Apple Testing New Time Capsules for Caching Software Updates?

[TallManNY]

You should consider Apple, Microsoft, Google, Netflix, et. al. in all this. Those are true juggernauts, and I really doubt they will sit back and let the broadband providers cramp on their style.

The real solution is regulation, just like the energy companies are regulated. The cable companies know that if they raise prices too much, the government will just regulate them. Then they will be just like energy companies who have a monopoly (and for something even more important than the internet ) but aren't allowed to raise prices beyond an amount that gives them a regulated and limited return on their capital investments. Not a perfect system but if the cable companies play too rough that is the solution.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

You should consider Apple, Microsoft, Google, Netflix, et. al. in all this. Those are true juggernauts, and I really doubt they will sit back and let the broadband providers cramp on their style.

It's already happened. I know lots of people that really want an iPhone but don't want to pay for the contract. Unless those people are few and far between (and note that there are a LOT more cell phone users that are NOT iDevice 3G users), don't you think that Apple would sell a lot more 3G iDevices if the 3G piece was cheaper? Don't you think the cost of 3G service "cramps Apple's style"?

Why aren't they putting the pinch on AT&T and Verizon to offer 3G service for prices lower than everyone else?

And no, Comcast's 250 GB limit does not count - it's a reasonable limit for now. AT&T's 150 GB limit slightly less so, but not too bad. Once it gets under 100 GB per month, that's when **** will hit the fan.

Get those fans ready for cleaning. It's only a matter of time. The excuse is going to be "due to increased worldwide bandwidth demands" much like oil is "due to increased worldwide demand for oil". If the politicians get involved, they'll repeat the show of being tough on those "greedy oil companies" which resulted in how much of an impact on the cost of gas? The bandwidth gatekeepers will throw more money into re-election campaigns and the machine will distract us with another "flag burning amendment" resurrection or something similar.

That's the very same excuse used to justify 3G fees now. When the digital television transition went down, there was abundant new bandwidth made available by freeing up a bunch of space formerly occupied by analog TV channels. Even Apple & Google showed some interest in bidding for that space (which would have very likely made them real competitors in local broadband and/or mobile phone business). The Government could have excluded the 2 dominant players from being allowed to play in hopes of spurring some genuine competition. Apple & Google (and many others) could have stepped up as real competitors. Instead, what happened? Who got the vast majority of the bandwidth?

I want to imagine that Apple, Google, Netflix etc will put the pinch on Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, etc. but the latter is in control of this one, with NO REASON WHATSOEVER to cut their own revenue throats to help Apple, Netflix, etc take their video distribution subscription businesses NOR make things cheaper for us users. Quite the contrary, with as little as NO broadband competitors in some markets, expect pricing to rise anytime they want to make a little more profit.

Has anyone's 3G bills gone down since Apple & Google got in the 3G supporting space?

Has anyone's video subscription costs gone down since Apple & Google got in the video on-demand space?

Has anyone's broadband bills gone down since Apple & Google and others started ramping up broadband demand?

All such options would be good for Apple, Google, etc and for us users? Why haven't they occurred for the masses?

Apparently, here comes a new offering that seems to beg for much greater Internet and wireless Internet usage. Consumers access that Internet not from Google or Apple or Netflix but from AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, etc. We can't bypass the latter. If we want all of the promise of iCloud, we have to accept whatever they want to charge for it. Will they choose to lower prices over time, keep them the same, or charge more? If you were them, what would you do? (and note if you were them, you would be bound to maximize profits for your shareholders, not cut your revenue throat because it's the "right thing to do" or because "Apple told us to lower our revenues", etc).

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The real solution is regulation, just like the energy companies are regulated. The cable companies know that if they raise prices too much, the government will just regulate them. Then they will be just like energy companies who have a monopoly (and for something even more important than the internet ) but aren't allowed to raise prices beyond an amount that gives them a regulated and limited return on their capital investments. Not a perfect system but if the cable companies play too rough that is the solution.

Hoping the Government will step is a <1980's concept. The AT&T breakup was the last major play of the government stepping in to break up a dominant player exploiting it's customer base. It won't happen again.

Now we have "too big to fail" companies bailed out with taxpayer dollars and expanded into even bigger companies. The heads of those "going to fail unless we bail them out" companies then make massive contributions to the re-election coffers of both parties (look it up if you don't believe me) and then pay themselves all-time record bonuses the year after they were allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy unless the taxpayer bailed them out.

Did any of them get in trouble with the GOV? Yes there was some lip service, but was their any tangible action against them? Did any one of them get any kind of punishment? Did any of them have their bonuses blocked by the GOV or 100% taxed away from them by the GOV?

Did any of the "too big to fail" companies get broken up into "not too big to fail companies" by the GOV? Can anybody name ONE "too big to fail" company that was broken up after taxpayer dollars "saved them"?

Did the worthless paper that drove the risk of financial collapse stay on their books or are we taxpayers secretly paying full face value for it thanks to the FED (who works for us, or for them)?

More on point, did the massive wireless broadband spectrum freed up by the digital television transition get auctioned off to anyone other than the 2 dominant players in just about every market? Right there was a prime opportunity for the GOV to flex the Capitalism model muscles and inject real competition for AT&T & Verizon into every market in the United States. It wouldn't have cost any taxpayer dollars (the bidders paid us for the spectrum) nor would it have involved the GOV having to do anything more than NOT allowing the top 2 from being able to hold onto their dominance. Did the GOV do the right thing for us citizens?

Best we'll get from the GOV is a dog & pony show... some lip service about how regulation is needed for ever-increasing broadband data fee increases but no real action. They might do it loudly to encourage the broadband gatekeepers to throw a little more into the re-election coffers. And that will be it.

This same basic model keeps repeating over and over since the mid-1980's. Identify anything that the GOV has regulated to give us lower prices now than we had then, or we had even 5 or 10 years ago?

Electric? Water? Internet? Gas (did you know it's about 35 cents per gallon in Iraq & Iran, but our military chooses to pay about $400/gal for it in Afghanistan)? Health Insurance? Any Insurances? Food? Etc.

 

[WickedStealthy]

This is the sign of the further untethering of iOS devices. I mean otherwise you can just use your computer to download the update can't you? Been awhile since I had an iOS device.

Or its just a feature add to keep the price of their routers high.


I'd like it more if the Time Capsule were an iTunes server.

That would make alot of sense with today's iOS devices, low storage capacity MBAs and even laptops.

I suppose though you might as well just buy a Mac Mini then.

ACTually why doesn't Apple make a $300 iTunes server in the form of a low power Mac Mini. Only needs enough ram and cpu and gpu to be an iTunes server. Doesn't even need a gpu I guess. Put a 1.4ghz C2D in there along with 1gb of ram. 8gb of Flash or so for the iTunes server and updates and some cache. Storage would be external drives. Bonus would be room for user replaceable hard drive. Doesn't need disc drive or any ports except ethernet ports.

would be controlled with iOS device or Mac.

Exactly what I hope they will do. Get some kind of iTunes server so that no syncing of apps etc needs to be done by plugging devices into another PC of Mac. Just stream and sync on your local network.

It would be great to have it hooked up to something like a synology 12-bay box Which can also serve for other purposes ...
But I think we are dreaming

 

[TallManNY]

This same basic model keeps repeating over and over since the mid-1980's. Identify anything that the GOV has regulated to give us lower prices now than we had then, or we had even 5 or 10 years ago?

Electric? Water? Internet? Gas (did you know it's about 35 cents per gallon in Iraq & Iran, but our military chooses to pay about $400/gal for it in Afghanistan)? Health Insurance? Any Insurances? Food? Etc.

I agree with you that the Government has been fairly toothless in constraining big business (for better or worse on that matter). But electricity and water are regulated items which are provided to people at very inexpensive prices despite a company having a monopoly. I think it is a fairly successful example of government regulation based on the fact that electricity and water is readily available pretty much everywhere to the extent that you want it and it is cheap. But that level of regulation (i.e., profits basically capped at 6%) is the cable companies' biggest fear and it will keep them from totally gouging the consumer. That doesn't mean you are necessarily going to like your cable internet bill, but it will at least be something that every middle class person can afford without too much difficulty.

You are throwing out the price of gas in Iraq? Umm, you do know that that price is due to heavy heavy subsidies by the governments. The people are dirt poor due mainly to their terrible governments, but as long as their are enough subsidies that the poor people can buy gas and food, the ***** won't necessarily hit the fan.

 

[nutmac]

According to Arstechnica and other sources, Time Capsule (whose name may change) will be launched during WWDC as the 5th iOS device (1 = iPhone, 2 = iPod touch, 3 = iPad, 4 = Apple TV 2).

 

[MikhailT]

Don’t compare the wireless bandwidth with the wired bandwidth, they are two completely different things with different restrictions.

There are severe limits of how much you can carry traffic between wireless networks and that’s expected.

The wired bandwidth can definitely grow to outsupply the global demand but the companies have not been motivated to do this and have no incentive to do this.

The US Congress gave the companies money to do this and so far, the companies didn’t do what they were asked to do.

We can certainly supply 1Gbps fibre connection to everybody in the country if we demand it and we can certainly price it cheaply. There are many countries out there that already does this.

The only reason we haven’t done this is because of regulations, people don’t want companies digging into their backyard, hate the constructions and so on. There are also no incentives for the companies to do this as well. Every time we try to build our own fibre network with tax money in the country, the state and cities get hit with lawsuits preventing them to do this because “it’s not fair to the private sector”.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I agree with you that the Government has been fairly toothless in constraining big business (for better or worse on that matter). But electricity and water are regulated items which are provided to people at very inexpensive prices despite a company having a monopoly. I think it is a fairly successful example of government regulation based on the fact that electricity and water is readily available pretty much everywhere to the extent that you want it and it is cheap. But that level of regulation (i.e., profits basically capped at 6%) is the cable companies' biggest fear and it will keep them from totally gouging the consumer. That doesn't mean you are necessarily going to like your cable internet bill, but it will at least be something that every middle class person can afford without too much difficulty.

I don't know where you live, but where I live our regulated electricity & water is definitely not cheap. And our GOV makes deals with our regulated electricity provider by giving them tens of millions in grants to consider building a new nuclear plant with the condition that if they decide not to build it they can keep the money (that used to be known as "free money").

I do recall what electricity and water cost even a few years ago. (Here) it is definitely a lot higher than 6% per year increases would support.

You are throwing out the price of gas in Iraq? Umm, you do know that that price is due to heavy heavy subsidies by the governments. The people are dirt poor due mainly to their terrible governments, but as long as their are enough subsidies that the poor people can buy gas and food, the ***** won't necessarily hit the fan.

That would be OUR government money flows subsidizing the price of gas. Whatever happened to "to the victor goes the spoils"? Why can't we buy all that gas (even) at full retail (35 cents/gal) and ship it over here and sell it to our people at $1/gal... maybe split the profit with about half of it going to build out energy alternatives to oil and the other half subsidizing something else to the benefit of the middle classes?

Oh that's right, that would hurt the small group who throws lots of money into re-election coffers. We can't have that.

I'd love to believe in the illusion that the GOV won't allow broadband rates to be increased too much. I just don't see the GOV doing that anywhere else, including the very near proxy of wireless internet fees nor even in the cable and broadband rates already flowing through the same pipes (those prices only move in one direction year after year).

But I'll go with you here and hope that this time... on this one thing... it will be different. I'd prefer it that way but I don't see any reason for it to play out like that.

 

[azazel-]

It's Apple.

Because no other company comes out with new revisions of hardware, amiright?

 

[twoodcc]

This makes sense. For both updates and icloud. But why isn't this just a software update?

 

[TallManNY]

I don't know where you live, but where I live our regulated electricity & water is definitely not cheap.

I do recall what electricity and water cost even a few years ago. (Here) it is definitely a lot higher than 6% per year increases would support.

Your electricity and water is cheap. Name me one material good that you can buy at a dollar per pound price cheaper than the water that comes out of your faucet. Heck water is so cheap you bath and take dumps in it.

Same thing for electricity. You are using it all day and every day and yet you rarely think about the cost. Sure it would be nice if it was basically free. But setting aside air conditioning you house, it is almost impossible for a normal person to use a really expensive amount of electricity in a month. If it is still too much for you, get a few energy saver appliances and light bulbs.

That would be OUR government money flows subsidizing the price of gas. Whatever happened to "to the victor goes the spoils"? Why can't we buy all that gas (even) at full retail (35 cents/gal) and ship it over here and sell it to our people at $1/gal... maybe split the profit with about half of it going to build out energy alternatives to oil and the other half subsidizing something else to the benefit of the middle classes?

What you are talking about is imperialism and you don't really want our country to go there. If we are going to steal the resources straight out, then we might as well just kill off everyone and plan the flag permanently. Obviously that would be immoral and I hope you wouldn't condone that.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

What you are talking about is imperialism and you don't really want our country to go there. If we are going to steal the resources straight out, then we might as well just kill off everyone and plan the flag permanently. Obviously that would be immoral and I hope you wouldn't condone that.

Since this is Mac rumors, I'll quit with the political rants. I brought up examples of the GOV failing to do what's best for us in response to someone offering up that the GOV will come to the rescue if broadband pricing starts getting "out of hand".

So, let's just buy your concept that the GOV won't allow broadband and wireless broadband pricing to get out of hand and then check it again in a few years. I'd be willing to bet my whole "energy efficient" house where "electricity is expensive" that both will cost more in just few years than both costs now (and not just the pace of inflation more expensive).

We've already played this game over and over since the mid 1980's, if not sooner. I think the middle class lost it's government somewhere thereabouts (maybe sooner) to the few who now dominate GOV policy. Among those few are the broadband and wireless broadband gatekeepers who seem quite skilled at justifying steady increases in their offerings and a GOV that chooses to do nothing about it (for years and years and years now).

 

[nutmac]

This makes sense. For both updates and icloud. But why isn't this just a software update?

Short answer: I am guessing the same reason why Apple TV 2 wasn't just a software update.

Long answer: Although currently shipping Time Capsule runs on ARM processor, it is an older variety (ARMv5). If Time Capsule (product name may change) becomes a 5th iOS devices (joining iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV 2) as rumored, Apple will want it to run on the same and latest ARMv7 architecture (A4 or A5).

 

[SdPunk]

Now I can hold off on buying another external HD.

 

[Glideslope]

Sounds Eco-System Friendly if true. This is the type of user experience that draws users to Apple. Hope it pans out.

 

[Cougarcat]

What if Time Machine is included in iOS 5? Wirelessly back up to Time Capsule.

 

[cmaier]

What if Time Machine is included in iOS 5? Wirelessly back up to Time Capsule.

Good way to run down your battery very quickly.

 

[MattInOz]

What about those who don't have a Time Capsule?

I'm sure you'll have the option to Buy/Activate Update Server on one of your Mac's to do the same job.

 

[Cougarcat]

Good way to run down your battery very quickly.

Not if it only backed up during recharging.

 

[Primejimbo]

Dude, you aren't a light user if you are streaming netflix almost every night. My mom who checks her email a few times a week and only uses the web about once a month is a light user. We are all lucky that there are lots of folks doing not too much with their internet access and still paying $50 a month.

Using a lot less than 100GB a month. I think last month was about 60GB.. if that. So maybe a medium user than, but never even coming close to my 250GB cap.

 

[Cheerwino]

Nothin' kills a decent thread like politics. Thanks folks.

 

[WissMAN]

I just don't get the time capsule thing. I prefer a usb external drive for backups and additional storage. I have a MBA and until iCloud delivers, this works for me.

What am I missing in the TC world? What is so special about these? Are they accessible from the internet? Are they like a personal cloud?

 

[eldaria]

Honestly this should be possible to do with just a firmware update not a new device, especially for the Time Capsules that already have a harddrive.

 

[TallManNY]

I just don't get the time capsule thing. I prefer a usb external drive for backups and additional storage. I have a MBA and until iCloud delivers, this works for me.

What am I missing in the TC world? What is so special about these? Are they accessible from the internet? Are they like a personal cloud?

TC provides remote backup without connecting your laptop. So you can backup from the couch. Also it combines form factor with wifi router that you already would have, so one less piece of equipment in the house. Remote printer might be helpful depending on your setup as well. Lets see if the updates do something a little more special. There is certainly an opening to announce some knew hardware.

 

[crzdcolombian]

my school has a password, my job has a password, my apartment and my friends apartments have network passwords. I use 3g very little and am almost always on a network. Unless 4g is faster than my broadband internet I don't really care. What do people do download bittorrent on an iphone?

I pay an extra $20 bucks for my iphone, 250 text and 200 mbs of data. I have never gone over it and have had that plan since they offered it. I am really happy AT&T offered this plan because $30 + 5-20 dollars in Text is crazy for just a phone unless your a buisness user. The caps are not a bad thing and glad that big companies aren't screwing over the little guys so people who download porn or movies on their phone all day don't pay the same as someone who doesn't

I want these calls to be able to make phone calls. My friend has a sprint 4g phone and he says how its so much better than the iphone and its like wow your phone can upload a movie 5 seconds faster. Good for you.