[olivierdb]

Hi Everyone,

1) Does anyone know if it will be possible to download from the internet directly to Time Capsule's Hard Disk? This is a nice feature available on some NAS devices from the likes of Synology or Qnap.

2) I'm also wondering if the Time Capsule may be used as a UPnP Media Server (not just as an iTunes Server.

Thanks for your feedback folks.

[ajprice]

1. If the drive mounts on a Mac desktop like a normal drive, then yes you should be able to set it up as a destination drive for downloads.

2. No idea.

[hwojtek]

Ad. 1: I think what Olivier refers to is if the Time Capsule has a P2P client software built-in, so one would actually not need to turn on the computer except for putting the proper URL ending in ".torrent".
I highly doubt it, as well as the UPnP Media Server feature.

[olivierdb]

Thanks for clarifying, hwojtek. That is indeed what I meant. I'd like to be able to download files from file sharing services or podcasts directly to an external HD without my iMac having to be switched on. I would also like to be able to stream audio and video from the HD to a DLNA UPnP media adapter. Naturally, if I may use the HD as a web server, that would be a plus! Unfortunately, Synology and Qnap don't support bonjour yet and don't work with Time Machine.

The closest I've come to finding a solution that will do all this and supports AFP and Bonjour is with the Iomega® StorCenter™ Network Hard Drive. I don't know if it can be used as a "download station" or will work with Time Machine though!

Shame Apple hasn't gotten things right this time round. I also don't like the idea of having to buy an Apple TV box to buy even more stuff which I can't keep on the HD for more than 24 hours (and probably has DRM). I would prefer to subscribe to a service for say $15/month and have access to any content anytime. I also read that DRM had been removed from songs you download from the iTunes store. However, Apple now keep your personal info inside the song you download. Is this true? Sorry, I'm digressing from my original post here!

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by olivierdb 

Shame Apple hasn't gotten things right this time round. I also don't like the idea of having to buy an Apple TV box to buy even more stuff which I can't keep on the HD for more than 24 hours (and probably has DRM).

Actually, if Apple had included BitTorrent software in their Time Capsule device you could have kissed the rental store goodbye. The studios would NEVER go for that. "You included software that allows users to download illegal copies of our content on your NAS device?" Never mind that there are legitimate uses for BitTorrent, the fact remains that the VAST MAJORITY of stuff out there is PIRATED.

The Apple TV can use bought iTunes content as well (it's not just for rented material).

[abbaZaba]

can I use the hard drive in Time Capsule just to store things, as in just using it as a NAS drive? it would be nice to eliminate my external hard drive and Airport Express and just get a time capsule to use for wireless AND to store all my music and videos and various other files (which are only on a 300GB external)

[pooka]

Does anyone know if it works with wired devices?

[Virduk]

Originally Posted by olivierdb 

2) I'm also wondering if the Time Capsule may be used as a UPnP Media Server (not just as an iTunes Server.

I was wondering about that too. Set it up to hold all my media and then access it with my PS3.

[mduell]

The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (ships next month) sounds like the device for you... Bonjour, AFP, iTunes server, bit torrent client along with all the usual NAS protocols.

Originally Posted by abbaZaba 

can I use the hard drive in Time Capsule just to store things, as in just using it as a NAS drive? it would be nice to eliminate my external hard drive and Airport Express and just get a time capsule to use for wireless AND to store all my music and videos and various other files (which are only on a 300GB external)

Sure.

Originally Posted by pooka 

Does anyone know if it works with wired devices?

Yes.

[olivierdb]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

Actually, if Apple had included BitTorrent software in their Time Capsule device you could have kissed the rental store goodbye. The studios would NEVER go for that. "You included software that allows users to download illegal copies of our content on your NAS device?" Never mind that there are legitimate uses for BitTorrent, the fact remains that the VAST MAJORITY of stuff out there is PIRATED.

I understand your point. However, I believe that if the pricing was fair there would be no need for any of us to pirate anything. Now, one may argue what would be a fair price. My fair price may not be the same as yours after all! Yet, one thing seems clear , if the VAST MAJORITY keep downloading illegal content, the price cannot be fair. How many of us find that $1,599 (£1,404.12 in the UK) for Adobe's CS3 Web Suite Premium is a faire price? Or $2,499 (£2,313.58) for the Master Collection? (Americans should thank Europeans, namely, for financing their higher standard of living) BTW, who said the price had to be fixed? The price could have a ceiling of say $1 and decrease with demand. As more people would buy and download a song, the price would diminish.

The ability to stream what one wishes, when and where one wishes at a reasonable flat rate per month would render all the anti-piracy measures useless. Anyone know how much is spent by the majors for copy protection? On the other hand, end consumers may stop purchasing CDs & DVDs, music & video stores would go out of business and majors or their partners would probably have to invest more in infrastructure for streaming content. It doesn't have to sound all that bad for businesses though if you assume the music & video stores could host the content.

[olivierdb]

Originally Posted by mduell 

The Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (ships next month) sounds like the device for you...

Thanks for the feedback... seems very promising indeed.

Do you know if it'll work with Time Machine (and can therefore be formatted in HFS+)?

[jholmes]

Originally Posted by olivierdb 

....(Americans should thank Europeans, namely, for financing their higher standard of living) ....

Or Europeans could learn to write software.

[olivierdb]

What makes you think the coders are american?
How Google Searches -- For Talent
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/te...gy/10soft.html
Welcome to the era of globalization!
Because the HQs of some large software corporations are in the US, doesn't necessarily mean the coders are american! However, I am not saying that there aren't any excellent american coders. University education in the US is tops. What I am questioning, though, is the greed of some corporations which charge some consumers much more just because they don't live in the US. This is precisely the kind of policy that encourages piracy. "Old Europe" is full of pirates defending their rights to a fair price. And the same would apply to China. I would even argue that China's fair price should be lower than Europe's fair price which itself should be lower than the US fair price. But prices are determined by corporations marketing gurus that seek to maximize profit and have deliberately chosen to encourage piracy.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by olivierdb 

I understand your point. However, I believe that if the pricing was fair there would be no need for any of us to pirate anything.

Pricing for anything in Europe is not simple. There are tons of agreements and legal requirements involved-note the recent EU-mandated change to UK ITMS prices. But there NEVER IS A NEED TO PIRATE ANYTHING. EVER. If you "need" a piece of software, BUY IT. Give up the lattes, the cigarettes, or something for a while and save up the money, but buy it. NOBODY IS "ENTITLED" TO ANY SOFTWARE, EVER.

No more references to piracy of any kind in this thread. None. Yes, I'm being harsh here. I wouldn't want people taking advantage of my own hard work without compensating me for it, and I doubt anyone else would want to be taken advantage of either. That's all piracy is-stealing someone else's work. Issue closed.

[jholmes]

Originally Posted by olivierdb 

What makes you think the coders are american?

point of joke <-------------------------------> you

Doesn't matter where the coders are from if the software is developed and published in the US. My gag was that if the folks on the continent wish to elevate their standard of living rather than finanancing that of the US they should publish their own programs (or programmes) and compete for the cash on the open market. You guys create an entire of subculture of youth who never come out in the daylight and spend nights 20 hours a day swilling Mountain Dew and coding the next great video game.

You pointed to Adobe which started out as John Warnock and a hearty band in Mountain View back in the 80s, writing a LOT of great and groundbreaking programs for not a lot of cash to reach the point where their product is the industry standard - sorry Quark, Aldus, Macromedia et al - and be where they can charge an arm and a leg.

I'm a designer and it galls the hell out of me to shell out $1500 bucks for a suite of apps, but I've been using this stuff since they fixed the bugs in Illustrator 1.6 and I have no other choice.

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by olivierdb 

I understand your point. However, I believe that if the pricing was fair there would be no need for any of us to pirate anything. Now, one may argue what would be a fair price.

You're kidding right. I highly doubt that most of the pirating done is because there is no fair price. People pirate software/music for one reason and one reason only. They get something for free. I've known quite a few people who do/did this, some have deluded themselves with that idea too but in the end, if they can get something for free (even if that means breaking the law) they do.

[olivierdb]

Apologies Porter! I didn't want to sound like I supported piracy. I just don't think software should be a luxury product. Those were my 2 cents of frustration against Adobe coz I like their software since I purchased Macromedia Studio MX. Unfortunately, I can't afford the upgrade yet! (I don't drink or smoke, but maybe I should give up the lattes...sorry Starbucks!)

@MacOSnerd: I sincerely believe that, if the prices were based less on greed on behalf of large corporations top management serving shareholder's interests and more geared towards a fair price for all based on a reasonable (not extravagant) reward for the hard work provided (yet, I would argue that a coal miner works harder than a pop star in general), there wouldn't be any piracy or very little (there always is a handful of dishonest people in any society, but the majority at large would rather be honest if the larger corporations set the example, which I doubt is the case today). One must not forget, after all, that digital media or software has a short life span: a movie or song seldom remains on the top charts for very long: they are replaced by new media all the time. The same applies to software (albeit not as frequently) with upgrades.

Again, I don't condone piracy, but I believe there is a cause to it (and to come back to Adobe: charging europeans or any others twice the price americans pay for the same software, that clearly isn't fair or justified in my opinion!).

[ghporter]

Piracy is a sore spot for me-it causes software houses to RAISE their prices, and makes it harder for people who pay for products to afford them. Adobe has put a lot of work into their products, which is why they're in demand. But you can see from the number of P2P sources for their products that they are a real victim of wanton piracy. It's not like publishers don't watch to see how much of their work gets pirated, you know. It's a vicious cycle.

I agree that they should have better prices for their really useful software, but in the big scheme of things, ANY computer is a luxury when you have problems with housing and being able to feed yourself. So software can qualify as a luxury item in that context, and I think anyone in a good enough position to be able to afford a nice computer, an Internet connection, and some useful software should feel that he's got it good because of having those things. The pricing of products imported into the EU is just as much an EU issue as pricing within the EU. The EU is protectionist and interested in obtaining lots of tariff revenue from "soft" imports like software. If Adobe products were less expensive, the tariff might be less, but the "twice the price Americans pay" is not as much to do with Adobe as to do with the EU.

[olivierdb]

I am going to investigate further into EU tarrifaction on imports and verify if this is the cause to higher software prices in the EU. I may still end up being ripped off but at least I won't aim the wrong target! At present though, I have to say, I'm sceptical EU tariffication is to blaim, because I live in Switzerland (which isn't part of the EU) and prices here are equally near to double those in the States.

[ghporter]

Doesn't Switzerland have its own, rather lofty tariff system? I'm just saying that it's stupid for a company that could charge the same amount it does in the States to alienate European customers by capriciously charging stupidly high prices. It's gotta be something else (along with maybe some gouging but not nearly that much!).

[olivierdb]

Dear Porter, Something has suddenly struck me: I don't think we're dealing here with an import tariff because the companies being considered are global players who also have manufacturing sites all over the world, i.e. there is no export per se.

I have also found an article here which illustrates my point. I'm not trying to bash America here, I'm just asking for more fairness from some large corporations.

[ghporter]

That's a possibility, but I think it's more about where the company is headquartered, not where the actual disc is manufactured. I dunno exactly, but I think there's more "your company is going to pay us to sell here because you're not from here" than "let's gouge everyone on the other side of the Atlantic. The former makes much more sense than the latter.

[bearcatrp]

After reading the posts here, makes you wondy why Time Warner is playing with the idea, and will try it, paying for internet service by the amount you use. The piracy through bit torrents is whats driving this along with the move to pay as you use service. Pretty soon, the only way to use software will be pay a monthly fee instead of buying the software. That will deminish the piracy but screw honest folks who do buy it. Look at the cell phone, ipod touch, etc.. to see the services you have to pay to use. I don't think it will be long before we see most software going this way.

[ginoledesma]

I wish Apple would ship this already. I'm rather curious about many things:

1. Is the drive pre-formatted as HFS+ or FAT32 or NTFS? I wonder if this means an update to Airport Utility to manage the disk.
   
2. Since it's touted as Mac and PC compatible, does it offer AFP and SMB/CIFS?
   
3. Since it also supports hard drive sharing using the USB port, I wonder what/how the internal and external drives are differentiated.

[ghporter]

No, MONEY is what's driving TWC to consider charging by usage. They don't give a rat's about piracy (unless they are implicated in helping, which is unlikely because they don't help with anything), but they do see the potential for gouging their customers even more. If they do go to that kind of fee schedule, let's see if suddenly people's connections get much faster.

Yes, I despise TWC-more than any other ISP in fact. But they're just at the top of the pile so to speak. This sort of pricing scheme is mercenary and avaricious, not "to help combat piracy" no matter who says otherwise.

[abo]

This is the set-up I'm envisioning: (1) a notebook computer with a small disk, where the disk is used for documents and temporary storage; (2) a Time Capsule holding music and photo files (500 MB); and (3) another Time Capsule (1 TB) to back up the first. Is this sensible?