So Apple could make it easy for you to do it from an iPhone or an iPad and manage remotely your home files.
No need to duplicate your files. No need to leave your home machine always on. No need to give up your privacy. But have access to your data from anywhere. How does it sound?
this would be ok for waking from sleep (which AppleTV does automatically, btw). but who wants to wait for a full boot and log on to play a song? and what if different user is already using that computer?
This is probably right. It's likely the syncing will work like Dropbox. The reason being is that the Maiden, NC data center is positioned for low cost not high performance streaming.
Generally the approach used for streaming content is to place data centers close to the users and close to dense hubs or PoPs. In such a case one would be putting their data centers logically in major cities, where they are both close to the end user and close to the most dense and diverse set of network interconnects.
Akamai and Limelight that focus on content delivery CDNs follow this method, but also try to distribute their servers and have mirrors as close to if not directly tied to each of the major end client providers (often the cable companies and consumer telcos). This is the edge network approach.
Again Apple's Maiden, NC data center is located for cheap storage space, it is not positioned to steam high volumes of content in real time.
What about if they offer a combination of storage options
Local to the iDevice - at users discresion
Hosted in the cloud - maybe free for iTunes purchased content and paid by space for other content including all file based content on your home pc ( like DropBox with maybe a free amount)
Local/Home - As suggested in the article where your PC is left on and you can stream other content ( not purchased from iTunes - ripped from CDs etc) Free or with MobileMe subscription )
So there is plenty of different options to innovate, add more value to the ecosystem and for Apple to make money.
this would be ok for waking from sleep (which AppleTV does automatically, btw). but who wants to wait for a full boot and log on to play a song? and what if different user is already using that computer?
Computers are booting faster and faster. Start the new Macbook Air and you get a good idea of where computing in general is moving towards.
Now, if another person's using it than no need to boot. The cloud system would notice that the computer is already on and give you directly access to your files.
The cloud system would also provide all kinds of security, firewall, etc. Apple could make all that working easily. No need for people to know anything about routers, etc.
I don't know if it will happen but I don't think it stupid either. It at least addresses the issue of leaving your computer on.
Makes sense. We already have our content stored on our machines at home. Why should apple duplicate it?
If apple makes streaming from one's PC simple with zero configuration, just leave on your PC when you leave home and have access to your whole library.
I think is a neat way to get around licensing issues, its your stuff on your storage and iTunes is just the go between, we don't have to repurchase license or contest the agreement with the original purchase or ownership apple doesn't own it we do
Computers are booting faster and faster. Start the new Macbook Air and you get a good idea of where computing in general is moving towards.
Now, if another person's using it than no need to boot. The cloud system would notice that the computer is already on and give you directly access to your files.
The cloud system would also provide all kinds of security, firewall, etc. Apple could make all that working easily. No need for people to know anything about routers, etc.
I don't know if it will happen but I don't think it stupid either. It at least addresses the issue of leaving your computer on.
Great points AK. I'm inclined to believe Jobs on this, too. I'm looking at the MBA with just 64Gig of memory...because of Dropbox and the cloud.
I may just go with the new iPad (save $500) and make all my reports, charts, etc., useable on the iPad. Simple charts once setup are easier to update and modify.
Computers are booting faster and faster. Start the new Macbook Air and you get a good idea of where computing in general is moving towards.
True, eventually. but only a fraction of today's Macs in use have SSD's. will take some years before a majority do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A_K
Now, if another person's using it than no need to boot. The cloud system would notice that the computer is already on and give you directly access to your files.
no, can only access one user's files at a time right now. maybe with OS X Lion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A_K
The cloud system would also provide all kinds of security, firewall, etc. Apple could make all that working easily. No need for people to know anything about routers, etc.
yes could be done, but would need some OS level changes. Mayve with OS X Lion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A_K
I don't know if it will happen but I don't think it stupid either. It at least addresses the issue of leaving your computer on.
yeah. but Apple could enable AppleTV to be your NAS media hub very easily today and avoid all these practical issues.
Great points AK. I'm inclined to believe Jobs on this, too. I'm looking at the MBA with just 64Gig of memory...because of Dropbox and the cloud.
I may just go with the new iPad (save $500) and make all my reports, charts, etc., useable on the iPad. Simple charts once setup are easier to update and modify.
Who wants to be working on desktop all day? Ugh!
Best
Yep you got it, who does? Plus, who wants to leave it on all day? And who wants to leave all their data in the cloud? Apple solution's will be addressing all these points my friend.
No more MobileMe for me. The only thing I use is the syncing and i'm not going to pay Apple one more cent for this. I love Apple but paying for just syncing is so stupid, I have been doing that for to many years! Yes Apple smart, me stupid
The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.. there are already many "thin clients" in place (iPhone, iPod, ipad, apple tv) and several rumored (iPhone mini, small touch iMac), and soon Mac OS will be able to run on ARM architecture which will make a great low powered home server computer. People are not going to want to trust cloud servers, particularly with the creepy specter of google in the air (albeit much less creepy with the de-throning of Eric "the mole" Schmitt). So apple will provide the ability to combine privacy and cloud services with a home server. Apple's expertise in software will make it easy to administer secure content from home. It seems like it's going to be a great idea, and another way apple will change the consumer electronic landscape.
As for the iPhone mini, the rumors make me optimistic that apple will have a significant push for iwallet and social media this summer, facilitated by NFC, which will benefit greatly from increased marketshare. Apple can worry about higher margin pro devices after this base is established. I just wish I had more money to put into AAPL!
So they're assuming that people WANT a "home computer", and that it's always turned on as a server at home? And people with MacBooks carry their data around anyways?
And if they don't have a home computer, just buy a mac mini?
I don't want yet another computer, and I don't want a server at home. Perhaps they're gonna introduce a new TimeCapsule hardware that has more storage and is doing all this cloud business for you with iTunes configuration?
Are people forgetting the patents apple took out outlining a feature of an ios device to allow one to sit down at any mac, and have access to all of their personal settings and info, affectively making it "there" mac?
What if the only gateway to log to your home computer is through Apple Cloud that will provide all the security you mentionned? Also, Apple could make it happen in a way we wouldn't know what's going on in our router. Apple Cloud Gateway (for instance) installed on all your devices would take care of everything.
We need to realize that as techies we are not the vast majority. Normal people will never have a "home server" Servers break they need redundancy, they need to be upgraded, they need to be restarted, they need a lot of things, and constant attention just like a computer does, the general public hates computer issues, maybe 5% of the public would invest in a personal server, but that's not the future and apple knows it, just like all the internet startups know it, apple has done things like this and they do work for the most part if you own an apple router and all your settings are right and then its works about 50% of the time.
Drop box is brilliant, and would be a good version of the future, it syncs everything, cloud to computer and access from any device, the service would be a failure if it relied on my computer to be up 99.99% of the time which is what we need to make this happen.
This makes as much sense as hosting your own website on your computer. The reliability and know how to do so makes no sense when you can have pro do it for 5 bucks a month and it actually works.
My computer is on 24/7 anyway and irrationally perhaps, I prefer my data to be stored on my machines. So cloud service without cloud storage works for me. Now, Apple will probably make the service free and if on top of that you want your stuff on their servers then I bet they'll gladly lease you some storage space just like most everyone else does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin McMurtrie
Personal servers are the way of the future. Why pay somebody else to host your content when you can do it yourself cheaply? There's no syncing, no limits, no background tasks, and no monthly dues. It's your stuff anywhere you want it. I've been doing it since 1996.
Many consumer network storage devices can run custom Linux software. The Apple TV just needs a disk port. The Mac Mini Server was already built for this. All of these are small, quiet, and consume very little power even if they're loaded up with several TB of disk space.
The only problem is that US ISPs have so little market competition that they often don't offer full Internet services. A personal server could be blocked, jammed, throttled, inaccessible, or cause for termination. Jamming is the worst because it would look like Apple's fault.
There are several problems with this logic:
1. Many U.S. ISPs prohibit the use of a home server on the Internet.
2. It requires home computers to be left on all the time. Some of us prefer not to do that - for various reasons.
3. There are close to 400,000 home fires in the U.S. every year. I prefer to have my backup data stored off-site and managed remotely. Yes, that can be done with a home server, but it's a lot less convenient.
4. If you have a home server, why do you need MobileMe? it wouldn't add any value.
5. Many routers are difficult to set up for outbound service.
6. No backup in case your system is stolen.
Basically, the use of a home server negates the entire point of MobileMe. Now, they work well in combination - I have a home server with all my data. I backup my home server to a RAID 5 backup device. But I ALSO backup the critical data to MobileMe.
Looking to the future I believe we know what the goal will be, computers as we know them will transition into a specialty product for us "techies" the rest of the world will be able to live on simpler devices that just work. For too long people have struggled with this device that only computer technicians really know how to operate.
There will be transitional ideas and techniques, iPad is a huge transitional product, its no where close to where it will be and will eventually level out as the new computer, right now its a little useless, but i think they intended to do it this way to see where it organically grows, what people want and need.
Home servers are transitional products they have been around forever and have never gone mainstream and never will. But in the meantime they may exist as a transitional product but its important to look at where things are headed and figure out how to get there quickly so we all dont waste time and money.
Remember when it came out and we were all scratching our heads,saying what are we gonna do with this thing? We already have iPhones, well if as it was announced I got a glimpse of the future, I saw that for now it was in fact a little useless, mainly because you can get rid of your computer, the services and technologies weren't there, and doubt they will get there before the year is out. but that is the ultimate goal.
The ability to hand your 75 year old grandmother an iPad and be able to communicate with her and push her photos from yours without her having to pick up an instructions manual, the same for children in school, my son might never know what a file extension is.
I do love the iPad (retina display please) but I will buy an iPad when it can survive without a "Mother" computer. Until then it will remain a transition product.
Requirements for the standalone iPad.
USB 2 or 3 - or way to read external media - although this may be done wirelessly through usb ports on the airport.
The speculation doesn't make much sense to me. What makes more sense to me is Apple will negotiate streaming rights for music it already sells on the iTunes music store but instead of actually transferring your stored files to Apple's servers, it simply checks your iTunes account for your previously purchased music and makes those available for streaming. Meanwhile, the rest of your music NOT acquired through iTunes will probably run off something like a Time Capsule or Time Machine with attached USB storage, which always maintains a persistent Internet connection anyway. So Apple will probably release some firmware update or new device that will act as a constant, Internet-connected home service. This gets around the "leave my computer on" issue.
It does sound backwards, but it makes more sense. Apple is in it to make money, so they will probably allow you to pay the same fees to have them store your data, but enable more people to enjoy accessing their data remotely by requiring your own storage for free or maybe giving away a gigabyte or two. A few people might use it besides they can always try and fail.
Comments
For those of you thinking this all idea is stupid since you wouldn't want to leave on your home computer, well... You wouldn't have to:
There is already a way to actually power on your home computer remotely. Check it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN.
So Apple could make it easy for you to do it from an iPhone or an iPad and manage remotely your home files.
No need to duplicate your files. No need to leave your home machine always on. No need to give up your privacy. But have access to your data from anywhere. How does it sound?
this would be ok for waking from sleep (which AppleTV does automatically, btw). but who wants to wait for a full boot and log on to play a song? and what if different user is already using that computer?
Generally the approach used for streaming content is to place data centers close to the users and close to dense hubs or PoPs. In such a case one would be putting their data centers logically in major cities, where they are both close to the end user and close to the most dense and diverse set of network interconnects.
Akamai and Limelight that focus on content delivery CDNs follow this method, but also try to distribute their servers and have mirrors as close to if not directly tied to each of the major end client providers (often the cable companies and consumer telcos). This is the edge network approach.
Again Apple's Maiden, NC data center is located for cheap storage space, it is not positioned to steam high volumes of content in real time.
Local to the iDevice - at users discresion
Hosted in the cloud - maybe free for iTunes purchased content and paid by space for other content including all file based content on your home pc ( like DropBox with maybe a free amount)
Local/Home - As suggested in the article where your PC is left on and you can stream other content ( not purchased from iTunes - ripped from CDs etc) Free or with MobileMe subscription )
So there is plenty of different options to innovate, add more value to the ecosystem and for Apple to make money.
this would be ok for waking from sleep (which AppleTV does automatically, btw). but who wants to wait for a full boot and log on to play a song? and what if different user is already using that computer?
Computers are booting faster and faster. Start the new Macbook Air and you get a good idea of where computing in general is moving towards.
Now, if another person's using it than no need to boot. The cloud system would notice that the computer is already on and give you directly access to your files.
The cloud system would also provide all kinds of security, firewall, etc. Apple could make all that working easily. No need for people to know anything about routers, etc.
I don't know if it will happen but I don't think it stupid either. It at least addresses the issue of leaving your computer on.
Makes sense. We already have our content stored on our machines at home. Why should apple duplicate it?
If apple makes streaming from one's PC simple with zero configuration, just leave on your PC when you leave home and have access to your whole library.
I think is a neat way to get around licensing issues, its your stuff on your storage and iTunes is just the go between, we don't have to repurchase license or contest the agreement with the original purchase or ownership apple doesn't own it we do
ya and if my laptop is off what then?
and if that's the case why huge server farm?
Best
Computers are booting faster and faster. Start the new Macbook Air and you get a good idea of where computing in general is moving towards.
Now, if another person's using it than no need to boot. The cloud system would notice that the computer is already on and give you directly access to your files.
The cloud system would also provide all kinds of security, firewall, etc. Apple could make all that working easily. No need for people to know anything about routers, etc.
I don't know if it will happen but I don't think it stupid either. It at least addresses the issue of leaving your computer on.
Great points AK. I'm inclined to believe Jobs on this, too. I'm looking at the MBA with just 64Gig of memory...because of Dropbox and the cloud.
I may just go with the new iPad (save $500) and make all my reports, charts, etc., useable on the iPad. Simple charts once setup are easier to update and modify.
Who wants to be working on desktop all day? Ugh!
Best
Computers are booting faster and faster. Start the new Macbook Air and you get a good idea of where computing in general is moving towards.
True, eventually. but only a fraction of today's Macs in use have SSD's. will take some years before a majority do.
Now, if another person's using it than no need to boot. The cloud system would notice that the computer is already on and give you directly access to your files.
no, can only access one user's files at a time right now. maybe with OS X Lion.
The cloud system would also provide all kinds of security, firewall, etc. Apple could make all that working easily. No need for people to know anything about routers, etc.
yes could be done, but would need some OS level changes. Mayve with OS X Lion.
I don't know if it will happen but I don't think it stupid either. It at least addresses the issue of leaving your computer on.
yeah. but Apple could enable AppleTV to be your NAS media hub very easily today and avoid all these practical issues.
Great points AK. I'm inclined to believe Jobs on this, too. I'm looking at the MBA with just 64Gig of memory...because of Dropbox and the cloud.
I may just go with the new iPad (save $500) and make all my reports, charts, etc., useable on the iPad. Simple charts once setup are easier to update and modify.
Who wants to be working on desktop all day? Ugh!
Best
Yep you got it, who does? Plus, who wants to leave it on all day? And who wants to leave all their data in the cloud? Apple solution's will be addressing all these points my friend.
As for the iPhone mini, the rumors make me optimistic that apple will have a significant push for iwallet and social media this summer, facilitated by NFC, which will benefit greatly from increased marketshare. Apple can worry about higher margin pro devices after this base is established. I just wish I had more money to put into AAPL!
I love being an apple fan
And if they don't have a home computer, just buy a mac mini?
I don't want yet another computer, and I don't want a server at home. Perhaps they're gonna introduce a new TimeCapsule hardware that has more storage and is doing all this cloud business for you with iTunes configuration?
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...computing.html
It's all coming together baby, convergence is the goal we are looking at here
What if the only gateway to log to your home computer is through Apple Cloud that will provide all the security you mentionned? Also, Apple could make it happen in a way we wouldn't know what's going on in our router. Apple Cloud Gateway (for instance) installed on all your devices would take care of everything.
We need to realize that as techies we are not the vast majority. Normal people will never have a "home server" Servers break they need redundancy, they need to be upgraded, they need to be restarted, they need a lot of things, and constant attention just like a computer does, the general public hates computer issues, maybe 5% of the public would invest in a personal server, but that's not the future and apple knows it, just like all the internet startups know it, apple has done things like this and they do work for the most part if you own an apple router and all your settings are right and then its works about 50% of the time.
Drop box is brilliant, and would be a good version of the future, it syncs everything, cloud to computer and access from any device, the service would be a failure if it relied on my computer to be up 99.99% of the time which is what we need to make this happen.
This makes as much sense as hosting your own website on your computer. The reliability and know how to do so makes no sense when you can have pro do it for 5 bucks a month and it actually works.
My computer is on 24/7 anyway and irrationally perhaps, I prefer my data to be stored on my machines. So cloud service without cloud storage works for me. Now, Apple will probably make the service free and if on top of that you want your stuff on their servers then I bet they'll gladly lease you some storage space just like most everyone else does.
Personal servers are the way of the future. Why pay somebody else to host your content when you can do it yourself cheaply? There's no syncing, no limits, no background tasks, and no monthly dues. It's your stuff anywhere you want it. I've been doing it since 1996.
Many consumer network storage devices can run custom Linux software. The Apple TV just needs a disk port. The Mac Mini Server was already built for this. All of these are small, quiet, and consume very little power even if they're loaded up with several TB of disk space.
The only problem is that US ISPs have so little market competition that they often don't offer full Internet services. A personal server could be blocked, jammed, throttled, inaccessible, or cause for termination. Jamming is the worst because it would look like Apple's fault.
There are several problems with this logic:
1. Many U.S. ISPs prohibit the use of a home server on the Internet.
2. It requires home computers to be left on all the time. Some of us prefer not to do that - for various reasons.
3. There are close to 400,000 home fires in the U.S. every year. I prefer to have my backup data stored off-site and managed remotely. Yes, that can be done with a home server, but it's a lot less convenient.
4. If you have a home server, why do you need MobileMe? it wouldn't add any value.
5. Many routers are difficult to set up for outbound service.
6. No backup in case your system is stolen.
Basically, the use of a home server negates the entire point of MobileMe. Now, they work well in combination - I have a home server with all my data. I backup my home server to a RAID 5 backup device. But I ALSO backup the critical data to MobileMe.
There will be transitional ideas and techniques, iPad is a huge transitional product, its no where close to where it will be and will eventually level out as the new computer, right now its a little useless, but i think they intended to do it this way to see where it organically grows, what people want and need.
Home servers are transitional products they have been around forever and have never gone mainstream and never will. But in the meantime they may exist as a transitional product but its important to look at where things are headed and figure out how to get there quickly so we all dont waste time and money.
Remember when it came out and we were all scratching our heads,saying what are we gonna do with this thing? We already have iPhones, well if as it was announced I got a glimpse of the future, I saw that for now it was in fact a little useless, mainly because you can get rid of your computer, the services and technologies weren't there, and doubt they will get there before the year is out. but that is the ultimate goal.
The ability to hand your 75 year old grandmother an iPad and be able to communicate with her and push her photos from yours without her having to pick up an instructions manual, the same for children in school, my son might never know what a file extension is.
I do love the iPad (retina display please) but I will buy an iPad when it can survive without a "Mother" computer. Until then it will remain a transition product.
Requirements for the standalone iPad.
USB 2 or 3 - or way to read external media - although this may be done wirelessly through usb ports on the airport.
Online everything - backup, app store, personal storage, software updates, activation