Tag-Archive for ◊ Macs in Business ◊

Fun tricks with Growl and GeekTool
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 | Author: admin

Finding one app that does exactly what you want is one thing, but combining two apps to do something really specific to your needs is really cool. Find out what you can do with Growl and GeekTool on a Mac.

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I am a huge fan of the free Growl application, which allows other applications to tell you what’s happening with them. For instance, Growl can alert you when new files are downloaded from Dropbox, when a track changes in iTunes, and so forth. I’m also a big fan of GeekTool, which allows you to display various bits of information on your desktop, like uptime information or the weather, or anything else you like that can be run from a script or contained in a text file.

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Category: Macs in Business  | Tags: ,  | 2 Comments
Five essential iPad apps for enterprise IT
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 | Author: admin

Apple’s iPad is a revolutionary device. Regardless of  whether you prefer or dislike Apple technologies and regardless of whether you believe they belong within enterprise environments, they’re coming. Apple sold more than a half million units in the very first week they became available. Enterprise IT administrators would be smart to consider loading/supporting the following iPad applications to help themselves and users make the most of the new computers.

1. MobileIron Sentry

Many ill-informed iPad detractors criticize the new device, stating iPads place enterprise security at risk. That’s simply incorrect. iPads pose no more of a security risk than do smartphones. Using the free MobileIron Sentry iPad app, enterprise IT departments can track iPhones and iPads, view device inventory, block offending or compromised devices, and remotely wipe stolen, lost or compromised units. The application also enables remotely suspending email access for active staff, just-terminated employees, and others.

Paired with the MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform, enterprise IT departments can leverage MobileIron Sentry to better manage and secure, not only iPad deployments, but numerous other Smartphone platforms. Among the technologies supported are BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, with Android support forthcoming.

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Category: Macs in Business  | Tags: ,  | 19 Comments
Advanced tips for using LaunchBar shortcuts with Mac
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 | Author: admin

LaunchBar is a great multitasking application that I’ve written about before. Here are a few tips to take using LaunchBar beyond its basics as a quick application launcher or switcher.

You can use LaunchBar to add events and TODOs to iCal; and, if you use another application that syncs with iCal, the events and TODOs will end up there too. In my case, I use Daylite, so adding an event via LaunchBar to iCal will cause it to show up in Daylite.

Use LaunchBar to add calendar events and TODO items

To add a calendar event, activate LaunchBar and select the gear icon and then the Index option on the pull-down menu. Choose Show Index. Make sure that in the Categories section Calendars is enabled. If it is, activate LaunchBar again and start typing the name of the calendar you wish to add an event to. When it comes up, select it and then press the spacebar. A text field will present itself and here you can type, “Pick up mom from airport @ Apr 18, 7pm.” Press enter.

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Category: Macs in Business  | Tags: ,  | 3 Comments
Get increased password protection on the iPhone
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 | Author: admin

The iPhone is a great device, capable of doing a lot of things. It is a phone, a gaming device, a PDA. You can check the weather, stocks, read online news articles, instant message, and keep your contacts and calendars in sync. You can store TODO lists and keep your password database on it.

The iPhone carries a lot of information in a small form factor. One that can be easily lost or stolen.

There are ways to prevent unwanted people from accessing your data should your phone fall into the wrong hands. In the Settings, you can assign a 4-digit passcode and enable auto-locking of the phone so that after a set number of minutes of inactivity, the passcode to unlock is required. And, for full security, if there are 10 failed passcode attempts, the iPhone can be configured to wipe all the data on the phone.

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Category: Macs in Business  | Tags: ,  | 27 Comments