[fit2rule]

I'll admit that it was necessary, and I also had to set up a DDNS account and configure the rPi to use it - but this was very easy, and if Apple can wrap all this up in a fancy GUI, the way they wrapped up a similarly complex set of functionality with the Airport Utility and Apple TV products, I fail to see how it can be any more difficult for the average user than clicking a few buttons.

I think the economic desire is just not there - Apple have given up being an OS-vendor and are in the 'next generation' phase of things where they're producing commodity, throw-away hardware for consumers. This is all a brave new world, but my point is: I think there's a missed market opportunity here, for someone, to produce the anti-cloud.

[spinchange]

I've been following your comments on this thread and completely agree with you with one tiny exception. Apple does not see itself as producing commodity gear. They still see their gear as luxury/non-commodity AND see their cloud as a benefit/value-add and profit center.

The problem -for me- is that Apple simply isn't that good at the cloud. Their competitors seem to beat them on both features and price here. You only go with iCloud for inclusion/integration with your other Apple devices, not because it is a superior cloud service.

They could be the "anti-cloud" company if they really wanted, but I think it is easier and more profitable for them to jump on the bandwagon and offer it themselves. To be an "anti-cloud" vendor would require them to sell against overall technology / consumer trends. They don't need to do that when they can extend their profits offering the same, and especially if it doesn't hurt the "luxury" status/profit margin of their main goods.

[gress]

I think you are being extremely unrealistic about how much configuration regular users are willing or able to do.

[spinchange]

Apple is pretty good at taming technological complexity. The functionality the parent's suggesting could be incorporated into Airport and/or MacOS. Going further, even DynDNS-type services could be something that Apple offers. None of this is to say that there's any economic incentive for them to do it, or that the feature/service would have mass adoption, just that Apple could do it, if they wanted to.

On a long enough curve, nearly every user becomes a "power user," and if you look back, a lot of stuff that was once strictly "advanced configuration," becomes simplified, or eventually just abstracted away and the domain of mere IT mortals. Apple and others could play a role here.

[fit2rule]

I think you're being naive about how it can be dealt with, technically, by those responsible for pushing OS features forward. But I remain convinced that we'll see robust, decent peer-to-peer system services being integrated into our OS's in the near future, rendering the Cloud impotent in the battle for peoples data.