Apple reportedly shifting Airport base stations to use iOS - Page 3

What are you complaining about?

Apple already offers a very nice home server:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/server/

Previously I consumed a lot of media through the internet. I'm a big gamer and I would download games (mostly the smaller XBLA or PSN ones), music, tv shows and comics through various services.

Now I can't consume any of that stuff with constantly hitting the cap at which point my connection is slowed to dial up speeds. No useful amount of watching videos online like game or movie trailers as again that pushes it up too fast.

I watch the cap like a hawk and even limiting all those things, doing general web usage, by the end of the month I am butting up against the 12gb cap.


We have a MacBook Pro, an iPad and two iPhone 4s. At the moment there are lots of updates for the MacBook Pro that I haven't grabbed, the iPad doesn't have the latest update and only one of the iPhones are up to date. I have tons of apps in iTunes that aren't up to date either, especially stuff like Infinity Blade where I bought it but each update is just as big as the original download and I don't want to use that bandwidth.


Wifi hotspots are available, but usually in shopping/retail areas, not in suburban areas which is where the problem is.


The ADSL caps here have improved greatly in recent years, but the 3g wireless caps are still very low and very expensive. I'm not sure if it's because the network doesn't have the bandwidth to expand or whether they're just doling it out so they can charge as much as possible for as long as possible. Probably a bit of both I guess.

The most annoying thing about this is that on the other side of our street the houses DO get ADSL service. We are 'too far from the exchange' for the ISPs to provide service - but literally only across the street too far. Which is soooo frustrating.

From the perspective (which I had given) of the majority of users being on iOS devices, anyone on an actual Mac OS X device becomes a 'power user'

You make a point of only 1 iPhone being up to date. Why? That doesn't save any bandwidth.


Damn. I presume the houses across the street are on a RIM? Any neighbours willing to let you pay their internet and put a good wireless router in?

Otherwise a Naked DSL application might work for you (or another ULL option like Optus).

It doesn't? When I plugged the second iPhone in iTunes tried to download the update again from scratch, which is why I didn't do it.


Not really sure what a RIM is, so i'm not sure. When we moved in we tried checking with two or three ISPs and they basically all said it's a Telstra exchange and we were too far from the exchange the provide service. When we went to Telstra directly they said technically they could connect us but the service would be so bad that they won't do it.

Can you elaborate on how would a Naked service be more viable?

Couldn't you periodically take your portable and iDevices to a WiFi hotspot and do mostly updates?

The iDevices need to be tethered for iOS updates -- but app updates get downloaded to iTunes and can be applied to the iDevices later.


Since about 1998, the web portion of the Internet has been inundated with bloat -- irritating, gratuitous ads, sloppy markup, poor site design, Flash -- and that other bane to efficiency: XML.

About 4 years back, a friend and I did an analysis of iTunes. By simply replacing XML encapsulation of iTunes data transmission (e.g. search results from the store) you could reduce the size of the data packet by 30%-60%.

Unfortunately, no one seems to care about efficiency of the data being transmitted -- so I don't look for any help from that area.

Actually, if Google is successful with Chrome OS, it will get worse -- extra web site pages (or the entire site) will get downloaded, needed or not -- in anticipation of working offline.

/rant>

So update manually and be done with it.


...

http://www.rim.com/

That would still require downloading the update...



Pretty sure he didn't mean that RIM in this context, smart alec.

Then we should know all about this iCloud / Airport noise. I'm actually hoping for a far more functional Time Capsule like device. That is something that passes for a server, especially in regards to media. With iOS I could see them adding in a lot more functionality, yet maintaing ease of use.

As for iOS I've been fairly happy with it. I wouLd like to see feature enhancements to many of the built in apps. For example mail could use a lot of work when it comes to HTML support, the PDF viewing functions could use some work. I'm using iBooks more and more and would love to see more improvements there.

One item iBooks needs is the ability to assign a preferred name or description for a PDF file. Sometimes you get files with really odd names that lead to head scratching. So the ability to add a preferred name to be seen in the library is a good thing.

While it has been stagnant for awhile on the Mac I really wish Applw would move Numbers forward on all platforms. It is the only thing in the iWorks line up that I use a lot and I don't believe I'm the only one. Compatibility with Excel is only of so much value, Numbers needs new features for the next decade.

In any event back to this issue of iOS and iCloud, sync really needs to be expanded to iWorks. Either in the apps directly or buy better file syncing services.

I understand that some will only need/want the single drive of the current TC for backup, but the way I see it if you a) have several machines connecting to one server it gets filled up pretty quickly with backups, and b) if you move to a SSD card or on-board NAND, like the MBAs and iDevices respectively, you don't have much (if any) data redundancy unless you then add a 3rd-party HDD to the device.

I'd love to see a higher-end option that isn't too far from the LaCie product below. If they can do it with Atom processors Apple could surely do it with A4 and iOS as a base OS like in the AppleT (this last part is now being rumoured which makes my 2 year old expectation a reality soon).

PS: One thing iOS has never done is connect via SATA or a HDD. This will be a new change. Even the new AppleTV dropped the HDD and moved to on-board NAND.

PPS: WIll any new TC only have 450Mb/s WiFI (I think that's a given) and Ethernet, or will it have Thunderbolt, too. It does make sense for Apple to pimp Thunderbolt if they want to succeed but the nature of a the AEBS and TC don't really lend to such a connection so I'm going to say no on that one.

I really don't see Time Capsule as an ultimate back up devices. As you point out it is just a single disk. In a nut shell it helps to protect you from yourself. Adding iOS to a Time Capsule just offers up the possibility of a more useful device.

I'm not saying Time Capsule is all that one needs for backups because in simplest terms it is not a back up device. At least not in the way I've imagined backups. Especially in the context of one being used in conjunction with an AIR like device, if that Time Capsule becomes an alternative to local storage.

All of this does have me wondering if what we are hearing about might effectively be a TB dock for the new AIRs. The dock itself would be an iOS computer supporting both your laptop and tablet devices. In this role the device is even less of a backup device.

Interesting as I've been looking at products from Synology and never thought to look at LaCie. I can see a RAIDed NAS box taking on the role of a backup more so than TimeCapsule.

Nice pic. In any event Apple could potentially do a lot with an A5 innsuch a box. IOS is effectively UNIX below the GUI so there likely would be limited development effort required. That is Apple would just need to slap on an iOS GUI to existing Unix capabilities.

The OS kernel in iOS is very very similar to the Macs kernel. As such porting in new functionality should be a snap. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to find that they have had iOS hooked up to disks for some time now. As to AppleTV that was a huge cost savings from what I can see. 8GB of flash is dirt cheap now adage.

Good question and the reason not to jump to a purchase prior to the machines coming out. I'm really thinking that we will see a Time Capsule like device that is actually a laptop doc Not a passive dock either but rather an intelligent device that provides lite server duties and other capabilities.

Anything can be remained and improved. The AIRs are a perfect example of taking a failure and turning it into a market darling. Admittedly storage and networking boxes are boring but that doesn't mean that Apple can't turn them into something beyond what is currently in the market.

Only like 5 or so hours left to go. We will either have our minds blown or be extremely disappointed. I'm optimistic. In part because they (Apple) needs to put TB to work in ways that drive sales.

So it looks like this rumor was BS, yes?

Who says? Just because they didn't come out on one day? It's not like Monday of WWDC is the only day where releasing a new AirPort family would make sense. It's not like WWDC at all is the only time where releasing a new AirPort family would make sense.

As happens after most Apple Keynote events, I foresee a round of Tuesday releases of new & updated/refreshed hardware… This will most likely take place in the form of standard press releases & quiet updates to the Apple website…

On the plus side though, we now have the ability to get our iOS devices running without needing a support Mac/PC…

But I STILL want my Apple Mac Home Server, whether it is running Mac OS X or iOS, I care not… I see the two actually blending in the future anyway…

Lets face it a lot of things could have been ready for WWDC, AIR, Mini and a few other things. What you really saw in the forums is wishful thinking that Apple had something up its sleeves.

This is not a bad thing if you don't take it to seriously. As to the Time Capsule rumor I'd have to suggest that they are due for an updatemm

The thing to remember is that Apple usually releases products with really simple but practical use cases. Whatever the next device is. It will do a few things and do them well. It will almost certainly not be an all singing all dancing home server

There were a couple of key messages in the keynote yesterday

Cut the PC
Storage in iCloud is temporary. E.g. Photo's persist for 30 days to allow syncing

What could this mean for the next Airport?

If you do cut the PC/Mac at home the chances are that you will still have an ISP service and you have a wireless router.

For me the potential use-cases are:

To provide wireless capability in the home
Somewhere to back up your devices and data
Somewhere to buffer app and software downloads to save on your ISP quota
A location to cache stuff from iCloud in case you don't have a PC/Mac (to get around the 30 day issue)

There will be one or two simple apps to administer this

I can see a future enhancement where you buy additional back-up in the iCloud and the "Airport" takes care of syncing the data you care about. Effectively an off-site backup of your hub data in the cloud

I think we are likely to see the device retitled to something like iCloud HomeHub. Except BT will fight this in the UK where they already use the Homehub name!

Stuart

I was at my local Apple store yesterday and they had 2 Airport Extremes, and 5 Time Capsules on the shelf. That's drastically different from a few months ago where they had a ton of both products.

My Extreme just arrived, and I think I'll send it back. If there's nothing new in the next few months I can always order another one.

Well my new on arrived yesterday, but I think I'll keep it. If new AE units come out that offer big improvements then I'll buy a new Tine Capsule. Mine is a couple of years old. The new AE is to replace a failing Express and to get the dual band features.

I returned my Airport Extreme today, and they had 1 Airport Extreme in stock, and 3 Time Capsules on the shelves. This was a different Apple store than I reported on in my previous post.