One of the biggest things coming from Apple this spring (along with the rumoured iPhone 5) is the launch of Apple's iCloud service.
While the service is free, if you want more than 5GB of storage you'll need to pay. Those prices have been unavailable up till now on the iPhone that we have running IOS 5 beta - but after iCloud storage pricing was announced overnight for the US, we checked again, and there it was.
At the time of writing Apple had not yet made any public announcements in Australia regarding local prices for iCloud storage though the prices were listed on the Apple site.
In the US, iCloud storage will cost $20 for an extra 10GB, $40 for 20GB and $100 for 50GB.
By contrast, online backup service Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage, then charges US$9.99 a month for 50GB, or US$19.99 a month for 100GB. Microsoft's SkyDrive offers 25GB of free storage.
The iCloud service will allow Apple users to sync music, apps, ebooks, photos, documents and mail between Macs, iPhones and iPads. In the US, iCloud will now also let users download previously purchased TV shows.
Music, apps, books and Photo Stream won't be counted towards the free 5GB.
At these prices, iCloud looks less like being an alternative to 500GB external backup drives, and more a handy way to ensure you have your essential files wherever you are.
Data charges are another consideration, though the iPhone's 20MB limit for 3G downloads will alleviate this to some extent.
iTunes in the Cloud beta is already available in the US, while the full iCloud service will be made available in spring, along with iOS 5.
Overnight, Apple also launched the iCloud.com site, where users can manage their iCloud account from a Web browser.
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