Following the transition from Apple’s paid MobileMe service to the free iCloud service, the Cupertino based company provided users with an additional 20 GB of storage as a thank you for sticking around as a user. These users were expected to be downgraded back to the standard 5 GB of storage after their free complimentary year expired.

Standard users receive 5 GB of free storage, and have the option to purchase additional storage as needed. On Friday, Apple emailed these customers and mentioned that they are once again extending the complimentary storage to September 30, 2013.

When you moved your MobileMe account to iCloud, we provided you with a complimentary storage upgrade beyond the standard 5GB that comes with an iCloud account to help you with the transition. Originally, this storage upgrade was set to expire on September 30, 2012.

As a thank you to our former MobileMe members, we will continue to provide you with this complimentary storage upgrade at no charge, for an additional year, until September 30, 2013. No action is required on your part. For complete details, please read this article.

Thank you again for using iCloud,

iCloud Team

Users will receive storage based on their payment plans under the MobileMe service, causing the complimentary upgrades to range from 10 GB, 20 GB, or 50 GB. Late last week, many users reported that they were experiencing storage boosts up to 25GB, which led to speculation that Apple may be rewarding its users for paying for MobileMe previously. It is likely that the date on these upgrades from last week were a glitch, with an expiration date of the additional storage set to September, 30, 2050.

{via MacRumors}

It appears that Apple is being very generous or mistakenly applied a perks plan for its employees to thousands of its iOS users, upgrading them to the $40/year iCloud storage plan, which provides users with 25GB of storage. What’s interesting about this is that the plan is set to expire in the year 2050, leading users to believe that this is likely a glitch and not a promotion of any kinds.

iMore notes that free 25GB MobileMe accounts of paid users are set to expire very soon, which may point to a mistake by Apple in managing these specific accounts. The 25GB upgrade is only being seen on some iOS devices while many remain at the standard 5GB of free storage.

Apple has not yet corrected the assumed issue and has not commented on the nature of the upgrade. It is likely an error, so enjoy it while you can.

Do you see the upgrade? Do you pay for iCloud already? If so, are you noticing a difference?

Apple offers its employees a number of perks, for keeping the company’s retail stores operating smoothly on a daily basis. The latest perk Apple is offering is slightly odd, to say the least. The Cupertino company is offering their retail employees an upgrade to 50GB of free iCloud storage as opposed to the 5GB offered on a standard account.

The free storage is reportedly $100/a month value and is similar to the free MobileMe subscription employees received until it was scrapped for iCloud. According to MacRumors, Apple employees were given a $500 discount on any Mac except the Mini and $250 off of an iPad.

Apple continues to offer its retail employees free services and discounts on products, likely to keep morale high and keep the employees up to date. Some who don’t use the products, aside from the required training may not know as much about the product as an employee who use it regularly.

{via MacRumors}

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been leading the market for quite some time with web based services, including search, email and documents. On Tuesday, Google Inc. released a more streamlined cloud experience for its users, the long-awaited Google Drive. The service provides users with 5GB of free storage, which is also integrated with Google Docs and many of Google’s other online services.

This initial 5GB offering is similar to Apple’s iCloud which also gives users a free 5GB of storage. Following the initial 5GB, users can then upgrade to a higher tier of storage, and for GOOG, that means up to as much as 16TB of storage which is far more than the amount of storage on any computer hard drive.

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

The storage can be accessed directly through Google Docs, or through clients on PC, Mac, Android and very soon, iOS devices. Google promised that the iOS app would be available “very soon”, with it being very likely that the search giant is still waiting for approval from Apple. Google Drive operates very differently than other cloud solutions, including a feature that allows users to open up as many as 30 different file types directly in the browser.

This allows users of the service to open up and view files such as images and documents, regardless of its format. Google Drive has the potential to be one of the next reliable cloud solutions available online. With its availability on numerous platforms, including iOS, it brings into question, whether this service will compete with iCloud.

{via MacRumors}

During WWDC 2011 when Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iCloud he said that the service would offer 5GB of free storage which would not take into account any media bought from iTunes store, apps or even photos that will be stored for 30 days on the cloud. 

Apple believes that for most users 5GB would be enough as only documents, backups, contacts, calendars and mail would use the storage. However, the company has additionally detailed its pricing for the paid storage upgrades. 10GB of additional storage would cost you $20/year, 20 GB for $40/year and 50GB for $100/year.

As MobileMe will be completely replaced by iCloud, Find My iPhone will be a part of the new cloud based services and it would also include iWork apps. You will be able to upload and download Keynote, Numbers and Pages documents when accessing iCloud. Editing documents is still not possible.

iCloud will make document management really easy as you can start creating a document on your iPhone, edit on the iPad and finish it on your Mac without ever requiring to use USB or email to transfer documents. Apple’s iCloud will seamlessly keep all your documents in sync.

With iCloud release expected this fall Apple is taking a huge leap in making iOS devices more powerful and independent in the post-PC era. With iOS 5 and iCloud users will be able to wirelessly backup and sync their devices with the data stored on the cloud.