Feature films could be part of Apple’s iCloud launch next week, according to “CNET” (http://macte.ch/TckcA). Today Apple announced it would debut iCloud, upcoming cloud services offering, along with Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5 at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
In the past several weeks, Apple executives have stepped up their attempts to convince some of the major Hollywood film studios to issue licenses that would enable Apple to store its customers’ movies on the company’s servers, two sources close to the negotiations told “CNET.” Apple began discussing a cloud service with the studios over a year ago, the article adds.
Earlier this year it was reported Apple had acquired the icloud.com domain name from the Swedish firm Xcerion. Most reports and speculation have iCloud dealing more with music than video.
Apple has reportedly signed deals with most, if not all, music publishers. The “Wall Street Journal” (http://macte.ch/mmhlr) expects iCloud to be a “scan and match” locker service. Services like those offered by Google and Amazon require users to upload their music libraries.
The type of service Apple is expected to start analyzes the library and grant access to songs it recognizes, without requiring an upload step, the article adds. Users then are able to listen to their music on compatible smart phones and computers without copying the songs into the device’s memory.
— Dennis Sellers
