"Safe Deposit Box" in Mac OS X 10.7?

[Paul Daniel Ash]

There have been a number of rumors in recent months pointing to a significant revamp of Apple's MobileMe service, potentially including a cloud file syncing service that would let you store your documents, videos, pictures and music in a secure "locker." A newly-discovered Apple patent gives renewed support to those reports, with a description of a cloud-based "Safe Deposit Box" that could allow you to store all your files online in an encrypted dropbox that would be accessible to all your computers, and - though it's not mentioned in the patent - iOS devices. The patent was applied for in 2009, so this could be a feature that is being readied for the upcoming 10.7 "Lion" version of Mac OS X.

File backup is one of the most important aspects of computer maintenance, and one that's a problem for a lot of users. Apple arguably has one of the best solutions out there with Time Machine, which is about as close to "set it and forget it" as any backup system. However, it still doesn't solve the problem of off-site backup, which is increasingly important to non-business users. Now that people store everything from family pictures to legal and financial documents on their computers, they run the risk that a fire, theft or other disaster at home could wipe out their irreplaceable valuables.

Apple's patent describes a "File Management Safe Deposit Box" as a feature in Mac OS X which would let users drag and drop important files onto a "bank vault" icon. What happens to files dropped on the Safe Deposit Box can be configured by the user, but the basic idea is that they are encrypted, with the original file securely deleted and the encrypted file stored both on the local drive and on a cloud server. Optionally, you could allow access to files for a period of time before they are fully archived, so that you can view and/or make a few last changes to the files before they go into deep storage. After that point, even if someone gains access to your Safe Deposit Box they'd be unable to read the contents. Obviously, this feature would require massive online data storage, and could potentially finally give us some idea why Apple built that mysterious giant data center in the North Carolina woods.

With people being more and more dependent on multiple devices - desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets - this feature will potentially give Apple a way to brag that you can have unified secure storage for all your devices... so long as you use Apple products, of course. Reports of a "Dropbox-killer" have been around since last year, but with desktop integration of file encryption as well as cloud sync, this feature could eclipse online solutions like Carbonite as well.

Source: Patently Apple

[steve-z17]

Sounds like a winner

[cookbenj]

Sounds like a winner

yea sounds like a great idea
(good place to keep your naughty stuff eh?)

[javiert30]

Sounds like thiner or smaller devices without the use of iTunes in the future. Sync over cloud. Maybe harders to jailbreak.

[ccoltmanm]

I don't like that Apple is ahead of Microsoft on implementation like this. MS has the Live Cloud, with 5gb of storage, but already this looks better. And I'm a ms guy. Damn.

[scroogelives]

And how much will apple charge for this?? Sounds great but like all apple things it will cost us a Loy of money and I don't like the idea of paying to get access to my own files!

[GmAz]

So its a service exactly like Dropbox - Online backup, file sync, and sharing made easy. that has been around for quite a while now, uses an excrypted SSL to upload and download files and stores the files with a 256bit AES encryption and syncs across multiple computers you have your account linked too.

Frankly, I trust my data with Dropbox more than I would Apple. Then again, I'll never own a Mac so I have no worries there.

And you can get 2GB free from Dropbox and an extra 250mb for each person you refer to Dropbox up to 8 gigs. I'm sitting at 5gb now and its more than enough for important stuff.

[javiert30]

And how much will apple charge for this?? Sounds great but like all apple things it will cost us a Loy of money and I don't like the idea of paying to get access to my own files!

If it works with mobile me, is $99.00, but who knows with this service included.

[nicrfe]

Again apple puts out tech from 10 years ago but with a cool name.

[onlinegamesnz]

yea sounds like a great idea
(good place to keep your naughty stuff eh?)

Like g@y porn?

[piston597]

This looks great! Really a great feature to keep everything together.. hope it also wirelessly syncs stuff like contact info on phone, game saves, calendar etc...

[GmAz]

This looks great! Really a great feature to keep everything together.. hope it also wirelessly syncs stuff like contact info on phone, game saves, calendar etc...

Why would it do that...that would be new features for the next 5 versions of it. They can't make money by giving people what they want.

[StealthBravo]

It would be cool rolled into mobile me

[steve-z17]

It would be cool rolled into mobile me

I agree, I think it would bring a lot more users to MM.

[Snozberries]

And how much will apple charge for this?? Sounds great but like all apple things it will cost us a Loy of money and I don't like the idea of paying to get access to my own files!

then if you don't pay apple and they end your privs to "YOUR" stuff, you get to pay a premium re-connection fee to get "YOUR" stuff back. BUUUUT it's encrypted and your encryption algorithm was 'messed up' due to your lack of fundage to the mighty apple cloud and you get to pay for a new encryption algorithm. all set with this. the end.

[EskimoRuler]

This looks great! Really a great feature to keep everything together.. hope it also wirelessly syncs stuff like contact info on phone, game saves, calendar etc...

thats what im hoping for, would be awesome