myiMediaServer: What AppleTV Should Be

Recently there have been reports on the AppleTV. The cat is out of the bag and it clearly never had claws. Apple only sold about 400,000 or so in the last year. That was no surprise to me (Steve Jobs called the box a 'hobby.') Given the lack of innnovation (surprising, coming from Apple) I'd have called it some kind of toe dipping attempt to check the warmth of the market for home media servers. Personally I think it is time to dip a lot more than a toe.

Plenty of PC makers have been splashing about in the tepid waters of home media servers. Due mostly to market timing and lack of innovation most of these boxes have spent their time huddled high and dry on store shelves.

Clutter Tolerance

Do some quick Googling and you'll see that market watchers have been predicting a boom in the market of home media servers for at least a couple of years. My prediction is that the home media server market will take off slowly and may be come a standard home in the U.S. in about five to seven more years. People are still gathering confidence with the experience of broadband and a computer network at home, to keystones that a media server will have to be built on. However what should offset people's reluctance to welcome these thorny and intimidating technologies into their homes will be the clutter.

I've got digital clutter and it is starting to annoy me. Chances are it will start to annoy everyone else too. Digital technology makes it so very, very easy to take pictures, make movies, carry music, carry videos and carry data that it very quickly becomes clutter. So my parents have more pictures of their grandchildren than most any grandparents of previous generations ever had. But they often can't find them because of the clutter. It's only going to get worse.

My solution is a home media server that is extremely simple to use. I based it on the AppleTV, then added my own ideas of innovation.

[First we take an AppleTV, change the dimensions and add a media drive]

Media Central for the Whole House

• Includes a WiFi Remote so you have Access and Control of your music and video anywhere in your home
• Optional add-on WiFi Remote/AirportMediaport Express packages for sending your music or video to any tv or stereo in your home
• Pop and Drop Hard Drive Expandability with Optional Stackable Storage Drive
• Data protection with built-in with RAID redundancy
• Built in DVD/CD Drive, Blu-Ray Upgradeable

[Next we modify an iPod to make a decent remote control]

Navigate and Play Your Music and Video Anywhere in Your Home with the WiFi Remote

• As easy to use as an iPod
• The WiFi Remote controls your Media when you want it, wherever you need it

[Now we take an Apple Airport Express and modify it and pair it with the WiFi Remote}

Pair Up Your MyiMediaServer with a WiFi Remote/Mediaport Express Package for Home-Wide Access to Your Media

Introducing the next generation of the Airport Express, the Mediaport, for wirelessly streaming Music or Video anywhere in your home.

Each Mediaport comes with its own WiFi Remote. Pair the Mediaport with your MyiEntertainmentCenter and you are ready to stream music and video anywhere in your home with complete mobile control.

No more running back to the computer or another room to change music or stop a movie. With the Mediaport/WiFi Remote control is wherever you need it.

[Finally, we make expanding the hard drive storage about as easy as upgrading RAM}

Expand Your Storage Space with a Pop and a Drop

Easily pop open the case of the MyiEntertainmentCenter to drop in an extra 2.5 inch hard drive module. Add up to two more hard drives to increase your library space, up to x terrebytes for your tunes, movies, pictures and stuff. Built in data redundancy will protect your media. The base unit comes with two hard drives and utilizes a proprietary data protection method (called RAID-Z) to keep your data safe and free of corruption.

Introducing Safe Stacks for Your Stuff

• Simply plug this box into the eSATA connection on the back of your MyiEntertainmentCenter and you are stacked and ready to expand your storage
• Add a new drive module at any time to increase your storage capacity
• Proprietary RAID technology protects your media all the time. If a drive fails you are protected from data loss.