I was listening to a recent netcast, probably MacBreak Weekly #214 or Windows Weekly #176, and they were discussing the USB port on the back of the Apple TV.  I really started to think about that port and and the iTunes software.  I also felt that my iTunes Server could be met with Apple activating that port for external hard drives.  This could make the Apple TV an iTunes Server IF they add the ability to manage Accounts, Purchase Content, and allow iTunes to act as the intermediary.  Personal Profiles would allow one iTunes Account to manage multiple users (or device profiles) with Bonjour running Apple could enable Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Syncing.  This would solve the iTunes Server issue mentioned below.

I have noticed that a few videos and articles have surfaced over the last [thinking] 3 years and they are all pointing to the future of where Apple said it was going in the 80′s.  The Newton was their first attempt at a mobile product that would fill the space of the ‘hand-held communicator’ or Dynabook that was talked about by Alan Kay.  In my recent post, the video shared by TUAW, talks about being able to stream media on the fly.  To have total access to your books, music, movies, and documents no matter where an individual is located … they only need access to the internet.

Today we have 2 ubiquitous internet devices from Apple, the iPad and iPhone.  These two devices deliver the majority of the internet to you on the go.  We know that we can buy, rent, listen, and watch content as long as we are connected to the internet.  Yeah for 3G and GSM!!!  We now know that Apple is working on “The Orchard” a large data center in North Carolina.  Apple has now released the updated Apple TV that delivers all of your iTunes content to your TV plus NetFlix and hopefully much more as they continue to work on this platform.  I have heard some discussion for the Apple TV where we can push Hulu, MLB, or even games to our living room or bedroom TVs via AirPlay (or Apps).

With Apple rolling Apple TV and AirPlay out to their 160 million registered iTunes customers they have an instant [upon purchase] test bed.  To play with and work through all the bugs and legal issues.  They have a willing audience of “Fan Boys” that have already ordered their new Apple TV‘s.  They have users like me that will be purchasing one after they start shipping.

Now, what is missing?  One huge thing I think is missing is an iTunes server.  Yeah, I know that HP’s MediaSmart running Windows Home Server with the plug-in will act in this fashion.  What I am looking for is … think a Mac Mini Server form factor that we can add external hard drives to for increased capacity!  [The one extra cool feature would be that we could add more iTunes Servers and they would span the network.  I am thinking of a Drobo + AirPort Wireless Network Extender + SAN.]  We could stream right from that instead of from the family iMac.  It would function as the iTunes back-up for the whole family, accounts for each user.  This would then be coupled with “The Orchard” so that we have 3 copies of our media and we can then stream anything we own to anywhere! Now hold on and don’t forget that Apple purchased Lala.com and they had a really good balance of being able to push music that you already own for 10¢ each track and the ability to buy new music.

So,  if I have a DVD or digital copy of a movie, then I have to pay the 30¢ licensing fee and Apple drops a copy in my Orchard account.  Then if something happens to our Mac we have a copy of everything in the “Cloud”.  The way I see this service really being delivered is via MobileMe.  I am not sure if it would be 99$ still or if it would be free.  I think that free would ‘force’ people to move their content there because there is no barrier to entry.  I know that I would start right away.  I know that it would cost me; but if I could have the guarantee … I would be compelled to do it right away.  We have 2 Macs and 2 iPhones and it would be a no brainer for my wife and I to jump on that right away.

It is very clear to my mind what this will look like and how it will work.  Unfortunately, I don’t actually know and if I did, I wouldn’t be able to write this.

iron wil

But so far, failure.

I have used both of these Apps on my iPhone and they are nice on the couch and I will probably set them up with the iMac and use that when we are watching TV shows or movies from the couch.  It is not a great tool for sitting and working with my MacBook like I would a mouse.

I have to say that for a standard mouse replacement this blows … big time!!!

I think that it will only fit that remote use like the Mac Mini I keep thinking about for my media center.

iron wil

I can see replacing my 13″ MacBook with the iPad and using my iMac to do the heavy lifting.  I can see using Dropbox and Evernote even more.  I can see converting all my current OOo [OpenOffice] documents to iWork which means that it easily justifies the expense [not that I consider iWork expensive].  In fact, I think that I could buy 1 iPad for each of my family members and then set up accounts on our iMac as the kids get older.  This would allow my boys to each have one for online games and Apps and their own music selections.

While my personal transition to eBooks has been slow, this may entice me to make that move.  I am using Stanza on my iPhone & it isn’t really a compelling experience.  I also don’t have a lot of reading time and find that Audible is a better resource for me right now.  I hope that this iBook software allows for marking and notes because that would be a big failure right out of the gate if it wasn’t included.  I hope that Amazon gets on board like Audible has with Audiobooks available via iTunes; especially if they can keep the books at the low cost they already are for Kindle owners.

I think this beats the NetBook model hands down even if it isn’t quite what I thought it would end up being. Now, a few weeks ago I published my own predictions for the iPad.

I predicted that Apple would release a multi-touch device similar to the JooJoo [aka CrunchPad] that ran Apps, eBooks, with WiFi/3G, iTunes, a built in battery, Lala, and the content aspects of the Sports Illustrated Tablet demo.  I was right on some items and we could still see Lala become part of the service package MobileMe [I was not the first to suggest this].  I will admit that I am still blown away.  I love the device and look forward to heading into town in 60 Days and testing one out.  I think I will have to get a sitter & take the wife to a movie to justify the whole thing.

I know that many people will not get it until they see others using it and that I can understand.  It was the same way with the Kindle and other devices.  I didn’t get the iPod until I owned one.  Yeah, until I owned one and then I felt dumb because I had not invested in it before then.  It was a mind blowing music experience and since then, I have bought a couple dozen albums.

New Prediction, iSlate with Inkwell for writing with a finger or 3rd party stylus.  This will be more like the Axiotron ModBook.  It will be slide between the iPad and MacBook.

iron wil

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, Baratunde Thurston, and John C. Dvorak

Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest media launch of all time but PC gamers are hopping mad, how come usability expert Jakob Nielsen’s site looks so bad, and so long Geocities…

Show Notes

MacBreak Weekly 167: Skittles And Beer

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Don McAllister, Paul Kent, and Andy Ihnatko

This week on Macbreak Weekly: Dancing Microsoft store, a look at the new 27″ iMac, Black Friday rumors, and more.

Show Notes

Security Now 223: The Trouble With SSL

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

Steve explains how a serious exploit in SSL works.

Show Notes

Windows Weekly 131: PDC 2009

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Paul is live from PDC 2009 with news on Windows 7 OEM, Silverlight 4, IE 9, the Office 2010 Public Beta, and more.

Show Notes

This Week In Google 17: Chrome OS

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis and Matt Cutts

Chrome OS announced, less-than-free, Droid autofocus bug, gPhone, and more.

Show Notes

iron wil

Yes, that is right.

She has been using it for the last several months.  She works part-time for a Hospice organization and is able to telecommute.  She is RDP-ing into a server and using that servers resources.  It makes great sense for her, except for the screen size; which is of course is to small for some of her work.  She has become quite comfortable with it for the purpose of work and using it on a daily basis for eMail and other work.

On the other hand, my 3 yr old  has let us know that it is to slow for online flash games and video.  Which is quite hilarious because he isn’t on our iMac that often or for that long.  He has however, formed an opinion and doesn’t like to use the HP Mimi 10.

I have to admit that I like the small form factor for the most part.  I don’t like the touch pad because it is to small and awkward.  An Apple touch pad would be much more functional and probably more useful because of it’s functionality.  One of my favorite features is the SD Card slot which seats the card firmly into the case and easy to eject when necessary.  My second favorite feature is the use of design and a Transcend JetFlash T3 drive that hides in the side of the computer totally flush with the body of the Netbook.  The only indicator is the USB Symbol and the notch to extract the drive.

I just wonder when I will get to use it so that I can actually write a review for it.

iron wil

Hosts: Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Jim Louderback, David Spark, and Baratunde Thurston

Twitter lists, Google ramps up, tech journalism ethics, Windows 7, TSA vs. mommy blogger, and more.

Show Notes

MacBreak Weekly 163: Stroke The Mouse

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, and Andy Ihnatko

The team covers Apple’s release of new iMacs, Mac Minis, a new mouse, and more.

Show Notes

Security Now 219: Browser Scripting

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

Why patches are impossible, the Total (In)security virus, and why writing software shouldn’t be too easy.

Show Notes

Windows Weekly 127: Hasta La Vista Baby

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo LaporteWindows 7 is here and its party time at the TWiT cottage.

Windows 7 is here and its party time at the TWiT cottage.

Show Notes

This Week In Google 13: This Is The Droid You’re Looking For

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani, Jeff Jarvis, and Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land joins us to talk about Google’s social search, Jeff Jarvis invents Howard Stern 3.0, and Gina Trapani sorts by magic.

Show Notes

iron wil

I have SuperDuper! up and running again and I have most of my site and everything else setup.  All in all for a disaster, it wasn’t as bad as my first hard drive crash back in 2001.  Of course, I only had my computer a month and Western Digital replaced it right away.  It didn’t take long to rebuild and acquire an operating system that was much more robust than Windows ME.

Snow Leopard is very nice, the load times on reboot or cold start.  The screen switching for Spaces is lightning fast and I have to admit that I am looking forward to running the install for my wife on the iMac.  I will make sure that I have 2 back-ups before I start that install.

iron wil

I would also expect if the iPhone ‘Lite’ or iPhone Nano for 99$ would be an 8gb device with the exact same hardware as the standard model.  We will find out in a few weeks but no later than 2 months.  I also expect that we will see something like a MacBook Touch or something in the 10′ to 10.4′ screen size.  It only makes good sense to release a killer device that fills this space.  No, not a phone, but maybe a tablet running OS X: iPhone or something that runs that on the cover and then drop into full Leopard.  There is also a rumor that it will be on the 700mhz band that AT&T and Verizon will be opening up in 2010 for all hardware and devices.  I think that they will release the device for Verizon only and then after a year or even right away, it will be available on AT&T.

I am excited to see what happens.  This Fall, after my wife’s contract expires, should be our iPhone & service change.  I am not excited about having AT&T, my favorite carrier comes in a different color; however, I know my hardware needs & can see the solution in the iPhone.

iron wil

Hosts: Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Wil Harris, and Neha Tiwari

Skype buyback, San Jose fiber cut, Twitter hacked, Steve Jobs, Yahoo/Microsoft, IBM/Sun, and more.

Show Notes

MacBreak Weekly 136: EULA Schmeula

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Scott Bourne, and Andy Ihnatko

New iMacs, monitors, upgrading schemes, Palm Pre, iPhone 3, Android, and more.

Show Notes

Security Now 192: Listener Feedback 64

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

This mailbag episode discusses new Firefox plugins, Conficker, buffer overflow, and more.

Show Notes

Windows Weekly 103: A New Kind of Death

Hosts: Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte

Office 2010, Windows 7 Build 7106, PC Marketshare, Internet Explorer 8, and the Xbox 360 E-74 errors.

Show Notes

iron wil

This week my iPod started acting up and it wouldn’t sync with our iMac no matter what I did. I even booted my MacBook up on the XP partition and converted it to a Windows based iPod [file format]. I double checked the firmware, and even restored it [5 times].  Nothing worked.

So, Thursday was a horrible, long day without music or netcasts or audiobooks. Thursday night I got it to load netcasts & audiobooks, which made Friday a much better day. Today, Lauren took my iPod to the nearest Apple Store and they looked at the screenshots I took and listened to the story. The Genius put my iPod to his ear, heard the HD grinding and said, well, let me get you a replacement. Needless to say, the 60$ in Apple Care [which ends on the 25th of November]- worth it!!!

I recommend that people pay for the Apple Care when they buy the products because the service and value is HUGE.  I know it sounds crazy to somel however, I have found it to be very worth the extra cost. It is also much cheaper than what you can get through PC manufacturers for the same kind of service and ease of replacement.

I know of others that have needed to make a statement to get problems resolved (i.e., Michael). However, these cases are the exception to the rule; and in Michael’s case the rumor mill said they replaced his MacBook after he posted the video.

Personally, once you go Mac, you don’t go back.

iron wil