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Tolis Group announces BRU Server 2.0 update; system admins rejoice
Filed under: Enterprise, Software, Odds and ends, Xserve, Mac OS X Server
When a Leopard user wants a backup of the data on her computer, she might just attach an external hard disk to her machine and let Time Machine perform its magic. But how do you do backups for Xserves or large groups of Mac users? In many cases, you use tape libraries attached to servers, client software on the Macs that directs backup data to the server, and an application on the server to sort it all out.

Many Mac, Windows, and Linux system administrators rely on an application from TOLIS Group, Inc. called BRU Server. Last week, TOLIS Group announced BRU Server 2.0, an upgrade to their flagship backup product. The new version has a redesigned GUI that is common to all three OS platforms, and a faster encryption algorithm. One new feature is that client machines running the BRU Server Agent can now initiate their own backups and file restores via drag-and-drop. There's also full support of Access Control Lists (ACLs) and extended attributes on Mac OS X and Linux clients.

TOLIS Group is also offering complete backup bundles consisting of the BRU Server software and tape drives or libraries (up to 96 slots) that have been fully tested for compatibility with Mac OS X and Linux. BRU Server 2.0 starts at $599 for two clients, and workgroup and enterprise licenses available.
TUAW Tolis Group announces BRU Server 2.0 update; system admins rejoice originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Talkcast reminder: 10 pm ET tonight, the week in review
Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

Last week, Mike S. and his Squad of Knowledge met up in the talkcast to dive into tablet rumors, App Store shenanigans and more. You can download the show, along with all past shows, from Talkshoe or subscribe in iTunes.

We'll be back live tonight with a roundup of the week's news, including Apple's quarterly financial report, new Pro apps, the Google Latitude web app, Microsoft's ad switcheroo, tablet rumors, and the Pre/iTunes ping-pong game. Join us, won't you? We'll also be giving away a few promo codes for Radial 50 and Cellar, now that everyone can get them again.

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!

Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.
TUAW Talkcast reminder: 10 pm ET tonight, the week in review originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Update: Promo codes again allowed for 17+ apps
Filed under: iPod Family, Apple, iPhone, App Store
Recently, we reported that developers were not able to request promo codes for their iPhone apps if the app had received a 17+ rating due to having an embedded web browser, unfiltered 3rd party content, or contained excessive violence or sexual content. This restriction severely limited the ability of the developers to distribute promotional copies of their software to generate publicity and awareness of the app.

Several other outlets picked up on the story, and developers sounded off as well. Luckily, it seems that Apple has been listening: over the past few days, we have received word from a number of developers stating that they are now able to request promo codes for their 17+ apps. While Apple has not made any official comment on the issue, it appears that they have quietly conceded this battle to the developers, once again enabling them to distribute promo codes as needed for all of their apps.

Considering the many other issues developers have faced with the App Store, it's obvious that the process is far from perfect. And given the sheer volume of apps and developers that Apple has to deal with, even the smallest of hiccups can become quite frustrating for those developers out there who invest significant amounts of time and money into their apps and then hit a roadblock at full speed. There are still a number of issues with -- as well as improvements to -- the development process that need to be addressed, however, I believe it is an good sign to see that Apple is indeed listening and willing to make some changes to the process. It may only be one small step in the long road ahead, but I think many of the affected developers will agree that it was a step in the right direction.

Thanks to the developers who sent this in!
TUAW Update: Promo codes again allowed for 17+ apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Big Mean Folder Machine turns 2.0
Filed under: Software
Oh, Big Mean Folder Machine 1.5, we hardly knew ye! You joined the Mac world in October of 2008, and now you're gone, replaced by your new and younger sibling.

Big Mean Folder Machine 2.0, from publicspace.net, is the newest version of the great Mac file manipulation application. BMFM 2.0 continues the tradition of allowing you to split files from different folders into new folders based on a set of criteria, or merge files from multiple folders into a new folder while taking care of naming conflicts.

So what's new with 2? Publicspace.net has redesigned the user interface, built in an automatic update engine, and streamlined BMFM for better performance. The application also does an even better job of resolving file name conflicts. The Big Mean Folder Machine's droplet capability, which lets you take custom folder merges or splits and save them as for future use as standalone apps, has also been improved.

This is a free update for owners of previous versions of Big Mean Folder Machine, or you can purchase the program for €14.95 (about US$21.25) from publicspace.net. If you haven't used BMFM before and you're intrigued by what it can do, a free trial is available for download.
TUAW The Big Mean Folder Machine turns 2.0 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Try Bonjour on your PC for using Mac printers
Filed under: Cool tools, Productivity, Tips and tricks, Freeware
It's not a hidden secret, but lots of people simply don't know about it. We mentioned it ourselves more than a year ago in answer to a reader question, but I think it's worth a revisit.

Here's my scenario. People show up at the house with PC laptops and want to print something. A boarding pass, an email, a web page. They screw around with Windows control panels trying to find the printers on my Mac network. In my case, they are both shared on a Mac Pro.

Enter Bonjour. It's the Apple answer to zero configuration networking. All you have to do is download Bonjour for Windows. There's also a 64-bit version if you need it.

Once it is downloaded you'll get a Printer Wizard, which will instantly find the printers available on your network, including the shared ones. (Make sure you are sharing them in the Sharing pane of System Preferences.)

Now when your guests want to print, they will be all set. No other drivers are needed. I now keep the Bonjour for Windows .exe on a thumb drive. I hand it to guests, and they are ready to roll.

Bonjour can do more than discover printers. Per Apple:

Bonjour for Windows includes a plugin to discover advertised HTTP servers using Internet Explorer. Click the Bonjour icon in the Internet Explorer toolbar to enable Bonjour browsing. If you have Bonjour devices on your local network with embedded HTTP (Web) servers, they will appear in the list.

It's possible you have a printer that doesn't support Bonjour, but most do. In my case an Epson and a Brother laser printer worked with no glitches. Bonjour requires Windows 2000/2003, Windows XP or Windows Vista.

If only everything in life was this simple.
TUAW Try Bonjour on your PC for using Mac printers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone apps I paid for but don't use
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Features, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
When the App Store was launched, I went a bit nutty and downloaded lots of apps. Eventually I limited myself to apps I thought I'd love. Some were free, some weren't. Recently iTunes told me that I had 13 updates available, and I noticed that I've paid for many apps that I don't use.

It's easy to list your favorite apps. As a contrast, here's a list of the apps that I paid for but don't use (as well as why). Note that all app links will launch iTunes.

Air Sharing

This great app by Avatron Software lets you use your iPhone as a virtual hard drive, and was the first of its kind that I tried.* Later, it was replaced by Evernote. I use multiple computers, and accessing files from any one of them is important. Throw the iPhone on top and I'm a happy guy.
Continue reading iPhone apps I paid for but don't use
TUAW iPhone apps I paid for but don't use originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Found Footage: Pull My Finger stands for freedom
Filed under: Found Footage, iPhone, App Store
I've got a soft spot in my comedy heart for The Daily Show's Wyatt Cenac, one of the newer correspondents on the program; he often manages to give interview subjects just enough Colbertian leeway to wander into the danger zone, then lets them blunder about, bumping into the awkward silences to excellent effect.

That's exactly what Cenac did this week when he interviewed the creators of iPhone fart apps Pull My Finger and iFart, who have a long-simmering feud over who gassed whom on the fart-app frontier. The whole thing is fine and funny... right up until the point that Pull My Finger developer Eric Stratton compares his app's struggle against injustice to Jackie Robinson breaking the color line in baseball. That's when it becomes deliciously, painfully hilarious. For the record, Stratton claims he was joking.

You can check out the video in the second half of the post. Nice work, Wyatt.

[via Mac OS Ken and AllThingsD]
Continue reading Found Footage: Pull My Finger stands for freedom
TUAW Found Footage: Pull My Finger stands for freedom originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Augmented reality apps on hold until 3.1?
Filed under: iPhone, App Store
It was only a couple of weeks ago that straphanger hopes for an augmented reality guide to the NYC subways were flying high... and now it looks like they may have to wait for Labor Day before they can amaze their friends and stun their enemies. The LA Times is reporting a conversation with Acrossair developers where they indicate that the full-screen video features of the app can't ship before Apple releases iPhone OS 3.1 -- which they expect to drop in early September, in case you're marking your calendar.

According to the story, the live video/augmented reality approach depends on an unpublished camera API, hence the apps cannot be set free in the wild just yet. That may explain why several other inside-the-Matrix apps haven't cleared the store... and why September may see a bit of a surge in admissions to hospital emergency rooms for people with bruised foreheads and sheepish expressions.

Update 7/25: While the LA Times story is (so far) not yet updated, we have gotten feedback from a developer who insists that the 3.1 update will not provide additional hooks for AR apps; specifically, that the live camera view APIs are going to remain private and will not be exposed for third-party development. This source suggests that Acrossair is confused about Apple's position, and that the approval schedule aligning with 3.1 is a coincidence and not a technical restraint. We will try to reach Acrossair to confirm.

[via MacRumors]
TUAW Augmented reality apps on hold until 3.1? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Changes in Apple attitudes force changes in Google Latitude
Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone, App Store
We didn't want to let the week slip into the weekend without mention of the long-awaited release, on Thursday afternoon, of Google's Latitude client for iPhone, allowing users to update their locations to the social service and keep track of friends and family on the move (otherwise known as "iStalkU" -- no, sorry, that was Loopt, my mistake). You can access the service by browsing to http://google.com/latitude on Mobile Safari on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Yes, that's right, browsing. Latitude, believe it or not, is a web app -- which means that you can't get push notifications about your contact's movements, or keep constant tabs on folks without leaving Safari running. Intriguing. As Google's Mat Balez notes in his blog post announcing the Latitude release, Google actually developed a native app for Latitude... only to have Apple, uh, suggest that the big G redo the concept as a web app to avoid user confusion with the Maps app. Really? Must have been an interesting phone call.

David Coursey at PC World is frustrated with the limitation, and it's hard to fault him. Meanwhile, location-centric apps like Brightkite are already on the store -- of course, they are also kneecapped by the lack of a backgrounding mode to send updated position fixes.

If you're a Latitude fan, give us your feedback on the new web app below.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
TUAW Changes in Apple attitudes force changes in Google Latitude originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Navigon scores with MobileNavigator
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, App Review
While many have been waiting for the TomTom hardware/software combo for the iPhone, Navigon has delivered a very appealing app for the iPhone running version 3.0 of the OS.

MobileNavigator [App Store] has a striking on-screen display, with many features lacking in some of the other products that are out there. Unlike the AT&T Navigator and the G-Map apps, MobileNavigator allows you to access your address book for destinations. It works in landscape or portrait mode, and can warn you if you are speeding. It does not have any traffic info, and you can't call any phone numbers that are in the POI (points of interest) data base. A take me home function is done with a single click.

All the maps are loaded on your device (1.29 GB) so going out of range of an AT&T cell site is not a worry. If you get a call, the guidance stops, but resumes automatically when you conclude the call.

Maps can be 3D or 2D, and the 3D maps look great and closely mimic what is on the road in front of you. The voice directions are quite clear, in contrast with the AT&T app, which is garbled and pretty much a waste.

So how is it on the road? Pretty nice. I got a quick GPS lock. If for any reason you lose GPS, in a tunnel for example, you get a red bar across the top of the screen.

You can display POIs along your route, and many of the icons have company logos like Best Buy, most of the gas station logos, even Quiznos.

If you are navigating the next street to turn on is at the bottom of the screen. If you are not navigating, you see the street you are on. At the top of the screen you get the arrival time if you are navigating. Touching that part of the display will give you your speed, and another touch gives you the distance. Many streets alert you to the speed limit, and if you go go over, you can set a warning.

Intersections on highways are handled very well, with nice big road signs and clear directions of where to go. The voice directions come at the opportune times, and do not nag, the way the AT&T app does.

At my location, southern Arizona, the maps were complete and there were far more POIs than provided on the G-Map application.
Continue reading Navigon scores with MobileNavigator
TUAW Navigon scores with MobileNavigator originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Pre in iPod's clothing
Filed under: Hardware, iTunes
Palm has quite a checkered history when it comes to syncing your Pre with iTunes, going as far as to make the device report itself as an iPod, and leaving lingering speculation that Apple would block the device with future iTunes updates -- which is exactly what has happened. But many Pre owners were surprised (and relieved) to hear that Palm had already fixed the issue, only a week after the problem surfaced.

So, how did Palm manage to get sync working again? Well, the good folks over at PreCentral have discovered that they pulled it off by making the Pre report that its USB chipset is developed by Apple. This change effectively makes the device appear even more like an iPod, as well as further ensnares Palm into what could potentially be a nasty web of legal issues.

While it may not seem like such a bad thing to let iTunes recognize the Pre as an iPod, the problem lies in how Palm is going about doing it. All USB devices report a plethora of information back to the operating system when they are plugged in, including a device ID, a vendor ID that usually identifies the chipset manufacturer, a manufacturer string to identify the name of the company that built the device, as well as other information that identifies various capabilities that the device might have.

USB device information as shown in System Profiler

Typically, a combination of the vendor ID and device ID can be easily used to identify a specific device, which is how most applications and drivers communicate with USB devices. When you plug in your iPhone, for example, the system sees a device with a vendor ID of 0x05ac (which identifies it as an Apple device), and a product ID like 0x1294. The system then checks to see if any drivers have registered to be notified when this device combination is plugged in, and it continues from there. In the case of the Pre, however, Palm is identifying the vendor ID as 0x05ac, tricking the operating system into thinking it sees an Apple USB device.

As you can see, this process relies on the IDs provided to be correct in order for things to work properly. Because of this, the USB Implementers Forum (commonly called USB-IF) oversees the assignment and handling of these IDs to ensure that things go smoothly. Companies who wish to manufacture USB chipsets have to apply for a vendor ID number, as well as pay annual membership or licensing fees to the USB-IF to be an authorized vendor. So not only is Palm causing technical problems by misrepresenting the device to the computer, but it is doing so by using an ID that Apple has paid for and has the sole legal right to use. Palm, on the other hand, is likely in violation of their own agreement with the USB-IF, which clearly states that "Unauthorized use of assigned or unassigned USB Vendor ID Numbers and associated Product ID Numbers are strictly prohibited." And yes, they do have their own ID for use on their other hardware.

So what does Palm have to say about all of this? They have turned the tables back on Apple, saying that they believe Apple is improperly using the vendor ID to limit the devices that consumers are able to use with iTunes. Wait, what? Isn't that *exactly* what the ID is there for? Most programs that communicate with any USB device check the vendor and device IDs to ensure that they are talking to the right device. If you've ever used the tools that came with your scanner, you've seen this before. HP's Scan Pro checks the USB devices to see if any of them are supported scanners. This is the sole reason these IDs exist, so that the software can identify a connected piece of hardware, and determine whether or not it is compatible. You wouldn't expect HP's Scan Pro to be able to download pictures from your Fujitsu ScanSnap, so why expect iTunes to show the Pre some love?

Don't take this the wrong way, I do think that iTunes and the Pre should get along, but Palm needs to go about it the proper way. Disguising the Pre as an iPod is just like a wolf dressing in sheep's clothing, but things won't go well for the wolf when the shepherd catches up with it.
TUAW The Pre in iPod's clothing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Zensify, another not-so-hot social aggregator for the iPhone
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
It's an increasingly crowded category on the App Store: Social Networking. Like several other apps in this category, Zensify (iTunes link) doesn't just tap into one social networking service. The app is an aggregator, taking multiple sites and rolling them up into one app that will, in theory, make your social networking somehow easier. That's the promise of all these aggregator apps. So how does Zensify do?

First, Zensify supports Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, Delicious, YouTube, 12seconds and Photobucket. Unfortunately, I had only moderate success with signing in to some of these. Flickr takes you to the requisite Flickr-based verification pages, but after going through the process I received a warning dialog that an error had occurred, with only OK as my option to continue -- right before the app froze up completely. Then I tried Digg, but there was only a username field, not a password field. I was able to get Delicious to work, and YouTube (after quitting the app, as there was a bug preventing me from typing in the text area). I didn't try Photobucket or 12seconds, as I'm not big on those.

I should note that I wound up deleting Zensify, then re-installing it, and something interesting happened -- once I had re-logged into Facebook Connect, my previous logins "stuck." I only needed to type in my username on digg and it said everything was logged in. That was a pretty neat trick, and a re-install appears to take care of some of the initial bugs. I'm assured by the folks at Zensify that several other bugs are being crushed for the next release.

While Zensify is pretty in parts, there are functionality issues. These are because, in an effort to do everything, the app winds up a confusing mess at times. Many apps suffer from this, especially social networking apps. Keep reading for my full review.

Gallery: Zensify for iPhone
Continue reading Zensify, another not-so-hot social aggregator for the iPhone
TUAW Zensify, another not-so-hot social aggregator for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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