With the introduction of iCloud during last year’s WWDC conference, it was clear that Apple was taking a new path with their offering of cloud services. Steve Jobs, who was CEO at the time of the introduction, admitted that the MobileMe services offered up as cloud features were definitely not the best product that Apple had offered its users. Since then, Apple has gradually been winding down operations associated with MobileMe, making the normally $99 a year service into iCloud.

iCloud offers users an initial 5GB of free storage and then begins to charge based on GB of storage. Earlier this year, Apple gave users the option to remove their files and even offered discs of the Snow Leopard software through MobileMe accounts for users to make the transition to iCloud as smoothly as possible. Apple is still allowing users to transfer their files from iDisk and images from Gallery, but is doing so on a final notice, as the website now displays a red sign that reads, “MobileMe is Closed”.

Apple is offering users the option to transfer their iDisk and Gallery files because both of those features as well as iWeb publishing did not and will not carry over to iCloud. Apple’s replacement for Gallery is likely the new PhotoStream feature and iDisk is being replaced by the variety of storage options offered in iCloud.

The Cupertino company has yet to mention a specific date as to when MobileMe would be permanently shut down, but it will likely be shut before the public release of iOS 6.

{via MacRumors}

Earlier in the week, it was rumored that Apple was prepping to release a new Mac OS X build to the public. Apple on Thursday followed through and released Mac OS X 10.6.8 which helped patch a number of issues and minor improvements in the OS.

This is expected to be the last build released for Snow Leopard before the public release of Mac OS X Lion; Apple’s next major update for the Mac. The last update was released in late March and since then has stayed relatively the same. The release notes mention that the new build enhances Mac App Store so that your Mac is ready for OS X Lion.

The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

– Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
– Resolve an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit
– Improve support for IPv6
– Improve VPN reliability
– Identify and remove known variants of Mac Defender

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4561.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Mac App Store will be the only way to upgrade to Lion as Apple has decided to discontinue software DVD’s. This would enable people to get the update easily, however they would need to be prepared for 4GB of download.

The public release, issued for Snow Leopard, was the same build, Build 10K540, released to developers earlier this month. Apple has yet to announce a specific date for the release of Max OS X Lion, which is pegged for a release in July.

{via MacRumors}

Itsalltech created a large list of all of the features released to the developers in the latest updates and we can already see that we’re getting many more UI changes as well as stability updates, than the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard. Here’s the list:

– New options in System Preferences>Mission Control
– There is a new animation when logging into the computer and displaying the desktop (seems buggy at this time)
– New Reminders menu in iCal
– New next desktop button in Dashboard space:
– New options when right-clicking (this appears to be buggy at this time):
– Compatibility to external displays has been improved (especially in Mission Control)
– There is now a Mission Control app
– Finders toolbar has been slightly updated:
– Desktop wallpapers have been updated (and new ones have been added);
– Reading List has been enabled in Safari:
– New changes in Mission Control: can add desktops right from Mission Control by clicking + button, close spaces from Mission Control, Mission Control no longer displaying text Desktop 1? etc., when hovering over desktop thumbnails, magnification of thumbnails are seen
– Scrollbars now change color depending on the background (black background=light scrollbar and vice versa)

Apple is expected to further discuss Mac OS X Lion in depth, come this June, during it’s annual WWDC conference held in San Francisco. Lion is pegged for a Summer release, similar to the release of Snow Leopard which arrived in late August of 2008.

Currently on display at WWDC is a veritable Christmas Tree celebrating the eternal Christmas of Apple’s iTunes App Store.

Apple’s Hyperwall, put simply, is 30 LED screens which together form a video wall showing the top selling 50,000 apps in the App Store cascading down in a virtual waterfall of real time sales data. Each falling icon representing an app sale.

Apple’s own PR describes it like this:

This hyperwall is powered by 30 Mac Pro towers with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and EVGA NVIDIA GTX 285 graphics cards. As apps are downloaded from the App Store, their data is coalesced via an XML feed every five minutes. Apps are sorted and scheduled using Cocoa and Objective-C. The data is then passed to an OpenCL kernel, which drives the animation. Quartz Composer brings all the technologies together and renders the final synchronized output using Quartz Composer Visualizer.

It is both a geek fest visually, and in the underlying technology that powers it.

There is a video available, below. I spent a while watching it very closely to see if I could see any Apps I have been involved in. What a great feeling to see those little virtual pennies fall from heaven as you visit Santa’s grotto.

Did you spot any apps you recognise, or were involved in in the video? Let us know in the comments…