Could Apple's Time Machine be a marriage saver?

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 12 June 2007 14:31

Business IT - Technology

"We're using our computers not just to store our work documents, but really  our digital lives," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during his keynote address at the Worldwide Developers Conference. "We've got things on our computers now that used to be in our precious shoeboxes." So what happens when we accidentally delete the wrong file, or a malfunction damages it?

"If you lose these things now... you're going to be really bummed... Yet almost no one backs up their computer automatically." Jobs did not mention the sanctions likely to be applied by a spouse in the event of losing the only copy of an irreplaceable photo, but we'd suggest that's a serious consideration in most families.

Time Machine, the backup application coming in Mac OS 10.5, is intended to "solve these problems in such a way that everyone actually uses it," said Jobs. "You set up backup with just one click" and from then on it automatically backs up everything to a local USB or FireWire-attached hard drive or network server, including a drive attached to an AirPort Express base station.

As we saw last year, Time Machine lets you use Spotlight to find backed up but mistakenly erased files, and then Leopard's Quick Look feature can be used to examine the contents without launching the associated application. A single click then restores the file.

The arrival of Leopard and Time Machine is likely to be accompanied by a surge in external drive sales as Mac owners rush to take advantage of the new feature. We don't really think it will have any impact on the divorce rate, but it may help avoid some unpleasant scenes.

That said, Time Machine shouldn't be regarded as complete protection as external drives appear to be slightly more prone to damage caused by mains fluctuations, possibly due to inferior power supplies. Another problem is that if a computer is stolen, there's a good chance that the external drive sitting next to it will go at the same time.

As far as we can see, Time Machine makes no provision for off-site backup by rotating two or more hard drives. It will still be very desirable to copy critical items such as photos to a remote server or onto DVDs which are then stored with a friend or relative. or taken home from work each evening.