Apple unveils Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud at WWDC (live blog)

Apple unveils Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud at WWDC (live blog)
10:02 a.m.: Standing ovation from developers. Jobs is wearing a black turtleneck, jeans, and a big grin."It always helps, and I appreciate it very much." he says.5,200 attendees [at WWDC this year]. [The show] sold out in 2 hours. Jobs is apologizing that the company can't sell more tickets because this is the biggest place the company can get for the event. 10:05-10:06 a.m.: Phil Schiller will be joined by Craig Federighi, new Mac guy who took over earlier this year. More than 120 sessions, 100 hands-on labs, over 1,000 Apple engineers. Schiller: More than 54 million active Mac users around the world and growing. Schiller is now bringing up IDC numbers with the PC shrinking 1 percent, and Mac going up 28 percent. Schiller now talking about Mac growing every quarter for the past 5 years. 10:07 a.m.: For those asking about how Jobs looked, lots of "wow, he looks thin..." from nearby developers. He seems very, very happy to be here though. 10:07 a.m.: Schiller throws up a screen of Mac OS X from when it was first out. Lots of laughs and cheers. Schiller asks what's next? Well, Lion. More than 250 new features, Schiller says. We're learning about 10 new features of Lion.10:09 a.m.: Feature #1. Multitouch gestures: This is a feature the company's already been over from the October event. But Schiller's talking about how useful it is, including getting rid of scroll bars on the side of windows because users now have a better sense of where they are on the page. 10:10 a.m.: Feature #2. Full-screen applications to take advantage of every pixel: Full screen can stay running in full screen. Apple's employed a new gesture to swap back and forth between full-screen apps, just like alt+tab. 10:11 a.m.: Feature #3. Mission Control: Another feature unveiled back in October. This is the bird's-eye view of all your apps and windows. 10:12-10:13 a.m.: Now Craig Federighi, who took over to run the Mac group earlier this year, is giving us a demo. Federighi's talking up how scroll bars are no longer needed. Apple's also employed the double-tap gesture from iOS into Lion to let you zoom in on a specific section. There's also a new way to navigate between Web pages with a swipe gesture. Lots of applause from the audience on that one. Very visual. 10:15 a.m.: Now we're getting a demo of full-screen Photobooth. Now with birds that track your head. 10:16 a.m.: We're getting a demo of Mission Control now. Craig is showing how to manage files across Spaces using multitouch gestures. 10:17 a.m.: Feature #4. The Mac App Store. 10:18 a.m.: Schiller says the Mac App Store has become the leading channel for buying software in the last 6 months. 10:19 a.m.: Schiller says the creators of Pixelmator made $1M their first day. New feature: in-app purchase, push notifications, sandboxing.10:20 a.m.: Also delta updates so users don't need to reload the entire app every time there's an update. 10:20 a.m.: Feature #5. Launchpad: another feature we saw back in October. This is the iOS-like interface of app icons. 10:21 a.m.: Feature #6. Resume: the feature that lets you turn off your computer without losing work from whatever app you were on. 10:22-10:24 a.m.: Feature #8. Versions: Lets you go back in time (a la Time Machine) to go back to an older snapshot. Schiller says the only data that's stored is what's different, so it doesn't take up a ton of space.Schiller's now talking up the Versions feature, which he promises gets rid of the need to remember to save your work. Now apps have a little drop-down right on the menu bar that lets you revert back to previous versions of an application. This system also lets you lock documents like a template, duplicate a document to fork it as well. 10:24 a.m.: Craig's back up to give us a demo of these features. Now we're seeing Launchpad.10:26 a.m.: We're getting a demo/sales pitch for the Mac App Store, with Federighi demoing how you can re-download applications you may have purchased on another machine.10:27 a.m.: Now we're getting a demo of the auto-save feature. You can quit applications and have them remember exactly what you were doing in an application, including things like window placement and text highlighting. 10:28 a.m.: Pretty neat actually, you can do a comparison between two different versions, and fly through past edits to see if there's something you might have liked from an older update, then just drop it into the newer one. Drag and drop between old and new versions. And that's it for that demo. Now on to the rest of the features. 10:28 a.m.: Feature #9 is AirDrop.10:30 a.m.: How AirDrop works: you can see other people on your network just like you would with computers. Then you can drag files to them. They get the message you want to send something to them, and can confirm to receive.10:31 a.m.: Feature #10 is Mail. Schiller is talking up how you have a 2- and 3-column view. It's all about reading your mail, Schiller says. It's also taken on features like a Web browser, with a favorites menu up top. New features are also added to redesigned Mail, including a two- and three-column view and a"conversation view," which groups together similar messages so you can see how it flows.Donald Bell/CNET10:32 a.m.: Also new: Conversation view groups together similar messages so you can see a flow of conversation. Big round of applause for that. 10:33 a.m.: And now we're getting a demo of Mail from Federighi. When you start typing into the search bar, it gives you little search tweaks along the left-hand side of the window to re-target it toward specific types of messages. Kind of like what you get in Google's Gmail. 10:35 a.m.: And finally we're getting a demo of conversation view. Lots of iOS feel here: bouncy menus, pop-down items. 10:36 a.m.: Schiller is wrapping up on other Lion features: a new migration tool for Windows users. Safari reading list, push notifications.Schiller says there are 3,000 new APIs for developers to use to build applications. How are we gonna get it? Schiller asks. Schiller says Lion will only be available on Mac App Store. 10:37 a.m.: Wow, that's a big move. Schiller says it's going to be the easiest update ever. 4GB in size, about the size of an HD movie you'd download. 10:38 a.m.: How much? Most major releases have been $129. We love it so much, Schiller says--$29. Phil Schiller announces pricing for Lion.Donald Bell/CNETBig round of applause for that. "I was hoping you were going to like it." Schiller says the latest developer preview is available today. Customers get it in July. A look at iOS 5 (photos)See full gallery1 - 4 / 20NextPrev10:39 a.m.: iOS 5 is up now. Coming up is Scott Forstall, SVP of iOS software. He's getting a big round of applause as he saunters up on stage. He's giving an update on iOS: 200 million iOS devices sold to date. That makes it the No. 1 mobile operating system, with more than 44 percent of the market, Forstall says. Data is Comscore from April. 10:40-10:41 a.m.: Forstall's talking up the iPad 2. In the first 14 months, we've already sold 25 million iPads. He says: "We've created a whole new category of device with the iPad." More than 15 billion songs sold by the iTunes music store. That makes it the #1 retailer of music in the world. As for the iBooks store, which launched less than a year ago, Forstall says more than 130 million books have been downloaded. On the App Store: Currently more than 425,000 apps on the App Store. 10:42 a.m.: More than 90,000 of these are specifically for the iPad, Forstall says. 14 billion downloads from the App Store, in less than three years. Apple has paid out more than $2.5 billion to developers on the App Store. 10:43 a.m.: Forstall's going through some of the high-profile apps, like HBO Go, Tiny Wings, and apps that have been FDA and FAA approved. 225 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click purchasing. 10:44-10:45 a.m.: Now onto iOS 5: Major release, Forstall says. 1,500 new APIs for developers. For users: [there are] more than 200 new features. We're seeing 10 of those today. #1. Notifications: Big round of applause from that. Forstall going over the previous system doing pop-up windows, badge icons, and sounds. Forstall says Apple's pushed more than 100 billion push notifications. Customers were saying we need a better UI. Forstall says we've built something that solves the current problem, which is that it distracts you. Also, on the lock screen you get a list of things that have happened, but you can't go back to that list. 10:46 a.m.: Forstall says the new system solves this. Now called "Notification Center," a single place that combines all your notifications. Can get to it from anywhere, just by wiping your finger down on the screen. Stocks and weather are included up at the very top, so you don't need to open those apps. The messages fade in from the top in a nice little roll.10:47 a.m.: Lock screen now gives you a complete rundown of text messages, missed calls, and app updates. And if you slide your finger over that app, it takes you right there. Now we're getting a demo of it. You literally slide the icon across the screen, and it takes you right there. 10:48 a.m.: Users can clear out any notifications just by hitting a little "x" button on that list. The swipe functionality works from any app you're in, Forestall says. 10:49 a.m.: Feature #2. Newsstand: Talking up subscriptions now, and how you can get magazines with subscriptions. The app icon for it looks just like a bookshelf, suggesting that it will basically be iBooks for magazines and newspapers.Scott Forstall hits on 10 new features in iOS 5, one of which, Newstand, is aimed at helping users manage purchased digital magazines and newspapers from their iOS-based device.Donald Bell/CNET10:50 a.m.: Looks just like the App Store or iTunes. The app opens up just like a folder on your home screen, and if you buy an item, new issues will be delivered in the background, so users don't need to manually go and grab it. 10:51-10:52 a.m.: Feature #3. Twitter: Forstall says more than 1 billion tweets are sent each week. Customers love Twitter, and the company wants to make it easier. Single sign-on for Twitter, so you can enter your credentials in iOS settings.Integrated Twitter into camera and photos. Users can now send to Twitter from here. This feature comes up as a little pop-up menu of sorts that lets you fire off the tweet from wherever. Also works from YouTube, Safari, Maps. 10:53 a.m.: [There's] integration with contacts too, so it can grab photos from a user's Twitter account. So if a user updates their photo on Twitter, it will get updated on your iPhone. Twitter in iOS 5Donald Bell/CNET10:54 a.m.: Feature #4. Safari getting a reader feature, so if you're on a story with bad formatting you can see it in a stripped down, RSS-like view. You can e-mail contents of an entire story from right within Safari. Before, you could only e-mail the link or go through the trouble of copy and paste. 10:55 a.m.: The second part of that is "Reading List," which lets you bookmark a story to read it later. And that list gets synced up with your list on the computer. Instapaper and Read it Later are probably not going to be happy about this. 10:55 a.m.: Other feature: tabbed browsing on the iPad. 10:56 a.m.: Forstall's now giving us a demo of it running on an iPad. Switching between tabs is quite fast, he says as he whips through the pages. Yes, it does look pretty fast. From Jason Parker: It's great to see tabbed browsing--we used to have to use other apps to be able to quickly switch between sites. 10:57 a.m.: Giving a demo on a camera review site with a 20-page review. Reader turns it into one document you can scroll through. 10:58-10:59 a.m.: Forstall demos Twitter running in Safari on the iPad. Comes up as a little pop-up, then disappears once you tweet. Feature #5. Reminders: Grocery lists, snippets, paper. Reminders app lets you store multiple lists, including dates for each event. Can also assign location, as in "remind me to call my wife when I leave the convention today," which uses a geo-fence to see when you're outside of an area to send that reminder. Reminders sync on iCal on the Mac with CalDAV, and on Windows with MS Exchange, Forstall says. 11:00 a.m.: Feature #6. Camera app. Forstall's talking up how popular the iPhone 4 has become on Flickr, soon the most popular camera overall. Lockscreen shortcut to take a photo. So no more need to unlock your phone, find the app. 11:01 a.m.: Camera icon shows up directly to the right of the unlock slider. Launches camera app immediately. Even if you have a passcode set, Forstall says it will load the app regardless. And you can use the volume up button to take a photo, which gets a huge round of applause. 11:02-11:03 a.m.: Tap Tap Tap got in trouble for doing that, by the way. Photo app now includes grid lines, pinch to zoom, and if you hold your finger up and down the screen it changes the exposure, adding granular controls. Can even edit photos now: crop and rotate, red eye reduction. 1-click enhance from iPhoto coming over to the photos app as well to let you do a quick color correction from the device. 11:04-11:05 a.m.: Feature #7. Mail: Rich text formatting, can do bold, underline. Can indent. Can drag addresses between the to, cc, bcc. Flagging and unflagging. Search can also now search within messages, not just the from, to, and subject lines. And on the iPad, users in portrait mode can now swipe in to see the inbox on the left-hand side of the screen. Also for the security/IT folks, there's S/MIME support. Forstall's giving us a demo of the new Mail app on an iPad with iOS 5. Now there's a built-in dictionary, so if you see a word you don't know, it can give you a definition right in the message. 11:06 a.m.: New variant of the keyboard for iOS 5 on the iPad [for those] who like to use it. Splits the keyboard in half. Moves the keyboard right by where your thumbs are. Lots of oohs and ahhs on that one.11:07 a.m.: Feature #8. PC Free. Huge applause on that one. Forstall saying that the company's built these incredible devices, then they get them out of the box, then they realize they need to plug it into something. Forstall introduces PC Free.Donald Bell/CNET11:08-11:10 a.m.: [There's a] big "Post PC" slide up. Forstall says a lot of people who are buying these devices don't have computers. Now when you buy an iOS device, you get a little "welcome" message instead of the plug-into-iTunes logo.Software updates are now over the air. No more need to plug into iTunes to get that update. The updates are also a delta, so it's not the entire OS, it's just what's changed. To make all this happen, Apple's had to decouple apps from their computer counterpart. You can now create and delete calenders from iOS. Edit photos without having to use a computer app, etc. Forstall says Apple went through every app to figure out what needed to get done to make that happen. 11:10 a.m.: Next is Game Center. More than 100,000 game and entertainment titles on the App Store. 11:11 a.m.: In 9 months, Apple says there are 50 million Game Center users. Forstall says Microsoft's Xbox Live has been around for 8 years, and they have about 30 million users.New to Game Center: Photos, achievement point comparison, friends of friends, recommended friends, game recommendations. Can now buy and download games directly from Game Center. Also support for turn-based games like Scrabble. 11:12 a.m.: Feature #10: iMessage: Forstall says message app on iPhone is the best. But what about the iPad and iPod Touch customers?iMessage is one service for all those customers and devices. Supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.Send text, photos, videos, contacts, group messaging. 11:14 a.m.: Delivery receipts. Can see if a message has been delivered. Read receipts too.Typing indication to see if someone's typing to you.Conversations are pushed to all devices.Works on 3G and Wi-Fi networks.Secure encryption. 11:15 a.m.: Forstall's coming up to demo now. We've got an iPhone and an iPad to demo how iMessage works. The message comes up at the very top without interrupting the game (which is Cut the Rope).11:16 a.m.: Very neat demo here. You can see that the other person is typing, just like in an IM app.On the iPad the UI looks a lot like the Mail app, except with the SMS interface on the right. Forstall says it's built on Apple's push notification service, so it will scale. 11:17-11:19 a.m.: He's wrapping up on the iOS 5 list of features now. Hourly weather forecasts, Wi-Fi sync to iTunes, new iPad music app, iTunes tone store, Airplay mirroring, personal dictionary. Alternate routes in Maps, Emoji emoticons, custom vibration patterns.Xvode's also been updated, with Core Image framework, which is getting lots of hoots from the developers.11:20 a.m.: Developers get a seed of iOS 5 today.iOS 5 shipping to customers this fall. iOS 5 will support the same set of devices as with the previous update, Forstall says. 11:20-11:21 a.m.: And now onto iCloud, presented by Jobs himself. "You like everything so far?" Jobs asks. "Well, I'll try not to blow it." Jobs says about 10 years ago the company had one of its most important insights. The PC would become the digital hub for your digital life. That's where you put your photos. Your digital video too. And your music. And that's how it worked for the better part of 10 years, but it's broken down in the last 10 years, Jobs says. It's because the devices have changed. They now all have music, photos, and video. So if you buy a song on your iPhone, you want to bring it to the other devices. 11:22 a.m.: Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy, Jobs says, to a big round of applause.We've got a great solution to this problem, Jobs says. We're going to demote the PC and the Mac to be the device, just like an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Now the hub is in the cloud. Now if you get something on your iPhone, like a picture, it goes up to the cloud, and gets pushed down to the other devices automatically. 11:23 a.m.: Jobs says you don't have to do anything, it just happens. iCloud stores your content, and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices. iCloud is integrated with your apps, so everything happens automatically, Jobs says. "It just works" is the tagline. 11:24-11:25 a.m.: Jobs takes a knock at MobileMe: "Why should I believe these guys?""It wasn't our finest hour, let me just say that. But we learned a lot." Jobs says. Calendar, Mail, and Contacts have been rewritten to be iCloud apps, Jobs says. If you make an edit to a contact, it goes to the cloud, then it gets pushed to the other devices. 11:26-11:27 a.m.: For calendars; you make a new calendar event, it's stored in the cloud and it's pushed to all your devices. Calendar sharing too, so if you're on a calendar with other people, any changes are pushed out to others too. Calendars are stored in iCloud, changes on any device pushed to all your devices, and you have shared calendars, Jobs says.As for Mail: users get an account @me.com, and inbox and folders are kept up to date on all devices. And there's no ads, Jobs says to applause. 11:27 a.m.: We used to sell it for $99, Jobs says. As of today this product ceases to exist. Now it's free, Jobs says. MobileMe is dead, folks. 11:28 a.m.: Three more apps that are a part of the iCloud universe, Jobs says. First is the App Store. You bought a lot of apps, and now those sync up between devices. You can see the purchase history on the devices and download it on demand (they don't sync up automatically). 11:29 a.m.: Also coming to iBooks, so it will sync up books you've bought. When you buy it, it will download it to all your devices, and whatever page you're on is synced up with iCloud. 11:30-11:31 a.m.: Cloud backup too. Wireless backup to the iCloud. Once daily it backs up contents of your iOS device to the cloud. If you get a new iOS device, you type in your Apple ID and it gets synced up to that device. Daily backups done over Wi-Fi, Jobs says. That includes camera roll, device settings, apps, and app data too (meaning you won't lose your high score, or progress in a title). 11:32 a.m.: Final 3 apps for iCloud, which Jobs says are amazing and the most inventive part of iCloud.Documents is the first. If you're on the iPad and create a Pages document, it saves it to the cloud. That document is pushed to other devices that have Apple's Pages app installed. Now a feature in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. The iWork versions that went out last week secretly had this in there, Jobs says. 11:33 a.m.: Roger Rosner, VP of iWork, is up on stage to give us a demo of how this works in the wild. Rosner's showing off how you can work on a presentation in iWork, then see it get synced over to the other device. 11:34-11:35 a.m.:Demo worked, and now we're seeing a presentation within a presentation. This is like Inception. Rosner doing some quick edits to a document in Pages, then once again showing how it sends that file to iCloud. 11:35 a.m.: Jobs is back up now after that brief interlude. Jobs says the documents in the cloud "completes" the iOS documents storage story. 11:36 a.m.: Jobs says teaching people how to use computers is the easy part until you get to the file system, then people get confused. This promises to solve that, Jobs says. Apps can store documents in iCloud. iCloud pushes documents automatically, and documents get updated on all devices.To make this happen, there are new iCloud storage APIs for developers. 11:37 a.m.: The new system will work on Macs and PCs, Jobs promises. 11:38 a.m.: Two more to go, folks. Jobs says it's "maybe" his favorite one. It's called "Photo Stream." Jobs saying you go out and take photos of your kids, and you don't want to bring back your gear to sync it up. iCloud promises to fix that by bringing your entire camera roll to the cloud, then syncing it with other devices. 11:39 a.m.: I wonder what this means to photo leaks around the world... From Jason Parker: Certain celebrities are going to have to be extra careful now...11:39 a.m.: This works for photos you've taken, as well as photos that have been imported to the camera roll through something like Apple's camera accessory. The new feature is built into the Photo Roll app. 11:40 a.m.: As far as getting it on the Mac, it's built into iPhoto. So for PCs, it goes into the pictures folder. It's also in Apple TV, Jobs says. The Apple TV taps into the Photo Stream servers and grabs the photos so there's no AirPlay required. 11:42-11:43 a.m.: On iOS, it stores the last 1,000 photos. Any photos you want to keep permanently need to be moved to an album, Jobs says. As for PCs and Macs, everything's stored. Jobs says after 30 days, a photo is wiped off Apple's servers, which got some developer groans.Eddy Cue, Apple's VP of Internet services, is up to give a demo of Photo Stream in action. Cue's taking a photo of Owen Wilson's character from Disney's "Cars" on his iPhone, and demoing how it just popped up on the photos app on the iPad. To save these photos you have to manually go through and tag each one for moving it into a folder, which looks like kind of a drag. That photo also popped up into iPhoto as well, as advertised. 11:44 a.m.: Jobs is back up, saying "Isn't that awesome?" Works over Wi-Fi, not 3G apparently. That would answer some of your battery life worries, readers. 11:44 a.m.: Last app: iTunes in the cloud. 11:45 a.m.: "It's the same old story," Jobs says. "I buy something on my iPhone, and it's not on my other devices."Songs you've already bought--there's now a purchase button to see a past history of all the songs you've bought. 11:46 a.m.: You can redownload any of the albums you've bought to that device, and songs too. This is at no additional charge, Jobs says. 11:46 a.m.: First time we've seen this in the music industry, Jobs says.There's also an option to automatically have songs you've bought get downloaded to your other devices.Cue's back up now to give a demo of how this works. 11:47 a.m.: The option to redownload music just shows up as a little tab within the iTunes app, so there's not a new app for this.11:48 a.m.: Cue goes to a Foo Fighters song he bought, and hits the new little cloud button to redownload it to the device he's on. And 20 seconds later he has the song on his iPhone. 11:49-11:50 a.m.: Now Cue's demoing how this works when syncing that purchase from the iPhone to an iPad. He goes ahead and buys it, and it pops up on the iPad's music library a second later. Lots of claps for that. Jobs says the system works with music purchased from iTunes, up to 10 devices work, and the quality is 256kbps AAC.Jobs says all nine of these apps are free. 11:50 a.m.: So looks like no personal music library, folks. 11:51 a.m.: How do you get it? Jobs asks. Plugging in your Apple ID to iOS 5 lets you turn it on.Everyone gets 5GB of free storage for Mail, Documents, and backup. Not counting purchased apps, music, or books into that number, Jobs says. 11:52 a.m.: Photo Stream does not count toward that 5GB either.iCloud is launching today as part of a developer beta, Jobs says. End users are getting the music redownloading part as part of a 4.3 beta, Jobs says. 11:53 a.m.: One more thing, Jobs says. It's about iTunes in the cloud, Jobs says. Particularly music you bought.What about music you bought yourself? You can sync your devices over Wi-Fi or a cable, and you only have to sync it once, and then you can rely on iCloud to get new purchases off iTunes. 11:54-11:55 a.m.: Buy the songs you'll miss on iTunes.Apple's also offering "iTunes Match" iTunes has 18 million songs, Jobs says. Apple has software that will match your music to the songs they have in the store. Jobs says that music can get the same benefit as the songs you've bought off iTunes. This takes minutes, Jobs says. It scans and matches your library with no upload. Then it matches those songs to an upgraded, 256kbps AAC DRM-free file. That's $24.99 per year, Jobs says. Job's customary "one more thing" item is a service called iTunes Match.Donald Bell/CNET11:57 a.m.: Jobs is now stacking this up against Amazon and Google's efforts, saying that there's no upgrade to the higher quality songs, a fixed annual fee, and the same fee no matter how many songs you've bought.Jobs says most customers won't need this feature since they buy off iTunes, but it's there for those that do. 11:58 a.m.: Including the insides which Jobs says is "full of expensive stuff." Including some fancy looking servers. "If you don't think we're serious about this, you're wrong," Jobs says. Jobs is now showing photos of the Maiden, N.C., data center. Now Jobs is wrapping up, looks like that's it.11:58 a.m.: Thanks for watching everybody! Note: If you plan to watch the live blog on a mobile browser, make sure you have JavaScript enabled. On iOS you can find that toggle in Settings > Safari. On Android, the setting can be toggled within the native browser's settings menu.Editors' note: The original, bare-bones version of this story was posted June 3 at 12:19 p.m. PT.


MP3tunes ups music storage to much-needed 10GB

MP3tunes ups music storage to much-needed 10GB
MP3tunes, the online music locker service headed by controversial tech figure Michael Robertson, is a promising idea. Like Robertson's original MP3.com service, which was purchased and then shut down by Vivendi Universal almost a decade ago, MP3tunes.com lets you store your personal music collection on its servers. You can then access that music from any computer by using the MP3tunes Web site, or from various devices, including the iPhone (through the free Airband app built by Centroid PIC) and Android phones, as well as the Logitech Squeezebox Radio (which has connectivity to MP3tunes built in). The company has also built specialized versions of the Web site to work with the browser on PlayStation and Wii game consoles. It's an intriguing concept, but it hasn't been without its drawbacks.The service has been around for a few years now, and the technology works well. I particularly like the LockerSync app, which can upload your computer-based library to the MP3tunes service on a schedule--I had it work at night so the uploads wouldn't suck up my bandwidth during active Web surfing--and which automatically queues new songs for upload as you add them to your computer. The Web-based player has most of the features familiar from iTunes, with some interesting additions like slideshows of album art and artist pictures. The Airband app for iPhone worked perfectly over my Wi-Fi connection.The Airband iPhone app lets you stream music from your MP3tunes locker to your iPhone or iPod Touch.ScreenshotBut I've always balked at the price of the service. Until last week, MP3tunes only gave users 2GB of free storage. I already find the 8GB on my iPhone to be limiting, so 2GB seemed worthless by comparison. To store more than 2GB, you needed a premium account, which offers 50GB of storage for $39.95 per year or $4.95 per month. Paying that much money for the convenience of having my music collection available from anywhere didn't seem worthwhile--if I want to listen to my music away from my computer, I'll simply take an MP3 player with me. If I really want to have certain music files (like QuickTime videos of Pink Floyd's Live8 performance) on all my computers, I'll swap it around with a 2GB flash drive, which now costs less than $20. Using MP3tunes has other benefits. For instance, if I download a new piece of music onto any of my computers or devices, it's automatically available on all my other devices without requiring me to connect any cables to sync files back and forth. And it's always nice to have extra backup in case the PC with my music collection on it dies. But these benefits aren't worth $40 a year to me.Last week, MP3tunes upped its free storage allotment to 10GB. The storage increase is still in testing--you need to request an invitation to get the larger locker--but the change makes MP3tunes worth another look. I think it could be particularly useful if you use an iPhone or Android phone as your primary MP3 player, and are becoming frustrated with your storage limits. You can transfer the "must have" files using your regular wired sync, then use MP3tunes to gain another 10GB of storage at no charge.