Testing Mac OS X Lion. Breaking my equipment - so you don't have to...

Lion was released late last week, and whilst this is NOT a review, it is some observations on the upgrade so far.

The Good

The upgrade was smooth and quick - a download from the "App Store".

The new overall interface is more subdued. Personally, it makes the task or content stand out..

Full screen view. Different from the Windows Maximise button. In full screen mode, there is no menu system.

Safari has a new feature "Reading List" which saves websites for later reading.

Add events to iCal using natural language - i.e.; See Craig this Friday at 1pm.

Recovery - Lion creates an invisible volume to help with recovery, restores and re-installs. It is also the basis of the new whole disk encryption.
Windows of course has had a recovery service for years "Last Know Good State" as well as whole disk encryption "BitLocker" - it's good to see it arrive on a mac - in a more usable form.

Lion Server is now only $49.99USD - this is down from $499USD in Snow Leopard and $999USD in Leopard!
If only Apple had a real Server hardware platform…

You can now merge the contents of two folders by dragging one folder onto on another - an old time Windows feature that is welcome addition.

Lion now has a Windows Migration Assistant as well as the standard Migration Assistant - should make setup of new users defecting from Windows much easier.

The Bad

If you have a NAS (Network attached storage) make sure you check for a firmware update or you might not be able to connect via AFP (Apple File Sharing).
Netgear have released an update for the Intel based ReadyNAS with a update soon to follow for the older Spark based models.
For other brands, your NAS needs to be running an AFP 3.3 compliant firmware - which means netatalk 2.2beta2 or later.

As per standard, a few applications always break.
Adobe has a laundry list of issues - if your running anything before CS4, you won't be happy.
Extensis Suitcase Fusion 3 will receive an update in a few weeks
Microsoft has a list of issues, mots of which are superficial.
The main issue is cannot import Apple Mail to Outlook 2011 (which is a good thing as I migrate people away for Entourage/Outlook weekly to Apple Mail!)
EverNote has a Safari extension to send copies of websites to EverNote. It's currently broken - should be fixed soon.
My copy of Parallels is currently PURPLE. There was a Lion update that did not resolve the situation.

Whilst the above list looks scary, it is quite short for a large update like this.
We are less than a week into the new version - hold off for a few weeks if you use any of the above software.

Plenty more coming - contact us if you have Lion questions, or hit us up on FaceBook or LinkedIn.

Software as a Service and the Rise of Freemium

Saas and Freemium - great options, beware of the pitfalls.

It's all the rage at the moment to sign up to all the free services on offer.
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Apps, EverNote, etc...
Like everything in this world - there is ALWAYS a cost. These days, it usually involves handing over personal information used to target ads.
Whilst these services are great - especially if you are just starting out in business and trying to keep your costs down, there are downsides.

1. Virtually all these services are ad supported and the model is if they cannot reach a critical mass, they cannot attract advertisers to pay for the service.

2. How easy is it to get your data out of their "silo"? - as an example, try to export your friends out of FaceBook (they won't let you)

3. Support - if there are issues and you have made the service central to your business, how do you get it fixed.

4. Granting ownership of data. Did you know uploading a photo to FaceBook grants them a worldwide, irrevocable right to use the image in any way they see fit.

5. Data Laws - Most countries state that the country your data is housed in under the under the laws of that country.
NOTE: The US-PATRIOT act means ANY US service is under the laws of the USA no matter where in the world the data is held.

Add a comment to the blog article if you have answers to the following questions.
What Freemium products are you using - have you upgraded the the paid version?
What paid Saas products are you using - are they value for money?

Site Specific Browsers (SSB) - handy if you keep dozens of website tabs open!

An SSB, like what can be created with Fluid is a browser that only shows one site - iTunes is a perfect example of this .
The iTunes store is a website created using WebObjects that is ONLY viewable via iTunes.
If there are several websites you alway have open, Like Google Apps, Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, you have probably experienced the dreaded browser crash that takes out ALL your current websites. With a SSB, each website is a separate program, so a crash on one website does not affect any other.
Contact us if you would like to see a demo...

Talk of Clouds and other services

Cloud Based services - what are they good for?

What is a cloud?
Simply put, a cloud is a service delivered over the internet using an often vast grid of computers.
Pure clouds are often though of as only accessible through a browser.
Often though, you use locally installed software that simply stores it's data (or a copy) on the cloud.

What are clouds good for?
If you need access to information or web based software from multiple locations, a cloud might be the right solution.
For small companies it is easier and far cheaper to use a cloud service for email than to have your own mail server and all work that entails.
Whilst there are concerns about security - there is no way a small company can secure something like a email server as well as the teams companies like Google Apps employ.
Also, things like accounting software, workflow/job management tools and CRM are all good candidates for the cloud.

What are clouds no so good at?
Accessing large chunks of data quickly is something a cloud can not do!
If you currently access files off a file server - accessing them from an cloud solution is simply too slow.
Solutions like DropBox and Egnyte get around this with a hybrid approach - they use the cloud the sync data to local machines.
That way, in the office, you access data at local network speeds, remotely you access the cloud at the speed of your internet connection.

D Revolution has been quietly testing and deploying various cloud based services for the last two years.
We can now supply, configure and support Google Postini - one of the best cloud hosted anti-spam/message archive product available.
This adds to Google Apps as well as Egnyte Private Cloud for ReadyNAS.
We are currently evaluating CrashPlan and are awaiting their local data centre in Sydney.
Contact us if there any any solutions you would interested in...

Design on a budget

The right tool for the right job

What is the best tool for layout? - InDesign.
What is the best tool for photo manipulation? - Photoshop.
If you are a professional designer who needs to work with other companies and commercial printers the above answers are true.
Today there are many groups of people that need to do some basic design that is commercially printed.
The best tool, I would contend, is the tool that gets the job done!

Spending $1800+ on professional publishing tools is beyond the budget of most amateurs.
Without design or prepress training, you wont make the best of of the tools!

If you need to some basic layout, Pages will create acceptable results that CAN be commercially printed.
If you need some basic photo editing (above and beyond what iPhoto can do) Pixelmator is a very competent image editor.

As an added bonus, if you are running a business with a few workstations using OS X 10.6, you can purchase the software through the “Apple App Store” which allows for unlimited number of installations for computers you own!

Contrast 3 workstations with CS5 Design Standard for over $5400 or 3 workstations with Apple Apps Store purchased apps for $23.99 + $36.99 = 60.98!

With the above 2 tools, you can easily produce PFX/X3 compliant PDF’s (that is - PDF suitable for print that are RGB colour managed)
Since the PDF’s are RGB, it is essential you get a proof from the printer as the colours on the print WILL BE muted compared to your onscreen original file.

Next week I will publish will continue with a layman's guide to CMYK conversion (preparing images for print.

News from the interwebs and other useful facts

OS X Lion, the Apple Mac App Store, virtualisation and terminal services

Mac OS X 10.7 A.K.A Lion will ship later this month and there are few interesting things.

Lion will only be available as a download from the Apple Mac App Store.
That brings up a few interesting points.
1. You will need OS X 10.6.6 running in order to download OS X Lion.
2. The download is 4GB per machine. So if you have 19 machines, that is 76+GB of downloads!
NOTE: Site licences allowing a single download a distribution of software start at 20 users.
3. In the USA, Apple is allowing people to bring their machines into an Apple Retail Store to download and install the update. No word on if that offer will be extended to Australia.

Lion will allow you to run several virtual instances of OS X side by side at the same time.
This will be a boon for It people or anyone involved in testing/support.
You could replace a small army of machines with a single one running every operating system in use!
Virtualisation on OS X revolves around 3 programs - Parallels, VMWare Fusion And Oracle VirtualBox.
I currently run Windows XP on my server (a Mac Mini) using Virtual Box and Windows Vista on the laptop using Parallels.

Lion will finally include terminal services - the ability for multiple users to log into a server at the same time and each show their own Account/profile.
I was first introduced to terminal services with Windows NT4 Server and Citrix in 1997.
With a fast network and a beefy enough server, you could buy the cheapest Mac Minis, all log into the server and harness the server's power to do all the work.
This is actually less important now as macs are so much cheaper and more powerful.
It will be interesting to see if the rumoured re-design of the MacPro takes place allowing it to slide into a server rack and take on the roll of a proper server.
NOTE: A proper server generally means redundant everything, ease of access and management.

Lastly, a big thank you to all the clients that took up the special end of year bulk billing offer.
We booked 3 months worth of pre-paid work last week.
Simply put, we can focus less on chasing invoices etc... and more on finding practical solutions to your problems that you all face day to day.

PS: If you are happy with the support provided by D Revolution, let people know - we love referrals...