So today I decided to take the plunge a move away from my beloved (ish) MobileMe account to iCloud.

The saucy login screen

iCloud is Apple’s new cloud-based service that will automatically sync iOS devices with the internet, so you can access your documents anywhere you go. e.g. Editing documents in iWork on your iPad will automatically sync them to the cloud, where you can then access them from your computer elsewhere simply by logging in.

The HTML5-based interface is stunning. It’s actually terrifying how closely it resembles standard desktop applications through the browser. The secret is that it’s built on a fantastic framework called SproutCore (something I’ve begun learning myself).

Automatic syncing from iOS to iCloud

It’s still in beta for developers, but the point of it will be to blur the lines between iOS and OS X. Sure, those lines are blurred more than ever now with Lion having a lot of UI tweaks akin to iOS, but document sharing isn’t there yet. Hence iCloud. So all the OS X tweaks to make it more like iOS are being done to remove the user reliance on a file system. That becomes even more evident when a document you worked on with your iPad is “just there” on your Mac later on, waiting to be updated.

If iCloud is as successful as Apple expect it, it will change a lot of peoples mindsets on mobile devices. We have our mobile devices on our person all the time, and with that we aren’t doing nearly enough on them to integrate the experience with our main home/work/college/school computers.

Additional streaming services over me.com including photos & documents

It helps (a lot) that the service will be free for everyone, with the only cost coming for users who decide to upgrade their storage space. MobileMe users (like me) who used to pay €75 per year will now get an additional advantage with an allotted 25GB space, as opposed to the standard 5GB.

Right now you need to be a developer to avail of iCloud, but I expect it to come alongside iOS5 in September or October.