It’s the rumors that keep technology interesting.
With that in mind, the iPhone mini is making the rounds with the cool cats at Cult of Mac stating that the smaller iPod smartphone combo may rely on the also rumored MobileMe cloud-based iTunes storage server for streaming content from user’s media libraries.
Access to music, video and photos on the iPhone mini “would be a mostly cloud-based iOS,” according to Cult of Mac’s anonymous sources.
The rumored changes to Apple’s MobileMe service include a new Internet-based iTunes library storage system for iPhone users. Since content would be pushed wirelessly to them, the need for large amounts of RAM for local data storage would go away.
The notion that users would be able to stream their entire iTunes library may not, however, go over well with cell service providers. Relying on 3G data connections instead of Wi-Fi networks at least some of the time would push up iPhone user’s wireless data usage dramatically, and carriers may not want to deal with the extra network traffic per the Mac Observer.
Streaming content libraries would also a problem in places where data connections aren’t available, such as many flights. Unless the iPhone mini includes at least some local storage for media, users won’t be able to listen to music or watch movies when they can’t get an Internet connection.
It’s been presumed that an iPhone mini would have at least some built-in storage so users could load apps and store their contacts and appointments on the device.
As of now, Apple has yet to offer any comment, leaving the rest of this up to speculation…
6 replies on “Rumor: iPhone mini could drop internal storage, rely extensively on MobileMe streaming”
So let me understand this…. give up inexpensive and low powered storage option to access your content with energy using wifi or 3/4G that cost’s a bundle for a data plan and only works when you’re connected to a network. So to get your content, it costs you more in dollars and battery life, and forget it when you’re in a plane or in an area without cell coverage. A brilliant innovation for a mobile device – not.
One Scrap of info that does not fit.
Memory for on board storage is neither expensive or physically large.
The picture is still blury.
Chris must have got this from a Hot “Press” release to gather new information about “MobileMe steaming”
Chris must have got this from a Hot “Press” release to gather new information about “MobileMe steaming”
Wow! Steaming. This must be a new type of vaporware.
Wow! Steaming. This must be a new type of vaporware.