iPhone 3G + Enterprise Support = International Reach

With the announcement from Walt Mossberg that the next iPhone will be 3G the potential impact of this unique crossover entity might just be moving towards a Corporate International audience.

Arguments can be made that iPhone is already a corporate entity in the international market but as most non-US readers know, the limitation of not having 3G is a real concern on the international scene.

Let's face it 768k is only called "broadband" in the US. Most international markets reserve the term broadband for much higher data transfer rates. While Walt refers to content and marketing angles as his main points, the rub with enterprise I.T. managers becomes what to do if this 3G option is now part of the iPhone platform. While dismissing the iPhone is a hard thing to do even today, 3G support would really make this naysayers look more like pundits.

Walt references a 60 day timeline so time will tell, but should Apple decide to take that angle with the iPhone, it's clearly added another threat to the existing Mobile market.

Valuable Lesson for iPhone Wifi

Today at a wifi hotspot we were given the a Key to allow us on the network.  Mind you this was not an ordinary network, it was a network based on the shop owners brand new Time Capsule.  Clearly a nice choice!  After about the third time trying to enter the Key, the shop owner noticed I was having a problem and mentioned that others too has indeed been having a problem and I should try all CAPS.  

Sure enough that was it.  WPA/WPA2 on the iPhone are normally a no brainer but for the record if you are having issues connecting to a WIFI spot try the old ALL CAPS trick and you might just have saved yourself 10 minutes. 

-ZuCom

iPhone SDK (Updated)

Apple has updated it's latest release of the iPhone SDK.  With the fury at which the last release was downloaded this one is sure to be a hit.  While the details of the upgrade are still sketchy and it would appear that Apple is dedicated to the market it has found for mobile development platforms.  

As mentioned in the a recent article over on the iPhone Development Blog the reach that this product will give Apple into the enterprise could be big.  I would argue that with regular updates and what is seemingly a caring / nurturing attitude from Apple this could be a revolution in the making for the industry yet again.  

Many corporate I.T. departments will find development in this area will be hard to categorize and even tougher to fit in to a standard CMMI, Agile, RUP methodology.  Over the next few months ZuCom will evaluate the impact this has had in the industry and look to develop strategies that partners and clients can use to help better cope with this next wave of innovation.  

-ZuCom

ZuCom Upgrades SwitchtoHeadphones to version 1.1 (FULL LEOPARD SUPPORT)

Today Zucom has announced it's release of "Switch to Headphones v1.1". This application is now fully supported under Apple's OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and further improves performance with it's OS integration.

Developed originally under OS 10.2 this simple tool has found it's home in the professional audio studio all over the world since it was first released. In recent years it has become popular with the VOIP community who often use it with products like iChat and Skype. By adding support for Apple's Leopard operating system ZuCom preserves this app for years to come, and ensures it's longevity as a native Mac utility.



Softpedia

LinuxLinks

-ZuCom

Ideas

If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them

Article Quoted

Paul Graham

Paul is dead on.. Don't go moving to Africa or try to apply this thinking in a Military service situation but he's still dead on. To date I've not seen a college level course on how to manage I.T. resources like the ones he describes in his article. Undoubtedly these approaches exist, some may even work on a large number of I.T. types, but the ones he's describing are visionary. Those types are not lead, managed, or dictated to, the best you can hope to do is partner with them.

Client Side iPhone / iPod Touch Browser Redirect

If layer 7 redirection from hardware based solutions isn't quite available in your enterprise, or perhaps the entire CSS3 standard hasn't completely made it into your long term memory yet there is a very easy way to redirect iPhone & iPod Touch users.

While several of our clients have experience varying levels of success, small to mid-sized solutions may benefit from a simple inline javascript redirect.

Example:

<script language=javascript>

<!--

if((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i)))

{

location.replace("http://TYPE_YOUR_URL_HERE");

}

-->

</script>




Those who are better versed in conditional CSS, will find that the iPhone
and iPod Touch react very favorably to a CSS that is optimized to the
specifications referenced by Apple in the developer documentation on their
site (Apple Developer Connection Guides).


-Robert Zullo

iPhone - The triple threat

As many of you know last week saw the latest development release from Apple, in the iPhoneSDK. While we have been a stalwart supporter of the iPhone and it's capabilities, it wasn't till last week that we saw the development community come alive with enthusiasm.

Exceeding all expectations the initial reviews from ZuCom and the community have been overwhelmingly positive. With the unexpected announcement of enterprise level integration and support capabilities Apple added another threat to competitors which now clearly extends beyond the phone market. For the entrepreneurial developer who has struggled with getting offerings to market, Apple has also developed a sales and marketing strategy, with the App Store that truly make this announcement a triple threat.

It isn't often that we see such a complete offering, and given the let down from the WWDC07 announcement this is a welcome surprise.

We look forward to supporting our partners and development community in all their endeavors, helping mature the iPhone software market will undoubtedly be in all our plans from here on out.


-Robert Zullo
ZuCom Services

Even tough decisions have Choice

When it appears that a situation has left no choice, remember that choice in itself is...

...everybody has got a choice,
between right or wrong,
giving up or holding on...

-J. Mellencamp

What all successful projects have in common

The ability to:

..adapt, overcome, and improvise..

Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway

"...you can run me....you can starve me...., and you can kill me..., just don't bore me."

OS X Leopard Printer Sharing Tip

Out of the box requirements of an OS like Vista can present more confusing than helpful sharing options. While I would encourage all to explore those options, sometimes we just need a quick fix that works under almost all circumstances.

OS X users have always had the ability to use CUPS for printer sharing and Leopard has maintained that option. If you've upgraded to Leopard (or are on anything 10.3 or better) and you are behind a firewall why not just use CUPS.

How to share OS X printers through CUPS to Windows Clients.

On your MAC do the following

1) Enable Printer Sharing on your Mac
>System Preferences>Sharing
Check "Printer Sharing"
2) On the Firewall tab (still under Sharing)
Check "Printer Sharing" under the Allow window.
3) Browse to http://your mac ip:631/printers or http://127.0.0.1:631/printers
This will bring up the CUPS printer administration page
4) Scroll all the way down the page and choose ADD PRINTER
You may be asked to authenticate here
5)Setup a printer with no more than 8 characters (for older clients). Use RAW as the type of device and queue.

On your VISTA(PC) do the following

6) Open the Control Panel Printers & Add Printer
>Start>Control Panel>Printers
Click Add Printer
Click "Add a Network, Wireless or Bluetooth Printer
Click "The Printer I want isn't Listed"
Verify that the radio button "Select a Shared Printer by Name" is filled
In the "Select a Shared Printer by Name" field type the address of your shared printer, ex: http://your_mac_ip:631/printers/shared_printer_name.
Click Next & Finish (call it what you want etc).


I've used this sharing method for years, it's solid and supported by a very robust community, not only the MAC, but several other platforms.

-Z

Nobody

...your nobody till you've been downloaded ..... without permission

-???

History

History doesn't actually repeat itself, but it rhymes...

-Mark Twain

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

-Saint Augustine

Irish Proverb

"Don't let life just happen, carve it from your passions and dreams"

-Irish Proverb

Welcome to the Jungle

..You can taste the bright lights.... but you will never get there for free

???

Jobs Quote

Great things in business are never done by one person..... they're done by a team of people

Steve Jobs



Link to Video

Dilbert's Leadership Quote

LEADERSHIP is a flavor of evil. Obviously no one would need to lead you to do something you wanted to do anyway.

— Scott Adams, “Dilbert’s

Teaching, the thankless gift.

It's not often that the one imparting wisdom receives confirmation of the act. The real question is whether or not that confirmation is always necessary.

??

Endurance

There are very few * I can’t find a level of stomach for

-Robert T. Zullo

Giving & Getting

....You only get back what you give ... no more no less..


-??