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Apple iCloud Purchasing First Look

By Brian Burgess, BYTE 06/07/2011 Apple's iCloud will give you the ability to see all apps you've purchased on any of your iOS devices and download them to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch without a wire in sight. Join BYTE executive editor Brian Burgess for a look at the service that will show you what to expect.

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Apple iOS had a big day Monday at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco. CEO Steve Jobs took the stage to introduce iCloud and Lion OS, now in developer preview, spent some time in the spotlight as well. Between those bookends, iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, starred with Apple's other rock star, Scott Forstall, SVP iOS Software, updating the Apple faithful on iOS 5 release, due out this fall, which introduces more than 1,500 APIs and 200 user features.

Among those iOS features is the ability to see all apps you've purchased and download them between devices wirelessly. For instance, if you don't have a purchased song on your iPad, but do have it on your iPhone, you can download it to the iPad wirelessly. Users have long been clamoring for this feature to be added to iOS.

To access the Purchased feature on your device, launch the iTunes App Store or iTunes Music Store and you'll see a button labeled Purchased. Then you'll see all apps and music tracks you've downloaded to other devices. Just tap on the cloud icon next to an app or song to get it on your other device.

This feature makes it a lot easier to keep track of the apps and music you have on each device. It also allows you to download the same app or music track, without having to pay for it again on up to five iOS devices. Using the iCloud service to move apps and music between devices is the same as it is now, but without the annoyance of cables and hooking the device up to a computer. Here's a first look at what you can expect.

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