Apple TV is a new media streaming device which will connect to your TV via HDMI. This device looks set to allow streaming of your iTunes libary, as well as offering HD movie rentals (streaming from Apple) and providing Youtube and Flickr access, all direct to your TV. The device has price tag in the UK of £99.

Also announced were a slew of new iPods. This includes the new Shuffle, a new Nano and a new Touch. All 3 are similar to their predecessors but of course all have improvements.  The Shuffle looks smaller but apparently has bigger buttons and a voiceover feature to help you navigate without a screen, the Nano now has a 1.54” MultiTouch screen and is both smaller and lighter, and the Touch is now ridiculously thin, sports a new Retina display (four times the resolution of previous models) and allows HD video recording (720p!) with the new camera.

iTunes is also getting a update, with the new version being iTunes 10. The biggest new feature is the integration of a social networking element,  which Apple is calling Ping. Think of the social networking capabilities of Spotify, but  this appears not to rely on existing social networks (Facebook etc.).

Apple have been busy indeed and their new products look likely to continue being  some of the most popular of the continuing digital media revolution. For more information on the latest news from Apple see: http://www.apple.com/uk/hotnews/

Now SP1 for Exchange 2010 is released today, and not only does it include all the roll-up updates and bug fixes released so far but it also includes some handy new features. Several of the features are to make administrating the Exchange server more efficient (some new features in the Management GUI) but there are a few that users will enjoy.

One big benefit of the SP is it includes the ability for user to share their calendars, from OWA (which has been improved again and looks very nice!), via HTML or iCal. This means when someone asks you when you’re free for a meeting you could simply send them a link to your calendar for them to compare with theirs. Just imagine: no more ‘I can do Friday’ ‘Well I can’t make Friday but how about Monday..’ type conversations!

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/08/23/uk-office-workers-addicted-paper

For anyone using Hyper V, Snapshots can be a very handy tool. Allowing the swift roll back of a VM to a previous state, they were intended to be used mainly for development and testing environments. They do have their uses for production environments too however, for example; if you wished to perform a potentially risky update on software installed on a virtual machine a quick snapshot before would allow you to do so safe in the knowledge you can revert to before the update simply by loading the snapshot.

One thing that snapshots should not be used for is a substitute for backups. Although they may on the surface seem ideal for this purpose there are a few reasons this is not recommended.

• They do not provide protection against problems that may occur on the host server (the one running Hyper-V), such as a hardware problems on the physical computer or a software-related issues in the operating system.
• Programs running in the virtual machine will not be aware of the snapshot and when rolling back they will not be able to adjust correctly. For example a Exchange server on a VM which has reverted to a snapshot would expect to have connections to the same clients as it did when the snapshot was created.
• The snapshot files (.avhd) will not work, or at least not you will easily be able to revert to them, once they have been moved from their original location. This means that copying them away from the host machine (as you may if you were planning to use them as a backup) will essentially make them useless.

Please note: Our method of backing up HyperV VM’s involves the use of volume shadow copy snapshots. These are not the same as HyperV snapshots! For more info please see the following:

Hyper-v Backups on the Glo Networks Technical Blog

Hyper-V Snapshots & VSS Snapshots: the differences on the Backup Assist Blog

Hyper V Snapshots FAQ on the Technet site

The rear USB port actually connects to a hidden (internal) USB Hub, which is also shared by the keyboard, Bluetooth, track pad, iSight camera and the infra-red receiver. While it is still a functional USB port for the most part, certain devices can have problems, caused by the USB hub.

Our attention was brought to this issue when we tried to use a USB hub on one of our own in the rear port. It seemed to be working as expected at first, however we were confused to find that when we attempted to use a USB headset in the external hub we found Skype calls would have quality issues. We also noticed a form of lag when using a mouse in the hub.

We found that a simple swap of the USB hub from the rear to the front USB port on the Macbook cleared all the issues! A little investigating  and we uncovered the Macbook Pro’s secret hub. This explained the problems we’d experienced, considering having a USB hub plugged into a USB hub has never been a recommended setup!

Not only is the camera tech impressive but the way the photo is viewable (and pan-able, and zoom-able!) in a streaming like manner on the site must have involved some several man hours (and some rather clever men!).

While the site is in Hungarian you don’t need to read the page to enjoy the epic image, and bear in mind the image is around 200GB and as such may take a while to load, though nowhere near as long as we’d expect! We believe it’s well worth the wait.

Utilising either of the devices cameras (the iPhone 4 has a  camera on the front and the back) you can either switch from an existing voice call to video with a tap of an onscreen button or you can initiate a video call from the contacts list. As you can use either camera it’s possible to choose between showing your own image via the front camera, or showing whatever you point the back camera at (and still see the person you’re chatting to).

Apple seem to have been marketing the video calling capabilities of the new iPhone for leisure use, with adverts showing things like a couple sharing their baby’s smile or friends helping each other decide what to wear, however, we, here at Glo, are beginning to see  potential in the app for business purposes (particuarly in our line of work!).

Here’s an example: Imagine a situation where a cable has become unplugged in a server room. The person who discovers this may not know where the cable should be plugged in, and as such phones their IT support provider. Now from experience we can tell you it’s not always simple to describe cables, or the sockets they should be plugged into over the phone. However if both of the people in the call were able to use FaceTime they could simply point the rear camera at the cable in question and the support engineer will instantly be able to see what they’re dealing with!

Although FaceTime is only available on the iPhone 4 at present, and only with a WiFi connection,  Apple has pledged to release it as an open standard, allowing other companies to develop around it. This means you could soon be seeing FaceTime appearing on other devices, and possibly (with support from phone service providers) over 3g!

If you’re still running Windows 2000 in any shape, or form, you’ve long past the time you should’ve upgraded, and you’re now in the “danger zone” (if that doesn’t make you think of Kenny Loggins I don’t know what will).

If you’ve got XP machines in your network you should already be on Service Pack 3. If you’ve got a managed update infrastructure (WSUS, for example) and not yet approved the installation then today is the time to make sure that you’ve done it. Just prepare your users for the possible interruptions. It can take a while!

Having had an iPhone 3G  since it’s launch I’ve been a reluctant fan. I say reluctant fan as it’s GPS was very flaky (moving me to a motorway slip lane at it’s whim), screen resolution is ‘low’, none-upgradable storage and battery is plain daft, not having access to the Gbs of space on the device and lastly not being able to carry out any form of customisation all mounted to a less than perfect experience.So I tried out the Motorola Droid (Milestone) with Android and the HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.

Even though the Motorola had a physical slide out keyboard I couldn’t use it. My manly thumbs just couldn’t press the one key I wanted at a time and resulted in me spending ages correcting myself. Androids App Store, marketplace wasn’t as easy to use as the (Apple) App Store and I really couldn’t find a nice text file reader that did exactly what I want (AirShare on iOS). Android seemed nice and I can see the potential but it just wasn’t polished enough for me and so the device went back within 5 days.

The HTC HD2 was another fun experience but lasted nearly 5 months. A fantastic bit of hardware with a gem of a screen. Everything looked amazing on it with it’s high resolution. In the end though a number of niggles got to me, the on-screen keyboard just didn’t cut the mustard and, though it was a good attempt, it just didn’t have the same responsiveness that the iPhone offers.

All this makes me wonder how good the HTC EVO is. Combining the lovely HTC hardware with the new ( hopefully polished?) Android OS, sounds like it could be the ideal match!

So now the iPhone 4 is here, and looks like it could well be the answer to my wants and needs. Although one of my colleagues here at Glo did brave the queues and pick up an iPhone4 on release day, we’ve yet to have an opportunity to give it a thorough testing, however with a bit of luck the GPS will actually work correctly off the bat and I wont need a car cradle for it to fo it’s job properly! With Skype no longer working or supported on Windows Mobile devices and no sign of it ever coming to Windows Phone 7 and a similar situation in the case of a decent Spotify client coming, I doubt I’ll be heading down the MS phone route again. Pitty as I have had a lot of love for that platform, it just looks very aged now.

Having said all that the Samsung Galaxy S running Android looks is very interesting indeed !

Here at Glo Networks we’ve recently taken delivery of our first iPad. Having had some hands on time with the device we thought we’d offer our opinions on the current must-have gadget.

The first thing likely to cross your mind when using an iPad for the first time is how alien it is to hold and how strange it feels to use. This does not last long though as, much like the iPhone before it, after a short while with an iPad in your hands it seems perfectly natural and a joy to use. The onscreen keyboard is a decent size which makes text entry quick and simple.

The display on the device is crystal clear and a pleasure to use. The apps that were designed for the iPad all look fantastic (The email application in landscape mode is a particular joy!) however the older apps, designed for the iPhone, while useable and upscaled on the iPad are much less nice to look at. As more time passes we would expect to see iPad versions released for the majority of the most popular iPhone apps!

One App that has a Glo recommendation is Jump Desktop. This allows you to control remote PC’s via RDP. This is a very useful tool for those who may wish to use their iPad as a kind of replacement for a laptop, as it can allow access to all the programs, files etc. on your PC from your iPad. Using this app to connect to your PC you also have access to websites with Flash (we tested on Youtube, video was laggy and audio not perfect but compared to a complete lack of Flash it’s a definite improvement!).

Our major gripe with the iPad is, and has always been (since announcement) the lack of multi-tasking capabilities. As with the iPhone, to switch between apps means one closing to allow the other to open. While this is not such an issue on a phone (though annoying) on a tablet PC this becomes a major drawback! However it seems Apple are very aware of this, and have promised multitasking added in an update soon!