The UK government has reportedly renewed its demand that Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted iCloud user data.

Earlier this year, it backed down on the issue after a furious response from Donald Trump. Apple, meanwhile, withdrew its most secure cloud storage service, iCloud Advanced Data Protection, from the UK in response.

Now, though, according to the Financial Times, the government is once again asking for access. This time, however, the technical capability notice (TCN) would apply only to the data of British citizens, rather than worldwide.

Both Apple and the Home Office are restricted by law from discussing the TCNs, which are issued under the UK Investigatory Powers Act.

Trump described the UK's earlier demands as 'something that you hear about with China' – and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is inclined to agree, saying that the new TCN is just as dangerous as the first.

"As we've said time and time again, any backdoor built for the government puts everyone at greater risk of hacking, identity theft, and fraud," said EFF security and privacy activist Thorin Klosowski.

"It sets a dangerous precedent to demand similar data from other companies, and provides a runway for other authoritarian governments to issue comparable orders."

According to the FT, the US is no longer pushing the UK government to drop its demands. However, said Matthew Sinclair, UK senior director of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), the government's decision to limit its request to UK data doesn't answer concerns.

"It is very concerning that reports again suggest that the Home Office is undermining security for British users of important cloud services," he said.

"Even if some changes have been made to reduce the extra-territorial impact, it is clear that any vulnerability will have implications beyond the UK's borders, creating a weak link in global efforts to improve security online. Changes to this law are urgently needed to stop this fundamental threat to encryption and ensure that the UK is not holding up important security improvements."

And, said Privacy International, end-to-end encryption can't be removed from iCloud services for the UK only when those services are used worldwide.

"Unless Apple plans to build walled-off systems just for UK users, so it can then undermine the security of UK users alone for the UK government, then this new order could have a quite similar impact to the old one," it said.

"This could also put at risk information like user passwords, location, and health data. By using a secret order to undermine the security of Apple products, the UK government is making security harder for us all."

And, it warned, "If this new order isn't stopped, the UK government will likely issue similar orders to other companies, too."

MORE FROM ITPRO

• I think the UK government's attempt to strong-arm Apple into giving it an ADP backdoor is a travesty – and so does most of the industry

No matter what your smartphone operating system loyalties and preferences are, you have to admit that Apple's iOS is never boring. iOS 7 introduced a dramatic visual refresh, while iOS 8 introduced more Android-style flexibility with features such as third-party keyboards and extensions. iOS 9 continues iOS 8's theme of giving users more flexibility and does so with several new features first introduced by its competitors.

Despite the cavalcade of new features, iOS 9 is, generally speaking, an incremental and iterative update for iPhone and iPod Touch users. It's a different story for iPad users though - iOS 9 brings significant changes to the way you use your Apple tablet.

Latest news

07/04/2016: One week after the general release of iOS 9.3.1, Apple has seeded the beta of iOS 9.3.2 to developers. Being an update to 9.3, it doesn't make any radical changes, but rather fixes a handful of bugs and introduces some minor new features.

In terms of bug fixes, the release notes indicate these addresses known issues in the built-in Dictionary, iBooks, Safari and Simulator, although there isn't much detail as to what these are.

It also deals with an issue in Quick Actions that caused stuttering and lag when used.

iOS 9.3.2 is only available to registered Apple developers, with no current indicated schedule for a public release.

08/03/2016:An iOS bug has caused iOS owners to receive 'ghost emails' from 1970.

The emails appear in the stock Mail app on iPhone and iPad dated 1 January 1970 with no sender, users have reported on Reddit.

Although Apple has yet to issue an official explanation, common consensus appears to be that the issue is down to an error in iOS that causes the app to download the email's information incorrectly.

The error can be fixed by closing the app and hard-resetting the device.

The perplexing '70s date stamp - a clear 30 years before the invention of the iPhone - can be easily explained, too.

UNIX-based operating systems like iOS use 1 January 1970 as the start date for their clocks, meaning that to an iPhone, it's effectively the beginning of time.

This is also the cause of an error that surfaced last month, in which some iPhones could be bricked by setting them to this date.

For certain timezones, setting the devices to this date fools the phone into thinking that its internal clock is below zero, meaning it will fail to boot.

Naturally, users are discouraged from attempting to replicate this bug, as they may have to take their phone in for repair.

09/02/2016:Virtual reality (VR) could feature on iOS within the next two years, an analyst research note has indicated.

The note, obtained by AppleInsider, comes from Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster, and charts some of Apple's recent acquisitions and hires in the VR space.

At least 141 Apple employees have a background in augmented reality (AR), according to Munster,and the IP gained through acquisitions such as PrimeSense indicate that the company is looking to explore "mixed reality" applications for future devices.

Apple secured a patent for "head-mounted display apparatus for retaining a portable electronic device with display" last February, and made several acquisitions including AR start-up Mataioduring 2015.

08/02/2016: Apple has defended the Error 53' security update that has been destroying thousands of users' iPhones.

After upgrading to iOS 9, many unsuspecting iPhone owners have found that the error has completely locked their phones, with no way to unlock them, and no way to recover the data.

The error arises as a result of tampering with the iPhone's TouchID sensor. Unfortunately, it can also be triggered by replacing the device's screen, if users do not take it to an official Apple engineer.

Taking an Apple device device anywhere other than an Apple Authorised Service Provider for repair automatically voids the warranty, and thishas left unwitting customers with a useless handset after a simple screen repair.

The company says this is for security reasons, suggesting that stolen iPhones could be installed with compromised fingerprint readers to allow criminals to gain access.

"We take customer security very seriously and Error 53 is the result of security checks designed to protect our customers,"a spokesperson for the company said.

"This security measure is necessary to protect your device and prevent a fraudulent Touch ID sensor from being used. If a customer encounters Error 53, we encourage them to contact Apple Support."

System requirements, performance and battery life

iOS 9 is unique among all the major mobile operating systems in supporting very old hardware - it's officially supported on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4s, which both came out in 2011, although iPod Touch support only goes back to the 5th generation model.

Just because you can install iOS 9 on four year old devices doesn't mean you should though. As our in-depth testing of iOS 9 on an iPhone 4s and an original iPad mini (which has almost identical specifications to the iPad 2) revealed, iOS 9 only brings, at best, very uneven responsiveness and battery life improvements to these older devices.

It's a different story on newer, more up to date devices though. We only saw modest improvements in Apple's already class-leading JavaScript rendering performance on an iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2. There was no improvement in 3D rendering performance, although our 3D graphics tests have yet to be updated for Metal, Apple's new alternative to the OpenGL API which allegedly brings performance improvements.

There were notable increases in battery life though. When running iOS 8, our iPhone 6 Plus lasted seven hours and 41 minutes in our web browsing and music playback test. Under iOS 9, this increased by over half an hour to eight hours and 15 minutes.

The difference was more dramatic on our iPad Air 2 which went from seven hours and 47 minutes to nine hours and 10 minutes after the OS upgrade. This exceeds Apple's claims of one hour improvement in battery life for iOS 9. These improvements were repeated when we reran the tests, with minor differences of five minutes either way, so they weren't one-offs.

Interface

As expected, iOS 9 keeps the same minimalist interface first introduced in iOS 7 but with some subtle changes. The new system font, San Francisco, replaces Helvetica Neue. Although it didn't improve legibility on the non-Retina original iPad mini or the small 3.5in iPhone 4s, we found that the subtle differences in weighting and spacing did improve legibility on the iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 Plus. Unfortunately, you can't change it back if you don't like it.

The app switcher has changed from a series of small, clearly separated and free-standing cards representing each app to a series of larger, overlapping cards. Although this seems like a trivial change at first, we found the larger cards easier to swipe through single-handed on large screen phones such as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Plus, the new large card design discourages endless browsing through the carousel of apps, emphasising its use for quickly switching between recently used apps rather than as an alternative to the home screen which it had become for some people.

iOS 9's new app switcher

It's easy to overlook the changes to Apple's default keyboard, especially if you've long switched to a third party alternative, but they're useful enough that they may tempt you to switch back - especially on the iPad.

A small but very welcome change is that the key caps now switch back and forth between lower-case and upper-case labelling depending on whether or not you've engaged the caps lock. It's therefore much more obvious which case you've selected, unlike in iOS 7 and 8 where the only hint was an ambiguously highlighted shift key.

On the iPad, the keyboard gets a Shortcuts Bar which flanks either side of the QuickType autocorrect suggestions field first introduced in iOS 8. Filled with useful buttons such as undo, redo, paste and text formatting options, it makes working on even small blocks of text much easier than before. Windows Phone has a similar, but far more basic shortcuts bar accompanying its on-screen keyboard.

Holding two fingers down on the keyboard turns it into a giant touchpad for moving the text caret. This iPad-only feature makes text editing even easier, making this clever feature an immediate favourite.

The keyboard turns transparent in touchpad mode

Reminders may not be as feature-packed as third-party to-do list apps, but it does have one feature those apps don't. Reminders in Apple's app can now include links to other apps. So you can set a reminder to read an email later and include a link that will take you direct to the email in question. This clever little feature still needs some work though. For example, setting a reminder to call a particular contact included a link that opened the Phone app, but this just took us to the call list and not to the details for the specific contact.

Reminders can now include links to other apps, although they don't always work quite right

A much smaller, but no less useful new feature available on iPads as well as iPhones and iPod Touches is a context-sensitive back button that appears in the top left hand corner of the screen when you click a link in an app that opens another app. Tapping the back button takes you back to the first app. It's a small touch, but helps make multitasking just that bit smoother.

Built-in apps

Of all of Apple's built-in apps, Notes gets the biggest makeover. It's now a serious alternative to rival notetaking apps, with features such as freehand drawing using your finger, automatically numbered lists, checklists as well as the ability to add photos, file attachments and even links to other apps (where supported) in a note.

There are some odd quirks with Notes though, such as the almost non-existent ability to edit your drawings after you've drawn them and the requirement that you enable iCloud syncing for your notes just to use the freehand tools.

iCloud syncing is a departure from previous versions of the Notes app which used an IMAP mailbox in one of your email accounts to sync notes between multiple devices. Once switched over to iCloud, you can't switch back so notes will only be synchronised between iCloud-enabled devices.

Unless you object to iCloud-centric notes syncing, the revamped Notes app means it's less likely you'll go hunting for a third-party notetaking app if you don't already use one. But you're less likely to be won over if you're already a dedicated fan of Evernote, OneNote or SimpleNote.

iCloud Drive, the Dropbox-like online storage component of Apple's cloud services, finally gets its own dedicated file manager app. Oddly though, it's hidden by default and has to be enabled in the Settings app before it will appear on your homescreen. In any case, there's nothing special about it and certainly nothing that will tempt you over if you're already a dedicated user of another cloud storage service.

There's no real need to use iCloud's online storage service as Apple continues to make it easier for third party services to integrate more closely with iOS apps. The default Mail app finally gains the ability to add attachments to emails, including files stored on OneDrive, Dropbox and Box.net from a straightforward file picker window. Previously you had to delve into, say, the Microsoft Word app and email the files you wanted from there. This wasn't very intuitive.

You can now add attachments to emails from cloud storage services such as Box

Apple's new News app filled with curated content from the likes of The New York Times, The Guardian, Vanity Fair and CNN, isn't actually available for British iOS users yet. We suspect Apple is still stocking the app with UK-specific news providers and content before becoming available on this side of the pond.

Apple's homegrown Google-less Maps app was an unmitigated disaster when it launched with iOS 6. Missing landmarks and addresses as well as incorrect routing and directions made it a laughing stock. The data underlying the app is now much improved, at least in our experience in London and the South East and in many cases Apple's map labels and symbols are more legible than those in Google Maps with the notable exception of public transport stops and stations. Google Maps, while not perfect either, still has the edge though when it comes to the most accurate and up-to-date location and routing information.

Maps now regains the ability to give you public transport directions that it lost when Apple moved away from Google as its backend. In our experience it worked well, but there's a major catch. It's currently only available in a handful of cities worldwide - the only British city with public transport directions in Apple Maps is London. All of this means that Apple Maps is likely to continue as an adjunct to Google Maps, rather than replace it outright.

Apple Maps once again has built-in public transport directions, but the only British city it supports at the moment is London

The Photos app gains a few useful smart albums for selfies, panoramas, videos and, in a godsend for software reviewers, screenshots. We're a little disappointed that other apps haven't received some love and attention though.

An example is the Calendar app. You can add events to the Calendar app on OS X by typing details in natural language, such as lunch with Kat at 2pm on Friday the 25th' rather than fiddling about with a time-consuming dialogue box. It doesn't always parse the details correctly, but it's good enough that we wish the iOS Calendar app had the same time-saving feature.

Behind the scenes

A small but useful benefit is the ability of third-party apps to use a far faster HTML renderer than the one in previous versions of iOS. Previously, apps that needed to display web content, such as a social networking app with statuses containing a web link, rendered that content using an engine that was noticeably slower than Safari - especially JavaScript-heavy pages. Third-party developers have to opt into this feature though, which we hope they will do as soon as possible.

Third-party apps can now use a far faster built-in HTML renderer for showing web content

The most controversial new feature in iOS 9 by far is the ability to add content blockers to the Safari web browser. Downloaded as apps from the App Store, almost all of the content blockers released to date have been ad-blockers. Other types of content blockers, such as adult content filters, are also in the works from various developers.

We won't delve in-depth into the arguments for and against ad blockers on mobile devices here, but we welcome their inclusion in iOS 9. Badly designed ads can make it hard or impossible to read and navigate mobile websites, slow down rendering speeds and hog bandwidth - all of which can be especially aggravating if you're on a slow network and/or have a data usage cap. With all this in mind, giving users more control using content blockers is, overall, a good thing.

iPad multitasking

Multitasking on the iPad is now a lot easier thanks to iOS 9. There is a trio of new multitasking features, but they are not available on the iPhone (even the huge 5.5in 6 Plus and 6s Plus) and only some iPads will be able to take advantage of them. To use the new Picture-in-Picture and Slide Over features, you'll need an iPad Mini 2, an iPad Air or later. To use Split View, you'll need an iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 4 or later. All three of these features are of course supported on the upcoming iPad Pro.

These new multitasking features in iOS 9 will be instantly familiar to users of Windows 8 and 10 tablets as well as owners of recent Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Picture-in-Picture lets you watch video in a small resizeable window while using other apps. You can only stick this window in one of the four corners of the screen, rather than anywhere you wish, but it's still useful to have. Video apps that already support Picture-in-Picture include BBC iPlayer, DailyMotion and, of course, Apple's own FaceTime video chat service.

When using an app, swipe in from the right hand side of the screen and you can use another app on top of it. The second app occupies around of the screen and you can't use your original app while using the second app. Apple calls this Slide Over and it works well for quick tasks such as checking emails or Tweets without completely disrupting your workflow.

Whether you want to use Slide Over or Split View, they're both activated the same way

The second app in Slide Over on an iPad essentially looks and works much like an iPhone app

Split View lets you use two apps on-screen, side-by-side, simultaneously. It's activated very similarly to Slide Over, but the second app can occupy up to half of the screen. It works well and makes complex workflows easier to accomplish on an iPad.

Picture-in-Picture and Split View working together

All this may be old hat to Galaxy Tab and Windows users, but Split View is already better than the similar feature on Samsung tablets purely because of more widespread developer support. Microsoft Office, Slack, Scanner Pro and PDF Expert are some of our favourite and most frequently used apps and all have already been updated to support Split View (Apple's iWork apps are conspicuous by their lack of support).

This is all the more impressive given that iOS 9 has only been publicly available for a few days compared to Samsung's years-long head start. Plus, in a neat touch, you can use Split View and Picture-in-Picture together.

Search and Siri

Siri has quietly and quickly grown into one of the best feature on iOS. Overall, we find the transcription accuracy of this voice-activated personal assistant to be very good. We use it everyday for setting alarms, entering reminders and calendar events and transcribing texts and short emails.

Siri has been overshadowed though by the similar-but-different Google Now, the personal assistant built into recent versions of Android. Using data in apps such as GMail, Google Calendar and Google Maps, Now is much more proactive. It can reminding you to leave in time to get to your next appointment, even taking into consideration traffic or public transport conditions. It can show the status of upcoming flights or the shipping status of online shopping orders. It's all very clever.

Siri tries to do something similar, but without harvesting your data and having it processed by cloud-based servers. Siri Proactive apparently does all its data processing on-device which will be reassuring whether for corporate compliance reasons or just because you're concerned about your privacy and big data overreach.

It's early days for Siri Proactive, but so far it hasn't been as helpful as Google Now on Android. It offered to add appointments to our calendar based on restaurant reservation confirmation emails and it offered to open our favourite music app when we plugged in our headphones. It remains to be seen whether Apple's more privacy-sensitive approach will be able to match Google's cloud-based machine learning strategy in making a better personal assistant.

Siri's Proactive feature automatically offered to create new calendar events based on reservation confirmations emails in our inbox

We're not definitely not fans of the Siri suggestions screen, which sits to the left of your first home screen. The list of recently accessed contacts sits here, moved from its previous home in the app switcher on iOS 8. But it's joined by app suggestions, news headlines and suggestions for things to do in your local area. Apart from being cluttered, the headlines and locality-based suggestions weren't as tailored to our preferences compared to Google Now's similar feature.

So far, we haven't found the new Siri suggestions screen to be especially helpful

Siri does at least get a few additions to its core remit of voice control. For example, you can search through the Photos app by giving commands such as show me photos of Turkey'. But without cloud-based machine learning, the accuracy of the search results is dependent on how anal you've been in tagging your photos with the correct metadata. So the results for our search showed snaps of a trip to Istanbul, which had all been correctly tagged, but not those of a trip to Cappadocia which hadn't.

We do like the ability to search for files and data across all the apps installed on your device from the main iOS search field, accessed either from the Siri screen or by swiping down from the middle of any home screen. Some third-party apps have already been updated to support this universal search, with DropBox, Scanner Pro and PDF Expert among the first. The level of support varies though - for example DropBox only supports searching among your recently accessed and offline files, rather than amongst all your files, which is disappointing.

Another somewhat variable search feature is the new ability to search in the Settings app. This should be a godsend given the increasingly complex, nested nature of the Settings app, but it's not as smart as it could be. To find the battery settings, for example, you have to search for the keyword battery' - the synonymous energy' and power' didn't work. Shame.

You'll need to use exactly the right keywords when searching the Settings app

Security and enterprise

iOS 9 contains fewer new enterprise-specific features compared to previous versions of Apple's mobile operating system, although that's a sign of the operating system's growing maturity. Almost all of the new enterprise features here are focussed on security and mobile device management (MDM).

Security passcodes can now be up to six digits long, increased from four, making them just that bit more secure. Two-factor authentication is now supported, but only when a device is being set up for the first time - sadly an iOS device still can't be configured to require both a fingerprint and a passcode when unlocking for that extra layer of security.

There are several new fine-grained MDM controls, all of which have been long awaited and thus very welcome. Apps bought from the public-facing consumer App Store can now be converted into managed apps under your control. Apps bought under the Volume Purchase Program (VPP) can now be assigned to devices even if they don't have an Apple ID. VPP apps can be installed on any device your company owns, no matter where in the world it is. bypassing the annoying geographical restrictions sometimes found on the public App Store. You can even restrict access to the public app store entirely, ensuring that only managed apps that you approve can be installed. You can now managed VPN settings on an app-by-app basis and even restrict apps from using cellular networks.

Conclusions

For iPhone and iPod Touch users, iOS 9 is an evolutionary update full of small, neat little touches that make your everyday mobile experience that little bit smoother, easier and more convenient. The full utility of Siri Proactive remains to be seen, but it faces tough competition from Android Marshmallow's improved version of Google Now which is due out soon.

The effect is far more dramatic on the iPad, or at least iPads that can take advantage of the new multitasking features. We've never bought into the specious argument that iPads can't be used for work - they're certainly not a great fit for professional writers or spreadsheet jockeys, at least not without an external keyboard, but non-office workplaces such as warehouses, hospitals, studios and schools make use of them in other more lateral uses.

But prior to iOS 9, there were plenty of situations where an iPad wasn't quite the right fit. The new multitasking features and the revamped onscreen keyboard means the iPad is a more viable business computer in more workplaces than ever before.

iOS 9 really is good. (So good, in fact, it got 5/5 and a recommended award in a review by our sister title Expert Reviews).The only thing that should stop you from upgrading is the age of your devices - older devices will get less out of it and may even run more slowly. It may borrow ideas quite liberally from its competitors, but iOS 9 raises the bar again for mobile operating systems.

If you need any further convincing, our sister title Alphr.com runs down the five reasons to upgrade to iOS 9 today here. It's well worth a read.

Verdict

For most users, it will be a case of when they upgrade to iOS 9 not if

Requires iPhone 4s, iPad 2, iPad mini, iPod Touch fifth generation or later

An American man has been arrested and charged in relation with the 2014 leak of celebrity photos, known as Celebgate and the iCloud Hack.

Ryan Collins, 36, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has pleaded guilty to breaking the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as part of a plea deal that will see him face no more than five years in jail.

According to the plea agreement, Collins allegedly engaged in a phishing scam between November 2012 and September 2014, where he persuaded owners of Apple and Google email accounts to hand over their credentials by pretending to be a representative of those companies.

Whenever the ruse was successful, he gained access to personal information, including nude photos and videos, according to the plea agreement.

A statement from the US Department of Justice (DoJ) further alleged that "in some instances, Collins would use a software program to download the entire contents of the victim's iCloud backups".

In total, Collins accessed at least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts, mostly belonging to female celebrities.

In a statement, David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said: "By illegally accessing intimate details of his victims' personal lives, Mr. Collins violated their privacy and left many to contend with lasting emotional distress, embarrassment and feelings of insecurity.

"We continue to see both celebrities and victims from all walks of life suffer the consequences of this crime and strongly encourage users of internet-connected devices to strengthen passwords and to be skeptical when replying to emails asking for personal information."

There is still one mystery remaining, however. While Collins admits to hacking into the accounts, he denies being the source of the 2014 Celebgate leak.

Furthermore, while Collins was arrested in relation to that breach, the DoJ said: "Investigators have not uncovered any evidence linking Collins to the actual leaks or that Collins shared or uploaded the information he obtained."

The broader FBI investigation into the 2014 leak is still ongoing.

Speaking to Cloud Pro, independent security researcher Graham Cluley said: "I'm not surprised that it was phishing that was at the heart of the attack against the celebrities. If there had been a fundamental flaw in iCloud then we would have seen much more serious information stolen by hackers than a few nude photographs of starlets.

"The sad truth is that phishing is incredibly effective. All the time, individuals and companies are duped into handing over information through convincingly crafted email messages."

Like the FBI's Bowditch, Cluley said it is important that people are wary of unsolicited emails. However, he added that two-factor authentication should be implemented where possible to make accounts more secure.

"You can do this with Gmail, iCloud, and other accounts and it means that even if your password is phished from you the hackers will not know the randomly generated PIN code that is also required when accessing the account from a previously unknown computer," he said.

This article first appeared on IT Pro's sister site, Cloud Pro.

Apple is apparently developing a voicemail transcription service that will answer phone calls and convert messages into text.

These messages will then be uploaded to iCloud and sent to users via email (or presumably iMessage) for you to read when they're free, instead of having to listen a message and try and decipher what the person on the other end of the line is saying.

Apparently, the system can also tell people why a user is unavailable (such as being in a meeting, or on holiday or will be away for a certain period of time) so the caller can tailor their message accordingly.

The news comes via Business Insider, which reported the service could launch in winter 2016.

The report claimed many people, including those of younger generations, prefer using text rather than voice and so this feature would appeal to them specifically.

It added a number of Apple employees are already testing what it calls iCloud Voicemail and it will be released inside iOS 10 rather than the upcoming iOS 9 that will be released later this year.

However, don't be disheartened that it's not coming this year - Apple has already announced Siri will be upgraded when iOS 9 launches, including adding the ability to search within third-party applications and guess what you're going to do next, even further reducing the amount of time it takes you to do anything on an iPhone, iPad or iPod.

Apple's iCloud services suffered an outage yesterday for a total of seven hours, with services including Mail affected.

Eleven cloud-based services including iCloud Drive, Photos, Documents, Find My iPhone, Back to My Mac, iCloud Backup, iCloud Keychain, iCloud Mail, iMovie Theater and iWork for iCloud Beta were all down or running extremely slowly, users said.

Apple's own system status dashboard said the majority of its iCloud services were running slower than usual, with 40 per cent of its estimated 500 million users reporting problems. Unsurprisingly, complaints were rife on social networks throughout the day.

One user said: "#Apple guys, please don't underestimate the facts: #iCloud is not currently slow, it's off and down," while another reported: "iCloud Mail service may be slow for some users according to Apple's system status page. Try non-existent!! I need my email! #iCloudDown."

"iCloud is down.... Can't send emails using iCloud account. @APPLEOFFIClAL please fix it! #iClouddown #icloud," read another.

Even after the services were back online, some users still reported they were experiencing problems. "#iclouddown still can't access calendar, reminders, etc in spite of status website saying everything's fine."

The tech giant reported services were not running at full capacity between 2:15am ET (7.15am GMT) and 9:30am ET (2.30pm), but it has now updated its status page to say all services are working normally.

Apple's cloud-based services aren't as reliable as the company would have us believe, it seems. In August 2013, three million of the services' customers were affected by an outage and the App Store and iTunes were brought down in March.

Apple has not commented on the outage, nor has it given any reason for the downtime.

Reddit is introducing tougher rules to tackle nude photo posts, five months after naked pictures belonging to a slew of Hollywood celebrities were leaked onto the site by hackers.

The social forum will remove any intimate images of people posted on its subreddits when notified that the snaps were posted without permission, it announced in an update to its privacy policy.

The company wrote yesterday: "No matter who you are, if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, is posted or linked to on reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on reddit.

"We also recognise that violent personalised images are a form of harassment that we do not tolerate and we will remove them when notified."

The move follows a huge leak of personal nude photos of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst in a breach known as the Fappening'.

The photos, pulled from Apple's iCloud by hackers, were posted on Reddit and the 4Chan message boards last September.

Following increasing media pressure, Reddit eventually took the photos off its site, yet similar photos of non-celebs remained.

The social forum yesterday admitted it had "missed a chance" to protect people's privacy, adding the updated privacy policy is a step in the right direction.

The revision doesn't mean intimate photos cannot be posted online to start with, however, just that Reddit will take them down if notified by victims that they were posted without permission.

The UK government made revenge porn, the act of posting nude pictures of others without their consent, illegal earlier this month.

Those who circulate such photos can face up to two years in prison under an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said at the time: "The fact there are individuals who are cruelly distributing intimate pictures of their former partners without their consent is almost beyond belief.

"We want those who fall victim to this type of disgusting behaviour to know that we are on their side and will do everything we can to bring offenders to justice."

Reddit's updated privacy policy will come into effect on 10 March, but it's not clear whether it will notify the police when UK users do post revenge porn.

Apple has confirmed its iCloud service could be subject to organised network attacks, although the vendor said they won't compromise the cloud storage service's servers, whether used on mobile, tablet or computer.

The company released a support statement on its website, advising users to pay attention when logging into the service. If a certificate warning appears, telling a person the site is unsafe, it's important not to ignore the warning and enter a username and password.

Apple said: "We're aware of intermittent organized network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information, and we take this very seriously. These attacks don't compromise iCloud servers, and they don't impact iCloud sign in on iOS devices or Macs running OS X Yosemite using the Safari browser.

"The iCloud website is protected with a digital certificate. If users get an invalid certificate warning in their browser while visiting www.icloud.com, they should pay attention to the warning and not proceed. Users should never enter their Apple ID or password into a website that presents a certificate warning."

The service has already been targeted by hackers in China believed to be the government, trying to steal user credentials according to a Chinese web monitoring group Greatfire.org that conducts research on Chinese internet censorship.

Only those using the service in China reported such issues, but it does show that the attack can take place anywhere.

The website said hackers attempted to perform a man-in-the-middle" (MITM) attack, which sandwiches a fake site in between the user's position and the Apple website, asking them to input login details.

However, Apple has denied the allegations despite sending out the support statement.

Chinese hackers have launched a man-in-the-middle attack designed to intercept the usernames and passwords of Apple's iCloud users.

According to reports from anti-censorship organisation Greatfire, the hack coincides with the launch of the Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the country.

The organisation said Chinese users that try to log into iCloud using the IP address 23.59.94.46 will see a fake login site identical to the real Apple iCloud login page. However, alarm bells should ring as the fake site throws up a few security warnings.

Users with browsers such as Chrome or Firefox should detect fake security certificates, however many in the country prefer to use home-grown browsers that do not flag these certificates as bogus. Greatfire said Qihoo's popular Chinese 360 secure browser is "anything but and will load the MITMed page directly."

If users ignore the warnings, their details will get passed onto eavesdroppers, it is claimed.

"This is clearly a malicious attack on Apple in an effort to gain access to user names and passwords and consequently all data stored on iCloud such as iMessages, photos, contacts, etc," said Greatfire in the blog post.

"Unlike the recent attack on Google, this attack is nationwide and coincides with the launch today in China of the newest iPhone."

The censorship watchdog said authorities had also mounted attacks on Google, Yahoo, Github and others. It said the latest attack may also somehow be related again to images and videos of the Hong Kong protests being shared on the mainland.

Greatfire also said the attack could be related to the increased security of the new iPhone. Better encryption on the iPhone designed to keep out the NSA would also prevent Chinese authorities snooping on Apple's users.

The censorship watchdog said this latest episode should "provide a clear warning signal to foreign companies that work with the Chinese authorities on their censorship agenda".

"Working with the authorities to help them prevent free access to news and information is not a guaranteed path to riches in China. If anything, cooperation with the Chinese authorities can now increasingly be labelled as the worst decision a foreign company can make."

Greatfire urged users to access the internet using a VPN and enable two-factor authentication on their iCloud accounts.

Celebrities involved in the photo hacking scandal have threatened Google with legal action worth up to $100 million (62 million), believing the search giant didn't do enough to prevent people seeing the photos when they were posted on 4Chan.

Marty Singer, the lawyer who is acting on behalf of the group of celebrities whose iCloud accounts were hacked last month, said: "Google, one of the largest ISPs in the world, with vast resources and a huge support staff, generating multimillions of dollars in revenues on a daily basis, has recklessly allowed these blatant violations to continue in conscious disregard of our clients' rights."

The letter to Google explained that other websites such as Twitter had reacted fast to remove any references to the pictures, therefore ensuring the celebrities' privacy was protected.

Google only removed some of the pictures from its search engine index. The Hollywood Reporters said the reason Google didn't remove all the pictures was either down to its 'selfie' guidelines that say the person who holds the camera owns the pictures (and those that requested all the pictures are taken down weren't holding the camera) or that only nude pictures were removed.

Pictures of the celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Rihanna, Arianna Grande were stolen when hackers were able to bombard Apple's storage service with random passwords until they were able to gain access.

The pictures were then downloaded and added to messageboards 4Chan and Reddit, where the hackers involved were willing to exchange the pictures for money.

Apple said in a statement: "After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the internet.

"None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems, including iCloud and Find my iPhone."

Apple continues to take a shot at competitors like Facebook and Google over data collection practices by launching a new privacy section on its website.

Apple.com/privacy provides information about its Privacy Policy, details on government data requests, and features like two-step verification and location tracking.

In an open letter to introduce the new addition, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the website is designed to explain how the firm handles personal information, what it does and doesn't collect, and why.

"We're going to make sure you get updates here about privacy at Apple at least once a year and whenever there are significant changes to our policies," he noted.

In a televised interview earlier this week, Cook hit out at its competitors who have business models based on data collection. In the letter, he continued to distance Apple from a strategy involving data collection.

"A few years ago, users of internet services began to realise that when an online service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product. But at Apple, we believe a great customer experience shouldn't come at the expense of your privacy," he continued.

"Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don't build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don't 'monetise' the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don't read your email or your messages to get information to market to you."

Cook did acknowledge the firm does serve ads via the iAd platform but claimed it's a "very small" part of the business.

"iAd sticks to the same privacy policy that applies to every other Apple product. It doesn't get data from Health and HomeKit, Maps, Siri, iMessage, your call history, or any iCloud service like Contacts or Mail, and you can always just opt out altogether."

He also reaffirmed that Apple is not in cahoots with government agencies like the NSA.

"Finally, I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will," he added.

The supposed Apple iCloud "breach" made TV news bulletins last week, which is no surprise given that it centred around the leaking of naked female celebrity photos.

It was also no big wow that Apple quickly responded to such a major reputational shafting by insisting it takes security very seriously (yada yada yada), and had not been 'hacked' and will take steps to ramp up account protection in future.

That ramping up will include, as IT Pro reported at the end of last week, email and push notifications when password changes are attempted and if iCloud data restoration to a new device is requested, as well as when someone attempts to log in from a previously unknown device.

Some, including myself, would argue Apple should be doing this already. It's pretty much right there in the first chapter of Cloud Security for Complete Newbies, after all.

Flick to chapter two of this virtual tome and the heading would probably be something like 'Use Two-Factor Authentication' which, funnily enough, Apple also says it will be encouraging more people to do now.

Before the fanboys start sharpening their pen protectors in readiness for attack, I had better add that this isn't an attack on Apple; it's an attack on pathetic security measures.

The iCloud hack was as much to do with the usual lack of security awareness on the part of users as it was a lack of security understanding by Apple, which allowed hackers using the iBrute tool to repeatedly submit potential passwords to Apple's Find My iPhone service login page without locking them out.

But what lessons can the enterprise learn from this? That's simple:

1. No organisation is too big to get it wrong, and everyone has to keep their eye on the ball. Unfortunately, users are mostly blind and didn't even know there *was* a ball.

2. iCloud may well impact your security even if you don't take naked photos of the CEO with an iPhone.

Roll both of these lessons into one and out spits the little insecure nugget that the iCloud keychain will happily store login credentials, synced across Apple devices, in the iCloud.

That users can opt to backup that keychain data locally, but tend to take the easiest route and just leave it in the cloud with just a password and pin for protection, is another incident waiting to happen.

It's back to the eyes thing, use them and ensure that data is not being stored in iCloud that you do not want to be there; and that the data which is stored in the cloud is properly encrypted and protected.

In an ideal world you'd be able to inject employees with a drug to prevent them from acting like idiots, or at the very least exert complete control over the devices and services they use.

As neither are likely in the real world, then a combination of policy, awareness training and multi-factor authentication will have to do. Oh, and never forget that it's all about the data at the end of the day, so ensure the data which really matters is at the heart of your security policy and things become a lot more straightforward.

A group of hackers who stole naked photos of more than 100 female celebrities planned to carry out another attack using a cloned version of Android game Flappy Bird.

The clone included malware that could be used to maliciously gather photos of users and send them to a remote location for distribution in the same way they managed to leak pictures from celebrities' iCloud accounts last week.

The hackers thought they would be able to take advantage of users automatically accepting the permissions when they install an app from the Play Store.

The ring also thought it would be able to download the pictures before Google noticed and blocked the app.

The plans were revealed on image board AnonIB, part of 4chan, where the celebrity photos were being offered for sale.

A security researcher discovered the post on the leak site in July, which boasts a user only needs to use the app once to get the photos.

However, it seems as though the poster was a little concerned about getting their existing developer account blocked. After explaining what he hoped to do, they said: "It's a violation of a google play developers license to publish sneaky apps like that, and I REFUSE to risk my license over it.

"...If any kind anons want to help me get the thing paid for, I will post any wins obtained in this thread. I will link the app's store entry here, you get girls to download and play it ONCE, and you'll get all the win you wanted, if it was there," the post said.

In July, it was revealed a new remote access Trojan malware could be used to hack and target mobile banking data, SMS messages and contact lists on Android phones.

Although there's no evidence to suggest it could steal photos, it is able to install malicious app updates, steal and send SMS messages.

Apple has dismissed claims an iCloud hack resulted in numerous private photographs of female celebrities being leaked online.

In a statement to the press, released overnight, Apple denied the leaked photographs were in the public domain because iCloud was breached.

"After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the internet," the statement reads.

"None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems, including iCloud and Find my iPhone.

"We are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved," it concluded.

On Monday, news emerged about the publication of hundreds of private pictures belonging to female celebrities, including Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence and Spiderman actress Kirsten Dunst, on the Reddit and 4Chan messageboards.

The photos, it was claimed, were obtained by hackers who managed to infiltrate Apple's online backup service iCloud using a tool called iBrute.

This allows hackers to repeatedly submit potential passwords to Apple's Find My iPhone service login page until they uncover the correct one.

Once accessed, it is then possible for the hackers to access data stored in the iCloud account belonging to the breached Apple ID.

As reported by IT Pro yesterday, Apple has now patched the security flaw that allowed the hackers to repeatedly test passwords without being locked out.

Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, a spokesperson for the FBI said it is "aware of the allegations" and making moves to address them.

Apple's iCloud storage service is under intense scrutiny after it was hacked and intimate photos of well-known celebrities were stolen and published online.

However, it's not just A-listers like Jennifer Lawrence who have sensitive data on their devices. Many businesses deploy iPhones or allow employees to bring their own handsets into work. These devices can carry confidential images, emails and contact information.

Here are five tips to help keep data on your iOS device safe.

1. Control what is backed up to iCloud

When you setup an iPhone for the first time - you may have been tempted to sign up for iCloud with the promise of 5GB of free storage.

To see what data iCloud is backing up - Go to Settings > iCloud. This will show you the list of apps, which are automatically backing up information to the cloud. It's possible to toggle off apps with sensitive data like mail and photos.

2. Reset your password

Hackers are believed to have gained access to iCloud accounts using a brute-force hacking tool. As iCloud doesn't lock users out after a specific number of attempts, they were able to try combinations until accounts were unlocked.

Apple is likely to place a limit on how many password attempts users can have before being frozen out in the near future. However, it's still a good idea to reset your password and make it as strong as possible.

A strong password doesn't have to be complex combination with lots of characters. The key to a strong password is to use as many characters as possible. It can still be memorable if you use three random unrelated words back-to-back, for example.

Also remember to create security questions that can't be guessed by people who know you.

For more tips of creating a strong password see: How strong is your password?

3. Turn on two-factor authentication

Turning on two-factor authentication also helps to prevent brute force attacks. To activate this go to: My Apple ID > Manage your Apple ID and sign in > Select Password and Security.

Under Two-Step Verification, select 'Get Started' and follow the onscreen instructions.

When you want to sign into your account in the future, you'll be required to enter your regular password followed by a 4-digit verification code that will be sent to your phone at the time of login.

4. Turn off iCloud

Using iCloud may seem like the most convenient way to backup your data because it is done automatically. But as the hack has shown us, this means you don't have control over how the backup is stored - and ultimately hackers can get access to it.

If you don't want to use iCloud go to Settings > iCloud and scroll down to the bottom where there's the option to Delete account'.

5. Back up device manually using iTunes

If you stop using iCloud you'll have to backup your content manually using iTunes. Apple recommends doing this on a weekly basis. It may seem like a chore, but you'll have more control of where the backup is stored.

To backup using iTunes make sure you have downloaded the latest version.

Connect your iOS device to your computer. Choose File > Devices > Back up.

If you're using iTunes 10.7 or earlier, right-click the device from the list and choose Backup Now. Once completed open iTunes Preferences and select the Devices tab. Here you'll see the name of the device along with the date and time iTunes created the backup.

Apple has denied reports that hackers compromised its iCloud online storage service to carry out a series of remote attacks against Australian iPhone and iPad users.

A slew of Australian Apple users have reported being locked out of their iPhones, iPads and Macs remotely by hackers since Monday.

Victims have flooded Apple support forums with reports of being locked out of their devices by a group or individual claiming to be Oleg Pliss.

A message that appears on the affected devices also demands $100 or Euros from the owner to unlock a passcode the hackers have put in place.

"I have no idea how this happened. I am not aware of being exposed to malware or anything else, although I did recently purchase some new apps," wrote Veritylikestea, who first raised the alarm about the attacks.

In order to send a message of that ilk and lock a device, the hackers would have had to gain access to a user's Apple ID and password, and used that to log into the firm's online storage service iCloud.

From here, they could add passcode protection to devices using Apple's Find My iPhone/iPad feature.

The forum reports seem to suggest the attack took place in the early hours of yesterday morning in Australia, with many writing about being woken up by the message arriving.

At the moment, only Australian devices without passcode protection in place seem to be affected.

Some users claim to have regained access to their devices by restoring it from a backup via iTunes, and many others are resetting their iCloud passwords as a precaution.

Apple has since released a statement insisting that iCloud was not to blame for hackers gaining access to the victims' devices.

"Apple takes security very seriously and iCloud was not compromised during this incident," the statement reads.

"Impacted users should change their Apple ID password as soon as possible and avoid using the same name and password for multiple devices.

"Any users who need additional help can contact AppleCare or visit their local Apple retail store," it concludes.

Former subscribers to Apple’s MobileMe service, which shut down in June 2012, are to lose the free iCloud storage they were given as consolation for the offering being canned.

The closing down of MobileMe, one of Apple’s earliest cloud products, was announced in August 2011 and the service was finally axed at the end of June 2012.

As a peace offering, users with paid subscriptions were given free iCloud storage of up to 25GB per month, which was initially due to last until June 2012. However, the company extended this period to 30 September 2012 and then again to 30 September 2013.

But the prospect of any further extensions has been extinguished after Apple began emailing users telling them the complimentary period is finally coming to a close.

In a statement on its support website, Apple said: “Former MobileMe members received a complimentary storage plan after moving to iCloud between October 12, 2011, and August 1, 2012.

“On September 30, 2013, the complimentary iCloud storage plans will expire and will be automatically adjusted to the free 5 GB plan. If you already purchased a storage plan, no further action is required.”

If users are storing more than 5GB worth of data on the service, they will either need to reduce the amount they are using or purchase a plan with a larger amount of storage than they are currently using, the company said.

If not, iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud and iCloud Mail will temporarily stop working until they reduce the amount of storage they use or purchase a larger plan.

Apple has bolstered the security in its iCloud, App Store and iTunes service in a bid to prevent hacking. The services will now offer two-step verification in order to prevent unauthorised access.

Once activated, the additional security measure sends a four-digit number to a user's phone via a text message. This is in addition to entering the regular Apple ID password associated with the username.

The function is enabled when a user access an Apple service such as downloading content from the App Store, a forgotten password or getting Apple ID-related support.

Apple said in a statement that it took customer privacy "very seriously".

"Two-step verification is an even more robust process to ensure our users' data remain protected.

"Turning on two-step verification reduces the possibility of someone accessing or making unauthorised changes to your account information at My Apple ID or making purchases using your account. After you sign in, you can manage your account or make purchases as usual.

"Without both your password and the verification code, access to your account will be denied," the company said.

The new security measure is designed to eradicate the need for need of the security questions and sends a recovery key in case of forgotten passwords which Apple suggests users print out and keep somewhere safe.

In recent years, the usage of two-factor authentication has grown as cloud-based services seek to protect users by providing additional protections. Dropbox and Google have instituted such measures as a means for protecting data from getting into the wrong hands.

The option is currently available only to users in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Amazon and Apple users are being advised to take extra precautions with their credit card details, in the wake of last week's iCloud hack on US tech journalist Mat Honan.

Hackers managed to successfully negotiate Amazon's security controls to lock Honan out of his Apple iCloud account and, in turn, remotely wipe his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

The hackers are said to have obtained the last four digits of Honan's credit card number from Amazon's tech support team, which was then used by Apple to falsely verify Honan's identity.

Since news of the hack emerged last week, both firms have vowed to tighten up their security controls, and have stopped offering to reset customer passwords over the phone.

However, Rob Sobers, technical manager at security vendor Varonis, said there are other steps end users can take to safeguard their data.

In particular, Amazon customers should consider removing their credit card details from the site to prevent them falling foul of hackers in a similar way to Honan.

If the card stored with Amazon didn't match the card stored with Apple, the attack would have stopped.

"Until Amazon rethinks their identity verification process, the only way to protect against this [type of] hack is to delete any credit card data you have on file with Amazon," he advised.

"Yes, it's painful to have to enter your credit card information every time you place an order, but is it as painful as having your digital identity stolen?"

He also urged Apple users to set up and use a separate, single use credit card for their iTunes and App Store accounts.

"Apple requires you to have a credit card on file if you want to use iTunes and the App Store, so deleting your credit card data might not be viable," he explained.

"[But], if the card [Honan] stored with Amazon didn't match the card stored with Apple, the attack would have stopped here."

Sobers said end users should also seize on Honan's case to sort out their backup and recovery strategies, just in case something similar were to happen to them.

"So many systems are interconnected in the cloud making things more convenient than ever before, but we have to realise that this same interconnectedness makes security exponentially harder," Sobers added.

"Passwords are no longer good enoughnot for the important stuff. If Apple, Amazon, and Google can't get security right, what are the lesser known providers doing?"

Apple's first major press conference of 2012 will happen in New York this month, focusing on a media-related announcement, according to a report.

Sources close to the situation said the event would not mark a major product release, like the iPad 3, which is rumoured for a release in the first half of 2012, according to All Things D.

It is believed the event will mark an advertising or publishing announcement, whilst Apple senior vice president of internet software and services Eddie Cue is expected to be involved.

Given the location, some have suggested the announcement may focus on books or magazines.

Cue is responsible for the iBooks Store, as well as Apple's app and iTunes stores. He also runs the recently-launched iCloud offering and was on hand for the launch event of News Corporation's The Daily an iPad only publication - in 2011.

Apple is expected to hold more significant events throughout the year, including launches of a new iPad, iPhone and iPods.

The man responsible for designing many of those products, Jonathan Ive was recently knighted in the New Year Honours list.

Upon the announcement, Ive said he was "both humbled and sincerely grateful."

The company, which offers a similar service as Dropbox and Evernote, is using the week Apple has launched its own cloud service iCloud to try and tempt more iOS users on board.

Apple is only offering 5GB for free, although larger files such as music and videos do not count towards the limit just emails, contacts and smaller data objects.

To get the cloud storage, iOS users need to download the Box application and register for an account. Despite it being a mobile app, customers can still access files via desktops or laptops, taking full advantage of public cloud.

However, whilst business users should be wary as it is a US-based company so will be subject to US data laws Box has an impressive list of enterprise customers signed up for its services, including Dell, LinkedIn and Skype.

"The future of mobile is about being free of storage restrictions and closed systems," wrote Mark Saldana, social media manager at Box.

"With this offer, all iOS users will see the benefit of having all of their critical information available at their fingertips, from anywhere."

Apple users get 50GB free cloud storage from Box.net

On the week Apple's iCloud launches, Box.net offers 50GB extra storage for free.

Box.net is offering iPhone and iPad users 50GB of free cloud storage if they sign up for a Box account within the next 50 days.

The company, which offers a similar service as Dropbox and Evernote, is using the week Apple has launched its own cloud service iCloud to try and tempt more iOS users on board.

Apple is only offering 5GB for free, although larger files such as music and videos do not count towards the limit just emails, contacts and smaller data objects.

To get the cloud storage, iOS users need to download the Box application and register for an account. Despite it being a mobile app, customers can still access files via desktops or laptops, taking full advantage of public cloud.

However, whilst business users should be wary as it is a US-based company so will be subject to US data laws Box has an impressive list of enterprise customers signed up for its services, including Dell, LinkedIn and Skype.

"The future of mobile is about being free of storage restrictions and closed systems," wrote Mark Saldana, social media manager at Box.

"With this offer, all iOS users will see the benefit of having all of their critical information available at their fingertips, from anywhere."

As promised, Apple delivered iOS 5 and opened up the iCloud today.

Following on from announcements on 4 October, the company's mobile OS and cloud platform have landed, with the iPhone 4S due out in two days.

Apple has sought to hook iOS 5, the iCloud and its mobile devices up, so users can enjoy app interoperability wherever they are.

The OS, announced earlier this year during Apple's Wordwide Developer Conference, comes with a host of additions.

Of over 200 new features, the Notification Centre, where users will find all of their notifications in one place, greater integration with Twitter and iMessage (Apple's version of BlackBerry Messenger) are some of the most significant.

iCloud is a cloud service that caters to both consumers and businesses. Essentially it stores calendars, contacts, emails, documents and photos on Apple's servers. This content is then automatically pushed to Macs/PCs and iOS 5 devices. If a change is made on one device, such as a new calendar entry on an iPhone 4, this new information will automatically appear on other devices.

Last week, Apple announced a number of new apps for iOS that hook up to the iCloud, including Find my Friends, which essentially does what it says on the tin. It also allows users to stop location sharing functionality when they want.

Read on for our need to know articles for iOS 5 and the iCloud.

We'll have our comprehensive review of iOS 5 up in a matter of days.

Apple's iOS 5 and iCloud products will be released on 12 October, the Cupertino company announced today.

The OS, announced earlier this year during Apple's Wordwide Developer Conference, comes with a host of additions.

Of over 200 new features, the Notification Centre, where users will find all of their notifications in one place, greater integration with Twitter including a single sign-on, and iMessage (Apple's version of BlackBerry Messenger) were the most significant.

Freshly crowned CEO Tim Cook took to the stage to make his first big announcement in charge of Apple, but it was left up to Scott Forstall to make the iOS 5 announcement.

"We've already seeded more than 100k developers and they love it," Forstall said during Apple's special event in Cupertino.

"We can't wait to get it into everyone's hands."

Little new about the iCloud was revealed, except from the release date and a number of related applications.

Apple announced a number of new apps for iOS users that hook up to the iCloud, including Find my Friends, which essentially does what it says on the tin. It also allows users to stop location sharing functionality when they want.

"Now when I'm at Disneyland, I can easily see where my family is. Or I can see if my son made it to school today," said Apple's Eddy Cue.

Read on for our Need to Know cheat sheet on Apple iOS 5.

Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone at 18.00 BST. Will it be a mere speed-bumped iPhone 4S or a revamped iPhone 5? No matter what it is, we'll keep you updated on all the news as soon as it happens.

Don't forget to refresh the page to get the latest updates.

19:35 One more thing... Nope, it's not the iPhone 5! The iPhone 4S will be available from 14 October (UK, US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan) (that's 3 days before our ed's birthday in case you wondered). Pre-orders start on Friday 7 October. Then, on 28 October, 22 more countries (mostly EU) will be able to get their hands on the shiny new device.

19:31: Oh, there's a video to help people understand what's so great about iPhone 4S. We'll post this as soon as we can.

19:29: This dictation piece will support a number of languages: English, French and German. It's being launched as a beta.

19:27: Now for something business users will really appreciate (especially us journalists!): dictation. Still Siri-related. Siri can essentially act as your personal assistant. And, like a lot of intelligent tech, it learns the more you teach it.

19:26Will Siri be something we actually use or just something we play with for a bit until the novelty wears off? And will it only be available on the iPhone 4S or the older iPhone 4 too?

19:24Siri speaks back to you, as if you were talking to a person. You can use Siri to respond to a text, set up a meeting and check your calendar, all as if you were speaking to an actual person. Might not work with Cockneys, but looks very impressive if it actually works.

19:14 Now talking about voice feature Siri. It's an intelligent assistant, according to Apple. It will help you and answer questions. You just need to talk to it. Demoed by asking about the weather. "It sure looks like rain today." Could be quite useful. So long as the weather forecasts are accurate, that is.

19:12: Apparently "This is the most amazing iPhone yet."

19:10 The phone is super speedy taking snaps too. Just 1.1 seconds for the first pic, according to Apple. It also offers 1080p HD video recording, video image stablisation and temporal noise reduction.

19:07: There's lots of other call photo-taking features and enhancements, including gathering more light, facial recognition, white balance and filter tech.

19:05 The new features don't stop there. There's an eight megapixel camera with 3264x2448 pixels resolution - 60 per cent more than the iPhone 4. And a better sensor.

19:03 Those angered by dropped calls will be pleased. Apple has added in a better antenna (About time: Remember antenna-gate? ). Downloads are also faster - 14.4Mbps down (compared with 7.2Mbps for the iPhone 4). There's now a slide on screen showing how this compares to other handsets that claim to be 4G. All roads there lead to 14.4Mbps and 5.8Mbps uplink.

19:00: Eight hours of talk time (3G) and 12 hours (2G) on offer with new iPhone 4S. Users can also surf to their hearts' content with nine hours of Wi-Fi use, 40 hours of music (Apple loves music in case you missed that) and 10 hours of video. That's all thanks to improved battery life.

18:59: Competitors may have tried to imitate the iPhone 4 but they "haven't come close" according to Apple.

18:58: It'll have an A5 chip and be seven times faster than the iPhone 4. The chip supports dual-core graphics so gaming and such like will be an even better experience. Not that we're encouraging you to play games during working hours, of course. The CPU is up to twice as fast.

18:56: Now what we've all been waiting for: the iPhone 4S. Not the iPhone 5. Yet.

18:54:iPod Touch will get the iOS5 update too. Good, we don't want it feeling left out do we?!

18:50: iPod Nano updates ahoy, such as enhanced navigation and something for the health freaks amongst us - walking and running without a separate piece of apparatus is now possible thanks to the tweaks. There's also 16 new clock faces for the indecisive among us. And those who don't already have a watch.

18:49: He's back to talking about loving music and that being the reason the iPod was launched. Can't really see someone launching a portable music device if they hated music. Unless it didn't work properly, of course.

18:47: iCloud talk over. For now, at least. On to iPods. Again. This time Phil Shiler is doing his thang.

18:42: Again, iCloud will hit the street on 12 October. That's next Tuesday.

18:39: Head of software and services Eddy Cue is now talking tech. He's talking about iCloud - details of that here in our Need to Know and news story .

18:37: It's launching on 12 October. The new OS, that is, not anything else. Yet. Well, apart from the greeting card app announced earlier.

18:34: iOS5 now. Just recapping all the features (hopefully not all 200 of them!). Check out our Need to Know cheat sheet and news story here.

18:32: Talk has turned to a greeting card app. For just $2.99 the company will print out and send a card for you. It'll cost $4.99 elsewhere and be available from 12 October.

18:31: The Apple app ecosystem is alive and well on both customer and developer side, with 18 billion apps downloaded to date and Apple shelling out $3 billion to developers for their good work.

18:30: iPhone stuff now. Scoti Forstall has taken to the stage. The App Store now plays home to 500,000 apps.

18:25:A quarter of a billion iPads have been sold to date. That's big business. And these tablets are big with businesses too, with 92 per cent of Fortune 500 companies either using them in anger or thinking about it/conducting pilots.

18:21: Apparently most iPad users (95 per cent according to Cook) are happy. That's not a bad statistic.

18:20: Mobile phones now. Apple owns just five per cent of the global market. While that's not a large share, Apple has set its sights on grabbing a bigger slice of that pie. Will the iPhone 5 help grow that market share?

18:15: 45 million of those iPods were sold between July last year and June this year. Seems our appetite for music is pretty big.

18:14: On to the iPod now. Bigger market share in music than in the OS world with more than three quarters of the pie at present and more than 300 million sold. Thanks largely thanks to making our tunes "simple' to listen to again, Cook claims.

18:13: Apple has 23 per cent market share, according to Cook.

18:12:Chart time. He's showing a pretty impressive chart showing the Mac installed based. Some 58 million as it stands right now. Numbers have gone up considerably since 2006 and consistently outperform PC sales.

18:10: He's talking products first. 'Old' ones, naturally. There won't be any new announcements just yet. Patience! Max and Lion are first in the spotlight. It's the best OS around, according to Cook. Think he might be a bit biased.

18:00: Tim Cook has taken to the stage to welcome everyone.

17:55: Just a few minutes to go until it all starts happening. Will this be the biggest launch event yet? It's Tim Cook's first so let's hope he doesn't disappoint.

As ever, the world of IT just keeps on turning and turning, often so fast we find it hard to keep up with what's been going on.

Just in cased you missed anything, here's our quick recap of the week that was in IT.

Microsoft was given the US go ahead to buy VoIP firm Skype amid reports the latter had gotten rid of some of its execs before the acquisition progressed.

Ofcom confirmed mobile network operators will soon be able to buy and sell spectrum they either need or don't use anymore. Presumably they will be a better way of trading this kind of tech than eBay?

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding outlined plans which may result in UK businesses having to confess straight away if they experience a data breach. Good thing, we say, as too many firms have tried to swept such acts under the carpet. We appreciate the embarrassment factor, but will somebody please think about the customers?

Talking of embarrassment, Apple might have been left a little red faced after one of its execs decided to leave the company as it neared the launch of iCloud. John Herbold, a senior product manager for the new launch, has waved goodbye to Jobs et al and hello to HealthTeacher. Instead of talking tech, he'll now be telling kids how to make lifestyle changes to ensure their continued wellbeing.

On the subject of Apple, we'd like to wish the iPhone 4 a very Happy Birthday. The shiny little gadget turns the ripe old age of one today. We look back on the year gone by to see what all the fuss was about.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend from all at IT Pro.

Apple's iCloud has lost one of its key executives the day before the service launches.

John Herbold, senior product manager for the iCloud, has left the company after four years to pursue a career with HealthTeacher, a company which teaches school children how lifestyle changes can prevent many illnesses in the long run.

It is quite a step away from his beginnings at the Cupertino company working on MobileMe and his close relationship with the new iCloud offering, due to launch this week.

Herbold claimed there was nothing untoward about his departure, saying he found the internet's reaction "both quizzical and flattering." Instead, he merely gave praise to Apple.

"I must give a big nod to Apple," he wrote on his personal blog. "It is an incredible company, and I was privileged to have a seat at the table over the past four years."

"I learned a tremendous amount and got to work with amazing people. It's an experience I will always cherish and never forget."

The iCloud was Apple's lead announcement at its WWDC event at the start of the month. Steve Jobs talked the crowds through it during his keynote, detailing how the service will allow Apple users to sync files across iPads, iPhone and iPods and store the data in the cloud.

Just a week after Apple announced its iCloud offering, the company has been sued over the service.

An Arizona- based company named iCloud Communications alleged its brand had been damaged thanks to Apple's launch.

Furthermore, iCloud Communications, which filed a suit in the US District Court in Arizona, claimed Apple's iCloud offered many similar services.

"The goods and services with which Apple intends to use the iCloud' mark are identical to or closely related to the goods and services that have been offered by iCloud Communications under the iCloud Marks since its formation in 2005," the Arizona firm claimed in its filing, first seen by The Next Web.

"However, due to the worldwide media coverage given to and generated by Apple's announcement of its iCloud' services and the ensuing saturation advertising campaign pursued by Apple, the media and the general public have quickly come to associate the mark iCloud' with Apple, rather than iCloud Communications."

The company alleged Apple "was aware of or was willfully blind to iCloud Communications' use of and rights in the iCloud Marks."

Apple has been involved in a number of legal tangles with other tech firms over naming issues.

Just recently, it has been attempting to ensure the App Store name cannot be used by other companies something rival Microsoft has expressed dismay at.

"Apple's announcement of and the launch of its advertising campaign for its iCloud service have so thoroughly swamped the reputation of iCloud Communications and the goodwill it had built up over the years in the iCLoud Marks that is likely to cause and has actually caused confusion among consumers of cloud computing services and members of the general public as to the source of the parties' goods and services," iCloud Communications added.

At the time of publication, Apple had not responded to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Apple has dominated the headlines this week with the company's keynote address and product announcements, but the fruit company's rivals and partners have done their best to upset the apple cart.

The Eagle Has Landed

Apple may want people to be concentrating on its upcoming iOS 5 and new cloud service, iCloud, that hopefully won't suck as much as the last one. The really big news to come out of Cupertino though is the company's futuristic new headquarters, apparently designed with the environment and the latest architectural techniques in mind.

Steve Jobs himself describes the planned headquarters as resembling a 'spaceship'. That might sound impressive, but we at IT Pro are based out of a Death Star. Beat that. Nyah.

You can't touch this

HP's webOS-based tablet is finally getting a UK launch date and price. Well, sort of. While the pricing of the 16GB and 32GB WiFi-only models will match the corresponding iPad 2 models, availability is a bit shakier. The Americans will get it on 1 July, but HP can't decide if it will arrive in Blighty "a few days later" or "mid-July." Vagueness as a marketing strategy it will catch on, just you wait and see.

The funny pages

Apple is attempting to replicate its success at selling music and apps in the world of electronic magazines and newspapers with its new Newsstand store. Although the fruit company has dropped some of its more controversial pricing requirements, the FT pre-empted the announcement by striking out on its own.

The FT replicated its existing iOS app as an HTML5 web app that's accessible through a web page and can be saved to your home screen. It even supports offline reading at the cost of 50MB of storage space. It's still a little buggy though and doesn't feel quite as smooth and slick as the real app. Still, could this be the end of app stores?

Apple has, in effect, operated a consumer cloud computing service for several years now, in the shape of its .Mac and current Mobile Me service. This supports services such as online calendar sync, online document sharing and storage, photo sharing, and remote wipe for iPhones.

But the appeal of Apple's devices presents an opportunity for the company to do what few other technology brands can do: popularise cloud computing.

Google is popular, but most people still associate it primarily with search. Gmail, and Google Docs, for all their usefulness, are just not as slick as an Apple product is likely to be.

Nor are other cloud services, such as Microsoft's BPOS, likely to grab the public's attention. Again, there is nothing wrong with BPOS, and it has plenty of features that appeal to IT professionals. In many ways, that is really its greatest shortcoming: it is designed to be deployed by IT professionals, and that requirement makes it just that bit less accessible to the consumer.

There's also the name, of course: BPOS or iCloud? Which would you choose?

The downside of Apple's approach, for business users, is in part its consumer-friendly features. iCloud potentially has some great technology, such as daily, Wi-Fi-based backup for iOS devices. Although this is not a new idea, Apple has clearly thought through some of the issues that cause pain for consumers. An iPad or iPhone can be replaced; the photos or recordings on it might well be irreplaceable.

But mixing in consumer services such as online access to iTunes or iBooks might not appeal to IT departments, not least because of worries about payment card security and unauthorised use of the company credit card to pay for entertainment content, rather than, say, storage or authorised apps.

Storing apps online and allowing them to be used across multiple iOS devices will save companies both cost and complexity, but how well will iCloud Storage and iCloud Backup work, in practice, if thousands of consumers opt to download a new series of The Wire? Apple has three data centres supporting iCloud, but that might not be enough. Businesses want reliability rather than features, and ideally, priority for their traffic over consumers' usage. That is not part of Apple's current plans.

Then again, Apple has succeeded where others have failed in pushing consumer products and services into the business mainstream. The iPhone has done that, the iPad even more so. The fact that Apple has a one size fits all approach, rather than creating separate business versions of its products, only seems to add to its appeal.

In some ways, iCloud represents a low-risk way for organisations to try out the cloud, because of those consumer features. If you want a backup for your personal devices (assuming that they are from Apple), online music storage and streaming, and photo sharing, then iCloud already looks attractive. Add calendar and email sync, document backup and sharing and a repository for iOS apps, and it could be compelling.

If business users decide, further down the line, that the business services are better provided by a specialist, Apple is probably gambling that the music and entertainment services are "sticky" enough to keep the subscriptions flowing in. Will iCloud do for cloud computing what the iPhone did for smart phones? It could be unwise to bet against it.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT PRO.

Comments? Questions? You can email him here

Apple isn't known for its market-leading cloud services. MobileMe, the company's last attempt, was better known for its reliability problems which CEO Steve Jobs tacitly acknowledged in his keynote introduction of iCloud. The new cloud service is still consumer-oriented and shares some of the same features as MobileMe, but there's still some items of interest for businesses.

So what is iCloud?

iCloud stores your calendars, contacts, emails, documents and photos on Apple's servers. This content is then automatically pushed to your Mac/PC and all your iOS 5 devices. If a change is made on one device, such as a new calendar entry on your iPhone 4, this new information will automatically appear on all your other devices.

5GB will be provided free for storing emails, documents and backups of your iOS device settings.

5GB will be provided free for storing emails, documents and backups of your iOS device settings. More storage will be available for a fee, the details of which have yet to be announced, but you can synchronise books and music bought from iBooks and iTunes, as well as your photos, without those files using up the free 5GB.

Emails from Apple's no-fee, ad-free me.com email service will also be synchronised as part of iCloud.

iCloud will be built into new versions of the existing iOS Mail, Calendar and the Contacts/Phone apps. Documents can be accessed using a new Documents in the Cloud app, as well as the paid-for iWork apps. It's unclear whether third-party apps will be able to access iCloud services, especially Documents in the Cloud.

iCloud doesn't sound very different from Google Apps.

Some of iCloud's features match much of what Google Apps does already, such as synchronised contacts and calendars as well as push emails. There are some features that are unique to iCloud though.

Photos and videos recorded on your iOS device, as well as texts, ringtones, iOS and app settings, will be automatically backed up to iCloud. The backup process will occur whenever the iOS device is being charged.

Photo Stream, as Apple calls it, will store your most recent 1000 photos in the cloud for 30 days. The uploads will occur automatically. Macs and PCs will store all of your photos permanently (in either iPhoto on a Mac or the Pictures folder on Windows), but on iOS devices photos will have to be moved to an album to be saved permanently.

Does that mean Apple is now encouraging us to use web apps as Google does?

Although it's highly likely there will be web apps for accessing contacts, calendars and photos, as there is now with MobileMe, Apple is emphasising how calendar and contacts data can be used on your computer using existing programs such as Outlook and through apps on iOS devices.

What about music?

Unlike before, iTunes Store customers can now redownload any music they've previously bought. Any new music you buy from the iTunes Store will now be pushed to your computer and up to 10 iOS devices using the iTunes in the Cloud feature. We hope this new Automatic Downloads feature will be made available to third-party developers.

What about music I've already bought?

iTunes Match will scan your iTunes library and identify music acquired from other sources, as long as the iTunes Store stocks those tracks. 256kbps AAC versions of those songs will then be pushed to your devices. If iTunes Match can't find your song, then you'll have to manually upload your tracks to iCloud.

We hope iTunes Match works using the song identification algorithm in the existing Genius music recommendation feature, rather than the ropey Duplicate Track finder feature which simply looks for identical track information.

Unlike the rest of iCloud, iTunes Match will cost $25 a year. We're still waiting for confirmation, but it's likely any iTunes Match tracks will stop working if you cancel your subscription. British pricing has yet to be announced.

iTunes in the Cloud sounds like more faff than simply using Spotify.

We'll reserve final judgement until we actually try it, but it's worth remembering Spotify isn't available in North America which is still Apple's single biggest market.

What if I don't want to use iCloud?

iCloud will be enabled by default in iOS 5. We assume it'll be possible to turn it off, but we're still waiting for confirmation. We're also waiting for details about how it will deal with capped data plans and slow WiFi connections.

When will iCloud be available?

iCloud will be available this autumn when it will be rolled out in tandem with iOS 5. A handful of features, such as redownloading music you've already bought, is available now.

How much will it cost again?

5GB of storage will be available for free, with more storage available for a fee yet to be announced. iTunes Match will cost an extra $25 a year.

There was a lot of news in Steve Jobs' two-hour keynote speech at WWDC 2011 on Monday.

We bring you all the unveilings, along with our own live blog from the event.

News

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Blog

Live blog: Steve Jobs keynote

Apple has unveiled its iCloud service, constituting a total of nine apps, the iPhone and iPad maker said during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2011) today.

Users will be able to access the cloud service once they get their hands on iOS 5, due out in autumn, although developers can play around with it from today.

iCloud will be available for free on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS X Lion, so users of previous operating systems will miss out. It will be turned on by default once users enter their Apple ID and password.

iCloud is essentially designed to help users sync their files across differing Apple devices, with plenty of automation.

This includes calendar and contact information, so the same data appears on different Apple devices. The same goes for Mail, as users' inbox and folders will all be kept up to date across devices.

"Some people think the cloud is a hard disk in the sky. We think it's way more than that. We call it iCloud," said Apple chief executive (CEO) Steve Jobs.

App Store addition

Jobs returned from medical leave to uncloak more significant iCloud additions, including integration with the App Store.

A download from cloud' button lets users get hold of their apps across devices, meaning applications are not limited to one Apple product. The same goes for iBooks.

Jobs unveiled wireless backup to the cloud as well. Using the so-called iCloud Storage, Apple will backup users' important content to the cloud once every day.

As an example, if users get a new phone, perhaps having lost another, they can hook up to the cloud and get all their data back just by typing in their password.

Documents

In a move that will up the ante in its competitive battle with Google, Apple introduced Documents in the Cloud.

Pages, Numbers and Keynote files will now be automatically moved to the cloud. These documents will then be pushed to each device a user runs the productivity apps on.

"A lot of us have been working for 10 years to get rid of the file system so the user didn't have to worry about it," Jobs said.

"When teaching how to use a computer, everything goes fine until you hit the file system. So we made it so you don't have to think about it."

Users will receive 5GB of free cloud storage for Mail, document storage and backup.

A third data centre

To accommodate its cloudy needs, Jobs confirmed Apple has completed its third data centre.

"If you don't think we're serious about this, you're wrong. This is our third data centre that we just completed It's rather large," Jobs said, claiming it was an eco-friendly centre.

Apple has invested over $500 million (306 million) in the new data centre in Maiden, North Carolina.

Apple will reveal details of its much-anticipated cloud service at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next Monday.

Chief executive (CEO) Steve Jobs will come back from sick leave to give the WWDC keynote and provide more information on the iCloud.

Little is known of the iCloud, yet many have speculated it will be used to give people the ability to have iTunes accounts interact with the cloud.

Google and Amazon have already announced their own cloud-based music offerings, so Apple would be coming a little late to the party.

The move could also take Apple into more direct competition with Amazon, which has not been on the former's radar outside of music and book sales.

During the event, Apple is set to unveil its next Mac Lion operating system and the latest version of iPhone software - iOS 5.

No further details on the announcements have come out, but there have been plenty of rumours circulating the web on what will feature in iOS 5.

A patent filed by Apple this year indicated Spaces an application which allows the user to segment their apps for easier navigation could be included.

WWDC will run for five days starting Monday as developers swamp Cupertino to learn about new Apple technologies from more than 1,000 of the company's engineers.