WWDC 2014 Wishlist

Also Known As: The Post in Which I Am Likely Wrong About Everything.

This list is most certainly not meant to be things that I have any assurance is going to happen. Trying to guess at rumors for Apple events requires more connections than I have or a willingness to guess wildly and call it the truth.

Retina Desktops

I'm hoping for either a retina iMac or a retina Cinema Display. If previous generations mean anything (which is an iffy proposition when it comes to Apple), the Retina iMac will precede a Cinema Display based off of the same panels. Whichever one comes out first, I'll be giving it serious consideration as I'd really like to do a retina desktop if it's at all plausible.

Aperture X

Now that I'm playing with a camera again, I'm looking at my photo management options, and even with general disinterest in paying Adobe a monthly fee for software, Lightroom is looking like it's worth the money. I'm hoping that Apple unveils an overhaul to Aperture at WWDC now that Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X, and iWork updates are out and Aperture is now one of the biggest stragglers in Apple's software offerings.

New Apple TV

The Apple TV is the box that streams video to my TV. I use iTunes home sharing, Hulu and Netflix for everything video related. The whole thing works, but I'm hoping for an OS overhaul and updated hardware to go with it to keep it as the best option on the market with the new competition from the Kindle Fire TV and consistent competition from Roku.

Mass Storage

This is probably the longest shot on the list. With more and more of the Apple line switching over to SSDs, the amount of harddrive space available drops off. I've been researching external multi-drive enclosures and network attaches storage. I have a handful of potential options, but none of them are ideal.

It's a very very long shot, but I'm hoping Apple throws a new option into the ring that will seat at least 4 drives, support RAID in some capacity and either act as a network server with iTunes home sharing support or just be a solidly built very quiet desktop enclosure. It's my own personal xMac dream at this point. As a close second place, an Apple provided iSCSI initiator would make me very happy.

ZFS

I'm vaguely paranoid about my files, and I'll be very happy if OSX supports a file system that's equally paranoid. I was tempted with this as a possibility back in 10.5, and haven't given up the dream yet.