SteveJ-restore-test

The sister post to this speculates that Apple could add peer-peer protocols/functionality to its iCloud service, and the benefits that would flow. I'm firmly of the opinion that Apple won't go there, not soon, not in-a-while, not ever. They have too firmly entrenched attitudes about constructing and maintaining "full-control" over the euphemistically named, "User Experience". Apple don't do "collaboration", sharing their technology or allowing the mere User to tinker with its Gorgeous Stuff. It'd no longer be "their Design" and they anathema to Apple. Apple are into "control", which in itself is not a bad thing, but severely limits their software and system design decisions and implementations. This isn't some simple "we know best" thing, but much deeper, intimately tied to their focus on High Concept Design and a finely crafted "User Experience". Which also means controlled experience. Apple cou...

Will Apple add a torrent like ability to its iCloud offering?? iCloud is a remote filesystem with a lot of metadata and does 4 things: provides "second copy of my precious data" (for files I've generated) allows synchronisation of those files across the multiple devices/platforms a user connects. This is the aspect Apple 'sells': email, contact and calendar sync and restore/recover. mediates the enforcement of copyright and content distribution does Internet-Scale data de-duplication. By data volume, the Internet is a 'Viewing Platform'. 1 upload == zillions downloads [write once, download ~infinite] Apple could create an Internet-Scale "Content Delivery Network" with iCloud if ran a peer-peer network, something like the hugely successful bit-torrent protocol/service. Because you've got authorised content and validated entities/logins in a vendor controlled environment, there isn't a direct copyright or leakage problem, just the ever-p...