“Apple Inc. has secretly built a massive server farm in Maiden, North Carolina that should come online any day now, if it hasn’t already,” David Zeiler writes for Money Morning.
MacDailyNews Take: The construction of the data center was not a secret; its specific intended purpose(s) are quite nebulous (ha, ha) and subject to much speculation.
Zeiler continues, “The facility is five times larger than Apple’s existing data center in Newark, California. Apple has been typically cagey about the purpose of this data center, which ultimately could cost as much as $1 billion. ‘North Carolina is on schedule,’ Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during the July earnings conference call. ‘We expect to complete it by the end of the calendar year and begin to use it.'”
“Much of Apple’s existing business relies heavily on content delivery already, but building a 505,000 square-foot facility – which ranks it among the largest in the world – hints at far more grandiose plans,” Zeiler writes. “Most analysts believe it is needed to deliver music, applications (apps) and video from the iTunes Store. But such added capacity also could allow Apple to expand its cloud-based initiatives, using the existing MobileMe online service as a starting point… [and] Apple’s investment in heavy-duty content delivery assets could portend a bigger push into the streaming media sector.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
I think it’s used to store all the fan-boy emails sent to Steve Jobs.
The crystal clear, fluent live streaming of the past few Apple keynotes is just a hint thatball is going well at the server farm – Apple does things methodiacally and right, the server farm has been functional for a while now, it will kick in full blast soon.
With the passing Thinksgiving Day of it’s chief date center manager is there a possibity of some delay?
Macdoc:
Good point, probably some reorganizing which will take a little extra effort and scruples…
My last e-mail to Steve Jobs was on if he wanted to have my baby. It doesn’t do much.. it just sits there and I’m not using it.
Sounds like the Death Star in Return of the Jedi, except this won’t get blown up in the end.
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As I see it every iPhone 4 and future iPad will have the abiliy to upload news stories and live steaming content for immediate global consumption. Thus everyone can become a realtime streaming tv station like CNN or Fox. Thus we can follow anyones’
story or POV as it happens. A video Twitter if you will. Maybe someone might be interested in this concept and all they will need is a a really big data center. Are you listening Steve? Or has it already been built?
Called Apple because I go to iTunes to my apps Library, see that I have 166 apps to update, click update and get this warning message: “We could not complete your iTunes Store request. The iTunes Store is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
Anyone else get that error message?
As I said, called Apple and the jerk on the phone said I had an old iTunes (9.2.1) vs the 10.1.1 that just came out and that my iPad software 3.2 (by a month) is old and both needed updating. Let’s not forget that my device is only 6 months old, the 2nd generation iPad has not come out yet
I explained I don’t care for iPad iOS update. I don’t want to loose my physical rotation lock switch. Apple guy said to each his own, if your happy with your apps as they are now, thats fine, otherwise you need to update iPad iOS software and iTunes…
To which I said, when an app upgrades, NOT because of Retina display or iOS 4 compliant but the app developer adds a feature such as a new player, a new car, a new weapon, a new plane, etc. I can no longer update to increase the functionality of my purchased app, not to make it compliant with the new iOS that I don’t care to upgrade, but just to benefit from the kindness of the app developer? To which the shit head at Apple said you can enjoy your iPad as it is, in the state it is, and your apps as they are in, for as long as you like.
Welcome to the CLOUD!
FU EVIL Apple!
Called Apple because I go to iTunes, to my apps Library, see that I have 166 apps to update, click update and get this warning message:
“We could not complete your iTunes Store request. The iTunes Store is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
Been getting that message for the past 4 days.
Anyone else getting that error message?
As I said, called Apple and the jerk on the phone said I had an old iTunes (9.2.1) vs the 10.1.1 that just came out (that is old by what? A couple of months!) and that my iPad software 3.2 is old (by a month) and both needed updating. Let’s not forget that my device, iPad 3G, is only 6 months old, the 2nd generation iPad has not come out yet
I explained I don’t care for iPad iOS update. I don’t want to loose my physical rotation lock switch. Apple guy said to each his own, if your happy with your apps as they are now, thats fine, otherwise you need to update iPad iOS software and iTunes…
To which I said, when an app upgrades, NOT because of Retina display or iOS 4 compliant but the app developer adds a feature such as a new player, a new car, a new weapon, a new plane, etc. I can no longer update to increase the functionality of my purchased app, not to make it compliant with the new iOS that I don’t care to upgrade, but just to benefit from the graciousness of the app developer? To which the shit head at Apple said you can enjoy your iPad as it is, in the state it is, and your apps as they are in, for as long as you like.
Talk about your Apple tax.
Apple will have you by the short hairs if Mac App store pulls this same shit! Imagine, you have to upgrade not because the software you already own upgrades to version 6 from version 5, BUT, that Apple dictates in order for you to get to the Mac app store, and to do that, you will need to upgrade your Mac OS, hell what is to stop them from saying you need to upgrade your damn computer! And when I say upgrade your OS or upgrade your computer, I know that is eventually a given, but imagine having to do it sooner then you normally did from software updates and computer upgrades of your past computers, all determined by the dictates of Apple and their ability to freeze you out from improving the software you already purchased!
Welcome to the CLOUD!
FU EVIL Apple!
Hey MDN,
While we are on the subject of cloud, servers, apps, etc.. how about fixing yours?
MDN hasn’t loaded on my iPhone 4 in over a weeks. Just sits there at the logo, yet the push notifications still works as well as the badge notifications, which just keep getting higher and higher in number without any way to clear it.. Please fix, so I can get my fix.
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MM
@It’s Apple being Evil!
Idiot.
@It’s Apple being Evil!
All that anger and frustration just so you can keep the rotation lock? Lighten up, Francis! The upgrades are free and they add a lot more features than they remove.
I heard the metal siding around the building was causing attenuation problems every time God touched it….
If you wasn’t for Apple, you wouldn’t have that rotation lock in the first place thereby taking away your masturbatory pleasures over it. Some applications simply require updates for added function / stability.
Two solutions are in place for ya from what I can see so far:
1) http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4085
2) Jailbreak your iPhone.. http://www.tipb.com/2010/11/25/physical-rotation-lock-button-ipad-jailbreakers/
and a third option: Pray for Apple to give a checkbox option in a future (gasp… the horror!) update.
(I personally hope you try to jailbreak the thing and you run into a problem turning your iOS device into a brick. Please God… let the “Apple being evil” guy kill his tech gadget and make him cry.)
Hope this helps!
Idiots!
Apple replaced the screen lock button with a software version!
My god are that fucking stupid?
My god are YOU that fucking stupid?
Reminds me of all the PC folk who refused to upgrade because they didn’t want to lose their parallel ports.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA!
The server farm will, among other things, untether the iPad from the Mac and tether it to the Apple Cloud.
The server farm is a complete joke all due to the MobileMe fiasco.
Ummm, this is “news”? Maybe a year ago…