Hoping for an Apple Media Server

There’s one thing I’m not seeing amidst all the speculation surrounding Apple’s (AAPL) announcements at WWDC the week after next, and that’s a simple media server.

Apple’s computers and apps are great if you store all your media (music, photos, video) on the same startup disk where you house your operating system and your applications. But that’s never a particularly sensible way of organizing things. Yet the minute you start moving your media onto an external hard drive or — worse — a network drive, things start getting glitchy.

And heaven forfend you should want to share a music or photo library between different users on different computers on the same network. iTunes doesn’t like that — if one person adds songs to the library, the other computers on the network can go indefinitely without noticing — and iPhoto pretty much bars it entirely: if one person is using a certain library, no one else is allowed access to it. And what happens when your library outgrows one hard drive and you want to extend it onto another? Again, Apple’s apps don’t generally like that one bit.

HP has a media server which claims to be Mac-friendly, but you need a PC to set it up, and of course it can’t solve the software problems endemic to iPhoto and iTunes. The Apple TV is halfway there, but it’s built for video rather than music and photos, and is designed to be used in conjunction with a screen; what’s more, its hard drive is quite small, and it’s not expandable.

So while I fully expect Snow Leopard to include much easier ways to merge media libraries than exist right now, I’d really love a bit of dedicated hardware for such things as well.

Comments

[lightningrob:]

The AppleTV is not built for music??? That's news to me. I use mine almost exclusively for listening to my iTunes music, and it does that flawlessly. Don't know what you're talking about.

May 26 02:10 PM

[Murphy Mac:]

My Apple TV displays my Flickr photos in a hypnotic screensaver. From what I've seen people love looking at photos that way. It's nicer than saying, "Sit down, I want to show you my photos," and clicking through them.

I used the Apple TV for podcasts, music, and video. With Airfoil I can use the Apple TV to listen to Pandora or other music streaming sites. The iPhone is a great Apple TV remote.

Mentioning the Apple TV as an after-thought in a story about Apple Media Servers? Hmmm.....

May 26 02:18 PM

[voice-of-re...:]

Interesting post. Recently, I've made similar suggestions on the Apple.com website to the product personnel managing Apple TV which I own as well.

My thought is that if you merge the capabilities of a Mac Mini with an Apple TV & Blue Ray R/W, plus component connections for surround sound speakers and typical stereo gear, DVR functionality, unrestricted streaming audio and video to include non-Apple sites such as Pandora and NetFlix, Apple would add the 4 leg to their existing 3 legged product strategy (iPod, Mac, iPhone).

Now include access to gaming and other apps from the iTunes store and you create an unrivaled product to eliminate Stereo Receivers, DVD/CD players, DVR's along with a Gaming System.... this thinking has got to be in Cupertino's marketing minds and can't be too far away.

May 26 02:33 PM

[thompr:]

You wrote:

"and iPhoto pretty much bars it entirely: if one person is using a certain library, no one else is allowed access to it. "

This is not the case. All of my user accounts on all of my machines at my house share the same iPhoto library. They can view/modify to their hearts' content, and all others will pick up on the changes.

The only restriction is against simultaneous access... which makes sense from a data integrity perspective.

Randy Thompson

May 26 03:00 PM

[jmmx:]

I agree with the general point of this article, even if a few details may not be correct.

I have always gotten around iTunes music access by multiple users by DE-selecting the preference "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding" The we each have our own libraries but with the same content.

But the article is correct. We really do need some kind of central server for the home environment.

I think that Apple should include in all OS releases, a Y-Server - X-Serve light, or Home-Server application that would allow people with home networks to do basic file and application serving with unified login, and a central home directory. You could leave out all the power stuff a a full X-Serve, just the very basic networking. I know that a lot can be done as is, but they should realize that we have now moved into a new era where many homes have multiple computers.

May 26 03:45 PM

[RickUrtel:]

And some new Mac's that are not iMacs or MacPros.
With a black option and glowing apples on each side!

May 27 08:52 AM

[JamesApple:]

Blame all these problems on the lagging use of BlueTooth which already exist on the iEmpire offerings. Windows and Rim offerings have such an intrinsic distrust builtin that makes all their products fortresses needing mediators like home servers.

What are you gonna do when you go to your neighbour's house? Bring your home server with you?

The answer is BlueTooth.

iPhone is the USS Enterprise to deliver you where no person has ever gone before, not a slave to any home server with wires.....that would be like the Bog.

May 27 12:24 PM