Comments on: Will Apple Ship Wireless Network Storage?

By: Joe Santa

Joe Santa — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:03:24 +0000

“Apple’s strategy is definitely not for AppleTV to “mount volumes” - boring! It connects to iTunes libraries. Keep those where you want.”

NEV, you’re missing the point here… many of us want don’t want to have our computers on at all (some of us pay for electricity). I, for one, would like Apple TV to see a folder on my AirDrive that contains 1TB of movies. Or I would like to connect the 1TB drive directly to the Apple TV, and a new menu called ‘Joe’s 1TB Drive’ shows up. I don’t think it’s boring - it’s innovative… the strategy, right now, is to connect *only* thru iTunes so that we can buy iTunes content. I don’t want to do that (at least not all the time). Mostly, I just want to play my own content without having to turn on my computer all the time.

By: Gordon Cooper

Gordon Cooper — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:42:52 +0000

I wonder if the wireless net support potential in Apple tv is the opening act for introducing ZFS support in Leopard? If I understand it correctly, in ZFS hard memory is treated as a storage “pool”rather than discrete external drives.

By: frogbat

frogbat — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:53:02 +0000

pity the new western digital network drives don’t have mac support (for setup at least) - the price is excellent.

i wouldn’t mind seeing apple bring out their own nas enclosures - it might be a blah market but there’s good margins to be made. Though I’d rather have a mac mini disguised as an apple tv +.

take the mini, give it a 120gb hdd, add some hdmi connectivity, give it a blue ray drive, offer it with a bundle including a must have action game and a mac matchin joypad (maybe more wii like than ps3) throw in some dvr love too… price it at $999…

By: Will Apple Ship Wireless Network Storage? « Project HTPC

Will Apple Ship Wireless Network Storage? « Project HTPC — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:55:53 +0000

[...] Apple Ship Wireless Network Storage? 26Mar07 Will Apple Ship Wireless Network Storage? at The Apple Blog The Apple Blog is speculating at a Apple NAS (Network Attached Storage) device: This got me [...]

By: Neven Mrgan

Neven Mrgan — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:25:15 +0000

Hey now, Galley’s being reasonable. My Books are pretty nice and classy - that’s why they get a shelf at the Apple Store.

By: Julien

Julien — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:19:51 +0000

Lol Galley, are you a Western Digital Spam bot?

By: Galley

Galley — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:22:37 +0000

FWIW, the 500GB Western Digital My Book Pro has the same aluminum-like finish that the MacBook Pros do. Best of all, it supports USB 2.0, FW400 and FW800 and is less than $250. I’ve been itching to use mine on the Airport Extreme, but I’ve already got an 802.11n router.

By: Julien

Julien — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:02:25 +0000

Two links for more speculation, LaCie is on its way:
http://www.axentra.com/press_releases/2007_11.html
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/01/12/hipserv.supports.iphone/

By: Neven Mrgan

Neven Mrgan — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:24:31 +0000

“The Airport Extreme only lacks a media server function to provide the stored content to the AppleTV. Or : the AppleTV lacks the ability to mount net volumes as source for media.”

Do what I did - put your iTunes library on your Airport Extreme-attached drive. Voila.

Apple’s strategy is definitely not for AppleTV to “mount volumes” - boring! It connects to iTunes libraries. Keep those where you want.

By: Neven Mrgan

Neven Mrgan — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:21:37 +0000

Louis:

Hard drives are a very, very “blah” product category. Apple doesn’t make their own for the same reasons they don’t make their own digital cameras or camcorders, scanner, or printers. They are problems well solved by other companies and with little incentive for Apple.

A good way to think about it is, what would the ad look like? “AppleDrive - store 80gb worth of data”?

By: Der

Der — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:41:37 +0000

The Airport Extreme only lacks a media server function to provide the stored content to the AppleTV.
Or : the AppleTV lacks the ability to mount net volumes as source for media.
And: If there was just a way to remotely setup, manage and control these devices with the IPhone, the circle would be complete.

By: Louis Gray

Louis Gray — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:48:29 +0000

To #1, #3 and #4, it’s clear Apple can use a USB connection to Airport Extreme to give you AirDisk, but it does require 3rd party storage. Why not have an Apple branded device? I bet most people here would rather pay 20% more for an Apple device than a 3rd party device with the same capacity.

By: Neven Mrgan

Neven Mrgan — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:42:49 +0000

Seeing how the new Airport Extreme specifically advertises the option of wireless network storage via its USB port, and assuming that Apple doesn’t want to market their own external HDD (honestly, why?) I think we already have Apple’s wireless network storage solution right in front of us. I don’t think AppleTV will have anything to do with it; not more than any other device will, anyway.

What’s going to make Airport Extreme and its attached USB drives more popular is Time Machine and possibly other Leopard features. I don’t think there’s anything more to Apple’s storage plans than that.

By: Redlance305

Redlance305 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:39:29 +0000

Apple ALREADY has a network storage device (besides the Xserve/RAID), the New Airport does a fantastic job providing network storage for the whole family (AirDisk). We added a 300gig USB drive to the USB port on the AirPort, after playing with the settings, adding all the family members. Each user nows has a roaming home folder, a backup folder and a shared folder. The shared folder is where we put home movies and photos that we share. Works perfect for individual iPod/iTunes users… AppleTV does not see AirPort/AirDisk drive, it only sees iTunes Shares, so it does not allow the viewing of these movies. (AppleTV doesn’t do a very good job with photos except as SCREEN SAVER )…

But I totally agree, with upcoming Time Machine Apple needs a NAS device. And if you listen closely to the Apple ads, I feel Apple will be adding more NON-Computer devices to its line of products inclluding a NAS. Not everyone has a Xserve to serve out huge Music/Video/Photo libraries, but everyone is going to need one!! (hint, hint)…

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:28:37 +0000

I always thought with next generation HD should be Hybrid with high desnsity ( 300+ GB / Platter ) and very low RPM (hence lower power). Since transfer speed is a non issue with network drive. ( Most NAS dont even output more then 40MB per seconds and Wireless network cant even mantain this speed ) Apple has a great chance of introducing an Apple NAS that backs up and store all our music in one place.

By: PXLated

PXLated — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:00:43 +0000

What about the new Airport Extremes, they have a connection for a whopping big hard drive so Apple already has a network storage option.