About a week ago, someone asked me if iConsole would support VPN. I paused and answered flatly that yes, it would in an upcoming release… but the pause wasn’t to come up with an answer.
The real question that came to my mind wasn’t “will iConsole support VPN?” Instead, I read that question as “how should we implement VPN to make sure it isn’t three cryptic letters, that the ordinary consumer doesn’t understand?”
VPN is a great example of a technology that shouldn’t be limited to the tech savvy. It can do a lot of amazing stuff that the Web 2.0 groupies simply can’t handle. But even explaining the notion of a VPN tunnel, spanning across the information superhighway, is something that the ordinary end-user simply doesn’t grasp. That’s okay, they shouldn’t have to.
So yes, iConsole will handle VPN. But, the tough question is how to deliver VPN in a way that wows the tech-savvy, and gives the ordinary consumer a tool that they can add to their life that improves their tech world. That’s what we’ll be working on after we ship iConsole for HTPC Alpha 1.
Until then, I’d love to hear what you like about VPN, and what exciting things you’d like to see iConsole do with it.
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I understand the concept of a VPN, but I’m not seeing the connection to how it would apply in an iConsole space.
The only things I came up with were allowing international users to watch hulu (and other US-only streaming sites) and connecting online gamers through a better, open-source method.
Perhaps I am missing other ideas?
Well, not to tip our hand too much, but we think that your iConsole should follow you, wherever you go. What you have stored on it, should just be available from anywhere. If we have to bore a tunnel through the internet to make that happen, that’s what we’ll do.