Any day now, Apple will be making the new [iPod shuffle](http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle) available. Like its predecessor, the new shuffle will offer a gigabyte of storage space, no screen, and a paradigm-shattering industrial design. The size and shape of a book of matches, the new shuffle is so small that, on a recent [MacNotables](http://www.macnotables.com) podcast, I heard Andy Ihnatko refer to it as, "a paper clip with a play button."

I'm reserving judgement until they actually come into stock at my local Apple store, but I think Apple has another winner here. However, I want to focus my attention on an interesting new design element and a piece of news I received from a reader who – for obvious reasons – would like to remain anonymous.

That reader (whom I will call Phil) told me that he works at an Apple Retail Store. From time to time, Apple offers incentives to retail employees including discounts as large as 50% on products they would like to move off of the shelves. One such discount which happened recently is a 50% employee discount on items that Phil called, "iPod connectivity products." He said that this included mostly FM transmitters and auto power adapters. Now, I can't verify Phil's story, but it certainly sounds possible... so let's assume it is true.

So Apple is trying to empty its stores of things which plug into the dock connector of your iPod. Hmm. Apple is also about to release the new shuffle, which has no dock connector and, unlike the original shuffle, no way to connect to your computer except the headphone port. Check out the photos available of the new shuffle's dock: you will notice that the dock is nothing more than a glorified USB-to-headphone cable. I assume that the new shuffle will both sync and charge via its headphone port.

Do these seemingly unrelated pieces of information point to a redesign of the dock connector on all iPods? Is it possible that, right now, companies like Belkin and Kensington are engineering new connectivity products for an as-of-yet unannounced new line of iPods with no dock connector?

I suppose it is, and only time will tell. But, if I'm right, than you heard it here first. :)

This sort of thing really annoys me. Check this out: [Joel Spolsky](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/) is a software developer. He runs his own software company and uses a MacBook Pro as his personal computer. In a [recent post](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/09/11.html) on his weblog, Joel complained about some misbehavior on his Mac:

>Also, I don't understand all these people who say that Macs never crash. I probably had to reboot the MacBook Pro (hard reboot -- hold down the power button for five seconds) about every two hours. It was always the same problem: the Wifi network would go down for a second, something which happens to everyone, but on Windows, it just comes back, while on the Mac, I get a spinning colored ball and everything is frozen. Everything. Forever. If I try to wait it out the beachball will still be spinning the next morning. If anybody is aware of this problem and knows of a specific fix I'd love to hear of it. It was like a Windows 3.1 deja vu all over again thing.

Ummm... Joel? I can think of lots of people who have heard of that problem. Some of them probably work for [AppleCare](http://www.apple.com/support/products/), the division of Apple Computer tasked with assiting you when your MacBook Pro misbehaves. Remember them? You got a promise from them when you bought your computer that they would help you with any difficulties for a full year. And, if you were smart enough to pay the extra $350, that promise is three times as long.

Jeez. Just pick up the phone and call the 800 number. They will troubleshoot on the phone and, in the unlikely event that that doesn't solve the problem, they will ship you, overnight, for free, an empty box for you to use to send them your computer, also overnight, also for free. They will then fix it, *for free*, then ship it back to you, overnight, again for free.

Or, if you're unwilling to do that, take it to one of the two Apple [Retail](http://www.apple.com/retail/fifthavenue/) [Stores](http://www.apple.com/retail/soho/) in Manhattan, where they will diagnose it for free and, if needed, fix it (also, coincidentally, for free. Seeing a pattern here?).

If the Apple Stores are not a good option, you can take it to one of the dozens of [Apple Authorized Service Providers](http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/index.html?q=10033&Submit.x=13&Submit.y=10&-ZB=cn&servicetype=carryin&lang=en), all of whom will honor your AppleCare warranty and fix your computer for free.

Oh, wait, there are more options. You can hit the [support discussion boards](http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa) on Apple's website and run a search there... chances are that your exact problem has been identified and diagnosed.

In short, Joel, there's a reason why Apple is consistently rated highly for [customer](http://forbesontech.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/05/apple_gets_a_ok.html) [service](http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,103959,00.html) [satisfaction](http://www.theacsi.org/second_quarter.htm) - it's because, "76 percent of the survey's respondents reported Apple's free technical support solved their problems."
Did you get that? Three out of four Apple owners who have problems report that they can get the problem solved, for free, simply by contacting AppleCare.

Perhaps it is ironic; maybe Apple's famed ease-of-use is the reason why some Mac users never think to contact tech support; they must think that, since the computer is so simple to use, it should be simple to fix, too. The fact of the matter is that, nine times out of ten, Macs work just fine. When there is a problem, let a pro fix it.

And, for goodness' sake, don't complain about it on a public weblog. That's just silly... and makes you look pretty silly, too.

Thanks to the kind folks over at [Apple Matters](http://applematters.com), we can now offer a new feature, the Today in Apple History page, which you can access from the menu bar. Enjoy!

Thanks to [Apple Matters](http://applematters.com).

Back when Apple previewed Leopard at the WWDC, the "main attraction" of the Keynote Address was [Time Machine](http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.html), Apple's real-time, always-on, futuristic backup solution. In a nutshell, the idea is that, out of the box, Leopard will automatically backup all of the files on your hard drive every night at midnight.

The preferences for Time Machine will allow you to choose:

* Where: Time Machine will store your backup files on your internal drive, an external, or even a server, depending on your preference.
* When: By default, the backup occurs every night at midnight, but you can customize that setting if, for example, you use a MacBook and it's not on at that time.
* What: By default, Time Machine backs up your entire system. But you can also select items you’d rather not back up.

In addition to performing the actual back-up tasks Time Machine comes with a snazzy interface that, in an intuitive and cool-looking way, allows a user to "travel back in time" through his or her system, looking at previous versions of any file or folder, until he or she finds the correct version. Then, with a single click, the file is restored. The nice thing is that this search is contextual, meaning that if you initiate a Time Machine search within your documents folder, all you will see is previous versions of that folder. Ditto for your Photo Library or any other folder on your Mac. (Plus, Apple is providing an API for Time Machine so that application developers can bake this capability right into their programs.)

##Problem: a crowded garage##

Despite the coolness of Apple's solution, it is plagued by one of the problems facing all backup applications: where to store the data.

I use [Carbon Copy Cloner](http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html), an excellent application by [Mike Bombich](http://www.bombich.com) to back-up my PowerBook. Every weekend, CCC makes a full clone of my internal hard drive and saves it onto an external firewire drive. That way, if anything happens to my PowerBook's drive, I can easily restore from the external.

But, in order to use this method, I need an external drive that is at least as large as my internal drive. And I can't use that drive for any other purpose; it must remain ready at all times to receive the entire contents of my internal hard disk. Even if we assume that Time Machine will compress the files that it backs up (which, while complicated, is certainly possible), the sheer amount of data that it promises to save seems unwieldy. I find myself wondering how in the world Apple plans to get people to use Time Machine.

So, I came up with a what-if. Now, this is entirely speculative. I do not posses any internal, secret information, I have not spoken to Steve Jobs and I have no tea leaves to read. I'm just thinkin' out loud here.

##Teach people to backup by equipping them to backup##

What if Apple decides to teach us all to backup responsibly by giving us everything we need to do so?

We're already halfway there. Since Time Machine will be built in to Leopard, anyone who buys a Mac after Leopard is launched will receive the software free.

*What if Apple includes an external hard disk as well?*

What if, when you buy a Mac, there's a small, Apple-designed hard disk in the box, maybe something like an iPod, but without the screen and scroll-wheel? A [quick search](http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_drives/5738-1.htm) tells me that I can buy an external 250 GB hard drive for about US $100. Buying at volume, Apple can certainly afford to include one with a new computer purchase.

Now, take it one step further: every current Mac has both Firewire and USB 2.0 ports. What if the boxed version of Leopard includes this hard disk as well? What if Apple were to sell Leopard along with a drive so that, out-of-the-box, every Mac user got everything they needed to *never lose any data ever again?*

And, as long as we're dreaming, what if Apple included this bus-powered drive and cable with every Mac or Leopard box without raising the price?

##Time Machine: taking you light years ahead##

A Mac with all of the benefits of Leopard and this (imaginary) Time Machine solution would mean that, while Microsoft was just getting Vista out the door, Apple would be selling computers with all of the benefits of Leopard, plus the ability to run Windows, plus the assurance that, without purchasing anything extra, users would be permanently protected from data loss, thanks to a transparent application that runs, out-of-the-box, with no user input whatsoever.

Interesting, no?