Citrix, the folks who provide a popular way to run applications on remote servers using a thin client, have announced the immediate availability of Citrix Receiver for iPhone (click opens iTunes). We saw the Citrix guys running around the show floor at Macworld Expo this year, surreptitiously demoing an early build of this app to anyone who walked within range.

Receiver is a free app that enables iPhone and iPod touch users to run any Windows application as a service on their device. Connecting to a Citrix XenApp environment, iPhone fans can securely work with apps from Oracle, SAP, McKesson, Cerner, and other vendors. The only information sent over the wireless connection consists of screen taps and gestures, keyboard input, and screen updates, so it is simple to keep data secure.

Receiver for iPhone uses Citrix HDX to deliver high-definition content to the device so that Flash and Silverlight content can be viewed as well. Flash on an iPhone -- now there's an idea!

In enterprises such as hospitals that depend heavily on Citrix already, Receiver is going to be "well received." This should help Apple's iPhone sales efforts in the enterprise market really take off.

MacRumors is calling attention to a PC World report: new Nehalem-based Xserve models are expected soon, based on a slipup on Apple's Hong Kong site (gotta watch those ALT tags, folks!). The replacement units for Apple's Harpertown and Penryn Xeon-based rackmount gear should be able to leverage the new chip architecture and power management features to supercharge parallel operations in the Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X Server.

If you're in the market for Xserves, would you buy now for a known quantity or wait for the latest and greatest? Let us know below.

Go on, I dare you -- name an individual who has done more to improve the lot of Mac OS X system administrators than Mr. Mike Bombich. Over the course of the past six years, while working both at educational institutions and as an Apple SE, Mike has given of his time and energy in an effort to deliver some deeply useful tools: Carbon Copy Cloner, BootPicker, NetRestore and more. CCC was one of the first effective & free drive cloning tools for Mac OS X; NetRestore set the standard for deployment frameworks and led the way in Boot Camp compatibility for restoring Windows partitions on the Mac.

CCC continues on, but we have to say goodbye to the other half of the dynamic duo: Mike announced that he has end-of-life'd the NetRestore utility, citing a lack of time for the necessary work to bring it forward to current standards and future functionality. It's true that the basic capabilities of NetRestore have been replicated elsewhere (particularly Winclone for Boot Camp partitions, and Apple's NetBoot services in Leopard Server for machine imaging over the LAN), but many have built very capable and complex deployment strategies on top of NetRestore's PHP and database support. It's a shame to see it go.

If you're shedding a tear at the departure of NetRestore, you might take Mike's advice and give DeployStudio a look -- many of the deployment approaches he had planned for "NetRestore 4" can be found in that free and actively-developed system. DeployStudio will allow you to image machines from a local boot drive or from a NetBoot repository; you can even create an image server for your Windows machines and wipe them remotely. Another option, and one that permits very rapid customization of your image config, is the InstaDMG project.

For the latest help and tips on deployment strategies, be sure to visit afp548.com and macenterprise.org.

Thanks to Josh Z for the tip.

Managing the power consumption of your Macs just got a little easier with the latest version of the LANrev cross-platform client management tool. In the new 5.0 build, the headline feature is bright green: you can assign power saving preferences to machines, including toggles based on whether a user is logged in and new reporting fields to monitor energy savings. For government users, the new FDCC SCAP component helps Windows clients meet Federal Desktop Core Configuration standards for 300-odd security settings on XP and Vista (yee-ikes).

LANrev's sometimes-confusing UI has been simplified, bringing many of the server-oriented functions (software distribution, license monitoring, etc.) under a single window; machines can now be categorized for ease of searching and organization. Software deployment has been jazzed up with new metapackage/multi-payload options and Adobe Creative Suite CS3 direct deployment for installers and updaters (no word yet on CS4 support). LANrev still offers one-click Mac reimaging without setting up a Netboot server, which is a big plus in large deployments.

Pricing for LANrev starts at about $50 per seat for corporate buyers ($40 for education markets) with tiered discounts for larger installations.

For individual Mac users or small businesses, it's usually not a problem deploying new Macs with a standard image -- as a Mac support specialist, you might just load each machine manually. But imagine if you need to deploy hundreds or thousands of Macs, PCs, or XServes. You'd need a small army of techs or a way to do the job automatically.

That's where DeployStudio comes in handy. This freeware tool can be used to create deployment files using Netboot, external USB or FireWire drives, or any AFP, SMB, or NFS sharepoint on the network.

DeployStudio works with Mac OS X 10.4.11 to 10.5.3 at this point, and is updated regularly to include new OS versions. The package consists of DeployStudio Server, DeployStudio Assistant, DeployStudio Admin, and diffPackageMaker.

DeployStudio Server creates a network based deployment server containing the images. Assistant is used to configure the server and to create the NetInstall sets, while Admin is used to monitor deployments, manage disk images and scripts, enter configurations, and more. diffPackageMaker can look at the difference between two file system snapshots and create installation packages based on what has been changed or added.

Detailed documentation PDFs and screencasts are available on the DeployStudio site.

Back in January, we reported that IBM had plans to bring the Lotus Notes groupware application to the iPhone platform. Well, it's happened!

Big Blue is announcing the availability of iNotes Ultralite, an iPhone portal to Lotus Notes that is available for free for anyone with a Lotus Notes license. In case you're wondering, there are currently about 140 million people worldwide who use Notes for their email, calendaring, and contacts.

IBM is always concerned about data security for its customers, and as such they decided to make iNotes Ultralite a web app rather than a native iPhone application. IBM felt it was important to customers to insure that all communications between the iPhone and Lotus Domino server be encrypted, and that no data remain on the device in case it was lost or stolen.

iNotes Ulitralite provides yet another foothold in the enterprise market for Apple.

[Via New York Times Technology blog]

Keeping up with the Leopard-centric changes to managed preferences and mobile accounts is crucial if you're responsible for a labful or campus-ful of Macs, and you want to gracefully control what permissions or resources your wanton users have when they log in. One great resource for Mac admins diving into MCX (managed clients for OS X) for the first (or hundredth) time is Apple engineer John DeTroye's Tips & Tricks documentation.

We mentioned John's Tiger edition of the T&T docs last year, and now that he's updated the handbook for Mac OS X 10.5 and Server 10.5, you'll want to bring your library up to date. Gone is most of the material specific to machine imaging techniques (I strongly recommend NetInstall [PDF], which is working better under Leopard than it ever did before), making room for more discussion of MCX settings and portable home directories. Download your free copy of the T&T file today and it'll make your life easier tomorrow.

Apple just released two updates for its Remote Desktop product. The client update and the admin update promise the following fixes:

• Improved reliability with the Copy Items command.
• Upgrade Client Software command now uses unicast packets for improved reliability on some networks.
  
• Fixes to the Force Quit All Applications and Copy Items to Computer Automator actions.

The update is available to Mac OS X systems running 10.3.9 (or later) and ARD 3.x. You can download the updates by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by visiting Apple's downloads website and downloading the installer packages.


Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

With Mac OS X 10.5.5 on the update list for the day, Apple has also decided to release a number of shiny, happy updates for the Mac OS X Server geeks among us. At the top are two versions of Mac OS X 10.5.5:

• Mac OS X Server 10.5.5 (341 MBs)
• Mac OS X Server 10.5.5 Combo Updater (729 MBs)

If you don't wish to update to 10.5 yet, don't worry about it, you can still apply the Security Update 2008-006 that is included in the OS X 10.5.5 server update. This update, available for PPC & Intel Servers running Mac OS X 10.4, weighs in at 118 MBs.

Once you are done with those wonderful happy not so fun system updates and reboots, why not give the "WebObjects Update 5.4.3 for Mac OS X 10.5 " update a whirl?

And there you have it, all the Enterprise updates from Apple today! We know what all the IT people around the country will be doing tomorrow. Rebooting at least once.


Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Ben Gray, analyst at Forrester Research, says that Mac OS X accounts for 4.5 percent of the business operating system market, 3¾ times their share in January 2007.

Computerworld notes that all this has happened with one thing notably absent: an enterprise strategy. "I haven't seen anything from Apple that seems to show it's attack[ing] the enterprise market," Gray said.

He says the gains in market share are due to two trends: client virtualization (using software like Parallels or VMWare) and the idea that corporate IT departments are more willing to support a broader range of hardware and software.

"In the end, [IT departments] want their employees to be as productive as humanly possible, so they'll approve tools that people are more comfortable with," said Gray.

In related news, Windows' overall share of the corporate market dipped slightly from 95.6 to 94.9 percent for the same time period.

[Via Macworld.]

Yesterday we posted a tip about using your iPhone on a cruise ship, but what about if you want to use a Mac on a ship or in a hotel and you don't have a MacBook to take along with you?

AppleInsider's Prince McLean is reporting that installations of Macs in hotels and on cruise ships are going strong, with thousands of Apple machines being sold for installation in those locations by Apple's Enterprise Sales Group. Back in June we mentioned the Fontainebleau's plans in Vegas -- they're also installing another 1,400 24" iMacs in rooms at the flagship resort in Miami Beach.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has Mac minis installed on its Freedom Class (3,600 passenger) ships, and is working with Apple on IT infrastructure for its upcoming Oasis Class (5,400 passenger) liners. The deployments planned will have up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, racks full of Xserves, and thousands of client Macs.

Whether it's an in-room email and information kiosk, a public information center, or an intelligent set-top box, the Mac is definitely making inroads into the hospitality and travel industry.

[via AppleInsider]

Axel Springer AG, Germany's largest newspaper publisher, is moving its entire organization -- 12,000 computers -- to the Mac platform. Axel Springer will become Apple's largest corporate customer in Europe, and second largest customer worldwide. (Google is number one.)

The article is only available in German so far.

Axel Springer owns Bild and Bild am Sonntag, tabloid-style dailies (not unlike The Sun in the UK or the New York Post in the U.S.) and several magazines sold under the Bild brand. The company currently uses large-scale publishing solutions from WoodWing Software and CCI, both of which support Mac clients.

In a video message to employees, CEO Matthias Döpfner cited ease-of-use, appearance, and total cost of ownership in the reason to switch. Employees can start buying and using Macs and iPhones this month, though the entire organization will be migrated over the course of a year or two five years. (Hey, I took French in high school.)

Thanks Alex, Rouven, and bimbum for the tip (and the help with the German)!

Five companies, Atempo, Centrify, GroupLogic, LANrev, and Parallels have joined forces to form the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, which will promote the deployment of Macs in the enterprise. All of the companies focus on integrating Mac OS X with Windows and PC-based network infrastructures.

Peter Frankl, chief operating officer at LANrev, says it wants IT departments to know they can successfully integrate Mac solutions for their large businesses.

For now, the consortium offers little more than product information about each member company's software, but Frankl says the organization wants to create a resource for IT pros to share best practices.

MacEnterprise.org is a well-known community of IT professionals with similar goals, but without the financial clout of the five-company consortium. The organization has not yet responded to a request for comment.

[Via Infoworld]

One of the hidden gems of Apple.com is the collection of free web seminars available 24/7 that cover a wide range of topics and applications. A few weeks ago, Mat posted about the iWork for Business seminar, but a lot of other new seminars have been posted recently.

Some of the highlights:

• Mac for Computer Forensics and e-discovery
• New to the Mac for business users
• Podcast Producer
• News and Sports editing with Final Cut Pro

While a lot of the newest additions are aimed at OS X Leopard Server users or for business users, many of the tips and techniques can be applied for home users too. If none of the new seminars strike your fancy, the existing library of seminars offers some really nice introductions for creating podcasts, using Final Cut Studio or Aperture, and managing a Mac-based network.

Although the video seminars are free, registration is required.

Thanks, Corey!

Another product announced at Macworld Expo, Extensis Universal Type Server, is now shipping. Universal Type Server is designed for corporate font management, requiring Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server 10.4 or 10.5 on a G5 or better machine. My personal opinion is that this would be a perfect application to run on a headless Mac mini.

There are two flavors of Universal Type Server - Professional, which is scalable to any size workgroup, and Lite, for workgroups of up to 10 users. The server and client applications are cross-platform, running on Windows as well as Mac.

Migration paths are available for users of Font Reserve Server or Suitcase Server. The Lite package is available for $1395 directly from Extensis, but you'll want to contact a reseller for the Professional version. If you want to kick the tires before you buy, you can download 30-day free trials for both Pro and Lite.