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Apple Buys iCloud.com Domain For $4.5 Million
An anonymous reader writes "A report on late Wednesday night relayed that Apple recently purchased the iCloud.com domain from Xcerion for a cool $4.5 million. Indeed, iCloud.com now re-directs to CloudMe.com. With such a hefty price tag, Apple clearly must have serious plans for the cloud in the pipeline..."
Pizza delivery!
What?
=)
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Prepare the lawsuits to demand the registration be handed over.
Did you read the full summary? Apple already bought the name, it's a bit late in the day to make that demand.
Trolling is a art,
With such a hefty price tag, Apple clearly must have serious plans for the cloud in the pipeline...
Or maybe they're just idiots.
RIP Victor Serebriakoff.
He could have helped write Apple edition iQ tests.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I'd guess a web based version of iTunes, with full backup at a minimum.
Gigaom says "Apple May Have Snapped Up iCloud.com" because "My source [...] says that Xcerion has sold the domain to Apple for about $4.5 million. Xcerion hasn’t responded to my queries as yet. At the time of writing, the Whois database showed Xcerion as the owner of iCloud.".
EdibleApple says "Apple reportedly buys iCloud.com domain for $4.5 million" because "Gigaom is reporting that Apple recently purchased the iCloud.com domain from Xcerion for a cool $4.5 million.".
Which on Slashdot becomes "Apple Buys iCloud.com Domain For $4.5 Million" saying "A report on late Wednesday night relayed that Apple recently purchased the iCloud.com domain from Xcerion for a cool $4.5 million.".
When enough people speculate on the same thing, it apparently makes it undeniably so.
Xcerion weren't speculative domain squatters then and actually had a cloud based product... TFA is a bit light on detail...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
the iphone data cap is to small to make the cloud work 2GB and then $10 pre GIG?
With such a hefty price tag, Apple clearly must have serious plans for the cloud in the pipeline..."
Considering the size of Apple, 4.5 mil is chump change. I don't really think that indicates anything about "serious plans."
They've got reserves of $60 billion or so. $4.5 million is like the budget for snacks in the break room.
For US home users sure. On our business phones at my work here in the UK, there is no cap on any of our O2 phones, including iPhones.
which is totally what she said
Now they have somewhere to upload all that iPhone tracking data.
Domain names are case-insensitive. It was originally Icloud.com. :)
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
iSee what you did there.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
/. feels a bit like OS X Daily today.
They made 1000x that in profit last quarter. They have $50 billion in the bank. $4.5 million is rounding error to Apple.
-- Of course I'm paranoid. I'm a sysadmin.
I'm a big Apple fan and love almost all things Apple but speculative Apple stories like this are ridiculous for a "news" site. I know it's about "engaging the community" and ad impressions and all that but it seems better to just cover the news when it happens rather than the speculations before it happens. Then we end up with an intelligent conversation about what X means rather than wild conjectures about what the future might hold for our favorite/least favorite tech company. /end karma bleeding rant
Sadly, someone beat them to humancentipad.com.
You are only looking at cash, but included in "reserves" (the original word used and more accurate) are things like marketable securities. The big picture on Apple's hoard of reserves here:
http://www.asymco.com/2011/04/26/2895/
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You're assuming their legal department won't sue their acquisition department. Haven't you been paying attention lately or something?
You foolishly assume that everywhere in the world is like the USA with stone age cellular networks.
Don't worry, it's a common mistake, but there are countries outside of the US with decent networks. Some of them you aren't even invading for petroleum distillate.
4.5 million?
It's less like buying up competitors and more like being passive aggressive to a homeless guy by giving him 45 cents to stop annoying you.
I just lost a few gigs through a bad iDisk sync in the Finder. It synced a few files partway through, got interrupted and then resumed by syncing the partials BACK to the server. So the 5 or so files that it hadn't started syncing yet were GONE... and the partials overwrote the complete copies.
Yay.
And I'm going to trust them with important stuff? Not likely.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Someone squat on iCloud.xxx
Have gnu, will travel.
Apple has decided this is unacceptable since it damages their iCrap branding and are preparing a lawsuit accordingly.
The "cloud" is as tangible as intranets. An idea once proposed, is know to everyone and as easily replicated.
A web-application and off-site storage by any other name just isn't worth any more money. Bottled (tap) water for the internet.
If you hear the same rumour from 2 different people/sources, it's true. This also holds true for rumours that you yourself started - if you hear it back from 2 different people, it must be true.
You foolishly assume that markets outside of the US matter.
We never invade for oil. We invade because we get bored and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Really though.
You seriously think we do this shit for oil that we have never gotten?
Or is this just one of your talking points and you don't care how untrue it is as long as it sounds good.
Because if we wanted the oil from Iraq we would have just taken it.
Instead we try to build up a real government there to serve dipshits.
I know that the whole country is not made up of tribal shitheads that can not work together to save themselves.
But more than enough of that country and a few others in the region fit that description so much so that hope that they can handle their own shit dwindles by the second.
Also. The reason that the US has shit cell networks is because we had them first and upgraded them to real usability first.
Rolled it out pretty much across the entire nation. Now, as long as that massive infrastructure can hang on to at least "Almost good enough" the incentive to upgrade is small. Because of the size the cost to upgrade is large.
Hate to confuse you with facts and stuff when all you really want is to tritely bitch, whine and moan about the US.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
This is one cloud service provider that won't be folding overnight.
There's a test for how well you can rig common travel items to MDK?
I drank what? -- Socrates
The US has much better networks than Europe. Plus we have 4G LTE deployed, and have created the iphone and android. Of course you will be modded up and me down but that's the breaks. BTW, on Sprint you get 4G and unlimited data. And speaking of wars, I'm pretty sure Europe has started a few all by itself and still continues to be involved in them.
If you ask me, all this high price internet stuff has all the earmarks of a new internet bubble.
...and fake scraggly beard, picks a "THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH" protest placard from the heap, and on the available space underneath, writes with a black sharpie: "iCloud is dot.coming" Goes outside, and starts preaching from the corner.
*ducks*
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Wow, a word starting with "i" and Apple didn't sue to get it for free?
Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.
You didn't see the sarcasm in that post, or the overly flippant "war for oil" deceased equine joke?
And I would wager that the networks outside the US do matter, especially to Apple, who make about 60% of their revenue from non-US markets.
I'm also not 100% sure on your "we had cellular first and made them usable first" claim - I was tethering in the UK years ago, back when things like the Nokia 3210 were the hot new thing (with swappable covers!), with inclusive text and voice plans that were in the 1000's of texts and minutes for the equivalent of $30 US monthly.
My iPhone plan from 2 years ago was better than the US equivalent, and still would be (I've since switched to a month-by-month plan for unlimited data, SMS and 1000 minutes for $30 USD per month, with a one month notice to cancel, although I'm paying twice as much as I really need to since other carriers can offer the same for less but I like my current provider and they're a known quantity re: coverage etc).
I'm also not really bitching and moaning *about* the US. It sure has a few things I hate about it (hello, healthcare - what is this, the 1800s?), but I love the place and lived there for some time, in the midwest, and likely will again in the future. What I don't like is ignorant isolationists who give the rest of the US a bad name. Things like "nowhere outside the US matters" is a shining example of that.
The "war" joke was merely a flippant rebuttal to "nowhere outside the US matters" - I thought I'd appeal to the "America, Fuck Yeah!" patriotism. :p
I would contend that Europe has much better networks than the US, having had personal experience of both (I used to live in the Columbus, OH).
Here in the UK I am running a month-to-month plan (one month notice period) for $30 per month, unlimited data, SMS and 1000 minutes of voice. This is one of the cheap plans - we just do not have the data crunch and capacity issues that the US has, and there's nowhere I've been in the UK that has ever given me signal problems. I admit this is a function of land area (we are 1/4 the size of Texas), but I didn;t have any signal issues in Columbus and the surrounding areas - certainly not anywhere within range of a highway, and this was with a UK iPhone 3G on O2, so I was using AT&T and Tmobile's networks while over there.
Also, re: 4G, I thought that LTE was not actually "4G" and merely a marketing thing. There are LTE offerings here, but Ofcom and the standards bodies involved in 4G have stated it's not good enough to be called 4G.
it has an small "i" in front ... therefore it's Appleesque ... called their buddies at the DOJ and ICE ... coulda had it for free.....
All I hear it the sound of grandma's loose bowels spraying shit every where.
But were they laughable wars like Iraq?
Hey CmdrTaco, how much would you give me for iSlashdot?
Apple has around 65.1 billion in cash reserves right now, 4.5 million is a drop in the bucket.
Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
Doesn't Apple hold the patents on clouds? They could've just (threatened to) sued for ownership of anything of or petaining to clouds. Guess somebody was asleep in the legal dept.
Better than the lottery? Park every iDomain you can think of!
I had a (Computer Science) professor who liked to joke that you should test all programs 3 times.
If it works once, that's a conjecture.
If it works twice, that's evidence.
If it works three times, that's a proof by induction.
You foolishly believe that a US company would do something that would not be of benefit to their US users. Regardless of potential international profits, including the US = more profits.
Considering the UKs involvement in the Iraq war I would say yes.
First two lines may have been separated from reality by "Really though".
As for the stuff that came after.
At what point did you decide that 2 years ago was first for anything?
The US has a very bad cell network because it is the oldest.
How could you not understand the point being made?
Oh I know. You missed the sarcasm in the first two lines and never were able to recover.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
You foolishly assume that everywhere in the world is like the USA with stone age cellular networks.
Don't worry, it's a common mistake, but there are countries outside of the US with decent networks. Some of them you aren't even invading for petroleum distillate.
You foolishly assume that everyone in the US is a warmongering SUV-driving neanderthal who can't be bothered to know the finer points of world geography and culture.
Okay, well... you'd be mostly right. But there's a few of us out here who aren't gazing intently at our own navel.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
Meanwhile speculators are in a bidding war over ispy.com, in the hopes that Apple may one day decide to buy it as soon as they complete their transition to a truly evil corporation.
Dang, that was the least diplomatic, but best description of Iraq I've ever seen. Bravo!
In this case, the OP's assertion was that cloud bases services would be a total waste for Apple purely because US data plans would make them unworkable. I have to assume, given that 60% of their revenue comes from non-US markets, that they have their eye on more than just their US market, thus maybe cloud services aren't a total waste after all.
"It won't work in the US" is not a valid reason for them to ignore it.
Sarcasm only works on the sarcastic portions of your post - you can't claim that it covers your post as a blanket purely because you started with it (note that I didn't take issue with it, being clear sarcasm).
I didn't say that "2 years ago" was first for anything - you'll note I also talked about a time considerably before that with another mobile phone (although I could have gone earlier - the 3210 was a new kid on the block compared to my first mobile phone). I mentioned 2 years because it's approximately when I started my iPhone contract, just as a point of reference. How could you not understand the point being made?
The US cell network is not the oldest. That would be Japan, although if we're talking 2G (ie, the GSM standard - modern cellular phones compatible with today's networks), then that's Europe - specifically Scandinavia. They certainly don't have any capacity problems either.
Oh I know, I almost married one (whether the navel gazing type or the non-SUV owner is entirely subjective) :D
I lived in the midwest for some time.
... isn't that the same thing as "cloudcloud.com"
Ask Me About... The 80's!
or the overly flippant "war for oil" deceased equine joke?
Which country has (much more) oil, Libya or Syria? Odd, isn't it?
says no. Outlook cloudy.
Which other countries oil have we taken by force?
Odd, isn't it?
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
I'm surprised that no-one's yet commented that the verb form of 'cloud' can also mean 'obscure'. Where does that put iCloud and CloudMe?