What about the Apple TV and 1080p?

So the iPhone 4S is out on Friday and it supports some significant improvements in the camera.

8 Megapixel stills and 1080p HD video, all with improved optics.

Sweet!

I did managed to snag one of the 1,000,000 iPhones pre-ordered on launch day, and it should be arriving on Friday. I was considering the 32GB Black version, but when push came to shove, I opted for the 64GB Black model.

My logic was that despite having iCloud to push all this data in the cloud, the time when I'll be shooting most video is when I'm travelling, and I never have enough spare bandwidth or sometimes any bandwidth whatsoever. So I figured 32GB for my local iTunes library, a couple of GB for my apps and data, and the rest spare capacity for images and video.

The inclusion of the 1080p video is interesting.

How will this work with the Apple TV when the latest version of the Apple TV only supports 720p?

So how do we use AirPlay from the iPhone 4S to the Apple TV?

So is a new Apple TV in the wings, a new Apple TV with a dual core A5 chip ready to play 1080p content?

I think it can go one of two ways:

• If Apple still haven't got their ducks in a row with the content providers and haven't yet elevated the Apple TV from it's hobby status, we'll probably see a new Apple TV very shortly with the new chip, and the 1080p support, without any fanfare. Just a press release or a stealth release into the Apple online store. Could even happen this Friday.

• If Apple are close to finalising their next gen Apple TV strategy, and want to make a strong statement about the future direction of the Apple TV, I doubt we'll see a new Apple TV this side of Christmas. Any major changes to the Apple TV and Apple taking it seriously will have to be part of a full media event. And the fact the iPhone 4S won't work with the Apple TV? Apple won't lose any sleep over it, and will upgrade the Apple TV in line with their future strategy, not as a reaction to a short term need.

My gut feeling is we'll see an updated Apple TV pretty soon.

Would you be my "Friend"?

I have a problem.

I need to sort out my offline backups.

After trying Crashplan, I've cancelled my online account as the upload speeds just weren't cutting it. I have a 100MB down, 10MB up connection with Virgin Media and despite an initial high speed upload, the speed has fallen up dramatically. Yes, it's a brilliantly cheap deal, but I really want a fast upload.

After some research on the CrashPlan forums, it seems I'm afflicted by a routing issue out of their control with some carriers throttling traffic to CrashPlan (not VirginMedia BTW)

So I tried BackBlaze, another online service, but their upload speed isn't too hot either.

So I tried Arq.

Brilliant! Getting 1.2MB upload speeds, right into Amazon's S3 service.

The problem is though, it's going to be expensive. Not so much Arq, but S3 itself. To store 500GB on S3 will cost $70 per month (ish!). I've got a fair amount of data I'd like to store. Several terabytes in fact!

So how about this for a solution.

Find a "Friend" living within a hours drive of Liverpool, who is also on a Virgin Media 100MB connection and who is prepared to enter into a "symbiotic" relationship i.e. they would host my online backup and I will host theirs.

It would go something like this:

• I would configure a Mac mini and a 4 bay Drobo and do a local backup of all my stuff.
• I would transport the Mac mini and Drobo to the "Friends" location.
• They would power it up and connect it to their local LAN and be OK with leaving it on 24x7
• I would be able to backup incrementally to the remote Drobo and do the same for them (if required)

The Mac mini could be left to run without a monitor and I could arrange for Remote Access (if required).

So once in place, how would this work?

CrashPlan has a facility to allow you to setup a remote backup location with a "Friend" for free. Once configured, CrashPlan would start incremental backups automatically from my local data to the remote location. Because I would have already made a full backup locally before before transporting it, there would be no requirement to backup Gigabytes over data over the internet.

Other than the initial hardware costs, the running costs would be nil (except for power)

Physical security is another matter, but again, by setting up a CrashPlan "Friend" system, access to the data on the remote system is protected.

To prevent negatively impacting the bandwidth in the remote location, you can configure the inbound connections to only work overnight, but as they would only be incremental backups, this would probably not be an issue.

As I'd only really need to access the backups in the event of a catastrophe, there would be no real need to download stuff (other to validate the backups are working), and in the event, I could always just drive over and pickup the Drobo to connect to my local system.

Actually, I wonder if there is something already built into the Drobo to do Drobo to Drobo backups remotely. I'll need to do some research.

So what do you think?

Pitfalls?

Have you ever set up a similar system with CrashPlan and how has it worked out?

Are you within an hour of Liverpool, have a Virgin Media 100MB connection, be happy to have a Mac mini and a Drobo powered 24x7 and willing to be my "Friend"?

Let me know!

The inevitable...

The Internet is awash with many, many tributes, following on from the passing of Steve Jobs, so I'll keep this short.

His obviously deteriorating condition at WWDC and his recent resignation as CEO could only mean one thing, it was just a matter of time.

The outpouring of emotion following his departure as CEO felt misplaced and awkward.

The outpouring of emotion following his departure from this life feels compassionate, heartfelt and human.

I never met Steve face to face, although I have been privileged to be in the same room with him on a couple of occasions, albeit from a distance.

But he was the single biggest influence on my working life in the past six years.

Without Steve Jobs and Apple, I'd still be locked into my corporate job, despising every second, driving myself deeper and deeper into a dark place.

That all changed when I discovered Apple and found I had a talent for sharing and teaching people about the Mac through my ScreenCasts.

I made the jump from my corporate existence, by finding a niche and working hard to produce quality content and build a company. But it's more than that. I discovered a job I'm passionate about and can't wait to start each day, made many true friends and travel the world.

Each day is a blessing.

Without Apple, this would never have happened.

Everything I have today resulted from stumbling across a video of the keynote presentation from Macworld in 2005, and watching Steve introduce the Mac mini.

That was the catalyst.

So yes, thanks for all the tech Steve, but thanks for enabling me to turn my life around.

You will truly be missed.

The Aftermath...

So, that was a strange one.

I have to confess I didn't see the full keynote until this morning, but I sat in a room with 70 other mac geeks last night and watched the "Let's talk iPhone" event by proxy.

On a side note, apologies if you tuned into MacBreak Weekly to see what was happening in the LMUG pub. We managed to make a fleeting appearance on the show, but the network connectivity in the pub just wasn't up to it, so we had to abandon the live feed from London to Petaluma.

Apologies!

So some random thoughts about the event and the announcements...

I was impressed with Tim Cook's composure and delivery during the introduction. Imagine the kind of pressure the guy was under, with it being his first product launch, the eyes of the World's press bearing down plus the not insignificant pressure of following in Steve Jobs footsteps. I think he did a great job. A little bit slow in places, but a great first official appearance as CEO.

However, I do feel that Apple really need to keep the introductions under control, as they are starting to become a little bit tiresome. Good numbers are always good to hear and I appreciate they need to relay them for press coverage but still!

I'm not sure the videos of store openings are doing them any favours either. Yes, it's a fun time and excitement is high, but if I'm starting to feel they are a bit jarring, imagine how non-Apple fans and Apple haters are feeling. The over zealous, and slightly disturbing imagery, only panders to the irritating accusations of the Cult of Apple.

Tim did report some pretty spectacular numbers, as well as an impressive number of Keynote slides showing #1 slamming into the ground. Message received and understood.

As expected, iPods took a bit of a back seat, but Apple are still quite insistent that they are an important part of the business, especially in attracting new people to Apple products. The updated Nano looks quite neat and I would expect to see a metric ton more watch straps on the market soon!

Cards? Cards? Let's pass on that one. Again, yes, I know the keynote is aimed at consumers but really?

No surprises with iOS5, but we knew that anyway - a great update with lots of new functionality.

iCloud also pretty much covered the same ground as in WWDC, but did I notice a slight change in the functionality of iTunes in the Cloud to now stream music to iOS devices?

But the main event was the announcement of the iPhone 4S.

Yep, the iPhone 4S

No, messing about, no lengthy lead in, just straight out with the new name.

What a shocker!

And then the realisation that it was the same form factor as the iPhone 4.

Immediately, I thought that iPhone 5 could possibly be the one more thing, but as the updated feature set emerged, it became obvious that this was it. Just one new iPhone and that was the iPhone 4S

There was no new form factor to be announced. The best Phone currently available, upgraded in virtually every aspect plus some new spectacular features, but no new form factor.

Shocker!

I won't regurgitate the features as you're probably well aware of them, but basically, pretty much everything we wanted or expected (with the exception of NFC and a bigger screen) all wrapped up in the same form factor as the iPhone 4.

Once all the information was available and I'd had time to process it, I felt that Apple had delivered the iPhone 5, they just didn't go to the trouble and expense of repackaging the device in a new and shiny enclosure, or calling it the iPhone 5. And this is what seems to have upset most people.

The huge technical improvement in every area of the iPhone, in addition to the groundbreaking technology in Siri should have impressed, instead, much wailing and moaning ensued, with some pundits even labelling the event an Apple FAIL! Streuth.

Even so, I have to own up to saying that my initial reaction on the night was one of slight disappointment.

I put this down to one main reason. I wasn't able to see the announcement in the form it was intended. Being drip fed information by live blogging just didn't cut it. I fully appreciate just how difficult it is to live blog these events, and some did a great job on keeping us up to date on what was being announced, but by the very nature of the medium, the messages were somewhat diluted and in some cases disjointed.

If there was ever a announcement that needed to be live streamed, this was it!

After finally watching the announcements in full, I'm excited by the improvements contained in the iPhone 4S and I'm sure it will be even more successful that the iPhone 4 over time.

But my main take away from this event, is that Apple really need to go back to streaming the events live to manage the message. The negativity generated by the event will probably dissipate to a large extent, once the device is available, but why generate it in the first place.

Apple do themselves no favours and upset and offend the many legions of Mac fans by excluding them from such events.

And yes, of course I'll be getting an iPhone 4S

Now about the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 next year.....

Today's the day!

There's not really much more to be said about the Apple iPhone event scheduled for later today.

The absence of any credible "leaked" iPhone 5 photos, does give me concern that we may not see a redesign of the iPhone form factor.

I had hoped we'd see a restyling of the iPhone based on the iPad - thinner, metal back, slightly bigger screen. I figure that Apple needs to differentiate the new release of the iPhone from the old, especially since it's been such a long time since the release of the iPhone 4.

Who knows, perhaps Apple have been even more stringent on security since the stolen iPhone debacle, and we will see a new form factor in the brand new iPhone. I certainly hope so.

Based on the amount of press, it looks like a new iPhone 4S is on the cards. Cheaper but more powerful than the existing iPhone 4, but with only 8GB storage (Yes, I said RAM before it was pointed out to me - I'm old school).

This would be the perfect phone for all those people with iPhone 3GS's who don't want the top of the range device.

It may well be that the hardware is not the primary focus of today's announcement.

If Apple are ready with "iPhone Assistant", it is possible that this could overshadow the iPhone announcement and be a huge deal.

Don't just think voice recognition, think Artificial Intelligence.

Think total control of your device and full voice integration with local and web applications - could be huge!

Since Apple's purchase of Siri several years ago, we've been waiting for the emergence of this technology and the strap line of the invitation for today's event - "Let's talk iPhone" - seems to be the clearest indication yet that it's now ready for primetime. Unusually, Apple haven't updated the current iOS5 beta in over a month, another clear indication that something is being rolled into the build that they don't want anyone to see until launch. I expect the iOS5 GM to be released today.

The other facet of today's announcement which may prove to be significant, but which isn't getting much press is iCloud. I expect Apple to release more details about iCloud and the official launch date. This will be wrapped up with iOS5, the new iPhone(s) and the release of OSX 10.7.2 with support for iCloud baked in. Not forgetting new versions of iLife and iWork with full support for iCloud. The iLife and iWork may not be announced in the Keynote but they will soon follow. It will be interesting to see if they take the opportunity to enhance the applications or just release iCloud enabled versions.

If they could release a version of iWork with significantly upgraded features, full iCloud integration to seamlessly sync documents between the Mac and all your iOS devices plus the bullet proof autosave and versioning of Lion on the Mac, they could turn iWork into an even more capable business tool that it is now.

The question remains, will the iPods get a look in?

What about Apple TV?

Possible but unlikely.

The iPods may get a mention, just to introduce changes to the range for Christmas, but I don't think the Apple TV will get a mention.

As far as personalities, my bet is that Tim Cook will open up with the business side of things and say some nice things about Steve. The individual segments will be handled by Scott Forstall (iOS), Eddy Cue (iCloud) and Phil Schiller (Lion).

But who will announce the iPhone?

My gut feeling is that it will be Tim Cook or at a long shot, Jony Ive. Previously only appearing on video, I wonder if Jony has the presentation chops (or has been coached enough) to start to take more of a role in the public eye?

We'll know all these things soon enough.

See you at the LMUG meetup!