Why would I need to carry my personal home files to a different computer. Could someone give a real world example of how this could be useful.\

Perhaps they took it out because its a shocking bad idea, and a terrible security risk? I mean - I don't want someone to be able to use my Mac just by the act of plugging in their iPod. Its one of those ideas that sounds great on paper, but in reality would be a nightmare.

OK - well you'd be plugging in your *own* iPod, which would presumably be encrypted with FileVault, I'm sure they went that far down the road. I'm not sure how someone plugging their iPod into a mac would have all my files, maybe I misapprehended that post.

Couple this with a .mac mirror of my home directory (space willing) and I'll have belt-and-suspenders assurance that I can get my files anywhere.

If all that plus the world were full of macs that last bit would mean I don't need my laptop everywhere.

If not it's still a great option.

How is this useful? Let's see, I have a computer at home and one at work, it would be great to have all my stuff on both, I currently carry my iTunes around on an external drive so all my music is the same on all 3 of my computers. To be able to keep the files I work on most with me so it is the same no matter where I go is a very handy.

would be great to have a mini-pages (iwork) app for the iphone and work on home dir sync to iphone. portable laptop.

I don't see how anyone could not see this as useful. It's the same concept of carrying around all your MP3's with you on an iPod. Except now you can do it with any other files you choose to on your home directory as well.

Add to that the possibility of upgrades to the iPhone and you might not only be able to use your iPod/iPhone as a transfer device between comps but also use the iPhone OS itself to edit some documents and sync them while away from your destkop.


However still i don't see the brilliance in this patent now. I would have expected this a long time ago and I kind of hoped this feature would have been released with the iPhone everyone purchased.

You can burn a dvd with all your iTunes info on it and use it on up to 3 computers (maybe five, I haven't checked the EULA). Why do you need your work information at home? This would cause major security issues with anyone doing any type of work with critical information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by roehlstation

How is this useful? Let's see, I have a computer at home and one at work, it would be great to have all my stuff on both, I currently carry my iTunes around on an external drive so all my music is the same on all 3 of my computers. To be able to keep the files I work on most with me so it is the same no matter where I go is a very handy.

It's VERY useful. I know because I've done it many times. You can do it NOW if you have enough GB to spare.

Obviously you need the PERMISSION of the computer owner in order to use their computer, and they can let you use it or not via System Preferences. Make your own call who you trust to let on your Mac, just like you already do. I wouldn't let a stranger carry his home account to my machine, but I'd let a friend. They would not, of course, be granted admin privileges on my machine

When my PowerBook needed repair a few years back, it was right around the holidays (a busy time for my PLUS a lot of travel) and so I needed new portable way to do my work at my parents' (and sometimes friends' or clients') places. So I bought a 60 GB iPod instead of the 40, and copied my entire OS X installation over to it (just a drag and drop). My iPod would then boot any Mac I walked up to (if the owner changed the Startup Disk for me) and it was MY settings, MY stuff, MY work It was like I had my whole computer in my pocket. My bookmarks, my address book, my calendar, my wallpaper and settings, my mouse driver, my games, my apps, my license keys, my emails, my complete file structure (which today would have Spotlight support), my Dock, my 3rd-party utils, my everything. MY COMPUTER--except that speed and screen size would vary! Then later I copied my account back to the repaired machine. It was great!

It would be great in lots of other scenarios too. People DO like to have their computing mobile--look at laptop sales. Having everything in your pocket is in a way even better. (And yes, some people DO do work at home... in fact it's extremely common, despite the terrifying security risks ) I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner for this, since a manual drag of the OS files worked once for me and then not the second time. CCC is slow but does a better job with hidden system stuff.

With "Home on iPod" you could do the same thing WITHOUT having to copy the OS onto your device. You'd only need to copy your account. Plus it would be more AUTOMATIC that what I did (a no-effort synch rather than careful copying), more secured, and compatible with both Intel and PPC Macs, unlike my way.

Has a similar function been available for Windows users for years (maybe it's a 3rd party app)? I'm pretty sure I heard about this before... Am I wrong, here?