Aruba Unveils Next Generation Network Access Products

Press Release:

Introducing MOVE: Next-Generation Network Access Products from Aruba

The onslaught of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile devices brings new challenges to IT departments looking to speed service delivery while lowering costs and risk. Access networks are critical to meeting these challenges and the recent growth of enterprise mobility has changed requirements for how these networks are built and operated.

To address these needs, Aruba announced the Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE), a mobility-centric access network that gives IT departments unprecedented visibility and control over mobile users, devices and applications.

As part of the MOVE architecture, Aruba introduced a series of products that enable users to securely access the mobile enterprise network, regardless of their location. Together, they eliminate the cost and complexity of managing separate wired and wireless networks as well as access policies. For your customers, this means fewer physical network connections and less equipment in the wiring closet - rightsizing the enterprise access infrastructure.

The MOVE architecture is encompassed in several new products and releases, including:

• Mobile Device Access Control (MDAC) for Apple iOS Devices
  • ArubaOS 6.1 for Aruba Mobility Controllers
    • Device fingerprinting for mobile device identification and access control
    • With Aruba Amigopod and the AirWave Management Suite, enables the deployment of a complete MDAC solution.
• Aruba AP-134/135 3x3:3 802.11n Access Points
  • High security 802.11n MIMO
  • Nearly Gigabit/sec capacity per AP
• Aruba S3500 Series Mobility Access Switches
  • Unified security across wireless and wired Simplified wiring closet with controller-based configuration
  • Brings wireless polices to the wired network
• Aruba VIA Client for Mac OS X
  • Zero touch deployment and maintenance
  • Integrated with campus and branch access network
• Aruba Instant Wi-Fi for Small Offices
  • Virtual controller technology, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi for small offices

Seamless upgrade path to a controller based Aruba solution

Apple's subscription plan: Time for an app work stoppage | ZDNet

Thought that this was an interesting article about how Apple’s “greed” may get in the way of their keeping their current high market position in the smartphone/tablet world. If they have companies like Amazon, Netflix and Hulu pull their apps from iTunes then they will begin to miss a large part of the entertainment market when it comes to streaming media. This might not be as big a problem for the iPhone but the iPad may see some serious fallout to the android tablets that will soon be plentiful. The sooner that these new tablets are out and provide and alternative the the Apple monopoly the sooner they may see this happen. I would hate for my sake, since I own an iPad to lose these streaming services because I do use them on my tablet but it isn’t my only use of it. If I have to go back to my PC or grab a new device I will probably do it.

Apple's subscription plan: Time for an app work stoppage | ZDNet

Sharing Files between all of your devices

I would be interested how you share information between all of your devices. If you are like me you may use more than one device on a moment to moment basis and you may be generating information that you need to share or have access to no matter what device you current have at hand.

I use primarily five devices on a weekly basis. I have desktops at home and at work, a netbook in a backpack to keep me mobile, an iPad and an iPhone. I also have a Kindle that I have used but it isn’t one of these primary devices that I use to share information for personal or company business. When I look at a service or application that I am thinking of using on any one of these devices the first thing I look at is how device independent is it and how available is the program/data that it works with to all of my devices. I have come up with a few that I have found indispensible and I would like to share them with you.

Note Taking – EVERNOTE is my application of choice for this that I use to share information between my iPhone. iPad and computers. I use OneNote a lot on my computer but until recently it was only available on my PC’s and that wasn’t quite flexible enough. Recently Microsoft released an iPhone version of OneNote that can access notebooks that are stored in the cloud (SkyDrive). While this is interesting it isn’t quite as useful as Evernote is for me. The iPhone OneNote application isn’t as functional as the PC version and leaves a lot to be desired. In a pinch it has some use though. If they come out with an iPad version with more of the PC version’s capabilities then I might consider jumping back to this program for more use.

When I am sitting down with a client I am using a program called FastEver XL that allows me to quickly and easily type in text that can be saved to my Evernote account. I then save it and it becomes available no matter which device that I am currently using. So when I am out on the road collecting information at a client’s site that I will need at my desk later on, I am typing that info into FastEver XL and before I get back to the Office it is already waiting for me at my desk.

I have also been playing with an application called aNote (Awesome Note) that also integrates with  Evernote. It synchronizes with the Evernote folders so that you can use it’s capabilities It is meant to be used as a To-Do List manager with hooks to both Google and Evernote.

Document Access – I store many of the documents that I need to have access to using either Microsoft’s Skydrive or Dropbox. Skydrive gives you 25GB’s storage for free and this is where I put data like my OneNote Notebooks so that they are synchronized between all of my systems. However, Dropbox is the storage are that I primarily use because it is compatible with many iPad/iPhone applications for document storage. A Dropbox account comes with 2GB’s of storage for free and you can purchase upgrades to the service as you necessary. I have increased my storage to 50GB’s at a cost of $99/year and you can increase that to 100GB’s for $199/year. I also have storage over with mobileme and Google docs so there is plenty of places I can drop a file and have it available. I opened up my subscription to mobileme only because I decided to play with Pages and Keynote which are Apple applications that I am using on the iPad. I am not a big Google docs user but I know that it is there if I need it.

So what kind of information do I store in Dropbox. Most of it is temporary but some of it includes documents that I am constantly sharing with my clients. Things like product brochures can easily be shared through email on the fly when I am at a client’s site. I also create and store reports that I use when I am at a client’s site. This gives me instant information wherever I am. I will also store an office document here if I need to continue working on it from home. That way I can pick up right where I left off without having to save it off to a flash drive. I seem to be constantly losing those anyway. I have also stored program files here so that when I go to a customer’s site I can download those onto their machine quickly and easily. There is no concern of malware contamination because I’m not using hardware to transfer between systems.

Research – I use Instapaper quite a bit as I am going through my RSS feeds and from my internet browser. If you haven’t used this internet service before you will really love it once you do. One of the biggest benefits is that it will strip out most of the unwanted material from the website that it is pulling the article from and makes it much easier to read. I can access this information from my iPhone, iPad or any of my computers. It is easy to organize and I do this mainly from my computers. The browser based controls are much easier to use to organize my captured documents and once I have them there they are very easy to share with others as well. One of the ways that I am using this is to allow me to collect information from different photography blog sites that I am putting together as a self-help guide in MS Word. I have set it up with a table of contents and then saved it as a PDF file. I then send it up to my iPad and store it in the iBooks application. The articles in the document are then accessible using the table of contents to jump to the page that it is located on in the document. This makes it very easy to move around in the document using either the TOC or using the search feature to find keywords about something that I am searching for.

Photo’s -  If you have been following me at all on any of my blogs, you know that I love to take photos. The one thing that a photographer loves better than the taking of a photograph is the ability to share it with someone. I do this in a number of ways but the two primary ones are using my iPad as a presentation device and a website called SmugMug as my online gallery. SmugMug is accessible from most any device that has internet access and allow you a pretty large number of choices to separate you pictures and to be able to document them. It’s a great way to backup your pictures from your local storage and it allows you setup several layers deep of gallery settings. But the ability for me to point friends and family to this site easily and for them to self navigate makes for a great experience for them or for me when I am showing them using my devices as well.

I hope this article has given you some ideas of how you can set yourself up to be as productive and satisfied with all the programs and data that you want at your fingertips when you want it.

QNAP adds iOS streaming via WiFI and 3G

While this is the headline streaming through the technology blogs, QNAP (Quality Network Appliance Provider) has a great inventory of products to choose from for your network storage needs. While this announcement highlights some of the neat features in their latest home designed appliances that provide digital media streaming to more of your devices in your home, they are much, much more than a home media streaming company.

The QNAP TS-x12 Turbo NAS Product line provides an All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI for SOHO and Home Users. The TS-412 appliance supports a 3-bay hot swappable  system with RAID 0/1/56/5+Hot Spare and JBOD. It also supports both 2.5” and 3.5” drives as well.

If you are looking for a repository for all of your Home Entertainment needs to share Photos, Music Movies and Videos, you can do worse than this device. With support for PS3, Xbox 360 or other network media players you will be able to stream full HD 1080p movies to your TV or Projector. You can even provide access to your digital media over the Internet by web browsers or iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Android mobile devices.

Of course you will have file share and backup of all your network devices as with most NAS compatible devices. With DLNA and iTunes Server support.The NAS features high-speed data transfer of exceeding 70MB/s, fast enough to support multiple 1080p HD streams. The whisper-quiet design brings you the best cinema-grade home theater experience right in your living room.

QMobile is an application dedicated to iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android users. You can view and play Terabytes of photos, music, and video files on the NAS by QMobile from anywhere regardless of the actual storage size of your mobile devices. You can also upload photos to QNAP NAS straightway from your iPhone for instant sharing.

If you are using a Surveillance system at home you can easily use this NAS device as a central storage area for your IP cameras. The Surveillance Station of QNAP NAS enables you to connect to multiple IP-based security cameras for real-time monitoring, recording, and playback. It supports leading network camera brands such as AXIS, D-Link, IPUX, LevelOne, Linksys, Panasonic, and VIVOTEK. By using particular models, you can use two-way video and audio monitoring and recording, and smart PTZ control to control the monitoring direction of the IP cameras by a web browser.

Versatility seems to be the watch word with these new devices by QNAP.

CES 2011

Last year Jude and I had launched our video studio right about this time and had produced some videos about products that we thought were neat and that we wanted to have. Many of these products never came into production as is the nature of the beast, but it is still interesting that the same basic theme this year seems to be the same as last year.

Hands down I think that one of the most exciting products of last year was the iPad and I am so glad that I found a way to justify my purchase because once I did get it into my hands, I found many more uses for it then I originally imagined. One of the things that I do daily is look for either new applications or peripherals to add to my collection of supporting items for my iPad. My two newest purchases being speaker docks that charge my iPad and iPhone while playing content. Productivity enhancements and ease of sharing data between systems is still my biggest concern when choosing a new application.

So, enough of my Bully Pulpit! The main focus of new and improved upcoming products include iPad type devices either using Android and Microsoft's Windows for operating systems. Throw in products from HP and RIM and we have a large number of choices in many varying sizes. For many of these we will still have to wait and see if they will actually reach production.

Another carryover from last year is the eBook reader. My feeling is that Amazon and Barnes and Noble are our two leaders with Sony in as a distant third. I am not sure that there is any more room for anything else out there but when people see a successful product they will try to ride the coattails of those products with what they feel is a better mousetrap.

3D TV was introduced last year but this year we see it being put into almost everything with a screen. I am not sold on this yet as anything more than a gimmick, but there is a lot of money being poured into it.

Believe it or not there are some interesting things happening with desktop and notebook computers with the new integrated video residing right in the same silicon with the CPU. there are many benefits to be found doing this that I will discuss in some follow-up articles. But we are seeing a small resurgence in Tablet Notebooks (convertibles), and more units in smaller more powerful form factors.

I haven't seen any new product groups yet but we are still pretty early in the show for me to determine that, more on this later. Anyway, over the next few days we will be perusing CES from afar and as we come up with products that we fill compelling, we will be sure to bring them to your attention.
So for now I'll go back to work and see what I can find!

Skype 3.0 adds video calling

Those of you that use Skype will be interested in the new release from Skype of its IOS release of Skype 3.0. We tried it out over 3G yesterday and while it was a little grainy and choppy was useable for basic communications on your iPhone 4 and 3GS and 4th generation iPod. While the image displayed is really grainy you can make out larger objects but if you need to send text you are better off taking a picture and sending it that way.

You can see the image to the right that the back camera from my iPhone 3gs can only do so much. This was a screen grab from my computer’s Skype communication box. You can easily flip your phone’s camera on and off but the receiving system needs to accept the image as well.

iPad's big upgrade: The top 10 iOS 4.2 features for business | ZDNet

TechRepublic has published their choices of the top 10 iOS 4.2 Features for iPads used in business.  I have found some of these features as very valuable but I haven’t been able to take advantage of several of them as of yet.

Multitasking: I played with the multitasking some and so far I have found it to be a great boon to my productivity but I sure would have liked two more things added to this function:

1. An easy way to close an application when you are through with it and
2. I would like to have the application continue to run in the background when I jump to another application.

I find it really annoying that I can’t listen to a video without it running in the forefront. Sometimes it is nice to continue listening while you jump to some research or to make notes about what you are listening to.

AirPlay: This could really be a neat app in as TR discusses for presentations. It works with the new Apple TV $99 product and you could hook this up to a projector or large screen TV to give presentations, training or any other kinds of video in your conference room.

AirPrint: The list of printers that are capable of taking advantage of this feature are very few at the moment. There are several HP’s working right now but there are several manufacturer’s that seem to be working on this but for now I have to rely on my little Lexmark App to allow me to print at home. It works pretty well out of the utility but it is limited to printing pictures and websites that are brought up within the application. It doesn’t take advantage of the built in functions with iOS 4.2.

Find My iPad is now free. Whoopee!

Folders: I have hated having so may screens just as I did on my iPhone but you have to be careful how you group applications because I have found that even though my initial consolidation seemed to make sense at the time, as time goes by you forget sometimes where you put apps that you don’t use very often.

Unified Inbox: This feature makes it easy to quickly look at multiple email account inboxes at one time. This is a real time saver if you have many different mail accounts for different things.

Web Browser Search: This is a nice addition that allows you to find key words on a webpage and is especially useful big full pages.

Quick Controls: By double tapping the Home Button (takes you to the multitasking screen) and swiping left to right on the panel that appears you will get to the the quick controls panel that lets you work with the following functions: play/pause button and forward/back buttons for the iPod app, a volume control slider, a brightness slider, and a new virtual orientation lock setting. The old lock above the volume buttons is now a mute button, which I think is stupid but you go with what Apple gives you and you like it!

The Wireless app distribution and Remote device management functions sound great on paper for Enterprise support of large numbers of iPad Corporate supported units and I will have to see this in use before I can comment further on it. Anyway, take a look at the link listed below to see what TechRepublic has to say about these new features.

TechRepublic Top 10 New iOS 4.2 features:

Multitasking

AirPlay

Wireless app distribution

AirPrint

Find My iPad

Folders

Unified inbox

Remote device management

Web browser search on page

New quick controls console

iPad's big upgrade: The top 10 iOS 4.2 features for business | ZDNet

Instapaper Updates Its Product to include new Sharing Options

Instapaper is one of my key applications that I use to capture articles for websites and RSS feeds for later reading and archival library storage. I am quietly putting together a wonderful library of photographic and photo editing application articles and notes that I am acquiring daily. I don’t know how I would do this without the use of this wonderful program. The great thing about it is the acceptance that it has received in the community and the other support programs that use its API to grab info on the fly for me.

The New released update provides several User Interface improvements and adds new sharing options as well. This new version adds preview text to the list view on the iPhone and iPod Touch similar to the iPad capabilities. If you are not using this application on your mobile devices and your PC you are missing a great tool to add to your arsenal to crate your own personal research library.

Google Docs editing finally comes to iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices via Google Mobile

If you haven’t downloaded or updated your Google App you may want to do so now if you are a Google Docs user. While I am not, this appears to be a pretty handy addition to your office toolbox of applications that you can use to access documents created and/or stored on your Google Docs site.You can now make changes to your Google Docs from any IOS 3.x or later device as well as from Android devices running Froyo (2.2).

Seems to work well except I had a problem with using the desktop version for Google Docs on an iPad. It errors out. This may be due to the fact that the website is trying to download to a local add in of the Google Docs application. Since this doesn’t exist on Safari on the iPad it can’t do it. I also tried this using the Atomic Browser on the iPad without any success. However, it does work on my iPhone. Maybe the new update of upcoming IOS 4.2 for the iPad will fix this problem. Without the desktop function I don’t really see much use for this application on the iPad and using it on the small screen of my iPhone is not good either but will work in a pinch if I need it to.

For now I will continue to us DocsToGo for my formatted text and for the quick and dirty, I will use Evernote and FastEver XL to work with text on my iPad.

Hulu Plus is now out of preview with new $7.99 subscription cost!

I am an active user of the free Hulu product on my computer at home, but I really wanted the offer of anytime/anywhere access that Hulu Plus promised on my iPhone and iPad devices. Have I been using this service? Yes, but I am not as happy with the selection as compared with what is available on my computer.You would think that with word PLUS in its name, there would be more, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The list seems to be getting better but not fast enough to suit me. Is it something that will cause me leave the service? Not yet. But it is nice that the price has dropped to $7.99 and that we should be seeing some credits back for us earlier adopters.

Here is a quick breakdown from Hulu that shows the differences between the two services:

Whether the $2 per month savings will be enough to spark a new wave of subscribers is hard to say—the service is still pricey for a somewhat limited selection of popular shows. Then again, Hulu Plus does offer complete seasons for current shows (something free users won't get), but unless you're the type to blow through whole seasons of recent shows, it may be a better use of your money to subscribe to Netflix instead.

Netflix in the News Again

Be sure to update your iPhone so you can now watch your Netflix on your phone as well. For around $9/month you have the ability to stream content from Netflix to not only your computers but also to your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. When you think about the size of our phone it having the ability to stream beautifully formatted movies and TV shows to you phone and other media devices. The Application is simple and easy to use and renders well to the screen size that it is played on. Access to mobile media is expanding for sure. Enjoy your movies while you are on the go!

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My new constant companion.

So what item do you normally always have with you these days that you feel lost if you don’t have it with you. I’m sure most of you would say your phone. If it is a smart phone, of feature phone and you are into texting, you would probably find yourself looking/reaching for it to see who has contacted you or wanting to respond or tell everyone what is going on in your current situation. Well, for me, I have found that I have been neglecting my phone more and more to give my new companion most of my attention. Yes, I’m talking about my iPad and it is now my new favorite device that I can’t be without.

Click to read more ...

How to Stay Connected

I talked a little bit about how I pick the devices that I use, in this post I want to talk about the what I am using to accomplish this. First, let’s go down the list of devices that I use both for the office and my own entertainment. At the office I have an i7 Workstation with dual 19 inch monitors in the traditional square or 4:3 format. At home my primary system is again an i7 but I am using a 32 inch TV/Monitor as my secondary monitor and a 22 inch widescreen for my primary screen. I also have three mobile devices, an 10.1 inch Acer NetBook, an iPhone 3gs, and my newest acquisition an Apple iPad.

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Tech Toys

It is such a sad thing to open my desk drawer and see all of the my tech toys of the past just lying there with their sad faces staring back at me, no longer seeing the light of day. no longer being touched with loving fingers, no longer being recharged to provide the enjoyment that they once did. I do love my toys. I love trying to find new uses for them

Click to read more ...

iPhone Multitasking coming soon…

Steve Jobs and company showed off new skills for the iPhone today, such as multiple apps running at one time, plus services like background location and Internet calling, and a new advertising platform called of all things, iAd. The new operating system is going to have 100 new user features. They demonstrated seven of them today calling them their 7 pillars.

Click to read more ...

Listingly Web App that allows you to share Lists

While I was getting ready to go out and do our weekly grocery shopping this morning I started transferring my written paper shopping list on my TODO list on my iPhone I started talking to my lovely wife about what I was doing.

Now, if anyone knows Kathy she is very much a list person. She loves lists. and when she commented on whether she had a Todo or list program on her iPhone it got me to thinking that it would be nice to have an application that we could share the information back and forth on our iPhones that we would also have access from a web browser as well. This is my big thing, I want to have all of my data where and when I can get at it from most any device I sit down with or touch.

So I sat down and began the search for the golden chalice. listingly is what I finally decided on. I failed to find anything that was a web based app and had a standard iPhone app as well but I was pleasantly surprised how well listingly works through Safari.

Once you have signed yourself up you will want to edit or add your own lists to your account. This has to be done using your computer but once you have your list setup and shared you can easily add items, subtract items and manage your list from either the iPhone or your computer screen. You will use your computer for setting up your lists primarily, and your iPhone for working with the lists.

Your account comes predefined with three lists, grocery, wish list and to do list. It uses your first name to define the owner of the list so the wish list is named in my case, Bobs Wishlist. This is something that you will want to make sure that you put on your list in case you share the list with someone, it will make it easier for them to know where the list originated. When creating a list you will choose a name, pick one of four types of lists:

• Grocery (Smart List) – This type of list allows the site to remember items that can be added back into the list over and over again as your need for them recurs. It will also help you build your list by auto suggesting items based on what you are typing. You can also categorize by adding a comma and entering a term for your categorization. For my grocery list I used the aisle names to group the grocery items together to make it easier to get all the items from the same area.
• Free Style List – use this list item for just general lists. You can still categorize the list the same way as listed above. And as in all the lists you are able to add a note to your list item to give yourself more info about the listed item.
• Wish List
• To Do List – has an extra field for you to add a due date for each item.

To add button on your iPhone to go directly to your lists, press the plus symbol at the bottom of the screen (image #1), then press the button for Add to Home Screen (image #2), name your new icon (image #3) and position it on your iPhone where you would like it to show up (image #4).

This is a shareware product and if you find that you are using it and want to help with the continued programming and possibly new features, you should consider helping the cause by donating some money to the author.

Good luck with this, and have fun!

Will the iPad become the Ultimate eBook device?

The iPad will have its own built-in application for access to books purchased from the ibookstore and in the interface four actions to your library is interesting as well as you can see with the image displayed at the right.  You will have the basic features that you find in the Kindle in the nook, and you get the added bonus of being able to use the iPhone applications that give you access to these two sites as well as other epub applications that are available.  No other device at this moment other than your computer has this capability. So if you are really looking for a new eBook reader the iPad is giving you a reason to take a much closer look at what it can offer you.

2010 winter Olympics are here-have you gotten your iPhone apps to follow the coverage?

As soon as I found them I couldn't keep myself from downloading these two new applications from NBC.  The first one, NBC Olympics, gives you breaking news, video, photos and Facebook and Twitter feeds.  On the social front, you can join or create your own groups, look at popular groups and different categories.  You have a tab to look at individual sports coverage, favorites and the all important schedule which shows what is going on in when during the day.  With the weather not qte porting as well as desired we're already seeing some of events being postponed until conditions get better.  The schedule allows you to see what is on TV, what is online, which events are scheduled, when countries are scheduled for different events, and to setup alerts for the events when the metals are presented.

So if you work into the whole Olympic experience and you have an iPhone this is a great application to add to your phone.

The NBC cheer app gives you many options to use your are phone to make noise while you were cheering on your favorite Olympic sports.  It is cute but can become quite irritating especially to those around you if they don't have a similar capability.  So, if you need a little extra something to route along your favorite event you definitely have to get this app added to your phone.  Have fun!  Go USA!

Quick overview of the AutoStitch Program

I need to apologize for the resolution of the video but it will give you an idea of how to run through the stitching of your iPhone pictures. I am still working on coming up with a good video capture routine for the times that I want to capture things I am doing with my hands in close quarters. I had hoped that the Flip had better macro focus then it does. It could have been a problem with light levels as well. I’ll keep playing and we will see what happens. I wanted the HD capabilities of the Flip but if I need to drop back to my Canon then I will. We have some new Canon Video Cameras at the store that I will probably try out as well. Again. it is the macro capability that I need to work with.

 

The completed image is shown below:

AutoStitch on your iPhone

I threw this image up on our family site and I thought once I started looking at it that this application might be of general interest to those who happen to have an iPhone and also enjoy using your iPhone to capture special events.  I find myself at times, being in a situation that presents an image of something I would like to share that is panoramic and nature.  If I were to take only one shot it would not capture the total experience that I am viewing.  Here is a great example of a scene that if I had taken just one image would not have portrayed what I was seeing.  There are not a lot of controls that you can use when taking a picture with your iPhone. With this tool in your bag you can take multiple images and then stitch them back together as a single image. AutoStitch is the application I use to accomplish this on my iPhone.  The image below is made up of 31 separate pictures.  I missed a few snaps in the lower left but the rest of the images  turned out really well.  So, if you have an iPhone and you find yourself in a situation where you want to be able to capture a panoramic view, think about downloading this application. It’s a whopping $2.99 to buy and I think it is well worth it.