Apple just released a weirdly interesting coding language model

I think Apple will ultimately destroy the data center, I hope they succeed.

Shades of 1980s Apple v. Big Blue. I can't wait for the rehash of the "1984" ad.

Maybe for compute, but not for storage.

Why can’t I backup an iOS device to a local NAS in the way I can use Time Machine, for example? (Rhetorical question; the answer is obviously that they want to sell more iCloud storage for that all-important services revenue).

Synology supports exactly that, and I'm sure they're not the only one.

>Why can’t I backup an iOS device to a local NAS

You can backup your iPhone using Finder.

Finder -> Locations -> Your iPhone -> Backup all the data on this iPhone to your Mac.

Once you have done this you can find the backup in "Manage Backups", right click on an entry and select "Show in Finder". From there you can copy it to your NAS.

Not as smooth as a Time Machine backup but it is possible.

> Why can’t I backup an iOS device to a local NAS in the way I can use Time Machine, for example?

When I connect my iPhone to my iMac it does to a local backup to a file, which then gets backed up via Time Machine (and SuperDuper/CarbonCopyCloner).

"How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with your Mac":

* https://support.apple.com/en-ca/108796

There's also a checkbox for 'Wifi syncing' so a cable isn't necessarily needed.

That’s exactly my point: Why on Earth do I need a separate computer to mediate the backup?

iOS natively supports SMB over any network connection including wired Ethernet, mounting encrypted APFS volumes on USB storage devices at 10 Gbps etc.

It’s Apples explicit vision that an iPad Pro can replace a Mac even for some professional users. Why don’t these deserve local backups?

> Not as smooth as a Time Machine backup but it is possible

I’d personally call it “absurdly clunky and intentionally impractical for a big chunk of Apple’s user base”.

Full iOS backups directly to local external storage, without another computer in the mix? I’d be very surprised if that were true.

Here's one example of a third party tool.

> Step-by-Step Guide: How to Backup iPhone to Synology NAS

https://www.ubackup.com/phone-backup/backup-iphone-to-synolo...

How many people own a NAS, but not a PC or Mac?

Apple already provides first party software to handle iDevice backups on Windows or Mac.

Backing up an Android device to a PC using adb is significantly more difficult, especially for the less technically minded.

Not without fundamentally changing the way they think about computing and there seems to be zero willingness among their leadership to do that. In fact they seem to want to move things into the data center. That's why I'm shorting them.

Did you actually read what you linked, or did you just paste in a random link from a search engine?

There are two methods presented: one only backs up the camera roll; the other requires plugging into a computer and manually clicking around, at which point you might as well use the first party backup built into Finder (or iTunes on Windows? Is that still a thing?), no random third party application needed. I also highly doubt their “backup every single content” claim.

It’s also a sneaky marketing article for that third party application, following the common SEO practice of giving you a half-ass solution capturing a frequent search term (in this case, “backup iPhone to Synology”), then plug their own questionable thing as the better solution.

> Preparation. How to set up Synology NAS on PC

That’s a guide on how to backup an iPhone to a NAS using a computer.

Unsurprisingly, a reasonably capable general-purpose OS supports network file systems in a way transparent to applications, but that doesn’t help people using only an iOS device.

> How many people own a NAS, but not a PC or Mac?

That’s arguably the wrong question: I bet a lot more would own one if they could easily backup their iOS devices to it.

The number of people that would but a NAS over just spending the 5$/month for storage is well below a percent and if you combine that with the requirement of not having a PC/Mac you may well end up in the hundreds…

There aren’t that many people that are willing to own a device from a company but not trusting that company with their data

I'm willing to bet that more people would backup their Android device if Google provided a first party tool for user friendly backups of Android devices to local computers.

I think it’s just a convenient stepping stone more than a long term strategy.

> I think Apple will ultimately destroy the data center

I think EVs destroying Ultra Large Container ships had better odds, amd both are extremely unlikely. Dc advantages Apple won't be able to overcome: compute density, cooling, cheap power, physical security to protect the software, scale + bandwidth, lower costs to customers of using contract manufacturers and/or commodity hardware.

There is no universe where large enterprises ditch their geo-located racks. Let alone hyperscalers, especially now that they are scrounging for energy, reneging on pledges on renewables, and paying bug bucks to bring nuclear power stations online

Your numbers might be right, but Apple has implemented niche features, some even requiring expensive per-device hardware, for much less than that.

Do you have an example?

All new iPhone models support native DisplayPort output via USB-C, yet I’m not sure 1% of users even have the required cable/adapter.

Some of the power amplifiers for rarely-used bands probably qualify as well (mmWave in particular).

On the software side I’d have to dig a bit, but I bet many code paths on iOS see use of less than 1% of all users.

It’s easy to imagine a universe where the hyperscalers are in a bubble and they will eventually find a limit to adding classical compute and we will hit peak datacenter and shrink from there.