Fast Company named yesterday Apple Day, and for a very good reason. After releasing FaceTime for Mac in the Mac App Store and going ahead with 24-bit audio quality on iTunes earlier this week, Apple Day just kicked off – and in full force.  It’s a big step up for Apple and its growing cloud demands, as it seeks to maintain a hold on consumer media, tightly looped within its own system of networked devices.  For Apple, the cloud and software distribution has become an inseparable drive for their business. Shifting into the role of a brand and marketing platform is the next obstacle for Apple, and the company’s taken steady steps towards controlling as much of this market as it can.

First up is the release of the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion preview to developers. Available via the Mac App Store, the preview also includes Apple’s new server software Lion Server, which is bundled with the OS. Apple revealed more details about Lion’s new features, which include a redesigned e-mail client (appropriately named ‘Mail’), a new Mac-to-Mac file sharing tool and beyond. AirDrop lets Lion users copy files to other Macs running the OS via wireless networks, with the files ending up in the destination Mac’s Download folder. Also new to Lion, said Apple, are Versions, a feature that tracks multiple versions of a document and allows retrieval of an older copy in a Time Machine-like interface”

Apple released the preview of Lion, but the OS needs proper hardware to run on. Customers won’t have to wait too long though – Apple launched a whole new catalogue of MacBook Pros. The Register reports the updated 13-inch MacBook Pros feature Core i5 or Core i7 dual-core Intel chips as fast as 2.7GHz, as well as Intel HD Graphics 3000. The 15- and 17-inch models with quad processors and AMD’s Radeon HD, but the big update is that all the new MacBook Pros come with Intel’s Thunderbolt I/O technology (and a3 times better FaceTime HD camera, too). “The I/O technology will deliver PCI Express to peripherals, as well as supporting FireWire and USB devices, and Gigabit Ethernet – though you’re going to need adapters for the latter, as well as for DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI or VGA displays.”

By the looks of it, Apple Day is more than enough to explain the company’s number one spot in BrandChannel’s list of the brands appearing in the most number one movies, but the iPad 2 may be a whole different story. The second gen tablet is expected to be unveiled on March 2, and the Motorola Xoom has jut hit the market to give the iPad a “PC” run for the money. The Xoom still has its shortcomings–multitasking can only get you so far.

Apple will probably face quite a bit of competition from the Motorola Xoom and its offspring, but the FTC is in a different league. Tim Wu, the person who originally coined the term net neutrality, and the Federal Trade Commission, have launched ivestigations into Apple’s methods, after the company announced it will take 30% of all App Store revenues: “One of the critical questions is whether Apple dominates a certain market, in an anti-trust way. It certainly does in tablets, but has yet to do so in phones. Further, that market is very loosely defined.”