Would the Drobo, “data storage robot”, be the next great product from Apple?

Let’s pretend for a moment that Apple acquired the entire Data Robotics company.  The Drobo could get a case redesign and be released as a compliment to the Time Machine, Time Capsule line perhaps as the “Apple Space Station”.  After all, that is what the device really is.  A big storage device full of empty space.  We could use the whole space lingo thing.  We could “dock” and “undock” new drives.  

The product already has Apple-like ease of use.  Just plug it in and it works.  That is Apple to the letter.

The company is small now, but lets not wait too long.  If the rumors are correct these units are flying off the shelf.  Especially now with the release of the new Firewire enabled units and software developer kits.  

I can envision us here at AIB moving our web server data, mail server data and database server databases all to an external “Space Station”.  What an administrator’s dream.  If I want to upgrade a server…prep it offline, unplug the old machine, plug in the new one, point the software to the “Space Station” data and we’re up and running.

Hope Apple is listening.  What do you think? 

Maybe.  Lets review the known issues.  At WWDC, CEO Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple consists of three parts, the Mac, Music and the iPhone.  Obviously, if Apple owned AT&T it could better control the iPhone future without being dependant on a third party, in the US anyway.  It could improve music, and video, downloading. It could own a piece of the “cloud”.  AT&T does operate one of the largest backbone segments of the internet and this would give Apple a huge advantage over any other vendor, whether it be Microsoft or NBC.

But what about the disadvantages of owning a wireless provider?  First, they would have to fix the horrible customer service issues many complain about the not only AT&T, but every other wireless provider.  Consensus is, there are no good carriers, just varying degrees of poor.  Could Apple resolve such a tough issue? What about all the other phones carried by AT&T? Motorola, Palm, Samsung, etc.  Would Apple just drop them?  Of course it would be nice to have a nationwide network of “iPhone Stores” to augment it network of Apple Stores. Maybe by the time such a deal does transpire, Apple will have a suite of iPhones to complete its product line.  The iPhone 3G, the iPhone Nano, the iPhone this and iPhone that.

This idea is a stretch, but think about the possibilities if they could figure out how to resolve the customer service issues. Isn’t Skype up for sale? What would this do to the Apple TV? Would I be able to download music, the second part of the triangle, from anywhere. 

This gives MobileMe a whole new meaning.

Tags: iPhone

Zoomdex, a new local business search engine designed for small and home based businesses, has launched using Mac OSX Server at the foundation of their site.  Zoomdex decided to do their own hosting to allow for more flexibility and to meet the high demand and better facilitate future capabilities.

“Mac OSX Server allowed us to get up and running quickier than a Linux or Windows solution.  It also allows us to make whatever modifications and upgrades we feel necessary to meet the high demand expected.”

Zoomdex allows businesses to list specific products and services and allows visitors to search for those specific selections.  Phone book sites only allow searches by categories such as hardware stores or computer programming.  Zoomdex allows the user to search for Baldwin Brass doorknobs  or php programming.  This is of course dependant on the business entering those items into the list of products or services they offer.

Zoomdex also touts the ability for small and home based businesses with limited advertising budgets to get online within minutes.  Getting listed in the phone book can require months and newspaper ads are very expensive.

Use of the Mac server platform is another indication of small businesses beginning to adopt the Mac for serious business applications.

If you have a business that need low cost advertising, visit www.zoomdex.com and claim your listing.  During the beta, inclusion in the index is free.

Apple has announced that the next version of Safari will be much faster than the current version in one specific area.  JavaScript execution. Why?  MobileMe is based on SproutCore. A JavaScript framework for developing web applications that look and feel like real desktop applications.

With Apple actually delivering these applications and Microsoft just talking about it, can developers afford to wait for Redmond to ship IE 8?  Will there applications be cross browser capatible? Apple says theirs will be. Of course, Safari will run them faster, but they will be open standard compliant, so any browser should run them exactly the same.

We will see if Apple delivers on it’s promise by the end of July.  Let’s hope that MobileMe doesn’t turn into another Vista.  It needs to be stable, fast and reliable when it hits the street.  Apple seems to be trying to create an image of fast, lightweight and reliable and a black eye called MobileMe would be a serious setback.

Tags: javascript, MobileMe, ria, sproutcore

With the recent announcement about Snow Leopard Server having Exchange support and it’s own Contact Server, updates to calendar server and other Exchange like features it would seem obvious that Apple is positioning itself for a move into the enterprise.  

Apple has historically not directly marketed itself as an alternative to business, but has chosen to let business find it. Vista has certainly helped and the PC vs Mac tv ads could be argued as business ads.  Either way, with all the recent activity about “Exchange” this and “Exchange” that, it seems clear Apple is primed for a ninja like attack.  First release MobileMe, then a suite of online applications like iWork, then hit them with a lean, clean, fast and secure Snow Leopard.  

Look at some of the client’s that Apple touts on stage at the 2008 WWDC.  The Army! Really? The US ARMY?

What are the troops going to do with a iPhone in the field?  Is there signal in the Sahari?

If I worked in Redmond, I would be updating my resume before next years MacWorld.

Tags: business

A client of ours has a simple request.  They needed to copy the content of a web page, via cut and paste, then edit it by removing some unneeded portions, then print it.  Guess what?  You can’t do that on a Mac!  

Before the switch to Mac, in Windows, they would load up Firefox or IE, select a section of the web page with the mouse, copy it, paste it into Microsoft Word, delete a few rows from the table, change some text and print it.  All of this was to eliminate some unneeded data on the page which caused the print to span more than one sheet when printed.

Now on the Mac, same thing… select, copy, paste into Pages ‘08 or Microsoft Word and POW! Junk! A mangle of unformatted, misaligned, table stripped data.  What a mess!  A quick web search reports that because Apple had so much trouble getting Pages to act as an HTML editor in the ‘06 version, that they removed the capability entirely from the latest ‘08 edition.  Then why doesn’t MS Word work the way the Windows version does?  Don’t know.  Just doesn’t.  

So now the only option is to paste the page into Dreamweaver, a real HTML editor, and do it the right way.  That’s fine and all, but the average office worker doesn’t have and doesn’t need a professionals HTML editor just to do something they have been doing for years in Windows.  

The only option that “kinda” worked was to paste it into TextEdit in rich text mode. However, when printed it is very small and doesn’t fill the page and it still can not be moved from there into a Pages or Word document for presentation.

They can’t be the only one who has ever used web content in a printed document.  Sure, copying text is fine, but if that text is in a table…good luck.

I really hate hearing, “the Mac can’t do this…”.

Got any ideas? I’m all ears.

With the announcement of Snow Leopard Server and its new features driving it closer to an actual Microsoft Exchange competitor, it would seem that one critical component was needed.  

Outlook Web Access basically gives the PC user web based email, calendaring, address book and file access from any web browser, all linked to the company Exchange Server.

Sound like MobileMe to the rescue.  Outlook Web Access, except better, newer, more features, easier to use and open standards based.

Now its getting interesting…

Tags: exchange, leopard, MobileMe, outlook, owa, Server

Is Apple truly unconcerned with the Enterprise market.  Obviously not.  Look at the new iPhone “push” features.  What about the constant reference to “Exchange for the rest of us…”.

Well, if MobileMe is Exchange for the rest of us, then Snow Leopard and MobileMe together must be the beginnings of a version Exchange built by Apple to compete directly with Microsoft’s Exchange.

Just read the features list of the OSX Snow Leopard Server.

• Calendar Server
• Address Book Server
• Email Server
• etc…

Sure, the current version of Leopard Server has a calendar server and an email server, but NOT an address book server.  Want to bet it will be a “push” server. Sound familar?

How about the “new” email server.  What new email server? Up to now Apple has used a collection of open source products, like Postfix for email.

Look at the actual text from the Snow Leopard Server page…

Mac OS X Server’s open standards-based mail service is the ideal server for small businesses or companies looking to bring email in-house. Snow Leopard Server dramatically increases its performance and scalability with an overhauled engine designed to handle thousands of simultaneous connections. Mail services have been enhanced to include server-side email rules and vacation messages.

How is Apple going to “dramatically increase performance and scalability” of this “overhauled engine”?  Perhaps by using the existing open source products as a jumping off point to build their own version of Exchange. Modular perhaps, but Exchange none the less. I might be wrong, but I don’t think Postfix currently supports server-side email rules or vacation messages. 

Just a hunch, but most small businesses don’t need “thousands of simultaneous connections”.  Sounds like an move to the enterprise to me. Lots of Macs, iPhones, iPod Touch and other upcoming products, all synchronized and available from the users Outlook Web Access MobileMe account, anywhere.

Well see in… “about a year”.

Tags: calendar, mail, MobileMe, osx, Server

Yesterday Apple announced the release of the iPhone 2.0 software and the actual iPhone 3G itself.

However, no mention of whether the most basic of all software features would finally be added.  

Cut, Copy and Paste!

Why not?  Is it security issue?  Does it drain the battery life?  Is there just no place on the screen for the buttons?  No menu bar…no place for an Edit menu. Huh. Maybe…

You tell me.  Why do you think this simple feature has failed to make the cut.  There must be a very good reason.  I hope it’s not as simple as “nobody ever uses it.” Maybe it’s true.  

If you have an iPhone tell me, do you miss it?  Have you learned to live without it?  Has it absense made you be better user and therefore has reduced your typing errors?

Lets talk.

Tags: iPhone

Here I will be discussing various topics, ideas and concepts about using the Apple computer platform, including the Mac, it’s operating system OS X, the iPhone and any other item of Apple technology that need discussion.

We will also be discussing topics for those considering the switch from Windows to Mac.  We will share our experiences, both good and bad in transitioning our company to the Mac in June 2007.

Stay tuned, as we will be discussing some unique ideas and innovative uses about Apple and their technology, that you can use in your business.