News and reviews of interest to Mac IT professionals

Review: Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server

Jason Snell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:18:00 -0800

The new $999 Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is a fantastic product for workgroups, small businesses, and even schools to use.

Macworld's complete Mac buying guide

Roman Loyola — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:31:00 -0800

In this buying guide, we'll cover all the Macintosh models available, tell you how they've changed over the previous model, and how well they did in our benchmark tests.

For the enterprise, Google Apps fights uphill battle with Microsoft

Eric Lai — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:56:00 -0800

Microsoft's incumbent status as a provider of office productivity software gives it a leg up over Google Apps in the enterprise, Computerworld's Eric Lai reports.

HP to buy 3Com in networking, data center bid

Stephen Lawson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:41:00 -0800

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy 3Com for about $2.7 billion.

Intel to roll out new low-cost and high-end SSDs

Lucas Mearian — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0800

Intel will release a $120 solid-state disk drive positioned as a server "boot drive" with only 40GB of capacity, but the drive could also be used in low-end laptops PCs and netbooks.

Backblaze opens online backups to businesses

Dan Miller — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Backblaze has been offering online backup services to individual Mac users since last April. Now it's expanding those services to businesses, too.

Ballmer: Sidekick outage 'not good'

John Fontana — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:56:00 -0700

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, stating the obvious for emphasis, called the Sidekick outage "not good," but said he thinks all data will be recovered. And he added that Microsoft needs to be more forthcoming in explaining to enterprise customers why a similar situation won't occur with the company's online services.

Review: Mac OS X 10.6 Server

John C. Welch — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:00:00 -0700

With the significant price cut, new features, and improvements to existing features, Mac OS X 10.6 Server is a solid product. For an all or mostly-Mac network, this isn’t an "if" upgrade, but a "when," especially if you have iPhone users clamoring for push services.

McAfee security offering targets networks with Macs

Dan Miller — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:12:00 -0700

Aimed at everything from small- and medium-sized businesses to enterprises, McAfee Endpoint Protection for Mac includes protection against malware and spyware, as well as a firewall.

Review: CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac Pro 8

John Brandon — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:00:00 -0700

CrossOver Mac Pro 8.0 is an application that runs a virtual environment so you can run Windows applications on your Mac.

VMware announces VMware Fusion 3 details

Rob Griffiths — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:00:00 -0700

VMware Fusion 3 will ship on October 27th, at a retail price of $80 ($40 for upgrades). The new version features Snow Leopard compatibility, Aero support in Vista and Windows 7, an easy migration tool for those coming from physical Windows machines, and much more

Adobe rolls out LiveCycle app for iPhone

Philip Michaels — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:18:00 -0700

Adobe LiveCycle Workspace Mobile ES2 lets users of the company's LiveCycle Enterprise Suite manage tasks while on the go.

Lloyds International banking on the iPhone

Trevor Clarke — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:37:00 -0700

The Australian arm of global banking giant, Lloyds International, is planning to migrate up to 400 staff to the iPhone after conducting a successful pilot program.

Apple pushes unnecessary software to Windows PCs

Gregg Keizer — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:47:00 -0700

Apple used its software update tool to push a program that was previously not installed on a PC, according to Computerworld tests early Monday, though the company eventually removed that software from its update list.

Researcher: Hackers pay 43 cents per hijacked Mac

Gregg Keizer — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:46:00 -0700

Russian malware writers have put a price on the head of infected Macs -- 43 cents -- according to a security researcher.

The case for Entourage on Snow Leopard

John C. Welch — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:54:00 -0700

Much has been made about the potential impact of Snow Leopard's Exchange Support. And while it covers basic Exchange well, John C. Welch argues that but anything beyond a bare minimum, Entourage Exchange Web Services edition is a clear winner.

Seagate ships self-encrypting drives for enterprises

Lucas Mearian — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:47:00 -0700

Seagate is offering its self-encrypting drive feature with its entire line of enterprise-class hard disk drives.

Apple flubs its improved support for Exchange e-mail security

John Cox — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:25:00 -0700

Apple's improved support for Microsoft Exchange security has triggered frustration for some enterprise users linking to Exchange 2007.

HP to focus on services with new print division

Agam Shah — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:10:00 -0700

Hewlett-Packard on Monday formed a new print services division with a focus on managing print and imaging hardware and software in enterprises.

Opinion: Apple betrays the iPhone's business hopes

Galen Gruman — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Apple's fix of a security hole reveals a long-simmering flaw and makes many iPhones suddenly incompatible with Exchange

Novell tool opens iPhone to .Net developers

Nancy Gohring — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:53:00 -0700

Novell is releasing a tool that makes it easy for developers to build iPhone applications using .Net.

iPhone 3.1 breaking Exchange e-mail for iPhone 3G users?

Al Sacco — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:53:00 -0700

Reports suggest that a feature within Apple's brand new iPhone 3.1 software update is disabling corporate Microsoft Exchange e-mail access for some first-generation iPhone and iPhone 3G users.

QNAP offers two network storage devices for small business

Peter Cohen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:06:00 -0700

QNAP now offers a new four-bay NAS designed to meet the needs of small businesses.

Snow Leopard and Exchange: it just works

Michael Scalisi — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:31:00 -0700

By building support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 right into the latest version of OS X, Apple actually outdoes Microsoft. Michael Scalisi explains.

Gmail outages could turn off enterprises

Sharon Gaudin and Dan Nystedt — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:59:00 -0700

Repeated outages of Google's Gmail online e-mail system could discourage enterprise customers from using it.

Backblaze gives away its 67TB ‘storage pod’ design

Peter Cohen — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:29:00 -0700

Cloud storage vendor Backblaze has revealed its design of the 67 terabyte "storage pods" it uses for its cloud storage system, enabling anyone with the gumption to create one themselves.

Opinion: Mac engineers lament Snow Leopard in the enterprise

Tom Kaneshige — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:20:00 -0700

With Snow Leopard coming out earlier than expected, some engineers are not installing it, CIO's Tom Kaneshige reports. And they're bracing for the backlash from executives who may demand OS X 10.6 on their Mac machines.

Server vendors see sharp declines in shipments, revenue

Jeremy Kirk — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:20:00 -0700

This year continues to be tough for server vendors, which have seen dramatic declines in business, according to analysts IDC and Gartner.

Ten good things about Snow Leopard for IT admins

John C. Welch — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:33:00 -0700

Senior systems administrator John C. Welch has had a chance to use Snow Leopard and finds plenty to like about the latest version of OS X from a Mac IT perspective.

Wyse offers desktop virtualization for the iPhone

Mikael Ricknäs — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:55:00 -0700

Using PocketCloud from Wyse users can access their PC or virtual desktop remotely with their iPhone or iPod touch, the company said on Thursday.

Iomega intros four-bay NAS

Peter Cohen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:27:00 -0700

Iomega's new four-bay StorCenter NAS system works with Time Machine and comes with a host of its own software.

The art of creating strong passwords

Michael Scalisi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:00:00 -0700

IT pro Michael Scalisi gives you solid advice about picking a good password.