Bill Gates's worst nightmare: Attack of the iPod zombies
They lurk in your pockets, waiting ... waiting ... to be plugged into a PC. Then they'll take over the CPU, transforming it into a vicious, power-mad, world-domination-seeking ... Mac?
That's one scenario made possible by Apple's long-dormant "Home on iPod" technology. "Home on iPod" resurfaced this week in a just-revealed patent filing, AppleInsider reports. Back in 2003, Apple briefly posted details of a feature, promised for an upcoming version of Mac OS X, which would let you copy your user directory to an iPod, hook it up to another Mac, and log in securely to your files just like you were using your own Mac. Apple mysteriously abandoned the feature. But since then, it's switched to PC-compatible Intel chips, which raises the possibility of plugging your iPod into a PC, turning it into a Mac by running Mac OS X off your iPod's hard drive. Apple's 2002 patent application faced some technical obstacles at the time it was filed. Because iPods came with 5GB hard drives at the time, Apple assumed users would plug the devices into a Mac with the Mac OS X operating system installed. But with today's 80GB iPods, it's easy to make room for a copy of the OS, not just a user's files. Another problem was getting Mac OS X to run on a PC, but ZDNet UK showed last year that it could be done. So why not turn the iPod loose on an unsuspecting PC world? iTunes for Windows is just the beginning, a Trojan horse to lull the masses into acceptance of the Mac user interface. Apple already sells more iPods than Macs. Are they just waiting for a little extra software, already on file at the Patent Office, to take over the world? All the better. I have macs at home and PCs at work......
Needless to say, I get much more work done at home because the darn thing just works so much better!! Go Steve! Only the technologically clueless would think that plugging an IPOD into a PC will make it possible for the PC to run the OSX operating system.
The reason Apple doesn't make OSX available on run-of-the-mill PCs is because they don't want to have to address the millions of possible hardware configurations out there. Plugging an IPOD in doesn't change that. This is a ridiculous idea. No one with a perfectly functioning computer is going to want to run another operating system off of a slow, external drive. A 7200 RPM internal drive with an 8-16 MB cache versus a 4200 RPM exernal drive with a 2 MB cache? It would run like molasses.
Finally, Apple's dreams of crushing the Window's world domination movement can be realized. All hail the iPod!
No, thats not gonna happen.
You know that nowdays you can run Win XP in apple. OS is just ppl preference. Sheer speculation at best. The media needs to understand, at the end of the day, in corporate America, the PC is here to stay. If the PC rules corporate, dominance will continue.
You know how long is it to copy a full scale O/S to a ipod hard drive? If Owen Thomas had done it himself, then he would know why apple kill the idea....And by the way, how would you sync. the O/S when there are changes ...like you installed a new software onto the PC? You copy the whole O/S again? What a dumb idea.
FIRST! yes, apple will be taking over! mwahaha
neither apple nor microsoft fascinate me; one with a $400 ipod device vs. a ridiculous xp package for $75+. But its fun to see the drama btw. the 2 companies.
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