mDNSrResponder in iPhone suggests Bonjour synching?

Having a look around the iPhone filesystem with James O'Brien's new AFP hack called AFPd, I noticed a lot of references to mDNS. mDNS also goes by the name of Zeroconf or Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) in Apple products. It is primarily used to connect computers in a network without much configuration - hence the name.

Apple uses this function to help set up printers, to let people iChat, to easily allow computers to network and to connect devices to iTunes. Currently, the iPhone doesn't take advantage of any Bonjour services but it is obviously being worked on if Apple engineers left the code in there. The iPhone OS was stripped of all but very essential parts of the OSX operating system. If there are files in the OS they are - or will be - used.

So what will it be used for?

Will we be able to print from the iPhone? I am not so sure this is a high priority for Apple. Some people would certainly like this function but as a whole, people are moving away from printing out files. Especially if you can take them with you and reference them on a device like the iPhone.

iChat? I hope so. I didn't believe the pundits who said that Apple was keeping iChat off the iPhone because it was making money off of SMS's. I also figured they'd have iChat on the street by now. Now I am not so sure this isn't a money thing for Apple. Yes, Apple should put iChat on the iPhone and use Bonjour to do it. Will they? dunno.

Networking? Sure. AFPd is great but so much more can be done with Bonjour including sharing files to other users on a WAN. The new Social anyone?

Most likely mDNS will be used to function with iTunes - where Apple really goes crazy with Bonjour. Bonjour connects iTunes with Airport Express to pump out music over the network. iTunes also uses Bonjour to communicate with AppleTV to share movies. Bonjour is used to connect iTunes to different libraries on other computers on the same network as well.

Extrapolating slightly, it is easy to see how Apple could sync iTunes with the iPhone over Bonjour. Just like it pumps data to other devices. It could also allow you to use your Mac or server as a mediacenter to play tunes or watch movies all around the house. It is really just a matter of when.

What else could these files be used for? Maybe it helps with the Starbucks Store?