Apple today announced the features of iCloud at Let’s Talk iPhone event in Cupertino California. iCloud is a breakthrough set of free cloud services, including iTunes in the Cloud, Documents in the Cloud, Photo Stream, these all work seamlessly with your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.

These free cloud storage services will be available for the users of all iOS devices starting from October 12. iCloud can store your photos, music, apps, calendars, contacts, documents and more, and also keeping them up to date across all your devices automatically. When content changes on one device, all your other devices will be updated wirelessly and automatically.

“iCloud is the easiest way to manage your content, because iCloud does it all for you and goes far beyond anything available today,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “You don’t have to think about syncing your devices, because it happens automatically, and it is free.”

Features Of iCloud Storage Service

iTunes in the Cloud

With iCloud, the music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want–with iTunes in the Cloud you can automatically download new music purchases to all your devices, which means you can buy a song on your iPad and find it waiting for you on your iPhone without any syncing.

Even your previously purchased iTunes contents, like music or TV shows, will be downloadable to your devices at no additional cost. Since iCloud remembers your previously purchased iTunes history, you can see what you have already bought no matter on which device you bought it, and because you already own the content, you can play it on your any device or just simply tap the iCloud icon to download it and store it on your device and play later.

iTunes Match

The iTunes Match feature scans the songs that are currently in your music library, including music not purchased from iTunes, and matches them to more than twenty million songs available on the iTunes Store, offering them in high-quality, DRM-free 256kbps AAC encoding. And if there are any unmatched songs then they will be uploaded to iCloud so you can play songs, playlists or albums from your music library on your devices.

Photo Stream

With iCloud, when you take a photo on one device, it automatically appears on all your other devices. No syncing. No sending. Your photos are just there. Everywhere you want them–Photo Stream is iCloud’s one of the most innovative service which allows you to take photos on one device and have it automatically appear on your other devices. It means a photo you take on your iPhone is sent to iCloud and then it will be automatically pushed to your iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC.

Your Photo Stream album can also be viewed on your Apple TV. iCloud also automatically pushes a copy of the photos you have imported from your digital camera over WiFi or Ethernet, so you can view them on your other devices. iCloud storage service also manages your Photo Stream efficiently, showing your last one-thousand photos so you don’t run out of storage space.

Documents In The Cloud

If you have the same iCloud-enabled apps on more than one device, iCloud automatically keep your documents up to date across all your devices. So you don’t have to–just suppose you created a document using Pages on your iPad, that document will be automatically sent to iCloud.

When you use Pages on another iOS device, like iPhone, you can open the same document with your latest changes and start editing or reading right from where your left off. Apple’s apps for iOS like iWork, Keynote, Numbers will take advantage of iCloud storage.

Apps developers will get the APIs by Apple, which allows them to enable their apps to work seamlessly with Documents in the Cloud.

Apps and Books

iCloud makes sure all your devices have the same apps and books–by allowing you to see the complete purchase history of App Store and iBookstore, and let you download those apps and books to any of your devices whenever you want.

The apps and books you have purchased on one device, can be automatically downloaded to your other devices. You can do this by simply taping the iCloud icon and download apps and books, you’ve already purchased, to any of your iOS devices at no addition cost.

iCloud Backup

iCloud also backs up your information. So if something happens, it can help save the day–by automatically and securely backing up your most important information to iCloud daily over WiFi whenever your iOS device is connected to a power source. Once you plug your device into a power source, everything is backed up quickly and efficiently.

iCloud Backup takes care of everything like, backing up your videos and photos in the Camera Roll, device settings, home screen, app data and app organization, ringtones, and messages. iCloud Backup can also help you set up a new iOS device or restore the information on one you already own.

Contacts, Calendar and Mail

iCloud stores your Contacts, Calendar, and Mail, and automatically pushes them to all your devices. So you can switch from one device to another and still go about business as usual–it works seamlessly with your Contacts, Calendar, and Mail, so you can easily share calendar with family and friends, while your ad-free Mail account is hosted at me.com.

All of your Mail inboxes and folders are kept up to date across your iOS devices and computers, and with icloud.com you have easy web access to your Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Find My iPhone and iWork.

Find My iPhone

If you lose your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Mac, iCloud can help you find it, too–the Find My iPhone app is now synced with iCloud which will help you if one of your devices is lost or missing.

Just use Find My iPhone app, available for free, on another device, or sign in at icloud.com from a computer to see your missing iPhone, iPod touch or iPad on a map, you can remotely lock or wipe data from your missing device, and can also display a message or play a sound. With Find My iPhone, now you can also locate a missing Mac running OS X Lion.

Find My Friends

Find the party. Find your family. Or find a place to meet up after a work–Find My Friends is a new app available for free for download from the App Store. This app lets you easily share your location with people who are important to you. Family and friends appear on a map so you can quickly see where they are.

This free app also allows you to temporarily share your location with a group of friends, whether its for a couple of hours for a dinner or for a couple of days on a camping trip, and when the time is up, the sharing ends.

You will also get a notification every time you get a new friend request and if you give them permission, they can see your location. You can easily hide your location with just a simple tap. Parental control help you manage how your child uses this app.

iCloud Introduction Video

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Pricing And Availability

iCloud will be available starting from October 12 as a free download for the users of iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 5 or a Mac running OS X Lion with a valid Apple ID. This iCloud service includes 5GB of free cloud storage for Document Storage, Mail and Backup. Purchased TV shows, music, apps, books, and Photo Stream do not count against the storage limit.

While iTunes Match will be available in the US later this month for $24.99 a year. Using iCloud with a PC requires Windows Vista or Windows 7; Outlook 2010 or 2007 is recommended for accessing calendars and contacts. Additional iCloud storage upgrades are available to purchase starting at $20 a year for 10GB, $40 a year for 20GB and $100 a year for 50GB.

iOS 5 will be available as a free software update for the users of iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth and third generation), allowing them to experience over 200 amazing new features.