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Apple Developing a Home Media Server?
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Does the AppleTv or Time Capsule allow you to ssh into them? If so then it shouldnt be too hard to get to your music wherever you are as long as you know what you are doing.
Gosh, pro apps are a tough one. for years they were a strong reason why people purchased apple computers, and a big reason why people buy the pro version of apple computers. But when you look at how much of apple's revenue comes from ipods & iphone... wow. Also, I am sure that most macs are sold to people who are not using pro apps.
Apple needs to develop a.... ok brace yourself... a microsoft like company where things are more distributed to various divisions. I don't claim to be an expert on how apple is set up, but remember that leopard was delayed to get the iphone out. And the same team that does OSX also now does the OS for iphones & ipods.
So I guess my advice is apple should take some of that cash reserve and hire more programmers to be able to do great work on OSX indepenant of pro apps and independent of devices. I personally think devices is one are where apple is going to do huge growth in the next few years.... thus the decsion to drop computer from the company name.
btw - i too am a pro app user - but i want the home server too
So you think the iPhone is "just a shinny thing". If anything this is where the future is heading.
apple tv does - but this isn't there by default. you have to hack first. giving you the ability to ssh isn't something that apple gives the users do in a device like this.
You're totally missing his point. Which is that apple shouldn't JUST be focused on consumer electronics - if they are going to sell "pro" apps, they should make sure those apps ARE pro. And if they get distracted, maybe they should sell those apps off or spin off a smaller company to just handle those apps.
Yeah, that's my point - the hardware already exists to do this every bit as well as I need it to - even the Time Machine will allow SSHing in with a suitable firmware update, I'd have thought - and hey presto, a 1TB Media Server, sitting in my room already, to go with the 160GB one sitting under my telly
Yeah, that's my point - the hardware already exists to do this every bit as well as I need it to - even the Time Machine will allow SSHing in with a suitable firmware update, I'd have thought - and hey presto, a 1TB Media Server, sitting in my room already, to go with the 160GB one sitting under my telly
many people have already hacked appletv to do all sorts of things.
But when you say "even time machine" I am assuming that you mean even time capsule. While i suppose that it could be hacked, i haven't heard of anyone who has done it.
I also don't see a reason to do it. You can't use it as a media server that is directly attached to a tv because there are no video & audio outputs on it. also, there is no remote on it.
If you are saying that you could hack the time capsule to be the backend of a media server, again why? it already can share any media over afp on your network. Really it is all about getting your appletv (or other device) to see it on the network.
But what everyone is talking about is much different then just a media server. It is more of an ilife server. something that can sync iphoto, imovie, itunes. Maybe even calendar or home wiki's.
the only other thing with hacking an appletv - it isn't for the everyday user. even should you use atvFlash, it does make it much more complex of a device. This is not how apple works. The build things that are very easy to use and somewhat powerful. though ease of use trumps powerful for the consumer level apps & devices.
Need to tie all of these together
Apple needs to simplify all of these offerings.
The Apple TV should already have these features, as far as I'm concerned. The only thing that is missing (aside from a DVR) is the ability to watch anywhere in the world.
And if people want Time Machine, offer it as an add-on software upgrade. It's getting too complicated.
Apple needs to simplify all of these offerings.
The Apple TV should already have these features, as far as I'm concerned. The only thing that is missing (aside from a DVR) is the ability to watch anywhere in the world.
And if people want Time Machine, offer it as an add-on software upgrade. It's getting too complicated.
I would totally buy this. This would finally take away the need for cd/dvd drives in computers (or at least laptops). We could just load all of our movies and music on our Apple-Time-Capsule-TV and access it all from anywhere.
A few cool changes this could allow:
Hard-drive space would no longer matter because all the things that really take up space (movies, music, pictures) could be retrieved wirelessly when needed. This would work best with 6mbps+ internet and n-standard+ wifi.
--Imagine the Air with no hard-drive but a battery twice to three times as big... drool...
They would no longer need to work on getting more and more capacity for the iPhone (mostly) and the iPod touch (somewhat) because they could just connect wirelessly to whatever music or movies they wanted.
A few cool changes this could allow:
Hard-drive space would no longer matter because all the things that really take up space (movies, music, pictures) could be retrieved wirelessly when needed. This would work best with 6mbps+ internet and n-standard+ wifi.
--Imagine the Air with no hard-drive but a battery twice to three times as big... drool...
They would no longer need to work on getting more and more capacity for the iPhone (mostly) and the iPod touch (somewhat) because they could just connect wirelessly to whatever music or movies they wanted.
If media servers are a niche, it's only because making one takes time and a certain level of expertise that most people don't have or don't want to invest. And they're still lacking in functionality with regards to Apple software. The market for home media servers is simple: Anybody with more than one computer, and that includes HTPCs.
Yep, this seems very realistic to expect. Everything they need to create this device is already in place. Mobile me, Apple TV, ZFS support in the upcoming Snow Leopard server that would replace RAID. All they need to do is add seamless iLife/iWork syncing along with Mobile Me so that iTunes could remotely access a library (for those with laptops on the go) and everyone could finally Handbrake their DVD's and create a digital library (not that Apple would officially sanction that).
iTunes Server mockup
Here's my mockup, for what it's worth - originally posted in March - there was a lot of speculation about this sort of thing back then as a result of Steve Job's reaction at the share holder meeting, that iMacmatician has already mentioned.
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The concept is quite similar to zombitronic's mockup, with stacking, cable-free hard-drives.
Here's my mockup, for what it's worth - originally posted in March - there was a lot of speculation about this sort of thing back then as a result of Steve Job's reaction at the share holder meeting, that iMacmatician has already mentioned.
The concept is quite similar to zombitronic's mockup, with stacking, cable-free hard-drives.
Why the heck would the limit be only 3TB? Give each add-on drive two FireWire 800 ports so that you can daisy-chain up to 64 TB (no, I didn't forget the limit, that's including the one built into the original device) without wasting valuable ports on the original device.
By definition, a "home server" is nothing like an Apple TV and it's not a router either.
Judging by the comments on this thread, I don't think people even understand what a "home server" is.
It's basically a file server for your home with backup and media streaming capabilities. That's it. At most, it will stream content to your Apple TV and connect to your network using your AirPort Extreme.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_server
LOL! Yeah- nice try pal.
What he is doing- copying netflix movies to his hard drive is stealing. I am pretty die-hard about my right to view the media I have purchased any way I want to, but sorry- when you rent from netflix, the time you have the movie begins and ends your right to view it.
Time shifting does not apply when you do not own the right to manipulate the media to watch it the way you want to.
I have 6 TB inside my MediaSmart server right now - that's more than enough (but if I started to store my BDs on it I'd want the 96 TB from a 1394 daisy chain....).
Or... just connect your iPhone to an ac power outlet
For 3TB you can cover a very large portion of the market, I haven't exceeded 32GB on my iPod Touch even with a few thousand (resized) photos on it. Obviously video will take up a lot of space but even if you do say 4GB per movie that is a pretty good amount of space for the majority of users to not exceed for sometime.
Also, you would want to consider waiting a bit until >1TB drives become more normal so the stackables can have much larger drives so you dont end up with a 50+ drive tower. Right now drive storage size would appear to be the biggest limitation in making it smaller etc.
Not sure I agree. Time Capsule already offers file and printer sharing, so you could describe it as a home server, by that definition. What's being discussed here is something more - something with tight client-server integration at an application level, supporting iTunes, iPhoto etc. Integration with Apple TV may well make sense in this context, where the server sits under the TV, and is accessed elsewhere via Macbook clients.
This product will fill certain needs, but they need to be relatively competitive with the price and have good compatibility to steal market share.
So what is it that this "Apple Home Server" will do that can't already be done by a Mini with a few USB-attached 1.5TB drives?
I don't think it will happen... Time capsule is essentially it.
I would say that this is not going to happen because it is already basically the time capsule and they can firmware update it to do these things if they wanted. My setup is all music, tv shows, and movies, applications, podcasts, etc... all on my time capsule. Then I just add those files into iTunes on my MacBook. Then this way everything is streamed and can be accessed on all the computers in the house. Also then when I want to watch something on my apple tv I just start streaming, the time capsule boots up and it plays... Pretty close to a home server if u ask me. Yea it doesn't have sync capabilities with other computers but I can access everything from everywhere in the house. I can also print and backup on the external harddrive connected to the time capsule though a USB hub. Maybe u guys need more but it works great and that's why I don't think they will make a home server. But hey if they do then sweet but my needs are met.
I would say that this is not going to happen because it is already basically the time capsule and they can firmware update it to do these things if they wanted. My setup is all music, tv shows, and movies, applications, podcasts, etc... all on my time capsule. Then I just add those files into iTunes on my MacBook. Then this way everything is streamed and can be accessed on all the computers in the house. Also then when I want to watch something on my apple tv I just start streaming, the time capsule boots up and it plays... Pretty close to a home server if u ask me. Yea it doesn't have sync capabilities with other computers but I can access everything from everywhere in the house. I can also print and backup on the external harddrive connected to the time capsule though a USB hub. Maybe u guys need more but it works great and that's why I don't think they will make a home server. But hey if they do then sweet but my needs are met.