Category Archives: iPad

vCloud Client for iPad available now!

In our continuing effort to VMware-ify your iPad, we have a new application available today: vCloud Client for iPad.  You can do quite a lot with it:

  • connect to your VM via RDP, SSH, or VNC
  • create and deploy vApps
  • power apps on and off
  • monitor tasks that are currently running or have recently completed
  • … and more! Check out this blog post for more details.

vCloud Client for iPad joins our other two iPad apps, vSphere Client for iPad and View for iPad.

VMware View Client for Mac available now

Ever since I joined VMware last year, one of the top search hits for this blog has been “vmware view mac” and variants.  Today, I have great news: there is now an application to match that search.  Yes, VMware View Client is now available for the Mac — and it’s also joined by a View Client for Linux, an updated View Client for iPad, and a View Client for Android.  For more details, check out Pat Lee’s blog post.

To download the new View Client for Mac, start here.  That’s got the download link, the readme (yes, you should read the readme!), and a forum for providing feedback to us.

Go forth and download!

the evolution of iTunes

I bought an iPod when they were introduced, and I started using iTunes when it was introduced.  I’ve gone through a few different iPods, and then got an iPhone when it was first introduced.  Today, I’ve got an iPod Shuffle, an iPhone 4, and an iPad 2.  I also have two separate iTunes libraries: one on the home server, and one at work.

When I first started using iTunes, most of my music library was MP3.  Upon the introduction of Apple Lossless (ALAC) and its support in iTunes, I decided to move to that in an attempt to future-proof my library.  The decision to move to ALAC had some unexpected fall out.  When ALAC was introduced, iTunes treated those files exactly the same as other supported music files.  This is mostly fine, except that ALAC files are much much larger than MP3 or AAC files, which means that you can’t store a lot of music on an iPod or iPhone.

Concurrently, that first iPhone had a problem: to get my calendar or address book onto it, I had to sync with iTunes.  Support for Exchange ActiveSync wasn’t added until much later.  My work calendar has everything on it, and so my iPhone had to sync with my work laptop if its calendar and address book were to be of any use at all.

I ended up creating a new iTunes library on my work laptop, just for syncing my iPhone.  I ripped a bunch of CDs to my work laptop, using AAC so that I’d have reasonable file sizes for use on my phone.  A side effect of this decision is that my work laptop is also the home for my iPhoto library, since the vast majority of my pictures are taken with my iPhone.

In the intervening time, though, things have changed.  My two primary reasons for needing that separate iTunes library have disappeared.  iTunes will now downsample ALAC files for use on the iPhone and iPod, so I don’t have to worry about having massive files on there.  The iPhone now supports Exchange ActiveSync, so I don’t need to sync it with my work laptop to have my calendar available to me on my phone.

The problem is that iTunes has grown in that intervening time, too.  It’s no longer just where my music lives.  It’s where I buy some music1, and now it’s where I buy apps for my iPhone and my iPad.  iTunes is the gatekeeper for how I get data onto my iPhone and iPad.  And there’s also the Mac App Store, which is tied to the same Apple ID that my iTunes account is, and so conceptually I think of them as living on the same computer.  (And yes, I do have two Apple IDs: the one that I’ve been using for purchasing songs/apps, and my developer Apple ID.)

iTunes Match could solve part of this problem for me, although I hit up against its 25k track limit.  Macworld has published a workaround for this, which is to have a separate iTunes library that syncs with iTunes Match.  This is really no different than my two-libraries-on-two-machines approach now, so it’s not very useful to me.  I hope that Apple improves this in the future, because I really do love the idea of iTunes Match.

The problem that my household has is the proliferation of devices, which has led to a proliferation of iTunes libraries.  I’ve got two Macs (one at home, one at the office).  My husband has two Macs too (also one at home and one at the office).  Our home server is a Mac, and it is the main repository for our media collection.  We’ve got another Mac in our home study.  I’ve got an iPhone 4, iPod Shuffle, and iPad 2.  My husband has an iPhone 4, iPad, and an iPod.  He’s got his own iTunes account, mostly for iPhone apps that he’s purchased.

I think that the next thing that I’ve got to figure out in with iTunes is how to contain all of this sprawl.  To date, I’ve just handled the new changes in iTunes on an ad hoc basis.  It’s time to stop and figure out how to move forward.  Is it possible for us to have just one iTunes library?  How do we handle all of the music and apps that one of us has purchased?  How does this impact our photo libraries?  I’m not sure, but I think that we’ve got to figure it out soon, before the situation gets any worse.

  1. I mostly still buy CDs. I only buy on iTunes when it’s an exclusive, or if I really do just want one track off of an album.

VMware vSphere Client for iPad available now!

Did I mention that we’ve got more coming for the iPad? Oh, yes, I did!

We’ve now released the VMware vSphere Client for iPad. It joins our VMware View for iPad release earlier this month. Both apps are free.1 The vSphere Client for iPad allows you to monitor your vSphere hosts and VMs, as well as do some management tasks. Srinivas Krishnamurti, our Senior Director for Mobile Solutions, has written a blog post for its release: VMware vSphere Client for iPad has left the building. Also, as with our previous iPad app release, boche.net has a detailed write-up of it.

As ever, a demo is worth a thousand words, so check out part one:

And part two:

It’s available in the App Store today.  Go forth and download!  After you’ve downloaded it, check out our community for VMware vSphere Client for iPad if you’d like to discuss this app or let us know what you think about it.

  1. And, as of this writing, both are doing very well in the list of most-downloaded business apps.

why the “wife says no” story is apocryphal

I keep on seeing a link to the “wife says no” story.  I’m appalled that anyone could be gullible enough to believe it.  This just doesn’t pass the smell test.  Here’s the story, as quoted by MacRumors:

[Apple’s] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said “Wife said no.” It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said “Apple said yes.”

Apple’s return policy states the following:

[I]f you are not satisfied with your Apple purchase, return it with the original receipt and original packaging within fourteen (14) calendar days of the date of purchase. If the item is returned unopened, in the original box, we will exchange it or offer a refund based only on the original payment method.

For an unopened iPad, it would go straight back onto the shelves (or, more accurately, it would get sold within approximately four seconds after its return), and thus no-one beyond the staff at the particular Apple Store would know the guy’s reason for returning it.

Even if you argue that the Apple Store stretched its return policies to accept an opened iPad (and there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that they do), there’s still no reason for them to ship the iPad anywhere outside the store. They can simply verify that it’s in new condition and shrink-wrap it again. This probably increases the time until it gets resold from 4 seconds to 20 seconds.

If the iPad was returned, wasn’t in new condition (and thus couldn’t be put back on the store shelves immediately), and was still accepted for a return, then it does get shipped somewhere. Returned devices are returned to the factory to be refurbished. Barring repeated reports of physical issues, it’s likely that the only people who touch a returned iPad are the Apple Store employee who accepts the return, the person who boxes it up for return to a central facility, and the person at the central facility who then returns them to the factory.

If the original owner returned it, why would he put a sticky note on it to explain his reason for returning it? He has to know that he’s going to have to talk to someone at the Apple Store to complete the return, so attaching a sticky note will do nothing to help him. The manager of the Apple Store is going to talk to the guy (assuming that it’s an open-box return; otherwise, it’s just the employee at the Apple Store who talks to him), not just look at a sticky note and accept the return wordlessly. If it’s unopened, the guy might have a laugh with the employee who’s taking the return, but there’s still no sticky note.

I suppose it’s possible that it’s someone at the Apple Store who put the sticky note on it, but then it makes no sense for Apple to send the guy a new iPad with the note “Apple says yes” on it. The other alternative for the “wife says no” notation is that the Apple Store employee entered that into the “why is this being returned?” field in their return form. In either case, the “wife says no” notation didn’t originate from the owner, so he’s not going to understand the returned “Apple says yes” sticky note. I trust that Apple VPs are smart enough to realise that.

Finally, the story comes from MacRumors. Not just MacRumors, but their Page 2 list, which makes the story much less believable. I actually like MacRumors quite a lot, and have spent a fair amount of time on their forums, but their stories are often inaccurate. This is doubly true for their Page 2 stories. It must be noted that a story about some guy getting a free iPad with a funny note on it is a great way to drive traffic.

I understand why the story has caught people’s imagination. It’s funny, and it matches up with what we want to believe about Apple.  Mails from Steve Jobs always grab headlines in the Mac geek blogosphere, even though the vast majority of these emails are unconfirmed.  Anyone can claim that they’ve received email from sjobs@apple, and I have only rarely seen anyone try to verify the headers of one of these reported emails.  Stories about about Apple going above and beyond in making a customer happy, albeit again without much in the way of verification.

I get why we want to believe the story, but let’s apply some judicious thought to it before we take it as fact and forward it around indiscriminately. Doing so is no better than forwarding around the rumour that asparagus cures cancer.