This will be a quick one, but note worthy for those in the market for a new Mac.

I recently bought a new iMac for my home and found out later that the bookstore is offering and extra $50 off the already low educational pricing. Don't forget the free iPod (by rebate) when you make your purchase.

I think the sale goes on until the 15th of September, 2008. You will want to check with them for supply on hand.

J

With the launch of the new 3G iPhone, there has also been a change in the service plans that require you to pay for ActiveSync at a rate of $15/mo. This is the Enterprise plan add-on.

It has been reported to me by more than an handful of iPhone users here at UNT, that ActiveSync works on the 3G phone, even if you HAVE NOT bought the Enterprise plan. Thats right, if you haven't purchased the ActiveSync plan for your iPhone, it appears that it works anyway.

If you are like me and have a 2G (1st generation) iPhone, you get ActiveSync for free anyway. I'm not sure how long this loophole will last, or what ATT is doing to remedy this, but I would imagine that this wont last for ever.

Disclaimer: I am not reccomending that you use the Enterprise service without paying for it. If you do, you do so at your own risk.

-Jason

Well, it's not exactly free money, but it's less you have to pay, which is more money you get to keep. Anyway, if you haven't heard about the discount on your ATT wireless bill, here is the scoop. ATT offers UNT employees an discount on their wireless phone service. If you haven't taken advantage of this offer, then here is what you do.

1) Go to http://www.wireless.att.com/home/ and click on "Corporate Discount Eligibility" in the Business window.

2) Enter you UNT email address, a message will be sent to your Exchange (UNT email) account.

3) Click the link in the email that will direct you to the premiere website.

4) Perform the "Online Validation Process" under the "Existing Customers" heading.

5) Upon completing this process, you will start recieving a discount on your ATT wireless bill.

This discount is in addition to any other remuniration you are receiveing.

Now take your savings and put it in your gas tank!

Cheers!
Jason

Hopefully this will never happen to you, though if it does there is something that you can do to protect the information on your phone.

Step 1
Get thee to a web browser! Go to http://webmail.unt.edu and login using your unt\euid username and password.

Note: Fortunatly this works from either Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers. I would also mention that this works for any smart phone.

Step 2
Click "Options" to switch to the options menu.

Step 3
Select "Mobile Devices" from the menu.

In the window that appears on the left you will see information regarding your device, as well as the option to remove the device from the list or the option to wipe all the data from the device.

Step 4
Click the radio button next to your device (phone), then click the option to (take a deep breath)

"Wipe All Data from Device"

Be Careful!! If you remove the device, the phone will not be wiped - it will only remove your ability to manage that phone. If this happens you will not be able to remotely wipe your phone.

Summary:

Login to webmail.unt.edu, and select mobile devices under "options" to manage your phone. Make sure to remotely wipe your phone if it is lost or stolen. If you get the phone back, you can always perform a restore from iTunes and then join your phone back to your Exchange account.

Good luck! Hopefully you will never have to use this tutorial.

Jason

 So I get a call asking about an attachment called winmail.dat. The person was saying that this should have been an attachment they were expecting and they don't know how to get to it.

The problem stems from the senders side and not the receivers side. The senders Outlook client is set to compose the message in RTF (rich text format) instead of plain text or HTML. When the Mac user receives the message in Entourage, it will show the text of the message and the RTF version and accompanying attachment(s) are encapsulated in the winmail.dat file.

What to do?
1) The sender needs to change their messaging from RTF to either HTML or PlainText
2) The sender can zip or stuff the attachment and send it.
3) The recipient can use the application TNEF's Enough by Josh Jacobs (freeware) to decode the winmail.dat file.

I've tested this out with a winmail.dat attachment in Entourage 2008 SP1 and it works. I would also reccomend that you check out the preferences of this application for more configuration settings.

Thank you

Jason Gutierrez

There are several changes coming to some areas in the near future. As some of our Novell licensing come to a close, some areas are moving to Windows file shares. In the CITC, our software volume will be located on Widows servers as of this weekend (8-9-08).

 You will want to check with your area as to which connection protocols they allow for accessing windows volumes, as for accessing CITC Windows share we will be using SMB, also known as Samba. To connect to the new CITC software volume you will want to connect to smb:\\CITCWin1.unt.ad.unt.edu\software.

In the next few blog entries I will talk a little more about how Mac's connect to Windows file share, and print services. I will also cover the topic of binding a Mac to a Windows domain, which is useful in some authentication scenarios.

Regards,

Jason Gutierrez

Looks like there is a new update to the iPhone software. It's a 250 MB download from Apple, that you can easily obtain when you plug your iPhone into your computer and launch iTunes.

The update is reported to fix a few bugs, chief of which is the annoying crashes of applications and random restarts of the phone.

One other thing that it fixes is unlocked phones. Not that I've ever unlocked my phone, and I would assume this goes for the iPod Touch as well, but if I had I would be very disappointed with this update. Those of you with unlocked devices, watch out.

Apple Insider reports these updates:

• You can now drag an app icon across multiple pages in one motion, rather than having to drag it, drop it, pick it up again and drag it over to next page, and repeat.
• Contacts are now more responsive.
• After installing 2.0.1, each successive backup is much faster.
• Apple may have changed the calibration of the iPhone's reception "bars" while connected to a 3G network to reflect a stronger signal than before.
• Keypad loads quicker.
• Screen rotation in Safari appears to be smoother.
• Some apps may ask to be updated after the firmware upgrade.

May the force be with you.

Jason

Since Apple switched over to Intel processors, running Windows on a Mac has gotten easier and better. There are two basic ways to run Windows on your Mac, in a virtual setting or natively. More specifically, you can run Windows inside an envoironment like VMWare Fusion or Parallels, or you can boot your computer directly into the Windows OS using Boot Camp.

BootCamp is a utility that comes with the Apple operating system, and will section off a portion of your hard drive to install the Windows operating system. If you run a computing lab, this is great because you only have to have one piece of computing machinery to run either operating system. There is a free application called Boot Picker  that will present you with an OS choice when the computer boots up. When the user logs off the workstation, they simply reboot the station and it presents the OS choice once again. Note however, that when running a boot camp environment, you will run either Mac OS X, or Windows.

Virtualization will give you the best of both worlds. If you are a moderate user of Windows applications, such as using Office or web application, you should find the experience to be seemless. If you use advanced applications that require significant computing resources, such as CAD, video editing, etc., then you might want to use Windows in the Boot Camp environment for these applications. 

If you think that  you might need to switch between running Windows in a vitual environment and a BootCamp environment, you might try this. Install Windows under a BootCamp environment, and when you install your VM product (Fusion or Parallels), you can use that same partition of Windows for your VM. Both VM products will recognize your BootCamp partition as an installation of Windows, and allow you to run that in a virtual environment. When you make system changes or updates to your VM, they will be present when you run Windows in BootCamp. It's the same environment run both ways!

There are bascially two products for virtualization on the Mac OS, and they are Parallels and VMWare Fusion. If you are buying for your department, you might try looking for educational pricing through the AcademicSuperstore.com or other vendor. Some of these products are offered in multi-packs as well, which offers a slight discount on the academic price. 

There is a lot more on this topic that I'm not covering, and I just wanted to breach the subject. If you have any more questions or thoughs on this I would be happy to address those.  

Ciao

Jason

As soon as the iPhone 2.0 software update on my phone was complete, I
couln't wait to setup Active Sync. I was blown away by the absolute
speed and freshness of my email. It's as if there was new life in this
sometimes languid method of communication. Now I know what why they
call it a "Crackberry." I can't put it down.

I've discovered one thing though, that mail just keeps pounding my
inbox and buzzing my phone. Over the course of a day I have found that
my battery doesn't quite have the charge to which I have become
accustomed.

It so happens that only the mail that is deposited in your main inbox,
is pushed to your phone. Mail in other folders and your calenar are
synced when you tap on that folder. To get around this battery issue, I
have created folders in my cabinet and acompanying rules that will
filter known mail such as logfiles, announcements, and other non
critical communication into these folders. Since there are some
uncertainties as to which rules run on the server side (that is that
the rule processes mail wether or not you are logged in to the
Outlook/Entourage desktop client) and whic rules run on the
workstation, I have created all these forwarding rules using the
Outlook Web Access (http://webmail.unt.edu) client, in Internet
Explorer 7. Rule creation is only available in Internet Explorer.

After I have configured my rules, I have noticed that my battery is
sustaining its charge much longer. This also leaves me more battery to
play Crash Bandicoot Nitro Racer with.

Here is a fun one. People call me asking for insight into the purchase
process for a Mac at UNT. The first thing I ask, is this purchase for
yourself or for your department. The reason I ask is because there are
two slightly different methods you will need to use depending on the
purchase.

If you do not know, Apple has setup an online presence for UNT
students/faculty/staff to purchase products for their personal use or
for their institutional use. There are two main points that I like to
bring up in either case, and that is how much RAM you will add, where
you will get the RAM, and Apple Care.

Apple Care

I always suggest that people buy Apple Care, though it is a few
extra bucks, it will be worth it's weight in gold if you have to take
it in for repair after the first year, namely years 2 and 3. If this is
a personal purchase, then I say get the Apple Care. If this is an
institutional purchase, then YOU MUST buy Apple Care, though you need
to know this detail.

UNT's Micromaintenance Division is a licensed Apple repair facility,
and UNT has a special "Parts Only" AppleCare license. When you make an
institutional purchase from Apple, you must select the proper "Parts
Only" AppleCare plan for your machine.

Apple has in its online education purchase experience, two sites set up
for Personal and Institutional purchases. Though the prices are the
same, what you will discover is that the "Parts Only" AppleCare only
appears if you go the iinstitutional purchase route. It will often be
the mistake of the purchaser who doesn't make this distinction, to
purchase the full Parts and Service AppleCare agreement at a
substantial price increase.

When you make an institutional purchase, go to this site to access the UNT Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/WebObjects/HEDCustom?qprm=400634

You will notice in the top right hand portion of the window, a box
named "Special Products", just below the link for reccommended systems.
Under "Special Products" you will find the listing for the parts only
AppleCare. Select the plan that accompanies your computer model and add
it to your cart. At this point you are on your way.

For personal purchases, visit Apple online at http://store.apple.com/us_edu_45469.

Complete your purchase as normal.

RAM

RAM (memory) is super cheap right now, yet Apple does ask more for
its RAM than do other vendors. RAM is considered to be a user
serviceable part, and Apple gives directions in the user manual of the
machines it sells on how to upgrade and install more RAM. I would say
though, that before you install RAM, be sure you have at least read the
directions and understand what you are doing.

As of this writing, Apple is selling 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) withtheir iMac
for $180. OWC (Other World Computing www.macsales.com) is selling their
4GB (2x2GB) kit for $107, a difference of $73. OWC has been a top Apple
upgrade center for as long as I can remember, and I have been a
satisfied customer of their for many years now. All my personal Mac
have always ran OWC RAM, which come with a lifetime guarantee and meets
or exceeds Apple specs for RAM.

Before I'm accused of advertising for this one vendor, I would point
out that there are the other usual suspects when it comes to buying RAM
such as CDW, The Apple Store, EggHead, etc. I've had great experiences
with all these vendors, though I personally find that OWC has a ton of
upgrades at great prices, and all in one place. I've had the
opportunity to visit with them personally at MacWorld and these guys
really know their stuff.

I will say that if you do not want to be bothered with installing RAM,
and do not want to pay someone to install it for you, then I would
heartily suggest that you load up your machine when you purchase it,
and let Apple worry about it. If you make your purchase through the UNT
bookstore, then you will have to make the upgrade yourself, as they
only sell base models in popular configurations.

In my department, most everyone who has an Apple computiner have all
purchased their RAM through OWC. If you plan on outfitting your
department with Macs this coming year, then you might want to think
about the savings 10 or 20 machines would have.

If you are making a personal purchase, $73 could buy you a great steak dinner.

Jason