purchased on iTunes; that service is $24.99 a year.

The iCloud and iTunes Match services were just one of several software announcements today. Apple also introduced iOS 5, the next incarnation of its operating system for mobile gadgets, as well as Mac OS X Lion, the system for Mac computers. In the past, Apple has used June events to introduce new iPhones, but that didn’t happen this year.

The Wall Street Journal’s Yukari Iwatani Kane was at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and live blogged from the event. A recap is below, with highlights in bold.

While we're waiting, let's take a look at a few of the reports floating around about what Apple might introduce today. Tech Crunch has a look at an image that may (or may not) show iOS 5 in action.  The photo shows a Twitter notification sliding down from the top of the screen, rather than the current pop-up format, and the blog says this supports the idea that notifications will be revamped.

On to iCloud: The Journal has reported that it will be based online and will let users store digital files -- including photos, music and videos -- in remote databases and access them from Internet-connected devices. Users wouldn't have to upload their music libraries, though. Instead, iCloud would analyze the person's existing library and grant access to songs it recognizes. It's still not clear what such a service would cost. Another Apple storage service, MobileMe, is $99 a year.

There are a whopping 250 new features in the new mac operating system -- dubbed Lion -- but today we're going to see 10 of the key ones.  First up: multi-touch scrolling , tap to zoom, pinch to zoom, swipe and more. It's bringing the gestures you use on your iPhone to your computer. Mr. Schiller says this could make scroll bars on websites obsolete.

These swipe gestures allow you to do a lot of things, including getting you to feature No. 2: a sort of dashboard called Mission Control. Mr. Federighi is demonstrating how this will work. He pulls up a Safari page that opens to the BBC site, with the top story headline "Strauss-Kahn Denies Sex Charge."  (This makes me wonder how they decide which page they'll use.) He shows how swipe gesture can page through websites on Safari (elicits applause and oohs).

10 Reasons Why People Will Always Use Calendars | Orange Circle Studio

With the introduction of smart phones, the iPad and other electronic devices equipped with digital calendars, are wall calendars becoming obsolete? Will wall calendars become passé like payphones and film cameras?

This reminds us of a similar debate in the 1990s when mobile phones first appeared on the scene.  Watches no longer were necessities as people could tell time on their mobile phone, and many predicted that watches would soon become a nostalgic relic.  A decade later, it is clear that watches have survived the digital revolution as people still continue to wear timepieces. The clock hasn’t run out on Cartier, they’re still in business because people still love to wear watches–and the same goes for calendars!

Comment below and tell us your reasons why you still use a wall calendar!

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