Technology Blog

Microsoft have today pulled the troublesome SP2 update for their Office 2011 for Mac.

We have seen a number of issues with this latest update affecting a number of users, especially in the Outlook application-

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/23/microsoft-pulls-office-for-mac-2011-sp2-auto-update-after-outlook-database-corruption/

One of our clients, Republik have won gold at the 34th John Caples International Awards in New York City.

The gold was for the Fuji Xerox Fujikistan  campaign for copywriting.

http://www.caples.org/fujikistan-1

Well done to the team at Republik!

Get it here-

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html

Announced today by WorkflowMax-

It is with huge excitement that today we announce Xero has purchased WorkflowMax. Xero (XRO) is a world leading provider of online accounting software, and is a publicly listed company on the New Zealand stock exchange.

We are genuinely excited about the enormous opportunities this affords both the WorkflowMax team and the product itself. When we founded WorkflowMax back in 2007 we always envisaged that WorkflowMax would be a truly global solution, and now with the funding, talent and energy that Xero brings we have a significant opportunity to achieve this goal.

But as always our customers are paramount, so what does this mean to you. In short it is service as usual:

• your data will still be hosted on our Rackspace servers
• there will be no loss of service
• there will be no change in the current subscription pricing
• we will still continue to develop and support the product
• we will continue to support our existing interfaces with all accounting products

What will happen is that the WorkflowMax team will grow. We will bring in more development, support and implementation staff. We will have access to some of the best user interface designers and infastructure experts in the country. WorkflowMax as a product will evolve and improve faster for the betterment of all users.

In terms of Analogue WFM support, nothing will change for our clients.

Apple yesterday released their new iPhone 4S in NZ.

Both Telecom and Vodafone have these for sale, major coup for Telecom as their network is much more iPhone friendly than Vodafone.

I had 2 imported from Brisbane a week and a half ago, here are my thoughts-

Same form factor, one minor difference, the mute switch has moved its position down and affects some cases as a result.

Supposedly faster, although I have not seen any major evidence of this as I primarily use it for pure business use.

Camera is better at 8 megapixel.

Siri, now I’m still not convinced on this feature… the language is localized to Australia in iOS 5, some phrases are picked up pretty well, others are not. Just like any other voice recognition software it has its flaws. Making calls and setting calendar events works well. As with any first release its a bit buggy and underwhelming.

Major issue-

With 48 pages and counting the outgoing audio bug raised here-

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3404857?start=0&tstart=30

Is plaguing a few people, myself included. Its been a painful process, resets and firmware upgrades on my Parrot car kit to work out its a hardware/iOS issue. I have just spoken to Apple AU and will be swopping for a new iPhone 4S come Monday.

If you are having trouble with your outgoing calls, probably best to call Apple direct, raise a repair case, contact Brightpoint on 0800 347 78 to get it changed.

Going to your mobile vendor is only going to prolong the pain and they will end up sending it to Brightpoint anyway as they are the only iPhone agents in NZ.

So my verdict, not worth the upgrade if you are on a 4 already, although the 4 is still available at $899 compared to $1029 for the 4S.

ZDNet report that Adobe has discontinued development on their highly contested Flash mobile platform.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/exclusive-adobe-ceases-development-on-mobile-browser-flash-refocuses-efforts-on-html5/19226

This comes after a war of words between Steve Jobs and Adobe around the future and usability of Flash on mobile devices, here are Steve’s forward thinking thoughts from over a year ago-

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Flash mobile platform has been buggy even on high end supported devices. Part of the problem with mobile flash platforms like Android is that its just so fragmented, there are quite a number of different hardware devices out there that do not have the horsepower to run flash apps, or the software version to support it.

This is a welcome change from Adobe, finally admitting that html5 is the way to go.

We have received our first thunderbolt based RAID unit this  week and have been running some tests on it.

This one is the Promise Pegasus R4-

http://www.promise.com/storage/raid_series.aspx?region=en-global&m=15&rsn1=40&rsn3=47

This unit does not come with a thunderbolt cable, it is a separate purchase.

The unit is quite minimal with 4x drives, power button, IO port and 2x thunderbolt ports-

All the configuration is done via supplied software-

Once configured and formatted, we chose RAID5 for redundancy, speeds were pretty good from a Mac Mini Server-

The latest updates from WFM-

Its all a welcome set of great updates.

Apple have today announced their entry into the Cloud storage and services, later in the year.

Our Cloud based offerings have been around for some time now.

Difference is-

• Apple are aimed at the user with an AppleID/@me account around media and personal email.

• Analogue have aimed their offerings to the business users who wish to extend their traditional services beyond current capabilities.

Do not get me wrong I think its great that Apple have taken the large step into the Cloud arena, its way overdue, ask anyone who has multiple devices and likes to have the same media across all of them. Its a good move.

Apple have also indicated it will be a free service with 5GB storage excluding some of the more hungry media types.

Storage and services delivered from the Cloud is a reality that is not too far away.

Our cloud services include-

• Synchronised business email across devices, shared calendars and address books.

• Job management tools such as browser based time sheets, quotes, jobs, invoices all with customised reporting.

• Document management within the cloud for easy editing.

• Backup for your essential data to our hosted backup service.

• Asset management and proofing. Have your brands stored in an easy to use branded interface for re-purposing and collaborative proofing.

• Remote support anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.

These services are available across multiple devices from any location around the globe.

Our servers are hosted in a secure data centre with 99.7% up-time, full off site backups and redundancy.

We already have a number of clients using these cloud based services, call us today on 021 506 887 to find out how The Cloud can help your business.

Apple have today held their yearly opening to WWDC week. This is an event where developers get together to see and use new technology released by Apple.

So today was a great event, centered around software and cloud services.

I will not go into too much detail over the different areas covered, the Internet already has many of those, here are some key areas to read up on-

Mac OS X Lion (Coming next month)

iOS 5 (Beta has already been jailbroken)

iCloud (At last!!)

Watch the full keynote here-

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/wwdc-2011/

Various articles-

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/desktop-os/2011/06/07/a-first-look-at-mac-os-x-107-lion-40093011/

http://www.engadget.com/wwdc-2011/apple-ios-5-hands-on-preview/

http://gizmodo.com/5808937/apples-new-icloud-iphone-and-mac-stuff

Recently there has been a rise in the reports of Mac based malware seen by users.

This threat is called ‘Mac defender’ and usually shows up as a drive by download advising you that you have multiple infections just the PC versions out there.

It attempts to mimic your finder window and display a list of infections, which are all bogus-

One of my clients sent me this image of a Safari page that popped up while searching for images on Google.

Apple have released a statement-

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650

More information-

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/02/macdefender-malware-targeting-mac-users/

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/05/02/bogus-macdefender-malware-campaign-targets-mac-users-using-google-images/

Sophos anti-virus have released a free home version to keep you protected-

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

We have consolidated our remote support access software and chosen to use Team Viewer.

This gives us the ability to-

• Support anyone anywhere

• Support any platform

• Inside any network, regardless of firewall

• Secure and encrypted data

• Support via dedicated application, web, iPhone and iPad.

• Provide presentations and demonstrations remotely

• Remote file transfers

We have also created customized quick support download versions of Team Viewer to allow you to quickly connect to our account and we can provide secure remote support to suit your needs.

These can be download via our contact page on our website-

http://www.analogueltd.com/contact-us.php

No installation needed, just download, unzip (Mac) and run.

Apple yesterday updated their iMac range with updated -

CPU’s

Thunderbolt ports (dual)

Graphics cards

Facetime HD webcam

So the new entry level unit is a 2.5Ghz quad core i5, price has dropped slightly to under $2000, top of the line i7 now hits 3.4Ghz as a CTO option.

You can also run dual screens off the thunderbolt ports, Engadget hooked up 2x 30″ Dell’s-

More information here-

http://www.apple.com/nz/imac/

Adobe have recently released a point update to the latest CS5, this new update includes-

• Updates to HTML5 and Adobe Flash authoring tools

• Indesign interactive page layouts for use on tablet devices

• Video and audio enhancements and performance features

And many more.

CS5.5 Design premium feature updates since CS5

CS5.5 Production premium updates since CS5

CS5.5 Web premium updates since CS5

More info here-

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.html

We have a new staff member join our growing team of people at Analogue.

Patrick Dawson joined us last week, he comes to us with a wealth of experience in the Apple industry.

Patrick has been a certified Apple engineer for over 10 years and has vast knowledge around various Apple hardware and software areas.

He previously worked at Magnum Mac for over 10 years and more recently at Ubertec.

We welcome Patrick to our team and know that he will be a valuable addition to our business!

Apple’s upcoming 10.7 OS called Lion is due for release later this year at WWDC, or so the rumor mill is suggesting.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/lion/

One user has posted a couple of preview videos of the build 11A390-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mL1k4Zwf1I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6xvP0wEoFI

Looks great!

Apple have during this week released an update to iOS, v4.3 now suppports-

Personal wireless hotspot for iPhone 4, for up to 5 devices

AirPlay Enhancements

Safari Performance

iTunes Home Sharing

Details here-

http://www.apple.com/ios/

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/09/apple-releases-ios-4-3-with-airplay-and-safari-improvements-personal-hotspot/

Apple have today announced-

Random House to offer 17000 books on iBooks

iPad2-

New A5 chip, dual core, faster graphics

Front and rear cameras

Thinner design

White option! Shipping from day one.

March 25 Shipping in NZ

HDMI out, 1080p, now video out works with all apps

Magnetic smart covers

iOS 4.3

With Apple’s inclusion of a new technology yesterday in the updated line of MacBook Pro’s, very little was known about this new port.

Apple have completely bypassed USB3 and moved onto the next level, in typical Apple fashion.

Intel have developed the new interface along with Apple engineers to allow HD displays and IO devices to work together on the new port.

Here is an outline of the new technology-

http://www.tested.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-intels-thunderbolt-light-peak/1894/

Engadget have a review and live video of the new port in action using FCP-

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/24/intel-thunderbolt-a-closer-look/

Apple have this morning released new MacBook Pro hardware, now with quad core cpu’s and Thunderbolt included.

The new line up includes-

-17″ 1920×1200 Display. 2.2Ghz Quad i7. 4GB RAM. 750GB HD. AMD 6750M 1GB. US$2499
-15″ 1440×900 (1680 option) Display. 2.2GHz Quad i7. 750GB HD. AMD 6750M 1GB. US$2199.
-15″ 1440×900 (1680 option) Display. 2.0GHz Quad i7. 4GB RAM. 500GB HD. AMD 6490M 256MB. US$1799
-13″ 1280×800 Display. 2.7GHz Dual i7. 4GB RAM. 500GB HD. Intel HD Graphics. US$1499
-13″ 1280×800 Display. 2.3GHz Dual i5. 4GB RAM. 320GB HD. Intel HD Graphics. US$1199

Apple have also changed the graphics from Nvidia to AMD Radeon.

The new Thunderbolt port allows HD displays and high speed IO devices to be connected for transfer rates up to 10Gbps, ha, take that USB3!

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/