Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, returned from sick leave to announce the company's new cloud storage service, iCloud.

The free service syncs users' content - including emails, apps, documents and music - on an online server so that it can be accessed on a computer or a mobile device.
Speaking at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Mr Jobs said iCloud was Apple's "next big insight". He told the audience that for a long time people had synced all their content with a computer but this process was broken.
He said that every device now contains music, photos and documents and "keeping all these devices in sync is driving us crazy".

iCloud will ensure that a song or an application bought on a mobile device will automatically be available on other devices too. It also lets users sync their documents and photos between multiple devices.

The music storage part of iCloud has attracted the most attention in recent weeks. The free part of the service syncs music bought from iTunes but for an annualsubscription Apple will also scan the music that you haven't bought from iTunes and add it to your iCloud service if it is in their library.

Mr Jobs noted that Apple had tried cloud services before. He said that some would say: "Why should I believe them? They're the ones that brought me Mobile Me."

He admitted that Mobile Me, the cloud service that stores photos, contacts, emails and calenders, "wasn't our finest hour but we learned a lot.
WWDC is the event at which Apple has typically announced the new iPhone but Mr Jobs began the event by saying he wanted to talk about "the soul" of Apple's products, its software, before handing the presentation over to the company's senior executives.

Mr Jobs absence for much of the keynote was noted by observers. John Gruber, a blogger and developer who has written about Apple for many years, described the speech as "the first Post-Steve" keynote

Mr Jobs has been on sick leave from Apple since early this year but returned in March to announce the iPad 2. On June 6, he took to the stage to the strains of James Brown's 'I Feel Good'.



病假归来的苹果总裁史蒂夫•乔布斯宣布，苹果将推出全新的云储存服务--iCloud。

这一免费的服务可以将用户的储存文件（电子邮件，应用程序，文档以及音乐）同步至在线服务商，继而将这些文件传输至个人电脑或移动通讯设备。

该消息是乔布斯在旧金山举办的苹果年度全球发展大会的演讲上宣布的，他称iCloud为苹果的"下一个里程碑"。他表示，很长一段时间，人们都把自己的文件储存到个人电脑上，而这个时代即将告终。

他表示，现在几乎所有的电子设备都储存有音乐文件，图片，以及文档，并且"保持所有的这些电子设备内文件的同步能把人逼疯"。

iCloud可以使得用户通过移动通讯设备购得的音乐或应用程序能够自动的同步至其他设备之上，并且使得用户可以自行在个不同设备间实现文件同步。

最近几周，最吸引眼球的无疑是iCloud的音乐同步功能。这一免费的功能将用户从iTunes上购得的音乐文件同步，但对于年度订阅用户，苹果也会对其未购买的音乐进行扫描，并将其录入iCloud服务范围，前提是这些音乐没有超出其乐库范围。

乔布斯表示，苹果此前曾实践过云储存服务。他说有人会怀疑："凭什么要相信你们？当年就是你们这些人整出了Mobile Me这么个东西。"

乔布斯承认，储存图片、通讯录和日历项的云服务Mobile Me"走过一些弯路，但是却获益匪浅"。

苹果年度全球发展大会（WWDC）上按惯例苹果会发布新一代的iPhone信息，但是乔布斯在会议开始时表示，在将话筒递给公司高级管理人员之前，他想先谈谈苹果产品的"灵魂"所在。

乔布斯缺席了很多业界认为的苹果里程碑式的时刻。关注苹果动态多年的著名博主约翰•格鲁伯称乔布斯的这次演讲为"国王归来"后的首个里程碑。

自年初乔布斯就一直因病暂离苹果，只在三月回归发布了iPad 2。谈及6日的回归的感受，他援引了詹姆士•布朗的名曲，《我觉得棒极了》。

• executive [ig´zekjutiv] a.行政的 n.行政官 (初中英语单词)
• computer [kəm´pju:tə] n.计算机；电子计算器 (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
• conference [´kɔnfərəns] n.讨论(会)；会谈 (初中英语单词)
• audience [´ɔ:diəns] n.听众；观众；接见 (初中英语单词)
• device [di´vais] n.装置；器具；策略 (初中英语单词)
• application [,æpli´keiʃən] n.申请；申请书；应用 (初中英语单词)
• available [ə´veiləbəl] a.可用的；有效的 (初中英语单词)
• absence [´æbsəns] n.不在，缺席；缺乏 (初中英语单词)
• storage [´stɔ:ridʒ] n.贮存；存储器 (高中英语单词)
• learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• senior [´si:niə] a.年长的 n.前辈 (高中英语单词)
• automatically [ɔ:tə´mætikli] ad.自动地；无意识地 (英语四级单词)
• subscription [səb´skripʃən] n.预订；预约；捐款 (英语四级单词)
• presentation [,prezən´teiʃən] n.介绍；赠送；提出 (英语四级单词)