Apple Store App

Recent trip to the Apple Store…

I recently visited the new Apple Store in Broadway Shopping Centre. I often find when entering an Apple Store I’m swamped by staff members (they usually outnumber the customers) or I don’t know what to do with myself – no counters to be found.

This time I was approached by a staff member after finding my product on a shelf (Apple TV), my salesman asked if I’d heard of the Apple Store app, which I hadn’t. After a quick free download from the App Store we had it up and running.

The main function that I found intriguing was the Easy Scan feature of the App which basically allows you to pay for your item on the spot using your Apple ID and not having to go through a staff member and receive a receipt. Unfortunately the moment was slightly ruined when we were unable to get it going, but the staff member seemed very persistent that it would work which kept me interested. I look forward to trying it out again.

The App also allows you to buy items from the equivalent online Apple store and have them shipped to your home or office, browse their extensive range of products, locate stores and see receipts among other many other things.

It’s these kind of innovative features that keep Apple on top of the game. I’m sure a lot of people wonder how could they do this and trust that people wouldn’t just steal the product? Well, apparently Apple believe any stock that may be stolen will be well less that the money saved by people using this method to purchase goods, interesting. I suppose this is what companies like Coles and Woolworths are trying to achieve with their Self-Serve check out counters also.

Keep on doing your thing Apple.

Sam

 

Apple launches OS X Mountain Lion

The Next-Generation Operating System

Available to download now via the App Store for just $20.99 Apple’s latest operating system, Mountain Lion, makes your Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch work even better together.  It comes with more than 200 new features and along with updates to iPhoto, iMovie and Aperture.  Read on, get your geek on and download Mountain Lion today!

iCloud

iCloud is how a Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch work together. It keeps your mail, calendars, contacts, reminders, documents, notes and more up to date wherever you use them. So when you add, delete or change something on your Mac, it also happens on your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. And vice versa. You don’t have to do anything at all — iCloud is automatic and effortless.

Messages – iMessage comes to your Mac

Messages with iMessage takes your conversations even further. Because now you can send messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 too. Messages appear on your Mac and any device you use, which means you can say hi from your Mac and keep chatting on your iPhone or iPad, no matter where you are.

Notification Centre

Something new is always popping up somewhere on your Mac — an email, a message, a software update, a calendar alert. Notification Center makes it easy to stay on top of it all. Notifications always appear in the same spot on your desktop and disappear quickly so they don’t clutter up your screen. Whenever you want to see all your notifications in one place, just swipe to the left from the right edge of the trackpad. And there they are, in a simple, ordered list. So you’ll always know what’s up as soon as it comes up.

Click to learn even more about Mountain Lion

 

Gold ‘Metal’ Client

ABC Bullion

Macumen would like to welcome our newest client, ABC Bullion.  ABC Bullion are Australia’s leading precious metal and gold bullion specialists having traded continuously for over 35 years.  They buy and sell all types of investment-grade metal, including: gold bullion, gold coins and silver bars, as well as platinum and palladium products.

So, welcome aboard ABC Bullion.  Macumen looks forward to providing you with a complete IT infrastructure solution that is at least as secure as your stores of precious metals!

 

FileMaker Developer Conference 2012

FileMaker and DevCon 2012 – Miami Florida

From July 16th to 19th FileMaker will be holding their annual Developers Conference in Miami, Florida.  This years DevCon is particularly interesting and important to developers with the recent release of FileMaker 12.

DevCon offers fantastic opportunities for FileMaker developers to;

  • Discover the latest advances in the FileMaker product line, including FileMaker Go, Bento for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
  • The opportunity to collaborate with 1,100+ other developers.
  • Learn the best practices for creating iOS apps.
  • Attend in-depth Under-the-Hood sessions.
  • Discover what’s new at the Exhibitor Showcase.

Macumen will be sending Jim Dwyer to this years DevCon , after last year sending Brendan Wilde (San Diego, California).  This is an invaluable opportunity which will enable us to continue to offer the latest and greatest FileMaker solutions to our clients, both current and future.

Stay posted for Jim’s inspired (geeky) rantings when he returns in late July!

 

Kerio, FileMaker, and pesky phone numbers

We have been working on a project that synchronises a company’s CRM database with their corporate address book. The address book is then available to users on all of their devices, inc laptops and iPhones. The client is using FileMaker v11 and Kerio Connect v7.4, iOS 5.1.

Everything was going swimmingly, except we kept on running into issues with certain phone numbers not arriving in the iPhone’s AddressBook. Specifically, we had trouble getting the ‘company main’ number across. It would come across to OSX’s AddressBook, but not to the iOS devices.

Labels are crucial in the successful sync of CardDAV records. If an address or phone number (or email) label isn’t supported by the device, then the data isn’t brought across. In this case, we were using ‘company main’ as the label. It would appear as ‘company main’ in OSX’s AddressBook, but wouldn’t arrive in the iPhone’s AddressBook.

To get it to work, we used  ‘company’ as the label for the phone number. It would appear in OSX’s AddressBook as ‘company’, and would arrive in the iPhone’s AddressBook as ‘company main’. Hmmmm. Gotta love transformation.

 Available Labels when using iOS 5.1 with Kerio Connect 7.4

  • phone labels
  • mobile
  • home
  • work
  • home fax
  • work fax
  • pager
  • assistant
  • car
  • radio
  • company main – but create record in AddressBook using ‘company’ label

Address labels

  • home
  • work
  • other

Problem solved, but a problem we could have done without……

The New iPad

Not an iPad 3, it’s just the new iPad and it has…

  • Retina display.
  • 5 megapixel camera.
  • It’s faster.
  • Voice dictation.
  • It’s 4G compatible (but not compatible with Australia’s 4G network).

And, Apple TV now supports 1080p.  That is full HD!

Apple Media Event

Apple are said to be launching their new iPad within the next 24 hours.

Will it be the iPad 3 or the iPad HD?

Will it have Retina display, will the camera be upgraded, will Siri be your new personal assistant?

Is a new HD Apple TV be launched at the same time?

Stick around and we’ll give you all the details you’re interested in and none of the details you don’t really care about.  A users guide to what is on offer….