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Apple admits iCloud 'unacceptable', vows to not go titsup again

iYawn 5 maker in 10-hour email outage outrage

Apple has apologised to fanbois hit by an iCloud outage, and described the ten-hour downtime as "not acceptable".

Access to email accounts was the main casualty when the online storage cloud burst last week. Business owners in particular were peeved when they couldn't pick up their e-correspondence for a working day. At the time Apple said that only 1.1 per cent of iCloud users were affected.

The technology giant's support gophers sent out an expression of regret on Friday night:

We apologize for the mail service interruption you recently experienced. Your mail service has been restored, but it is possible you did not receive some of the emails sent to your account between 5pm PDT 10 September and 3am PDT 11 September.

Although Apple's apology only admits to 10 hours of downtime, some punters said the outage lasted a full day. In fact the iPad maker's iCloud support page (now removed) said problems cropped up over two days - though not all users may have been affected during that period.

iCloud outage, screengrab of Apple support page

The support page reported two days of downtime

The grovelling missive offered no explanation for the outage. However, the downtime kicked off the day before the unveiling of the iPhone 5 and the accompanying tweaks to iCloud and iTunes, and it was believed to be the result of behind-the-scenes engineering work on the service. The release of iOS 6, which powers Apple's handheld kit, will spark an increase in iCloud traffic: the fruity devices will synchronise shared photos, music, messages, browser tabs and more data automatically with the online storage system, so punters can access more of their stuff on all their iThings.

Apple promised that its email service will not be interrupted again. It told frustrated fanbois: "We understand this is not acceptable and we are working hard to make sure this does not happen again." ®

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