025: Mobile Device Management and More

Recorded live November 5, 2013

Topics:

- Apple Configurator and the issue with Find My iPad and Activation Lock

- using Apple Configurator in combination with a cloud-based MDM solution; e.g. AirWatch with AirWatch app

- LinkedIn proxying emails using its LinkedIn Intro service; see also

- MTC vs. MTC+: MTC focuses mostly on Apple's solution, whereas MTC+ focuses more on third party solutions

- basic Mobile Device Management features for small office use: remote wipe, remote lock

- tip about updating to iOS 7.0.3, removing and re-adding the stored Fingerprints

- Sam's impressions on the Synology DS1513+

- plus, Sam teases what's to come from his trip to Apple Professional Services Camp

Follow up:

- Jerry "rolling back" his client to Mountain Lion

024: Clients Plunging Headfirst into Mavericks

Recorded live on October 29, 2013

Topics:

- Clients upgrading to Mavericks, and then asking for help

- Jerry's medical practice client finds out MacPractice is not yet Mavericks compatible

- Joe's clients encounter trouble with Juniper VPN and SoftRAID

- Sam's client encounters problems with Zimbra, VPN Tracker

- run Mountain Lion in a VM to run apps that do not yet work on Mavericks?

- according to VMWare, "Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server, 10.6 Snow Leopard Server, 10.7 Lion client or server and 10.8 Mountain Lion client or server are fully supported on VMware Fusion while running on supported Apple hardware"

- Sam mentions CNET article: External drives experiencing data loss after Mavericks installation

- using Roaring Apps to determine app compatibility with Mavericks

- Sam and Jerry advise us to back up (archive) our OpenDirectory databases; this is built into Time Machine starting with Mac OS X Server 10.7.2 Lion

- Mavericks Prep service? flat rate to review installed apps, check file system, and advise client along a self-guided upgrade

- Promise Pegasus 2 and SANLink 2 announced

Follow up:

- John Siracusa tests battery life improvements from Mavericks on 2007 MacBook Pro and finds 25% improvement

023: Fall 2013 Releases - Mavericks, iLife, iWork, Retina MacBook Pro, iPad Air, Retina iPad mini

Recorded Live on October 22, 2013  

We have plenty to discuss this week about Apple's Fall 2013 releases, as well as new details about the forthcoming Mac Pro.

Topics:

- Migration Assistant bug upgrading to Mavericks; Apple updates Migration Assistant six hours too late to save Jerry's afternoon

- advising clients about when to upgrade to Mavericks

- using Carbon Copy Cloner's Disk Center to clone the Recovery Partition

- Carbon Copy Cloner's partner program: contact eddie@bombich.com

- iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina; Apple setting the stage for iPad Pro?

- hard drive upgrades, SSD upgrades, hybrid drives?

- Sam's client migration from iPhone to Android

- Mac Pro pricing and support for up to six Thunderbolt displays or three 4K displays

Follow up:

- 1Password 4 for Mac with Multiple and Shared Vaults; securely sharing data among members of a team using Secure Notes

Mentions:

- Lion Disk Maker

- Carbon Copy Cloner

- gizoogle.net

022: Interview with Thadd Weil, Public Relations Specialist for Synology

Recorded on October 15, 2013

Continuing our storage vendor interview series, Jerry and Sam are pleased to be joined by Thadd Weil, Public Relations Specialist for Synology America Corp. (Joe was out of town for this interview.)

Topics:

- Synology DiskStation entry-level "j" series with ARM processors for home

- DiskStation "+" series with Atom processors for SMB

- RackStation for business

- "xs" series with Xeon processor for enterprise; xs+ with High Availability

- Synology's naming convention

- Synology DiskStation Manager software and the Live Demo

- Link Aggregation using a DiskStation DS1812+ connected to a Retina MacBook Pro with two Gigabit Ethernet adapters

- Other Synology resources include Getting Started, NAS Selector, and RAID Calculator

- Synology is on Twitter (@Synology) and FaceBook

021: Interview with Jim Sherhart, VP of Product Marketing for Drobo

Recorded Live October 8, 2013

Topics:

- Jim's journey: after three years at Drobo, he left with founding CEO of Drobo, Geoff Barrall, to run marketing at Connected Data, creators of Transporter. Then a year later, Connected Data was acquired by Drobo which brought Jim back to the company.

- Transporter's improvements over the PogoPlug

- cloud storage vs. private/personal cloud services; the benefit of controlling the device

- Drobo Accelerator Bay enabling large, fast, cheap SSD cache for Drobo 5D, Drobo 5N, or Drobo Mini, e.g. 64 GB mSATA drive

020: Client Anecdotes & Rates

Recorded Live October 8, 2013

Topics:

- Quicken 2007 for Lion; migrating from Quicken 2003

- Sam's story about his client's self-help attempt: the client diagnosed a server's startup disk failing, erased the Time Machine backup, cloned a copy of the data to it, and then when the clone wouldn't boot, they called their trusted advisor (Sam) to swoop in and heroically save the day.

- liquid spills, and the accompanying story

- what to do when a client declines a backup recommendation

- Jerry's story of the need for a consultant to support legacy equipment

- Joe raised his rates recently; here's how

- new services; group class offering; break-even analysis

Memorable Lines:

"Step 1: Diagnose drive failure; step 2: erase the backup." - Joe

Picks of the Week:

- PowerBookMedic.com 

- SignMyPad.com