Post-MacWorld Opinions: Time Capsule opportunities

When Steve Jobs announced Time Capsule last Tuesday, I thought it was a great product for computer “idiots” – something I would give to non-geeks for mindless backups. In fact, Time Machine already is considered to be the “idiots’ tool” for backing up. And this is not a bad thing – it’s very important to backup and Time Capsule will allow regular users who would otherwise not have backups to keep a copy of their data.On second thought, however, it’s a disguised competitor to Microsoft’s Windows Home Server (WHS), in a sleeker package. The purposes of both solutions is to perform routine and simple backups of networked computers. Microsoft has built in some added functionality into WHS like remote access to data and media streaming to media center PCs. With Time Capsule, I think I can encapsulate Apple’s future direction (pardon the pun). With a firmware update, Time Capsule can gain the “back to my Mac” feature of Apple’s .Mac service – only this time for Time Capsule. This would allow remote Macs to access back-up data created by Time Machine on Time Capsule, letting users “roll back” their data just as if they were at home on their Mac. Of course, this would make the most sense for notebook computers, as they “leave” the home network more frequently (I am not a rocket scientist and so I can make this statement without pointing out it’s blatantly obvious). And it would work the other way also – allowing users to make Time Machine backups to Time Capsule remotely. Of course, this can already be done with some smart configuration – after all, Time Capsule is just a router with a hard disk. However, it would still be difficult for the average Mac user to set up. With Apple putting their weight behind the remote backup initiative, this process would become just a few button clicks away.Some may say that Apple wouldn’t do this, since they already provide a back-up service with .Mac. .Mac, however, is expensive and has data storage limits and data transfer limits, limitations not crippling Time Capsule’s imaginary remote-backup service.But the fun doesn’t have to stop there! I think Apple is slowly building out a network of connected services and devices that, when used in conjunction with one another, provide the most benefit to the user. We have already seen Apple TV 2′s renting capabilities without a computer and its ability to transfer purchased or rented content back to the computer and then on to iPod and iPhone. However, there are still a few scenarios that Apple hasn’t yet addressed. Let’s focus on one here: purchased content and portable computers. Let’s say Nick purchased a season of Lost from the iTunes store. He has it on his brand new MacBook Air. Nick and his wife Jenny begin to watch the episodes on their big screen TV using Apple TV, streaming the content. In a few days, Nick leaves for a business trip to Italy and takes his MacBook with him, and along with it – all the Lost episodes. Jenny is now at home and would like to watch some Lost content, but she realizes that the content is not on the Apple TV but on Nick’s MacBook in Italy. How would she access the episodes now? (For this imaginary story’s sake, let’s say Nick is coming back in a week). Does this mean that poor Jenny is to be left in the suspense of Lost episode 4 for an entire week? Well, she can always repurchase the episodes or season from iTunes. But that isn’t really an “elegant” solution. So here’s what I propose: since Nick is a smart man who values his time, he has purchased Apple’s Time Capsule and performed automated backups of his MacBook to the capsule. Before he left, his MacBook connected with it and backed everything up on his machine. (Here’s where Apple comes in with a software update to Apple TV or Time Capsule or both and enables Apple TV to read Time Capsule iTunes backups). So now, Jenny can simply navigate on the Apple TV to Time Capsule volume on her network and select Nick’s back-up as a source. From there, Apple TV will just allow her to access iTunes content from Nick’s Time Machine back-up to Time Capsule that his MacBook automatically performed before he left (that’s a mouthful). Result? Jenny is a happy Apple customer and can watch the Lost episodes she purchased.Although this is a very nifty solution, the problem could have been avoided in two ways. 1) Nick could have transferred the purchased Lost episodes from his MacBook to Apple TV before he left, or 2) Apple could allow re-downloads of purchased content from the iTunes store. With the ladder, of course, the studios and record labels would have to be on board, and we all know how difficult they can be.So here’s just a glimpse of where I think Apple will take Time Capsule in the future, and they can do it with a simple software update.Let me know what you think,Alex