Beginning iOS 5 Application Development

12

Programming iCioud

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER

• How to enable iCioud storage for your iOS application
• How to store documents for your application on iCloud
• How to store key-value data for your application on iCloud

One of the major new features in iOS 5 is iCloud. Using iCloud, all the information stored on your devices is stored on remote servers (commonly known as cloud computing) maintained by Apple. For example, all the contacts on your iPhone can be synced to iCloud. When you purchase a new iPad, all the contacts on your iPhone can automatically be downloaded from iCloud wirelessly, saving you all the time of transferring the information (either manually or through iTunes) to the new device; and when you make changes to a contact on the iPad, the changes are automatically synced to the iPhone. In addition to syncing content, you can also use iCloud to automatically download songs, apps, and books that you have purchased on other iOS devices.

In iOS 5, iCloud is available free to all users. When you sign up for iCloud, you get 5GB of free storage (you can purchase additional storage if you need more). Using this free storage, you can use iCloud to back up your devices so that in the unfortunate event that you lose your iPhone (or iPad), you can simply restore all your content onto a new replacement device.

In this chapter, you will learn how to make use of iCloud to save documents and data in your application so that they are available to the same application running ...