Ever wish you could just take your computer’s entire Home directory with you on a portable drive, and then sit down at any computer, plug in your drive and access everything? Well, those were Apple’s plans back in 2003, by including a feature in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther dubbed “Home on iPod.” However, the component was inexplicably removed from pre-release builds of the OS.
AppleInsider has turned up a new patent filing from Apple for the feature, though, so there’s hope the project is still in the works. From the snippets of product descriptions AppleInsider posted, it sounds like an incredible tool.
“When you find yourself near a Panther-equipped Mac, just plug in the iPod, log in, and you’re ‘home,’ no matter where you happen to be,” the description continued. “And when you return to your home computer, you can synchronize any changes you’ve made to your files by using File Sync, which automatically updates offline changes to your home directory.”
Apple’s missing “Home on iPod” feature resurfaces in filing [AppleInsider]