You are here: Home / Archives for Apple

iOS 5 Rants & Raves for IT Pros: Part 4

December 1, 2011 By

Are We There Yet?

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
Ever since digital technology escaped its white-coated keepers in the computer lab it has become relentlessly more and more personal. The BYOD trend is a logical phase in the development of the personalization of digital technology. Users no longer want to be restricted to “your” hardware; they want to use the hardware they choose. It is natural that the companies creating those devices would deliver what people want.

Part 4 in the series:
Are We There Yet?

One result of this is that iOS devices have been very good at allowing individuals to standardize multiple devices to their own preferences. What they have not been good at is supporting standardization to an organization’s preferences. One new feature in iOS 5 makes significant strides towards organizational standardization — it supports downloading and installing multiple applications at one time. This is convenient for individuals, but also a great time saver for those provisioning multiple standardized devices.

The Rant:
Simultaneous download and installation is a start, but [Read more...]

Filed Under: iOS 5 Rants & Raves, iPad Tagged With: , , , ,

iOS 5 Rants & Raves for IT Pros: Part 3

November 30, 2011 By

Separate Checks, Please

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
The very existence of Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader is a testimony to how lucrative it is to have a direct connection between the consumer’s device and your store. Apple decided to enforce its rule that all apps on its devices that sell things directly have to give Apple a cut. Apple’s justification for this restriction is that selling directly from the app bills through the iTunes Store, a convenience for which Apple should be paid. The consumers could always go to the vendor’s web page in Safari as an alternative.

Amazon, wanting as direct a connection as possible without giving Apple a cut, created the Kindle Cloud Reader as a web page that replicates the functionality of the Kindle app through the Safari browser. It also, coincidentally, puts a shortcut on the device’s home page just like an app does.

Part 3 in the series: Separate Checks, Please.

What is lucrative for Apple and Amazon can be expensive for your organization. That is why it is good that iOS 5 includes the ability to shut off all purchases from within apps.

The Rant:
Wait just a minute! The Kindle Cloud Reader isn’t an app, but you can buy stuff through it!? While this is true, and at least some of Amazon’s motivation for creating the Cloud Reader, it isn’t quite the same. [Read more...]

Filed Under: iOS 5 Rants & Raves, iPad Tagged With: , , , , ,

iOS 5 Rants & Raves for IT Pros: Part 2

November 29, 2011 By

iOS 5 Lets You Cut the Cord – Maybe

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
One of the ongoing frustrations with the iPad has been that, for a mobile device, it has been extremely dependent on being attached to a traditional computer through a wire. The most frustrating evidence of this was that there was no way to do the initial set up on an iPad except through a wired connection to a computer running iTunes. Quite time consuming if you are provisioning dozens of iPads. Day-to-day synchronizations, updates and imports were also wire-centric.

That all changes with iOS 5. Wireless activation and iTunes Wi-Fi sync go a long way towards making an otherwise delightful device capable of going it alone.

Part 2 in the series: Cutting the Cord with iOS 5.

The Rant:
Today’s forecast — cloudy. Tomorrow’s forecast — even cloudier. Google wants your data in their cloud. Amazon wants your data in their cloud. Microsoft wants your data in their cloud. With iOS 5, Apple makes an offer of putting your data in their cloud that you have to actively refuse if you don’t want it there. You want to back up the data on all these iPads, don’t you? Well, then, just accept the default of backing up through iCloud and all your problems melt away. What? [Read more...]

Filed Under: iOS 5 Rants & Raves, iPad, Rants & Raves Tagged With: , , , , , ,

iOS 5 Rants & Raves for IT Pros: Part 1

November 28, 2011 By

Upgrading to iOS 5 is Like Going to the Gym – No Pain, No Gain

By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
Once iOS 5 is in place, future updates are faster and much less disruptive. Key changes that contribute to this improvement are that the updates are incremental, run in the background and can be done without a wired connection to a computer running iTunes. It all starts with a shift from erase-everything-then-reload-it updates to changing only the things that need to be changed. This allows the device to remain functional during the update and reduces the size of the update package to the point where it can be handled wirelessly. Incremental updates are an improvement that makes everyone happy.

First in a series about upgrading to iOS 5 – No Pain, No Gain.

The Rant:
The update to iOS 5 is not very incremental at all and is more disruptive for many than some of the previous updates, mainly because the introduction of some welcome new applications requires icons to be added. However, the resulting effect on the organization of some people’s existing applications was not so welcome. [Read more...]

Filed Under: iOS 5 Rants & Raves, iPad Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »