According to Apple’s new MobileMe transition FAQ page, users will be able to access their iCloud services from the web. Specifically, the site says:

Will I be able to access iCloud services on the web?

Yes. Web access to iCloud Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Find My iPhone will be available at icloud.com this fall.

The FAQ also details some other issues that MobileMe users may be concerned about as their accounts are moved to iCloud. Apple says that photos, apps, music, and books do not count against the 5GB of free storage that comes with iCloud, and users will be able to buy more at a later time. It’s unclear how much additional space will cost, but Apple says it will explain more in the fall. As you’re likely aware, iCloud was announced during WWDC as a replacement for MobileMe. It will automatically store content across all of your devices and keep your mail, contacts, and calendar in sync across all devices. Users will simply need to sign into a new device to pull in all of their settings, photos, and more.

[Via TechCrunch]

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Apple’s senior manager in charge of its new iCloud solution has left the company to join online healthcare startup HealthTeacher. John Herbold held senior positions on the iCloud team and the MobileMe team before that, and he worked on a number of other projects while at Apple. Herbold joins HealthTeacher as Vice President of Product, focusing on digital engagement. “John has a proven background of engaging audiences across the devices we use to learn,play, socialize and be entertained,” said Scott McQuigg, CEO of HealthTeacher, in a statement. “Applying his experience developing world-class interactive products, John will lead our efforts tobroaden digital engagement with kids, their families and their teachers, all focused on measurably improving youth health.” HealthTeacher, according to the company’s website, is a service for school teachers that helps them provide health promotion, disease prevention, social/emotional wellness and safety resources to students. HealthTeacher’s full press release follows below.

Apple Product Leader Joins HealthTeacher as Vice President of Product

NASHVILLE, TN (June 21, 2011) – HealthTeacher announced today that John Herbold has joined the company as Vice President of Product. Prior to joining HealthTeacher, John was a Senior Product Manager on the iOS team at Apple Inc.

Most recently at Apple, John played a key role in the creation, development and launch of iCloud and led the development and marketing of Photo Stream. Prior to launching iCloud,John was a Senior Product Manager on Apple’s MobileMe team. While at Apple, John defined, shipped and marketed numerous products including iPhone and iPad apps, web apps and cloud services.

“John has a proven background of engaging audiences across the devices we use to learn, play, socialize and be entertained,” said Scott McQuigg, CEO of HealthTeacher. “Applying his experience developing world-class interactive products, John will lead our efforts to broaden digital engagement with kids, their families and their teachers, all focused on measurably improving youth health.”

“To dramatically bend the curve on youth health, we must create engaging and innovative experiences that make good health cool and aspirational—all while encouraging kids to move beyond the screen and be more active,” said John Herbold. “HealthTeacher is already playing a significant role in improving youth health through its work with teachers and schools. I look forward to leading the effort to enhance digital engagement that will equip our youth for a more successful future.”

Previously, John was a technology investment banking analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.He earned his M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and his B.S. infinance from Miami University.

Today is the day that Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other executives will unveil the next advancements out of the industry’s leading innovator at WWDC 2011. While Apple has already announced that the company will be talking about three different main products — iOS 5, iCloud, and Mac OS X Lion — the fact is, Apple once again could possibly change (and influence) the entire way we use computers and mobile devices. Let’s look at iCloud, for example: if Apple is able to transition the device-centric approach to how we work with information and apps to a task-centric approach where the PowerPoint presentation you’re working on is what matters, and not what computer or tablet or smartphone you’re editing it from, that in itself a huge move forward in computing. Other companies have been trying to accomplish this for years, but we having a feeling that Apple is about to show us the beginnings of something so seamless, it really could find mass adoption, unlike most current solutions. Add in music, photos, videos, and your documents, and you should be able to pick up any computer or device and have access to all of your information and data from wherever you are. Coupled with a rumored Airport Extreme and TimeCapsule refresh in which the devices will run iOS and a feature an A4 or A5 processor, and all of your data could sit on one of your own devices and it would use your own internet connection to serve up your files directly to you. Lastly, what if iCloud allowed you to just walk up to any iOS or Mac computer and let you sign in, sit down, and practically act as if though it was your device or computer? What if Apple then implements this using NFC in the next iPhone — just place your iDevice next to a Mac computer, and it will instantly be transformed into your computer. Hit the break for more!

In iOS 5, Apple is rumored to have drastically redone a major pain-point for users: notifications. Though I’m sure Apple will show off redone notifications in iOS 5, I think it will be much, much more that that — iOS 5 will be the biggest change since the introduction of iOS in 2007. While Mac OS X Lion is all about simplifying and taking advantage of all the innovative things Apple has done to get rid of the frustrating experience of using a computer, I think iOS 5 will be about making iOS even more powerful, and a platform that will be capable of one day being a standalone computer operating system. Also, what if Apple decides that they’ve had enough with 3rd parties making messaging systems? They never introduced a real version of iChat, what if they created their own messaging network, not unlike BlackBerry Messenger? They have to see how valuable and useful all of these messaging services are. Additionally, iOS 5 should eliminate the need to sync your device — it’s all tied to your iCloud account. Your device is backed up and synced wirelessly, applications update in the background, OS updates are delivered wirelessly, and if you ever lose or replace a device, just sign in, and all your data is populated and everything is back.

With Mac OS X Lion, Apple will introduce features that make the Mac even more enjoyable to use. It will make people look back on the fact we had to save files — really, if you think about it, it’s insane that we’re forced to manage the data on a computer and make sure it’s saved and backed up — and make them feel like we were all living in the stone age. The entire philosophy of Apple is to offer the user a window and let everything else melt away and get out of the way. OS X Lion does that more so than any other OS X release, and it makes computing easier and more enjoyable for everybody.

I know Apple set expectations that we won’t be seeing any major hardware announcements, but a part of me does think it’s possible we’ll see an iPhone announcement of some sort. A guy can dream, right?

Sprint announced on Thursday that the HTC EVO 4G will receive an over-the-air update to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) on June 6th. Android 2.3 will reactivate the ability to sync multiple Gmail accounts on the EVO 4G, and will also improve download management and streaming media applications, among other changes. Want the update sooner? Here’s a little secret: you can download the update and install it manually beginning on June 3rd. Simply navigate to your phone’s settings menu, choose “system updates,” and then select “HTC software update.”

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Paul Bryan, Microsoft’s senior director of business experiences product management for Windows Phone, has written a blog post that details Windows Phone Mango’s business productivity features. The update, which will be discussed in deeper detail during a press conference in New York City on May 24th, will include pinnable email folders for quick access from the homescreen, conversation view in email, server search, and a new Lync application for business chat users. Bryan also said there will be added capabilities for IT departments, including complex password support, information rights management support, and the ability to access hidden corporate Wi-Fi networks. “This week, we expect to exceed 16,000 apps available in the Windows Phone Marketplace,” Bryan added. We’ll be reporting live from Microsoft’s press conference on the 24th.

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When it comes to Twitter, we’re just as addicted as every other poor soul who got sucked in. We’re constantly connected on our phones and computers, always checking our timelines, and we crouch in a corner and cry every time the fail whale rears its ugly head. As addictive as the service is though, Twitter is often asleep at the wheel when it comes to features. Luckily, that’s where third-party developers come into play and when it comes to Twitter apps, there are now thousands of choices across every platform imaginable. Even once you’ve found your Twitter apps of choice, however, one of the most annoying things about being addicted to Twitter is constantly seeing the same tweets as you move back and forth between your phone, PC tablet and other devices. What’s more, when you make changes to your mobile client — say, adding a new list column — you have to make the same changes all over again in your other clients. But what if there was a better way?

MetroTwit developer Pixel Tucker and Rowi developer Hidden Pineapple on Friday took the wraps off a new project they’re preparing to roll out soon. Dubbed “The Nest,” their new joint endeavor is a cloud-based backend solution that allows their respective apps to sync data across platforms — MetroTwit, of course, being a popular Windows desktop app for Twitter, and Rowi being a terrific Windows Phone app. In its first iteration, The Nest will sync two crucial types of data: column configurations and unread tweet state. Add or delete a column in one app, and the same column will be added or deleted in the other. Read tweets in one app, and you won’t have to bother reading them again in the other. Fantastic.

The Nest functionality will be added to each app in forthcoming updates, and Erik Porter of Hidden Pineapple tells us the new versions of each app should become available in the next few weeks. The team will also be developing The Nest actively, and it looks like the initial implementation is just the start. We tried to get the tight-lipped developers to reveal their future plans for this great tech, but unfortunately they wouldn’t budge. We can dream, however, and we would love to see Hidden Pineapple and Pixel Tucker allow other developers on other platforms make use of The Nest — imagine being able to sync Twitter columns, read status and other data across your Windows Phone, your personal Mac PC, your Windows PC at work and your iPad 2 tablet. Despite the fact that we couldn’t get a confirmation out of The Nest team, we see this scenario as a definite possibility moving forward and we’ll be keeping a close eye on this project. In the meantime, MetroTwit and Rowi users should get ready to see this great new functionality introduced in the coming weeks.

[Via istartedsomething]

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PlayBook owners over on the CrackBerry forums have discovered that, after applying a new BlackBerry Bridge v1.0.0.83 update, they were able to use BBM on their BlackBerry PlayBooks. The feature reportedly only works with BlackBerry 6 devices right now, although there are rumblings that a BlackBerry OS 5 version is in the works as well. You’ll also need to update your BlackBerry Messenger application to the newest version first, and that should be available from RIM’s BlackBerry Beta Zone. Unfortunately some users are reporting that the new Bridge update is causing some lag on their phones, though, so you may want to hold off until RIM issues a release build of the software. Judging from the picture above, we’re definitely digging the multi-frame layout with the BBM buddy list on the left side and conversation view on the right.

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Following up on a rumor from yesterday, Digital Daily‘s John Paczkowski has confirmed that Apple has purchased the domain name icloud.com — henceforth to be known as iCloud, we’re sure. “Sources in a position to know” confirmed to the publication that Swedish company Xcerion has sold the domain to Apple, although they could not confirm that the Cupertino-based company paid $4.5 million for it as was reported yesterday. Apple is widely expected to launch a cloud-based service in the very near future.

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Several researchers at O’Reilly have discovered an extremely troubling feature of iPhones and 3G iPads running Apple’s iOS 4. In a blog post and accompanying video, the site details that Apple is storing the GPS coordinates of cellular iDevices locally, in an unencrypted and unprotected file. “Ever since iOS 4 arrived, your device has been storing a long list of locations and time stamps,” reads the post. “We’re not sure why Apple is gathering this data, but it’s clearly intentional, as the database is being restored across backups, and even device migrations.” O’Reilly goes on to note that along with a list of timestamped GPS coordinates, the file also contains a list of Wi-Fi access points that the affected device has been in range of. “Anybody with access to this file knows where you’ve been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released,” the brief continues. The file in question — named consolidated.db — is present in the backup file created when syncing a cellular iOS device with iTunes, and, obviously, on the iOS device itself. “Why this data is stored and how Apple intends to use it — or not — are important questions that need to be explored,” writes the team. Apple’s security team did not respond to O’Reilly‘s request for comment. The video made by the researchers is after the break.

Read [O'Reilly] Read [iPhone Tracker app]

On Tuesday, Mozilla released the latest version of Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo smartphones. Firefox 4 now includes support for Firefox Sync, which allows you to sync open tabs, history, bookmarks, passwords, and other data, between your computer and your smartphone. The new Firefox allows for tabbed browsing, add-on installation, and features a new, streamlined look. Mozilla says it will also automatically hide the browser controls when they aren’t in use, which should allow users to view more of the website you’re parked on. There’s also options to save PDFs, share pages, and customize the default search engine. Mozilla says that Firefox 4 is up to 3x faster than the stock Android browser. Firefox 4 for Android is available in the Market now, and the Maemo version can be downloaded here.

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Firefox 4 has been leaked for Mac and PC a day before the company said it would be officially available. Mozilla promises the user interface in Firefox 4 is sleeker and easier to use, and it enables users to keep open tabs, bookmarks, history, and passwords in sync with other devices running a Firefox browser. Firefox 4 also has a new feature that allow you to drag and drop open tabs into groups that can be arranged and named. The leaked downloads aren’t available direct from Mozilla, so we suppose there’s still a chance the team could pull the launch date tomorrow and issue an RC2 release, but we doubt it. We won’t keep you waiting, though, so hit the jump for a link to download Firefox 4 for PC or Mac.

[Via Business Insider]

Read [Firefox 4 Mac OS X] Read [Firefox 4 PC]

Mozilla said on Wednesday that RC1 of its Firefox 4 build has received a “very warm welcome,” and that since there aren’t any known issues, IT and Marketing have given the go-ahead to launch the final build on March 22nd. Firefox 4 will meet stiff competition from IE 9 and Chrome 10 when it launches, but it provides an updated user interface that Mozilla says is both sleeker and easier to use. Firefox 4 also lets users synchronize settings, passwords, bookmarks, history and open tabs with other devices, and it allows users to drag and drop open tabs into groups that can be named and arranged. Lastly, there’s a new and improved way to manage Firefox add-ons. While March 22nd is the current launch date, Mozilla does warn that there is the potential for a delay. “If at any time we discover issues that would block final release, we would issue an RC2 as soon as possible, reset the ship date, and communicate to everyone,” said Damon Sicore, Mozilla’s senior director of platform engineering. To get a look at what’s to come on the 22nd, you may want to give RC1 a whirl.

[Via Life Hacker]

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Microsoft on Tuesday revealed that a Yahoo! email inefficiency was the culprit of a phantom data bug affecting Windows Phone 7 users. Yahoo! apologized for the bug initially, but later issued a second statement claiming Microsoft’s IMAP implementation was unique on Windows Phone 7 devices, and this was the root cause of the problem. Programmer Rafael Rivera decided to launch an independent investigation into the matter, however, and he posted his findings to his Within Windows blog on Wednesday. In short, Rivera contests that Yahoo!’s IMAP email issues are not confined to Windows Phone 7 devices. He goes on to demonstrate that standard IMAP requests sent to Yahoo! email servers return excess data that falls outside IMAP protocol. Yahoo! has not confirmed or denied these findings.

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Here’s an interesting find. Blog GizmoFusion has been sent an image of Android 2.3, Gingerbread, displaying an interesting option, “Sync Music.” The option is visible in the Google Account options, indicating that the Big G may have some type of music synchronization service, that will be linked to your Gmail account, in the works. While it isn’t all that hard to get music files onto an Android handset, the process certainly could use some streamlining — cloud-based services are always a bonus. Hopefully, Google will clue the Android-loving world in on what they’re working on soon, but until then… it’s anyones guess.

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Motorola announced Wednesday that it has acquired Zecter. While Zecter is perhaps best known for its original ZumoDrive service — a cloud-based file storage and sync product that emerged in a cluster of similar services following the success of Dropbox — Motorola appears to be far more interested in the service’s ability to store and stream media files on demand. Motorola will look to integrate Zecter’s technology with its MOTOBLUR product, a service and UI layer that sits above Android on several Motorola phones. “Consumers want seamless access to their content and media from wherever they are, while content providers want to ensure that content remains protected and secure,” said Motorola Mobility’s VP of software and services, Christy Wyatt. “We believe that Zecter enables that seamless experience with the necessary security measures, and we are delighted to be able to work with this team.” Hit the break for the full press release from Motorola.

Motorola Mobility Acquires Zecter

Acquisition to Enhance Motorola Mobility with Personal Cloud Server and Synch Technologies

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., Dec. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Motorola Mobility, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), today announced that it has acquired Zecter, Inc., a leading start-up with synchronization and streaming technologies for on-demand digital media consumption.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Zecter’s solutions connect users to their content seamlessly and instantaneously, giving them simple, on-the-go access to music, video, photos and documents from their smartphones, tablets, PCs and web-portals.  Zecter currently has two products commercially available: ZumoDrive, for cloud-based content sync, access and sharing; and ZumoCast, for personal media streaming to any device.  Both products use innovative virtual file system technologies to make any personal content instantly available even if it is not stored locally.

Zecter will further enhance Motorola Mobility’s mobile content experience and MOTOBLUR service offering by enabling consumers to enjoy their digital content across their mobile devices, wherever they are.  Motorola Mobility will integrate Zecter’s wireless syncing, desktop integration, video transcoding and thin-file retrieval technologies across its device and MOTOBLUR offerings to provide consumers with real-time access to their content.

“Consumers want seamless access to their content and media from wherever they are, while content providers want to ensure that content remains protected and secure,”  said Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services, Motorola Mobility. “We believe that Zecter enables that seamless experience with the necessary security measures, and we are delighted to be able to work with this team.”

Wyatt added, “Zecter’s robust team brings multi-platform expertise along with compelling solutions for continuous digital media access across multiple platforms.  Zecter is an exciting addition to our MOTOBLUR service platform and we welcome their highly skilled personnel to the Motorola Mobility team.”

As part of the transition, the distribution of Zecter’s ZumoCast software will be suspended while enhancements are made. Existing ZumoCast users may continue to enjoy the service without interruption. Motorola Mobility will provide regular updates for ZumoCast users as well as exciting future plans for this service. The ZumoDrive solution will be unaffected.

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