Panther Feature? 'Home on iPod'

[the future]

Maybe I'm missing something here, and in this case someone please correct me, but can't you do something like this already with Carbon Copy Cloner? Clone your HD to an external Firewire drive, take it with you, connect it to another Mac and boot from the Firewire HD... right?

 

[cheesy]

Thats the entire hard drive, not just your home folder, MUCH larger size

 

[the future]

Originally posted by cheesy
Thats the entire hard drive, not just your home folder, MUCH larger size

That's true, of course, but I think this is the only way to be really able to work with your stuff. If you have just your home folder and log on to a different Mac and for example want to open a Photoshop file and the other Mac hasn't Photoshop installed, you're screwed, right?

 

[lok]

Home on iPod is still there (I think)

Check this page out.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/systempreferences/

Scroll to the bottom.
There is an option for you to choose where to store your home folder.

This might be the Home on iPod thing...

 

[MobileAccount]

Re: Home on iPod is still there (I think)

Look at the server version:

 

[MobileAccount]

Re: Re: Home on iPod is still there (I think)

Found here, and zoom in on downloaded on site .pdf file

 

[MobileAccount]

Mobile account

Nice for students i think!

Also PAL is nice, software for non 10.3 mac's?

Linked together with .Mac and here we go another level deeper!

 

[recneps]

old rumor: iPod/BT mouse/all-in-one

So, there was this rumor a while ago (before they updated the iPods to the "dock connector" version), and though far out, still pretty cool:

An iPod and bluetooth mouse all in one... The idea being that whenever you found yourself in front of a Mac OS X enabled computer, your iPod could also be used as your mouse, and when you "linked up" it would also be your Home director/files.

I believe the rumor stated that it would also be a cell phone, have a color screen, and probably write a senior thesis for you (no research required).

Nonetheless, it is a rather nifty idea to sync an iPod up with whatever computer you're using... Or perhaps get to a point where similar to systems that "netBoot"--you boot the computer with "you."

 

[scottwat]

Log in?

From the sounds and personal hopes could this possibly give you roaming user account on your iPod and any Mac with something set perhaps directory access the same way you enable netinfo from a server would allow you to log on as you. and have your home on the iPod. So I could connect to a lab computer and be me without setting a user on the computer, obviously a security risk but surely could be disabled with something like directory access. But in any computer situation unless you use openfirmware or bios password on a pc, you could boot from startup disk and access anything not encrypted. So this would be very welcomed for: Schools, universities, very cool companies that don't worry so much about direct access to the computer. The problem I see is that the ipod software unless already updated would need to accomodate the music folder somehow. Personally I would like to have a user scheme on the ipod and have the music accessed from the user home folder on the ipod. Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to implement. Of course you would have to have a streamlined way to eliminate some of the junk in most users music folders, or any folder for that matter. Or Just say if you want to use this feature your home dir can't be bigger than your ipod.

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by applekid
I've always wanted this kind of feature. It would definitely beat doing manual drag-n-drop backups that I perform to my iPod. And whenever I plan on buying a laptop, I can easily go mobile with my iPod! Hopefully this will stay in Panther!

Wasn't there a way to do this with AppleScript back in the Classic MacOS? I sem to remember folder syncronization in there somewhere.

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by LimeLite
Not quite. This would store your whole Home directory, the offline iDisk feature only syncs specific files. Remember, the iDisk is still only 100MB large.

You can buy more space.

 

[cheesy]

Re: old rumor: iPod/BT mouse/all-in-one

Originally posted by recneps
So, there was this rumor a while ago (before they updated the iPods to the "dock connector" version), and though far out, still pretty cool:

An iPod and bluetooth mouse all in one... The idea being that whenever you found yourself in front of a Mac OS X enabled computer, your iPod could also be used as your mouse, and when you "linked up" it would also be your Home director/files.

I believe the rumor stated that it would also be a cell phone, have a color screen, and probably write a senior thesis for you (no research required).

Nonetheless, it is a rather nifty idea to sync an iPod up with whatever computer you're using... Or perhaps get to a point where similar to systems that "netBoot"--you boot the computer with "you."

Thats probably THE dumbest rumor I've heard...

 

[SeaFox]

It's a nice feature, but...

While this feature sounds neat I have to ask...

What about applications? The stolen documents when I lose my iPod is bad enough. But what about the security risk of having a user run whatever applications are inside his home directory?

It would allow a university student to run an app he has but the school doesn't on their computers. Oh, look. the new wave in money saving for schools: students must provide their own copy of Word to write term papers with.

But the student could also run Return to Castle Wolfenstein on the lab machines too.

An employee could run a program that causes network stability problems or hack company security.

Also, concerning the music library thing: There could be an iPod firmware release allowing the music player to access the music library from the home directory instead of its own area. But the FileVault encription could get in the way, unless we have the iPod decrypting it, too. But then the password would have to be on the iPod somewhere unless you wanted to enter it whenever you turned your iPod on (what a hassle). Also, this would make it real easy to pirate music between Macs, no?

 

[scottwat]

Piracy is already super easy from anything, where there is a will there is always going to be a way. As for apps, anyone that has a cd or a zip(gasp do they still make those) disk, or even yes a floppy disk could run apps. Or even over a web connection or download them from ftp, www, etc. There is no stopping someone that doesn't want to be stopped, so why not make the functionality and allow the admin to restrict it as they see fit. Mac's have always been by default an open book and easy to access. {The perfect home computer} Now ontop of that we have a great set of security protocols and programs we can use as we need them.

 

[Phil Of Mac]

Re: Re: old rumor: iPod/BT mouse/all-in-one

Originally posted by cheesy
Thats probably THE dumbest rumor I've heard...

I think it was a parody, comrade!

 

[cheesy]

Re: Re: Re: old rumor: iPod/BT mouse/all-in-one

Originally posted by Phil Of Mac
I think it was a parody, comrade!

its still dumb

 

[oldwatery]

I really hope that they reinstate this feature. Forget the security and piracy issues....these can all be dealt with. The function will enhance the usability of the iPod to a huge degree. And does it ever need that. My Gen 3 pod is not the item I had hoped for especially with it's lousy battery life and poor implementation of iTunes (no cross fades, gaps between tracks etc). Not to mention that almost 6 months after its debut there are still virtually no usefull accessories or peripherals available for it. Come on Apple finish what you started and give your customers a complete solution not another incomplete dream!

 

[LimeLite]

Originally posted by SeaFox
You can buy more space.

That still doesn't make it practical at all. With all of my music and stuff, my home directory is often larger than 10GB, even if you could buy that much in a .Mac account, it would be really expensive.

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by LimeLite
That still doesn't make it practical at all. With all of my music and stuff, my home directory is often larger than 10GB, even if you could buy that much in a .Mac account, it would be really expensive.

Plus, apps probably wouldn't run over an internet connection like that. But it would work okay for documents for the most part. Although some apps have probelms with iDisk. If I'm working in Word and try to save a new documant directly to my iDisk it wont work if I don't have my u/p entered in the Mac's preferences. Even though I mounted the iDisk from the Finder before trying the save. So when I'm at a lab at school I have to save the document to the desktop and then manually copy it to the iDisk. But I can open existing documents fine.

Makes me wonder if Word would work with a mounted, iPod-based home directory.

 

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by SeaFox
Plus, apps probably wouldn't run over an internet connection like that. But it would work okay for documents for the most part. Although some apps have probelms with iDisk. If I'm working in Word and try to save a new documant directly to my iDisk it wont work if I don't have my u/p entered in the Mac's preferences. Even though I mounted the iDisk from the Finder before trying the save. So when I'm at a lab at school I have to save the document to the desktop and then manually copy it to the iDisk. But I can open existing documents fine.

Makes me wonder if Word would work with a mounted, iPod-based home directory.

why? an iDisk is not a device per se. in windows, you can't download a file directly from the internet to a removable drive (like a floppy disk). it seems like the same sort of thing that they wouldn't allow you to save straight to an iDisk rather than copy to it or something. but a Firewire drive functions exactly the same as the hard drive. it is a hard drive. you should be able to save to it just like a second hard drive on your computer.

 

[demagalhaes]

they are saving it!!!!! can t you see!!!!????

i bet that feature is going to be a part of the 16th event!!!! sure why drop it, and is a thing that mac user can do with their ipods and win users don t... or you think that win users will have the same connectivity with their pods and pcss..... i don t!

 

[visor]

Good feature, but the iPod isn't up to it

I've been heating my living room with the iPod whle acually trying to use it as a firewire HD.
It's way to slow, and I think it will evantually break while on full time use because the HD isn't meant to be running all of the time, completely differnet design.

It would be great though to have it on normal FW HD's.

 

[hayesk]

Re: It's a nice feature, but...

Originally posted by SeaFox
While this feature sounds neat I have to ask...

What about applications? The stolen documents when I lose my iPod is bad enough. But what about the security risk of having a user run whatever applications are inside his home directory?

Even if you didn't have remote home dirs, any student could download an app from an FTP server or web site and run it.

However, it could all be prevented if you can set a permission to only allow apps to be run from the Applications directory.

 

[arn]

Someone just let me know:

The text is still on Apple Australia's site:

http://www.apple.com.au/macosx/features/mobility/

Google cache (in case the previous link gets pulled):

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cach...tures/mobility/+"home+on+ipod"&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

 

[sumsugar]

This feature caught my eye and all of a sudden it hit me. This feature would be the ultimate answer for file backup and synchronization. I always sync my iBook with my desktop since I work on the road from time to time. I also always make sure I have a backup of all files on a remote disk or firewire hard drive. This could answer all those issues and make it as simple as it is when I now sync my palm, i.e. get back in the office, slip the iPod in the dock and it syncs a mobile "home folder" of which gets synchronized with the iBook and the G4 and back and forth and round and round we go.
This would be fantastic.