We love HP's new Time Machine-compatible MediaSmart Home Server. 9to5Mac reports that Apple is working on something similar, but it'll be tied into MobileMe and will share music, movies and more over the internet.
Here's the full list of features 9to5Mac has heard will make it to Apple's SpaceTime Thing:
• The device will tie in MobileMe with an Apple built-in Dynamic DNS system. For instance, if your MobileMe account was "9to5mac", your domain name would be "9to5mac.me.com". This is how you'd reach your filesystem throughout the Internet. Your media would also reside here.
• Built in AFP filesharing for Time Machine backups and centralized file stores.
• iTunes shared Library Database for not just music, but also video. Access over the Internet to all of your media.
• Photo database and tie in with with MobileMe.
• Sharing media with iPod Touch and iPhones both over the Internet and while at home. AppleTV as well.
• The box will be based on the Time Machine platform (ARM), not a more expensive Intel/Leopard Server configuration.
• Lots of power saving features like turning off hard drives when not in use.
• Multiple hard drive configurations would be made available with RAID 5 redundancy.
Essentially, easy centralized media sharing and access—including video—not just over your home network, but over the internet, for all of your computers and iThings, plus a multi-drive backup server. Interestingly, it'll be running on the Time Machine platform, not as a Leopard server. Questions left to answer: How will it interface with Windows boxes? Will you need a MobileMe account? (Seems so. It would make the service a much better value proposition, and perhaps a must-buy.)
The larger picture makes sense to us, even if some of the details don't turn out quite right: Apple (main)streamlined backups and media streaming over the home network, this seems like a logical step from its Time Capsule, especially since they've got a bunch of the infrastructure in place. Constant access to your stuff from anywhere, like Apple's version of Windows Home Server. What would you want to see in an Apple SpaceTime Capsule media server thinger? [9to5Mac via MacRumors]