Tag: Apple

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News

Lion details of enterprise and educational distribution

Apple has finally given a detailed lion upgrade process for business and education. Apple has handled the question of how the MAC OS X Lion’s download-only version would translate into large scale licenses for business and education. On Friday, Apple discussed the strategy. Apple will give business users bulk licenses the same $30 price with at least 20 users. Schools on the other hand will have to pay for a $39 Apple Software Collection bundle in batches of 25, but they will get both iLife and iWork in the package. These licenses will really come in handy for universities and degrees offering business administration degree programs. There was a suspicion that Lion Server is an upgrade option and Apple has confirmed this. Corporate buyers will have an optional $50 per person maintenance contract to get extra support. All of this can be bought through the Mac App Store.

Apple has come to help certain industries in the search for a better way to get the Mac OS X Lion. Apple has given these industries different ways to help them in their search for bundled packages. Schools and businesses don’t mind paying a little extra as long as they know their getting more. The volume licensing will work he same as it did with the disc-based versions, just with a download-only file, Apple said. Only one redemption code will be handed out to business and educational customers. On the other hand, they will get a Lion installer file they can then copy to other systems. Anyone who bought a Mac on or after June 6 WWDC keynote, including individuals, qualifies for a Lion Up-to-Date program. The buyer has to claim the upgrade within 30 days of buying their Mac.

 

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News

What is iCloud?

What is iCloud? iCloud is like a hard drive through the internet. iCloud is arriving this fall. It is accessible from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. It gives all your devices instant access to your music, movies, photos, apps, and more. iCloud automatically keeps all your devices up to date. Once you update your iOS devices to iOS 5, your apps become integrated with iCloud and all your content is kept up to date. When you sign up for iCloud, you are given 5GB of free storage, which is a lot when your purchases from iTunes don’t take up any space. Mainly your mail, documents, Camera Roll, account information, settings and other app data are the only things taking up space.

With iCloud, you can purchase music from iTunes and iCloud automatically stores it and pushes it onto your other devices, so it’s automatically on all your devices as long as they are connected over Wi-Fi or 3G. You don’t even have to sync your devices. You can also look through your purchase history and download any of your past purchases onto your devices. iTunes Match is another option if you have a lot of songs you didn’t purchase from the iTunes store. For just $24.99 a year, iTunes will scan and determine which songs you have and will match it automatically with the song in iTunes, which will be added to your iCloud library. You have to upload the songs that iTunes can’t find a match for. Even if the original copy of the song is low quality, iTunes Match lets you play it at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality.

Whenever you take a photo with your iOS device or import a photo onto your Mac or PC, it is automatically stored on iCloud and pushed to all your devices, as long as there is Wi-Fi. When new photos are pushed onto your iOS devices, only the last 1000 photos will appear on your Photo Stream, but if you want to make sure the photo is saved on your iOS device, you can save it from your Photo Stream to one of your photo albums. Your Mac or PC automatically keeps all your photos.

Certain apps, like Apple iWork apps, make it possible for you make documents, presentations, and other documents, but now with iCloud, your apps can store that information in iCloud and that gives you access to your documents with whichever device.

With iCloud, all the apps you download can be automatically pushed to all your devices. Another cool feature about iCloud is that when you use iBooks app or the iBookstore, all the books you save can be pushed to all your devices, and when you leave a bookmark, highlight text, or make notes, they are automatically pushed to all your devices. How convenient is that? iCloud also automatically backs up your iOS device daily over Wi-Fi. Backup is convenient and seems completely effortless because it backs up only the changes you made, so it is quick and efficient. iCloud Backup takes care of everything when you need to restore your device, just connect your device to Wi-Fi and enter your Apple ID and password.

iCloud also stores your email, calendars, and contacts and also automatically pushes them to all your devices.

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News

Best Mac OS X Lion 10.7 Features

I am really excited about the new Mac OS X Lion 10.7 that is coming in July to the Mac App Store for just $29.99. So what is new? The Mac OS X Lion 10.7 has over 250 new features such as Multi-Touch gestures, Mission Control, full-screen apps, and Launchpad. With so many new features, everyone should be excited about it. Features such as Multi-Touch helps you interact with your Mac in greater depth such as full-screen swiping and image zooming. With full-screen apps, you to take advantage of the whole Mac display for your apps. It’s easy to switch from full-screen to desktop view and vice versa. The full-screen apps feature is very similar to iOS, as are many of the new features on Mac OS X Lion. You really get immersed in your apps when it is in full-screen.

Mission Control gives you the ability to have full-screen apps, Dashboard, Exposé, and Spaces all under your fingertips. With Mission Control, you have a bird’s-eye view of everything. It only takes one three-finger swipe to show Mission Control. Launchpad is one of my favorite features. It really brings the iOS feel to your Mac display. Just click the Launchpad icon on your Dock and your Mac display is replaced by a full-screen of all your apps on your Mac. You can organize and arrange them however you like, just like you could on your iOS device. When you download an app from the Mac App Store, it goes straight to Launchpad.

Resume is very self-explanatory. You can now close your apps and reopen them and they will look exactly as you left them. You can restart your Mac and open your apps and they will be the same as before you restarted your computer. Auto Save is also self-explanatory. Your work automatically saves your work so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to save your work and having to start over. Versions is a feature that allows you to chart the history of your documents and place it on a timeline to compare them side by side with your latest version. You can see how much you improved your documents.

AirDrop is a very useful feature that allows you to share files with other AirDrop users that are within about 30 feet of you. You don’t need a complicated set up or internet, just drag the file onto the person’s name and once accepted, the file will begin transferring. Mail is getting a huge upgrade. Mail takes advantage of the full-screen and includes a message list on the left that also includes snippets of the message. You can also search for messages with ease. Lion Server now has a Server app that helps assist you in turning your Mac into a server. Profile Manager allows you to manage all your Macs, running Mac OS X Lion of course, and iOS devices. Mac OS X Lion definitely has many improvements that everyone has been looking forward to. What features are you looking forward to the most?

Feel free to leave a comment.

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News

Apple is a Religion

Is Apple really a religion? Well it certainly is followed by millions of people in this world. Almost every person in this world knows about Apple and Steve Jobs. I certainly understand how Apple can be a religion because people go crazy when a new product or an Apple store is opened. According to neuroscientists, Apple could possibly be a religion. They compared MRIs of Apple fans’ brains to those of people who would call themselves rather religious. They found that Apple and religion light up the same part of the brain. Call me crazy, but isn’t that just spectacular? Apple being a religion would definitely draw criticism, but everyone has a way to express themselves. This also means that Apple triggers the same feelings and reaction in people as religion. In a documentary on BBC, Secrets of Superbands, the documentary also likens Apple stores to cathedrals. Renee Oricchio said that “Apple stores often feature stone or other types of austere, simple flooring like a church with products mounted on pedestals like individual altars.” When Apple launches a new store, the whole place goes crazy. The workers are high fiving the hundred of new customers. It is definitely a crazy idea, but it is also an idea that can come true. It seems Steve Jobs really is a God to some people in this world.

 

Categories
Opinion

Lion only $29, App Store download

In my previous article about OS X 7 Lion, I mentioned how one of my concerns for the new operating system was the price. If it sold for anything over $100, I wasn’t going to really consider it. Well, looks like I don’t need to put any more thought into whether or not to buy it because the price is right. For only $29 you get a full step up in an operating system that touts many new features. That alone is a pretty crazy notion.

But wait, there’s more! Apple is again shifting paradigms on their heads. Lion will only be available as a 4 GB Mac App Store download this July. No install disc. No flash drive. Nothing physical at all. You can read more about the specifics of downloading Lion at Apple.

The catch? From what I can tell, only anyone with the latest version of Snow Leopard will be able to access Lion. I can only guess that this means if you have Leopard, it will cost you $29 to upgrade to Snow Leopard and then another $29 to get Lion. Even at $60, that’s still a value, but a bit daunting. There really isn’t a shortcut to it either, because it’s all based in the Snow-Leopard-only-Mac-App-Store. It will be interesting to see if there’s some work around to archive the Lion install on a flash drive.

Furthermore, the Intel Core Duo folks are finally forsaken to upgrades. In Apple’s typical fashion, they’re cutting out the hardware they consider “cruft.” Snow Leopard seemed to portray that only Intel Core 2 Duo Macs would be able to install it. I shirked the warning and was able to get Snow Leopard running just fine on my Core Duo MacBook. While, I don’t have my MacBook anymore, I still couldn’t imagine running Lion on it. The Core 2 Duo folks are still in the running, but it’s only a matter of time.

It was hard to get a good impression of Lion without a developer copy and without any more information than the Apple site provided. But with WWDC underway, Apple has finally revealed more of their hand to the general public.

I’ve seen what I need to see. In addition to the cool new features, the price can not be beat. Now we’ll see how hard it will be to download it the moment it becomes available.

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