OS X Mountain Lion 10.8: Early Impressions

February 17th, 2012 | by Jeremy | apple, mac os x, review, technology

Feb
17

Yesterday I got a shock: Apple was planning on releasing OS X 10.8 a year after Lion was released. The development process for OS X has accelerated, which comes with it’s own share of problems when it comes to training and Certification. That being said, I couldn’t wait to download and install the OS to give it a try!

Downloading

Once I got my voucher from the Apple Developer’s website, I was taken to the Mac App Store to download and install the OS. This isn’t surprising, as Apple started this process with OS 10.7. It took about 30 minutes to an hour to download, it being a large file in and of itself. I then quickly backed up some critical files on my computer (always a good idea before upgrading!), and started the install.

Installation

Nothing changed much from the Lion install here. It was pretty straightforward in upgrading. Once installed I did get one update (which surprised me), but the update was for an HP printer driver. Within 40 minutes I was looking at my new Mountain Lion Mac.

Changes

The first major change that I saw was the Notifications button in the top right hand corner. This is something that has been sorely needed on the Mac, though Growl has done a decent job with notifications to date. But I like the iOS feel of notifications, and how they are accessed.

Next, Messages. I have to say, I’m glad that Apple has opted to add their iMessages into iChat. It’s a move I hope will be seen in iOS soon, because I’m all about centralized communications. It helps me keep connected when I need to be, and that’s a good thing. There is a potential to be too connected, but I think that’s more of an issue with how you use your messages.

Then I needed an update, and instead of opening Software Update, it opened up the Mac App Store! It seems that all system updates will now be coming through the Mac App Store, as clicking on Software Update from the Apple menu launched the App Store as well. It was a surprise, but seems logical given the installation process. Of course, this begs the question: will you need to authenticate to an Admin account AND to the App Store to update your computer? If so, it looks like mass deployments of updates may need to be rethought. I might have a better idea once I get a chance to play around with Mountain Lion Server.

Contacts surprised me a little bit, as it took the place of the Address Book. Though, technically, nothing changed really that I can see other than the name. It took me a little while to find the Contacts app, as it is not in alphabetical order in Launchpad. But, the new search tool in Launchpad helped narrow that down. That, by the way, is very much welcome. I tend to have more than three pages worth of apps on my Mac, and the search tool in Launchpad definitely helps me find the app when I’m thinking about it. Technically I can use Spotlight to find it as well, but if I’m in Launchpad already, it’s nice to be able to search at that point.

I’m excited about Reminders and Notes being their own apps in OS X 10.8. Previous to this, Notes was in Mail, and Reminders in iCal. Not that it’s bad to have them in there, but separating them out makes it easier for me to focus on that aspect. It’s another feature of iOS that is very welcome on the Mac.

The minor change in Safari that I didn’t notice until today is definitely a welcome change! Now, there is no longer a separate search box. It seems Safari has finally updated to take the same feature of both Chrome and IE 9 and integrated the search box into the address box. Not a critical, game-changer when it comes to browsing the web, but it’s a nice change. Here’s hoping in the new iOS release the same will come to the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

The updates to the Mail, Contacts and Calendars preference pane were great, but I started to see some bugs at this point. It appears that selecting an account doesn’t necessarily select that Account: it may still have a previous or next account selected and you are editing preferences for it instead of the intended account. Again, this is a Preview release of OS X 10.8, so bugs like this are expected (hence why I didn’t install it on my main production computers).

The one thing that I was disappointed with was AirPlay Mirroring, if only because I couldn’t get it to work. When I got home, I looked for the AirPlay Mirroring display option to show up, just to see how it worked. But it never did. Now, it could be that I have my Apple TV wired to my router and the computer is wireless, but they were on the same network so it shouldn’t have been a problem. I’ll keep playing with it and see if I can get it to work. To date I’m not sure what use I would have for it at home where I have an Apple TV, but I could see a benefit in the workplace for a quick and easy remote monitor solution without needing dongles for VGA or DVI. Assuming, of course, you have an Apple TV box hooked up to your projector/HDTV.

Anyway, those are the features that I had a chance to play around with. Notifications, I’m sure, will start to grow up as more apps start to utilize the process. Game Center is nice, but doesn’t interest me a lot right now, though I do like the connection between the Mac and iOS for similar titles. To me it shows a level of growth and maturity in the Mac App Store to parallel the iOS App Store, and that’s a good thing for the Apple ecosystem. Gatekeeper, at least for now, doesn’t seem to have a lot of application for me. I can definitely see the benefits of it, and for anyone concerned about security in a fairly public arena (Office computers, family computer at home), it’s definitely a good idea, though I can see one option missing: only identified developers (no Mac App Store). I’m not sure that’s going to happen, as all the updates come from the App Store, but we shall see.

Has anyone else had a chance to play around with Mountain Lion? What are your thoughts?

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OS X Lion Support Essentials First Class

February 9th, 2012 | by Jeremy | apple, technology, training

Feb
09

Today I finished teaching my first full class of OS X Lion Support Essentials. And barring the slight network issues and the fact that I had a server completely die on my this morning (and it was sitting in the server room), it was a pretty good experience.

My class size was larger than usual, and the students were extremely bright. All of them caught on quickly and easily, making it possible to cover a lot of topics faster than usual. We even had time to run a certification exam that afternoon (the student passed!).

For those who have not taken the class before, we cover the necessary essentials in managing an OS X Lion computer. We cover installation, configuration, accounts, file systems, Directory binding, providing network services, printing and the boot process. There’s more and if you are interested in learning, feel free to register! I call this certification the phone support cert, as it prepares someone to work at the help desk for Mac computers. If you pass the certification exam then you receive your Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) certification, which is an accomplishment. Ask anyone that had to take the exam, and I’m sure they would agree.

I really enjoyed the class today, and I’m looking forward to this April for our Server Essentials class. That will be a blast as well, particularly since I got to contribute to the Workbook on that one!

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iBooks 2 and iBooks Author: A Quick Review

January 19th, 2012 | by Jeremy | apple, ipad, review, technology

Jan
19

Apple announced today at their by invitation only event in New York a new initiative for the iPad: iBooks 2. It’s to allow interactive textbooks to be sold through the iBooks store to create a more effective way to carry your textbooks with you to school. In addition to this method, they also created an ebook authoring tool: iBooks Author.

iBooks 2 is essentially the same as iBooks 1, but allows for interactive elements like video media, testing, etc. that have not been available in previous ebook readers. Prior to iBooks 2, these types of interactive books had to be separate apps, though the Yellow Submarine book released by the Beatles and Subfilms, Limited offered a glimpse at what could happen. But other than a significant backend update, the interface and general feel of iBooks 2 is pretty much the same.

The real news, at least in my mind, is iBooks Author. Prior to this app, creating any kind of ebook could be a tedious process. It required a lot of skills that many authors would not have, such as HTML or XML experience, layout skills, etc. And while those skills are still very important for most publishing works, iBooks Author takes a lot of that guesswork out.

The Mac App, free from the Mac App Store, looks a lot like any of the iWork apps. As mentioned in Gadgetbox’s review, it’s like a hybrid between Keynote and Pages, though I would probably take it a step further and say that it looks a lot like Apple’s now retired iWeb app, both in organization and interface.

You are presented with several pre-made templates from which you can select, and add your elements as drag and drop tools. You can add new pages, chapters, prefaces, etc. from the Add Pages tool (top left-hand corner). You can change the view and orientation of the book to see what it would look like in portrait or landscape mode on the iPad, and even preview the book on your iPad when you are done (either with the book or the section.

Once done, you will then be able to publish your book. To publish to the iBookstore, you need to first create an iBookstore seller account. Once you have your account created, you can then download iTunes Producer to submit your packaged book as provided by the Publish tool in iBooks Author.

The really cool thing is that this doesn’t have to be limited to just textbook publishers, or even instructors who create their own textbooks. Anyone can use these same tools to create and distribute their own works for self-publication. That means professional-looking ebooks are now easier to create for the iBookstore at least, and all with free tools. This will have a huge impact on the self-publication industry that is starting to grow.

As an educator, I think this is a great tool. I look forward to creating some sample textbooks to see how the process works, and whether or not it will be something I will be using in the future for my training courses. As a potential author, even of fiction, I think it’s brilliant! The idea that I can take my current work and publish it without the stress of trying to get it noticed by the right agent and going through the publisher’s timeline. Of course there is an argument of quality that would come into play as has been with the self publication market as a whole, but the ease of the process as introduced by iBooks Author takes a lot of the fear out of it.

What do you think of Apple’s announcement?

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Apple Predictions: My Wishlist

December 15th, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, apple tv, ipad, iphone, mac os x, technology

Dec
15

With the end of the year fast approaching, I can’t help but think what the new year will bring, particularly for Apple. With the latest OS release for iOS and OS X, the new field for Apple changes will most likely be hardware. While I have no connections with anyone that could even remotely speculate as to what Apple is going to release, here is what I would like to see happen for 2012 for all things Apple:

Apple TV for Gaming: Right now, the Apple TV does video and audio streaming, with some screen sharing when using an iPad 2 or iPhone 4S. That’s nice and all, but I would really like to see the Apple TV do more. It’s got the guts with it’s A4 processor, and with iOS, it could provide a nice gaming platform. All it needs is some sort of controller, be it built into the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad or a new remote control that is WiFi enabled for controlling games. It would require a whole new thought process in Apple gaming development without multi-touch, but it would bring the set top out of the video/audio only and bring it into the realm of gaming. It may require a hardware upgrade, but it hasn’t been refreshed in a long time.
iPad with Retina Display: This is what is keeping me from upgrading to the iPad 2. If I’m going to invest in something that is an upgrade from what I have, it needs to be a serious upgrade. Right now, my iPad does everything I want, with the exception of having that Retina display for reading ease. This is probably a no-brainer, with reports coming in that the next iPad (iPad 3?) will have the Retina display I want. Good, because it’s on my list for this next year. ^_^
Rack-mounted Mac Pros: With the demise of the Xserve, which concerned a lot of my trainees, Apple no longer has an “enterprise” server for their Server app. While the Mac Mini has pretty much taken the spot, a really beefy server can be handy from time to time. Right now, that’s the Mac Pro, but it’s large, doesn’t fit in a rack well, and doesn’t look like a rack server. Make it rack-mountable, and server farms using Apple will be happy.
Apple Blade Servers: This one is totally coming from my wish list, but with the miniaturization that has gone into the Mac Mini, is an Apple Blade Server so far-fetched? It could be something as simple as a bunch of Mac Mini’s tied together with Thunderbolt cables, all in the same chassis (so it would look nice). The potential is definitely there, it just needs the market.
Corporate Apple Cloud: iCloud is great for providing access to your iTunes purchases and documents. But many companies would like to keep that to themselves, and setting up a cloud within their network and plugging it into network desktops (virtual desktops?) would be awesome. Cloud computing has a lot of different definitions, so this is not likely to happen by 2012. Still, a corporate cloud that will allow access to any corporate licensed software, protected by login and LDAP/Mobile Management permissions and standardized across multiple servers? I can see that as a huge bonus for corporations looking to move to Apple. It would also justify an Apple Blade Server, by the way. ^_^
Siri for iPad: I can understand Siri being removed as an app for all iOS devices and being released, integrated, exclusively for the iPhone 4S because it is in beta. But it would be nice, perhaps with the next iOS update, to give all devices access to Siri. It would depend on when the beta is over, I suppose, but that would be awesome, particularly for the iPad.
LTE Support: While I will most likely not upgrade my iPhone 4 unless the iPhone 5 is a killer product (not sure how likely that will be), I would like to see an iPhone 5 with LTE support, as well as an iPad 3 with the same LTE support. I would like fast, responsive data (preferably with a decent price tag for a lot of usage), and it looks like the best option out there is going to be LTE. I know there are a lot of problems with offering some 4G technologies (like battery life, for one), so I’m not holding my breath. But with carriers now rolling out their LTE networks, you would think it would be an easy thing to do.
Cable-Cutter Apps for Apple TV: Netflix and YouTube/Vimeo are good starts, as are the various “channels” that come with NBA, MLB, NHL, etc. for the Apple TV, but I would like to see other offerings that will, if not exclusively then combined, let me cut my cable connection for TV. Even it that means signing up with a cable company on a per channel basis for live streaming through my internet connection, so be it! With the rise of Internet streaming, a cable company has become less critical beyond providing Internet service. Perhaps with less cable TV, the Internet portion of my Cable experience will improve. It also reduces the number of set top boxes for my TV to one: the Apple TV. That way I only pay for the channels I want, not channels I will never look at ever again. Another way to accomplish this? Subscription service per show. I realize there are a lot of players in this, so it won’t be easy, but it would be great for the end user.

So that’s my list for 2012, nothing huge or ground-breaking. I’m not looking for an Apple HDTV, or an Apple car. Just some changes that would make me happy professionally and personally. So, that being said, it’s time to hunker down, and look for what the future will bring from Apple.

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OS X Lion Server Essentials 10.7 Workbook is Available!

November 30th, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, training

Nov
30

For those of you who are looking for Apple training for OS X Lion, particularly if you have a Server, the classes are now available for registration, and the workbook is available for those classes. And while I am excited that the classes are available and are being taught (some by me, of course), there is another reason: I contributed to the writing of the Workbook. I can share this now with the publication of the workbook, and I’m excited. It’s the first time anything I have contributed to has been published, and it’s a very good book.

The process was longer than I expected for such a small contribution, but it was a great experience. I was contacted by the project manager/official author of the book to help with the exercises. I chose one chapter, and got to work in my spare time rewriting the exercises to work with the release of Lion. My contributions, with screenshots, were then sent on to the technical editor for review, and he made a ton of excellent suggestions and corrections. I’m not the best at taking criticism, but every one was correct, though not all the suggested changes needed to be made (instead different changes were made). It then went on to editing, where more screenshots were taken, updated, etc. My part ended with the Beta class where Mac OS X experts who had more experience than I did got together and tested out the workbook. More suggestions and corrections were made by the Author, and the final book was compiled.

The publishers and editor at Peachpit were excellent to work with, and the staff at Apple were fabulous. Arek Dreyer, the author of the Workbook and the Reference book, was great to work with, as was Adam Karneboge the technical editor. I loved the experience and would do it again in a heartbeat.

For those of you who are interested in purchasing the workbook, I’m afraid to say the price may be more than you think: It’s only available from Apple Authorized Training Centers, and only distributed to students that take the Lion 201 training course ($1500.00). But you get three days of training in the bargain, learn how to use Apple Server to manage a domain, website, file sharing, and Mobile Device Management for Macs and iOS devices. Classes at the University of Utah start in the Spring. Check them out!

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Dual Boot Imaging with OS X Lion and Windows 7 Without Winclone

November 16th, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, mac os x, technology

Nov
16

It seems I have a lot of traffic coming in to my dual boot process I created with Winclone as the cloning tool. Unfortunately, Winclone is no longer being developed, and it was an imperfect process at best. No, the needed to be a better way to make an image, and I was determined to find it.

Luckily, I had a comment from another user that put me on the scent to Clonezilla. I had another suggestion from our IT manager about using dd as my imaging of choice. Well, I liked the idea of using built in tools with OS X instead of using another operating system, so I gave it a try. I also tried Clonezilla, which is well documented in a previous post. Which did I like? Let me compare them and then I will give you my conclusion.

dd command

I love the command line. It’s clean, it’s powerful, and it’s the reason I loved Mac OS X when I first saw it. S the idea of using a command line tool to do an image was pretty appealing. So, I took my imaged computer (MacBook Pro 2007 with 100 GB hard drive), and gave it a try. After booting up to target disk mode, I ran the dd command on my computer to copy the entire hard drive and then restore. The copy process took 9 hours, as did the restore. It worked perfectly, but the time delay was just too much to make it worth while. I kept the iso file I had created, but continued my search.

Clonezilla

Clonezilla is a boot disk that uses Linux, some very clever scripting, and Partclone to create your images. It’s similar to Norton Ghost, but unlike Ghost it supports the HFS+ file system native to Mac OS X. I tried two methods: imaging the entire drive with the partitions, and just the Windows partition. Both worked, though I really like the first method for lab deployment. The drawback is the reliance on an install disk or USB key to start the image process.

But the benefits? Huge time savings, even over the NetBoot solution that Apple uses natively. It’s not as flexible, but it does handle unicasting better than Apple’s tool. How does it do it? By breaking up the install image into multiple tarballs and delivering them as needed to the image. It seems to be a sort of hacked multicasting method, and works very well.

So my method of choice? Clonezilla. If you want the step by step process, check out my previous post on the subject, and let me know what you think. It worked for me and my lab!

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Siri: Why It’s Great for Private Devices Only

November 14th, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, apple tv

Nov
14

Star Trek has colored all our technological expectations for years. Before the cell phone, there was the communicator. Before the iPad there was the PADD. Now, with the release of Siri by Apple on the iPhone 4S, there is a plausible method of communicating with the computer/television/ship/car/toaster with natural voice control. It’s exciting, it’s futuristic, and it seems to be all the rage with tech pundits across the Interwebs. But there is one problem: voice control in a public setting, without volume control or voice recognition, just doesn’t work with our current technology.

Siri is an innovation in personal computing. Ask “her” a question, and Siri will respond with an answer. Ask “her” to adjust your schedule, and she will do so with verbal confirmation. All this works within the realm of a personal question or personal request, much in the same way a personal question or request of your Personal Assistant would be handled. But how well does voice commands work within a crowded room, without a way to block all the background noise? This is the question technical pundits need to ask themselves before they start gushing on the possibility of a Siri-activated Apple TV.

Case in point: Our Chevy Traverse came with voice activated commands as part of it’s OnStar service. When the sales person was trying to demonstrate this for us, he couldn’t get it to work without rolling up the windows. To this date it is a feature we rarely use, because the children in the back cannot remain quiet long enough to accomplish anything. So how is Siri going to work in a crowded family room or living room with chatter going on in the background? I don’t see it happening. A car I see as being borderline, as you can commute alone occasionally. But in front of a social experience like the old TV, I just don’t see it happening.

You see, Television, since it’s inception, had always been a “social” event, in that people would gather together and watch what was on. Whether it was “Howdy Doody”, “Uncle Milt”, or “Ed Sullivan”, the family always gathered together to share the experience. Families do that now, to a certain extent, with various programs available now. The background noise alone becomes problematic without using a microphone or voice recognition. But, that would mean only one person is in control at a time (just like we are now with the remote), and adds in the initial frustration of imperfect voice recognition (it’s getting better, but still not perfect out of the box).

So when it comes to ideas about a Siri powered TV, I just don’t see how anyone can do that. The technology we have currently limits natural voice commands to a personal experience. Now, is it possible Apple could have come up with a revolutionary way to get rid of background noise and make it work? Sure, it’s possible. But is it probable? I don’t think so. Not to doubt Apple, but I think it’s not likely that the tech is ready for the regular consumer.

What do you think?

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Fun with iWeb

November 2nd, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, technology

Nov
02

Because I never had a MobileMe account, or a .Mac account, I’ve never really played with iWeb. Oh, it looks nice, but I didn’t really see a need for it as most of my websites are integrated with a content management system. But, that being said, I thought it would be fun to take a peak and see what it could do.

When you first launch iWeb, it presents you with a list of templates. These templates are pretty static, in that you can’t recolor them in the interface, but they all look really nice. I chose the layered paper interface, as I like the look of good paper. Then you start with the Home page. To change the title of the page, you click on the name of the page in the left pane. Editing fields is as easy as clicking or double-clicking in the text box field. Pictures are also easy to add by either dragging them in from Finder or iPhoto.

Most themes have image placeholders with preset pictures, waiting for you to add pictures yourself. To add a picture, you drag your picture from Finder or from iPhoto into iWeb, and drop it on the picture. You can even adjust the picture to mask parts of the picture you don’t want to show (instead of cropping).

Adding pages was easy, just by clicking on the Add Page tool at the bottom left. There are quite a few pages to choose from, including a built-in Blog. It’s not as robust as WordPress, but it works for a news area or general posting tool. Though it can only be updated through iWeb that I can see. Pity, as it has a nice design. Podcasts can also be added the same way, making it easy to set up a podcasting website using iWeb.

But when you try to Publish, it will automatically try to submit to MobileMe. Not a good thing, particularly as MobileMe is no more (or will be shortly). Luckily, if you click on the Site itself, you can edit it to publish to an FTP site, and change your FTP settings to use SFTP. Configuration was simple, setup was easy, and publishing at that point is one-click.

The main drawback to iWeb that I can see is the lack of ability to edit the HTML that is getting published. Each page is a set HTML page, with backup files assigned per page. Also, it’s not geared to very complicated websites with lots of navigation (I wouldn’t run a storefront from iWeb). If you are looking for something of that calibre, you may want to stick with the tried and true Dreamweaver. But if you are only looking for a simple webpage creator that is not very complicated, it’s a great tool.

iWeb is no longer avialable from Apple, as it represents the older software from the iLife suite. I hope it has not been killed, just held back as iCloud rolls out and MoblieMe fades away. I look forward to a phoenix rising of iWeb to combine it’s current ease of use interface for building websites with access to the code. If that happens, you will have one sweet HTML editor on your hands!

For an example of what iWeb can do, check out my main website at http://robbclan.com.

What is your favorite website creator tool?

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Pontifications about an Apple Television Set

November 1st, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, apple tv

Nov
01

There have been quite a few predictions that have been drooled over in the technology media about a pending Apple branded HDTV, all stemming from a comment Steve Jobs’ made about cracking the TV interface. It has gone viral from mockups to declarations about Siri being the interface of the future TV. The predictions are exciting, all sound great, but I often wonder just how much is actually just pie in the sky dreaming, and how much is practical.

Apple currently has the Apple TV, which gives you access to your iTunes media on your computer and in iCloud (for music and Television shows), as well as access to YouTube, Vimeo, and Netflix. There are even some premimum channels for Sports fans, which each have their own subscription (though it’s really nice to have the scores for free!). The menu is easy to update with new features as they come, and there is a lot of potential with the Apple TV and it’s iOS operating system. But how would it work with traditional television sets?

One solution is to have Apple create an interface that is universal for all cable companies and their offerings, with only slight differences in what options are presented based on the cable company being used. It’s a great idea in principle, but becomes problematic in practice. Apple doesn’t have a strong history of being friendly to the dictates of other companies, but to provide their services with the same clean interface as the rest of their offerings they would find themselves in that spot. They would need to work with every cable provider in the US and other countries they provide this “Apple HDTV” experience in order to get them to standardize their receiver interface, or create plugins that will allow Apple to set the interface while correctly accessing the cable companies content. It’s possible, but risky if jailbroken Apple HDTV’s will allow free viewing of cable content. That becomes a hurdle, and a big one for the cable companies.

Another solution is to bypass the cable companies completely and work directly with content providers with a subscription based service for their offerings. Instead of purchasing a “package”, users would subscribe to the channels they want, and only the channels they want, and it would all be done much the same way as Netflix, MLB TV, NBA TV, etc. It’s a great concept in principle, because the consumer wins by only having the channels they want, and only paying for the channels they want. But would it work? It would mean increased pressure on bandwidth if it became widespread, as well as cutting cable companies profits from those “cutting the cord” on cable and satellite. That means broadband internet prices could likely go up, and some companies not to fond of competition could, perhaps, start “filtering” specific content or sources. There are a lot of legal issues that would come into play in this scenario, where the customer could ultimately lose.

And then there is the issue of local network television access vs. access to the syndicated content they provide. Will a local channel be able to provide their content on an Apple HDTV with the subscription model with the blessing of the studio? How would it be provided? And what about all the money they have just recently sunk into the new HD broadcast infrastructure? Would they embrace an internet delivery method? One huge issue I can see coming down the pipe is studios no longer sitting on a collection of shows to please everyone, but rather being merited by each show they do provide. It’s scary water to be navigating with some well established studios (like NBC and CBS) reaching the brink of bankruptcy. They may be too afraid of breaking anything up for fear of losing valuable advertising. And that brings up another major issue: advertising. Who gets to advertise in this new internet delivery system? Who gets the revenue? How can it be monetized? These questions would need to be answered.

The fundamental question I ask is, how can current television viewing be made better? Not just in what you see, but how you find what you want and how you access it at the right time. That’s the question we as consumers should be asking, because that is the same question Steve Jobs and the developers at Apple asked when they looked at a project. It’s what those currently working at Apple do every day. They worry not about what features to add, but what features to remove in order to increase usability and fluid design. That’s what makes an Apple product, well, an Apple.

Personally, I like the idea of subscribing to individual channels. And I can see this as, well, Apps in the Apple TV App Store (which would need to be created, of course) that would allow you to browse for your favorite channel and subscribe. Not sure you want the entire channel, but just a show? Subscribe to the show instead, and have it stream through iCloud. I see it as the most viable option for Apple, particularly if they can tie in a subscription based service for iTunes in the bargain. But to do so would mean Networks placing their futures into the hands of Apple in a way that even Music didn’t, which is scary for so many reasons.

I would like to see someone work out a deal with Networks to provide their materials as a flat-rate subscription, and have users only pay for the channels they are going to watch, or even only the shows they would like to see. Do that all with a simple interface, clean design, and a free update to existing Apple TV boxes, and in my mind Apple would have truly created something revolutionary and magical.

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Imaging a Mac Computer with Bootcamp using Clonezilla

October 26th, 2011 | by Jeremy | apple, technology

Oct
26

Creating an image for a Macintosh computer that includes both a Macintosh partition and a Bootcamp partition for Windows is complicated at best with the release of Lion and the demise of the old standby: Winclone. Since twocanoes stopped developing Winclone, I’ve been looking for another method to create an image that will be, well, reliable. While it is possible to use Winclone 2.3, it’s not supported and it’s very buggy. And that’s just the Windows partition, not the entire drive, and I want the entire drive. So, based on some suggestions I got with previous posts and lots of online research, I decided to give Clonezilla a try.

Clonezilla is akin to Norton Ghost, as it grabs a complete image of a hard drive, partitions and all, and will restore it. Unlike other ghosting software though, Clonezilla supports HFS+, the Mac OS X Extended filesystem, as provided by the core utility, Partclone. That means it can image both a standard NTFS partition with the Mac partition. It sounds great, assuming it would work, so I thought I would test it out and see if it were a viable option for mass deployment of Mac with Bootcamp. Going through the motions, I was impressed with the repository settings that were available. Much like Acronis, the Clonezilla Live CD boots up into it’s own OS platform. With Clonezilla, though, it’s Linux, and it shows. There are a lot of options to select, and it doesn’t have a very friendly UI. But, really, UI is secondary to performance in my case (because I’m used to a command line UI that it presents), so that wasn’t much of a consideration.

The first neat experience I saw with Clonezilla was it’s flexibility. You can select just about every language and keyboard setup that Linux supports, which makes it handy to deploy. Unfortunely, you need to do it every single time you boot. Perhaps there is a way to build a custom CD, or perhaps settings would be kept with the USB boot, but I didn’t see it off hand. The other flexibility option that impressed me was the method of finding your repository. It’s actually very easy to find a connection method that will work for you. I really liked the idea of having an SSH repository, making images easy to deploy to and from a remote server if necessary. The only thing to change performance at that point would be the speed of your connection. Internally, if you are on a Gigibit switched network, it will come as close to that speed as possible.

Then we get to the image tool. I only used the beginner options, which probably has a lot of settings that are defaulted, but I wanted to make this as easy as possible. That, and after spending a good 5 minutes on choosing my keyboard and setting up the repository information, I wasn’t much interested in spending more time configuring when default settings should work just fine. Apparently you can back up just partitions, or the entire disk. I chose the entire disk because that was what I am looking for, but I kept the partition idea in mind for future projects (assuming it worked, of course).

Below are the steps I took while creating an image, and deploying that image to a computer.

Steps: Booting from the CD

Boot to Clonezilla Live CD
Select boot option for Clonezilla. The default works great at 800 x 600.
Select Language (default is US English)
If you are not using a USB keyboard, select the keymap from the arch list, otherwise continue with “Don’t tuch keymap”
1. If you selected to select the keymap, select your keyboard type (default is most common, QWERTY)
2. Select the Keyboard layout (starts with Brazillian)
3. Select your keyboard variant, either Apple USB or Standard

Now you are ready to set up the repository for your image.

Select Start_Clonezilla
Select Device-Image, as you would want to create an image from a device.
Select your repository method.
1. If you have a local device, like a USB drive or internal drive, you can use Local_dev
2. If you have an SSH server you want to publish the image to, use ssh_server
3. If you have an SMB server (Samba, or Windows server), this will be best for you
4. If you have an NFS server (common in UNIX networks), nsf_server will work for you
Depending on what you selected before, you need to verify your network connection (or not if it’s local). I selected the Ethernet network (for speed), and then used DHCP. This will probably be the most common setup for everyone.
Since I chose SSH, I entered in my SSH server IP (can use DNS name too), confirmed the port number, and entered in the user ID for the login.
Then enter in the absolute path for the repository. I put it on my Desktop, so I put in /Users/userid/Desktop.
It will then ask you for authentication information to mount the connection. Follow directions (hopefully you already know all this information).

You are now ready to start the image.

Select Beginner mode. It’s easy to use, and you don’t have to mess with the expert stuff. If you already know what you are doing, then expert would be great. But then, if you already know what you are doing, why are you reading this?
Select Action
1. savedisk: Will image the entire hard drive as an image, with all partitions. This is what I chose for creating the image of my Mac with the bootcamp drive.
2. saveparts: Will image partitions of the drive for restoration. If you don’t need everything, just a single partition (like your Bootcamp partition), this will back up just the partition. Obviously this will save you time over the entire disk if you have more than one partition.
3. restoredisk: Will restore the drive from an image.
4. restoreparts: Will restore individual partitions.
5. recovery-iso-zip: Will create a recovery disk of Clonezilla Live for either CD or as a zip for a bootable USB drive.
6. chk-img-restorable: will check to see if an image is restorable or not. This is an option you can turn on while creating the image, so it will be checked after the image has been created.
Input the name you want for your image.
Select the disk or partition you want to back up
Choose to either check the image as it’s saved, or skip the check. I recommend letting it check the image (increased my image time by 15 minutes, but well worth piece of mind)
Press enter to continue.

At this point, you are all set! Clonezilla will create an image of each partition in the hard drive (or just the one you selected), and notify you how long for each partition it will take to back up and restore. It took, for my two images, a total of about an hour and a half to back up and restore the image using SSH and the options I selected above on a Gigabit network.

To restore, it’s much the same process. Boot to the drive, select your language, etc., and set up your device repository. To restore, you would use these steps:

Select Beginner mode.
Select restoredisk (or restoreparts, if you backed up a partition)
Select your archive as displayed
Select the drive you wish to image.
Press Enter to continue.
It will then ask you if you want your hard drive partitions overwritten, type Y to continue. It will then verify that you are wanting to replace your hard drive partitions, type y.
The system will now restore.

The restoration process is done partition by partition, with each partition taking less time to reimage than it took to create the image in the first place. And the results? Success! The restore booted without a problem, with all settings in tact. That is better than could be said for the previous imaging tools I have tried.

So it looks like I have found a useful cloning tool for imaging my Macintosh computer lab, and pretty much any lab for that matter.

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