Michael Watson
Registered
I do not know how many of us get much news via Infoworld, but same is a tech mag of impeccable credentials, and no blind worshipper of Microsoft. With this mags coverage of Apple over time having been unsubstantial, InfoWorlds October 18 (electronic medium date) / October 21 (physical medium date) having carried a slew of articles on Apple as an InfoWorld Special Report dubbed Apple Unpeeled was a watershed event.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pl/xml/02/10/21/021021plapple.xml
NEWS / Apple's road less traveled
APPLE COMPUTER IS flirting with the enterprise. The company that for 20 years has driven innovation of technologies including 802.11, peer-to-peer networking, PostScript, FireWire, portable MP3, and the clean user interface, is sharpening its enterprise wares.
Despite consistently denying it has targeted large corporations, technologies brought to the table this year suggest that Apple's software may be better suited for the enterprise than in the past. . . .
Apple has reason to hope. Gartner predicts that by 2007, Windows will have lost as much as 5 percent market share to alternative client OSes.
"The Mac is probably the most underestimated threat," to Microsoft's desktop monopoly, said David Smith, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner.
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http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ap/xml/02/10/21/021021appim.xml
ANALYSIS / Apple gets Bluetooth bug
HIDDEN BEHIND Apple Computer's summer rollout of protocols and software -- dubbed iSync, iChat, and Rendezvous -- is a set of strongly held beliefs about the future of pervasive devices.
Senior management at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company believes wireless access to corporate data will coalesce around synchronization software, Bluetooth-enabled handsets, notebooks, desktops, and wireless carriers.
At the top of that list sits Bluetooth, the wireless specification that Apple thinks will help cell phones evolve into powerful devices capable of accessing corporate data via its xServ and Mac OS X on one side, and potentially the consumer-designed iPod music player on the other . . . . [Emphasis added.]
"Bluetooth is potentially the conduit for communications and data connectivity," . . . .
Not only do Apple strategists view the cell phone as the ubiquitous device to access data and sync with devices such as the iPod and notebooks, [Apples] Schiller believes cell phones obviate the need for handhelds.
"What I continually hear from customers is, Well, wait a minute, my phone has my contacts on it, my calendar on it, why am I carrying this PDA?" Schiller said.
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http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pl/xml/02/10/21/021021plmacent.xml
TEST CENTER / Mac marks the enterprise
IN MAY 2001, Apple began shipping OS X on new Macs. Six months later, at the O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer and Web Services conference, it was clear that a sea change was under way. The open-source geeks who flock to these events were flouting Microsoft not with PC notebooks running Linux, but with PowerBooks running OS X. Displayed on their gorgeous Aqua screens was the Mac's newest and most unlikely killer app: SSH, the secure shell, in all its 80-column, 25-line splendor. . . .
But the OS X Mac isn't just another Unix box that you can manage with bash, Perl, or Python scripts. It's a consumer-friendly system that is successfully managed in places where IT budgets don't exist and kindergarten teachers double as network administrators. But Apple hasn't rested on its laurels. Despite its Unix roots, OS X makes end-user administration cleaner and simpler than the classic Mac OS ever did. And with Samba, WebDAV, LDAP, and a host of other standards-based integration technologies, it's ready to go to work side-by-side with Windows.
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http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pl/xml/02/10/21/021021plmacpcp.xml
ANALYSIS / Too big for its niches
. . . The new Apple gear is stable. I've been trying to crash mine for a week (see "No worms here"), and the best I can do is snarl the boot process for a while.
Economics come into play on Apple's side as well. Even the most flint-hearted CFO has to like the pricing for OS X Server; unlimited users for $999 looks real tasty when compared to the latest Microsoft licensing scheme. From the desktop perspective, I have said for over 15 years that Macs are more reliable and simpler to use than Windows-based PCs, and don't even think about putting a novice on Linux. Granted, you can't build a white-box Mac. But most people want a computer that works when you unwrap it, without fussing over drivers, registry entries, or hardware conflicts. On the Wintel side, it's still "plug and pray" in my experience. If you're a cheapskate, or a masochist, keep buying Windows PCs. If you want your employees to get work done without having personal IT trainers, buy them Macs.
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http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ap/xml/02/10/21/021021apipod.xml
REVIEWS / More than musical?
THE WORLD OF high-tech gadgetry is awash with multifunction handheld devices. As we await the single unit that will do it all (don't hold your breath), device manufacturers, including Apple Computer, are determined to add functionality to their devices. . . .
. . . As a music player [the iPod is] wonderful, with its incredibly convenient ability to store music from hundreds of CDs yet still retrieve them by artist, album, or track title. As a PIM, the iPod is limited. Maybe that will change. But for now, the inability to make changes or additions on the go means that you still have to take your real PDA along. [Emphasis added.]
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http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ne/xml/02/10/21/021021nexserve.xml
REVIEWS / No worms here
. . . Making Apple a serious player in server hardware may have seemed impossible, but the company has pulled it off. Xserve changes everything. Apple now has the hottest-looking server on the market, but looks aren't everything. Fortunately for the company and its customers, the Xserve packs plenty of punch behind a sweet 1U (1.75 inches) smile, making it worthy of our Deploy rating. . . .
In short, we're pleased with what we've seen in the Xserve. Apple finally has an enterprise-grade server that customers can deploy today. Whether the company develops a larger chassis with four-and eight-CPU configurations remains to be seen. For now, a 1U-high, gigahertz server running Unix with standard gigabit Ethernet -- well, let's just say that Christmas came early this year.
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http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/18/021018hnapple.xml
INTERVIEWS / Apple on the move
. . . Bereskin: The [technology] we're in the midst of right now is Bluetooth. We believe Bluetooth was sort of like wireless USB, [allowing] you to have now a mini network of devices with your computer at the center. At the moment, most of it doesn't work. Most of the chip sets don't work quite as you would think. Most of the software stacks don't work together properly, and we're debugging it and making it all work and making it all easy to do. That's what we're rolling out with. Both the Bluetooth hardware we've been working on as well as the Bluetooth support in Mac OS X, as well as the iSync software that's going to connect Bluetooth devices to all your applications.
InfoWorld: When is Bluetooth going to be built into Macs?
Bereskin: We'll talk about the future when it comes.
InfoWorld: Are there plans for any kind of collaborative environments that would leverage these wireless technologies?
Bereskin: You know we hate to talk about futures. What I will say is that especially with Rendezvous, which is the underpinnings for a lot of kinds of technologies we've talked about, the light bulb has gone off with our engineers and all the third parties that support our platform. They're coming up with incredible ideas.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/10/21/021021opnoise.xml
Opinions / Polishing the Apple for the enterprise
APPLE COMPUTER -- longtime darling of the education, graphics, and desktop publishing markets -- is pushing the enterprise envelope. A powerful server, a commitment to open standards, and killer innovations such as FireWire are slowly nudging the cult favorite into viability and credibility as a corporate solution. The company has also been quick to adopt wireless standards and develop pervasive devices. Apple claims it is not chasing the corporate market, yet its recent hardware and software releases suggest otherwise. So is Apple ready for the enterprise? Is the enterprise ready for Apple?
. . . The company denies targeting large corporations, but its product releases seem to suggest otherwise. . . .
. . . Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz reports on Apple's strong pervasive-device showing (see "Apple gets bluetooth bug"). The company is betting on Bluetooth to enable wireless devices -- and potentially Apple's iPod device, which is gaining favor for its storage capabilities -- to access data. Contributor Russell Kay reviews the iPod and calls into question its current suitability for corporate use, but remains upbeat about the device's potential (see "More than musical"). [Emphasis added.]
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pl/xml/02/10/21/021021plapple.xml
NEWS / Apple's road less traveled
APPLE COMPUTER IS flirting with the enterprise. The company that for 20 years has driven innovation of technologies including 802.11, peer-to-peer networking, PostScript, FireWire, portable MP3, and the clean user interface, is sharpening its enterprise wares.
Despite consistently denying it has targeted large corporations, technologies brought to the table this year suggest that Apple's software may be better suited for the enterprise than in the past. . . .
Apple has reason to hope. Gartner predicts that by 2007, Windows will have lost as much as 5 percent market share to alternative client OSes.
"The Mac is probably the most underestimated threat," to Microsoft's desktop monopoly, said David Smith, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ap/xml/02/10/21/021021appim.xml
ANALYSIS / Apple gets Bluetooth bug
HIDDEN BEHIND Apple Computer's summer rollout of protocols and software -- dubbed iSync, iChat, and Rendezvous -- is a set of strongly held beliefs about the future of pervasive devices.
Senior management at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company believes wireless access to corporate data will coalesce around synchronization software, Bluetooth-enabled handsets, notebooks, desktops, and wireless carriers.
At the top of that list sits Bluetooth, the wireless specification that Apple thinks will help cell phones evolve into powerful devices capable of accessing corporate data via its xServ and Mac OS X on one side, and potentially the consumer-designed iPod music player on the other . . . . [Emphasis added.]
"Bluetooth is potentially the conduit for communications and data connectivity," . . . .
Not only do Apple strategists view the cell phone as the ubiquitous device to access data and sync with devices such as the iPod and notebooks, [Apples] Schiller believes cell phones obviate the need for handhelds.
"What I continually hear from customers is, Well, wait a minute, my phone has my contacts on it, my calendar on it, why am I carrying this PDA?" Schiller said.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pl/xml/02/10/21/021021plmacent.xml
TEST CENTER / Mac marks the enterprise
IN MAY 2001, Apple began shipping OS X on new Macs. Six months later, at the O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer and Web Services conference, it was clear that a sea change was under way. The open-source geeks who flock to these events were flouting Microsoft not with PC notebooks running Linux, but with PowerBooks running OS X. Displayed on their gorgeous Aqua screens was the Mac's newest and most unlikely killer app: SSH, the secure shell, in all its 80-column, 25-line splendor. . . .
But the OS X Mac isn't just another Unix box that you can manage with bash, Perl, or Python scripts. It's a consumer-friendly system that is successfully managed in places where IT budgets don't exist and kindergarten teachers double as network administrators. But Apple hasn't rested on its laurels. Despite its Unix roots, OS X makes end-user administration cleaner and simpler than the classic Mac OS ever did. And with Samba, WebDAV, LDAP, and a host of other standards-based integration technologies, it's ready to go to work side-by-side with Windows.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/pl/xml/02/10/21/021021plmacpcp.xml
ANALYSIS / Too big for its niches
. . . The new Apple gear is stable. I've been trying to crash mine for a week (see "No worms here"), and the best I can do is snarl the boot process for a while.
Economics come into play on Apple's side as well. Even the most flint-hearted CFO has to like the pricing for OS X Server; unlimited users for $999 looks real tasty when compared to the latest Microsoft licensing scheme. From the desktop perspective, I have said for over 15 years that Macs are more reliable and simpler to use than Windows-based PCs, and don't even think about putting a novice on Linux. Granted, you can't build a white-box Mac. But most people want a computer that works when you unwrap it, without fussing over drivers, registry entries, or hardware conflicts. On the Wintel side, it's still "plug and pray" in my experience. If you're a cheapskate, or a masochist, keep buying Windows PCs. If you want your employees to get work done without having personal IT trainers, buy them Macs.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ap/xml/02/10/21/021021apipod.xml
REVIEWS / More than musical?
THE WORLD OF high-tech gadgetry is awash with multifunction handheld devices. As we await the single unit that will do it all (don't hold your breath), device manufacturers, including Apple Computer, are determined to add functionality to their devices. . . .
. . . As a music player [the iPod is] wonderful, with its incredibly convenient ability to store music from hundreds of CDs yet still retrieve them by artist, album, or track title. As a PIM, the iPod is limited. Maybe that will change. But for now, the inability to make changes or additions on the go means that you still have to take your real PDA along. [Emphasis added.]
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/ne/xml/02/10/21/021021nexserve.xml
REVIEWS / No worms here
. . . Making Apple a serious player in server hardware may have seemed impossible, but the company has pulled it off. Xserve changes everything. Apple now has the hottest-looking server on the market, but looks aren't everything. Fortunately for the company and its customers, the Xserve packs plenty of punch behind a sweet 1U (1.75 inches) smile, making it worthy of our Deploy rating. . . .
In short, we're pleased with what we've seen in the Xserve. Apple finally has an enterprise-grade server that customers can deploy today. Whether the company develops a larger chassis with four-and eight-CPU configurations remains to be seen. For now, a 1U-high, gigahertz server running Unix with standard gigabit Ethernet -- well, let's just say that Christmas came early this year.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/18/021018hnapple.xml
INTERVIEWS / Apple on the move
. . . Bereskin: The [technology] we're in the midst of right now is Bluetooth. We believe Bluetooth was sort of like wireless USB, [allowing] you to have now a mini network of devices with your computer at the center. At the moment, most of it doesn't work. Most of the chip sets don't work quite as you would think. Most of the software stacks don't work together properly, and we're debugging it and making it all work and making it all easy to do. That's what we're rolling out with. Both the Bluetooth hardware we've been working on as well as the Bluetooth support in Mac OS X, as well as the iSync software that's going to connect Bluetooth devices to all your applications.
InfoWorld: When is Bluetooth going to be built into Macs?
Bereskin: We'll talk about the future when it comes.
InfoWorld: Are there plans for any kind of collaborative environments that would leverage these wireless technologies?
Bereskin: You know we hate to talk about futures. What I will say is that especially with Rendezvous, which is the underpinnings for a lot of kinds of technologies we've talked about, the light bulb has gone off with our engineers and all the third parties that support our platform. They're coming up with incredible ideas.
---------
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/10/21/021021opnoise.xml
Opinions / Polishing the Apple for the enterprise
APPLE COMPUTER -- longtime darling of the education, graphics, and desktop publishing markets -- is pushing the enterprise envelope. A powerful server, a commitment to open standards, and killer innovations such as FireWire are slowly nudging the cult favorite into viability and credibility as a corporate solution. The company has also been quick to adopt wireless standards and develop pervasive devices. Apple claims it is not chasing the corporate market, yet its recent hardware and software releases suggest otherwise. So is Apple ready for the enterprise? Is the enterprise ready for Apple?
. . . The company denies targeting large corporations, but its product releases seem to suggest otherwise. . . .
. . . Editor at Large Ephraim Schwartz reports on Apple's strong pervasive-device showing (see "Apple gets bluetooth bug"). The company is betting on Bluetooth to enable wireless devices -- and potentially Apple's iPod device, which is gaining favor for its storage capabilities -- to access data. Contributor Russell Kay reviews the iPod and calls into question its current suitability for corporate use, but remains upbeat about the device's potential (see "More than musical"). [Emphasis added.]
