Back at the end of March, Amazon got the jump on the competition when it launched the Cloud Drive remote data storage service and associated music-streaming Cloud Player. Apple and Google are both working on similar offerings, but Amazon got there first. The launch wasn’t perfect, with Sony making a stink over Amazon not securing the necessary music-streaming licenses and no support for iOS, but the second of those issues at least has now been addressed.
Amazon went in and added iOS support to Cloud Player without telling anyone. There’s no app for that, it only works in mobile Safari, but your music library is at least accessible now from your iPhone and iPad. You can bet that the company is working on a multi-platform app solution too; it’s just good sense.
Cloud Player is confirmed to work on the latest Apple devices, as well as the iPhone 3GS and original iPad, Engadget reports following hands-on testing. The interface mirrors the one you’d see in a proper computer browser and the service works smoothly, provided of course that you have an Internet connection. The player also apparently integrates with the iOS multitasking features, allowing you to play/pause and shuffle through songs while inside a different app. The only downside that Engadget notes is the absence of drag-and-drop playlist editing. Still, iOS support is an important step for Amazon to take if it hopes to keep the new Cloud Player users coming.
