Over the past 5 years, Aqua Connect has been providing customers with the best in Remote Desktop Services for the Mac platform.  Our goal has always been to provide the best possible solution for multi-user remote access.  We believe we have provided that to the best of our abilities, and we continue to improve on our solutions every quarter.  Last year we introduced our proprietary load balancing solution, and also increased remote desktop performance significantly.  We introduced our Lion compatible version less than a month after the OS was made available, and we also expanded into new countries and markets.  A few years ago, we recognized the need for a one-to-one remote desktop solution for Mac.  We started development on Mac Remote Desktop, and offered a BETA program in June 2010 at BriForum in Chicago that year.  At that time, many customers informed us that they felt the product was ready for launch, while some still wanted to see some features added.  We made a choice at that point to not release the product until it was a viable solution for all of our customers.  We recognized the need for a bullet-proof security system, and the fastest remote desktop experience possible.  We’ve nailed down the security aspects, but are still improving the speed of the product every month.  Because of this, we have not released the product yet.  In the Fall of 2011, we were ready to release Mac Remote Desktop, but development on another product that we will be announcing at the end of this quarter became our priority.  Trust us, this new product will change the Mac enterprise and remote desktop landscape forever- just as the first Aqua Connect Terminal Server did many years ago.  Our plan at this point is to release this new product shortly, and then finish the speed improvements for Mac Remote Desktop.  By the time you try Mac Remote Desktop, we guarantee it will be the fastest and most viable one-to-one remote desktop solution for OS X.  At this time, we are scheduled for a Q2 release of Mac Remote Desktop.

We appreciate your patience, and your understanding of our dedication to making and releasing only the best products in their field.

There have been many different reactions to the passing of Apple visionary Steve Jobs.  There is not a single person in our industry who was not taken back by his passing.  The other day, we were made aware of a blog by one of our customers about the passing of Steve Jobs.  We thought it would be appropriate to share his insights here with you:

 

From Minimalist James on October 5, 2011

Steve Jobs passed away today and I was surprised by how much it affected me.  I was saddened when I read the news, knowing that someone I was so used to seeing and reading about was no more. He was a visionary who built groundbreaking products, but I was most inspired by the speech he gave at a Stanford graduation in 2005 where he implored the graduating class to “stay hungry, stay foolish.”  In the speech, he spoke so candidly and passionately about how our time is finite; that we’ll all die and because of this inevitability, we should follow our dreams with vigor and passion.

I was just reading a CNN article about his life and realized that Jobs was a minimalist. The article stated:

Jobs famously lured John Sculley, the PepsiCo president, to run Apple by saying: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?” (They had a permanent falling out when Jobs was booted from Apple.)

“What makes Steve’s methodology different from everyone else’s is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do,” Sculley said in a 2010 interview with Businessweek. “He’s a minimalist. I remember going into Steve’s house, and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn’t believe in having lots of things around, but he was incredibly careful in what he selected.”

Restraint, at least in gadget design and interior decorating, was a primary principle for Jobs. Shortly after his return to Apple, he shuttered several divisions and turned his attention to a few key initiatives. Even today, Apple’s product lines and revenue are zeroed in on just a few industries in which the company can dominate.”

Jobs saw the power of minimalism, and it drove him in his product design and strategy at Apple, focusing on a few key products and making sure that there was no clutter in the user interfaces of the products he so passionately pitched.  I’m truly inspired by this, and hope that I can also dedicate my life to being a minimalist and focusing on what truly matters. Rest in peace, Steve. I hope you left the world in peace and solace, knowing that you made an indelible mark on this world.

You can read more from Minimalist James on his blog.

Aqua Connect 3.7 for Lion provides the same RDP support for Mac OS X that Aqua Connect customers have been using for over 5 years!  We are proud to offer an enterprise-grade solution that can be used by Fortune 100 companies, Universities and middle schools across the world, and small and medium businesses who all need the best in multi-user remote access for Mac.  Currently, Aqua Connect 3.7 provides the following features through Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol:

- Remote sound and audio playback

- Local and network printing

- Built in encryption and security

- Load balancing over multiple servers

- Aqua Connect Administration Tools

- Support and compatibility for Active Directory, Open Directory and LDAP

- Mappable file system support

- Support for most third party applications

 

All of these features can only be found in the Aqua Connect product, and are not available in VNC multi-user environments.  As we continue to improve the product, we will be adding even more features that are only available through RDP such as local disk access and USB redirection.  To test Aqua Connect for Lion, contact your Aqua Connect sales representative.

 

 

Our last blog post talked about the BIG plans we had for our Lion version of Aqua Connect TS.  For the last few months, we have been working on a BETA version that would work with Lion.  We have had good results, but we hope to have a more stable version that includes as many of the roadmap features and plans that we set out to deliver on.  While we are currently still in BETA, we hope to be able to deliver a working Lion version that includes the new features.  If you would like to be added to our Aqua Connect for Lion contact list, please e-mail Sales@AquaConnect.net or simply fill out the trial request form and ask for Lion in the drop down.  Once our Lion version is ready, you will be the first to know!

IF YOU ARE STAYING ON THE SNOW LEOPARD or LEOPARD platform, now is a great time to make the move to remote desktop services for Mac from Aqua Connect.  Inquire about special pricing for both platforms today.

With the announcement of Apple’s next generation Mac OS X software we are able to discuss our upcoming Aqua Connect Terminal Server (ACTS) version designed for OS X 10.7 Lion.

ACTS has been working with several early access versions of Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion. We’ve been carrying around the knowledge that we have a version that works correctly on every early access version of Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion software. We feel however that while the software has not been officially released we will continue to call our next version designed for OS X 10.7 Lion BETA until some testing has been performed with the released version of OS X 10.7 Lion.

ACTS 3.8 series will be the first version that is designed to work on OS X 10.7 Lion. ACTS 3.8 will also contain several upgrades including but not limited to:

• Enhanced Application Compatibility. While ACTS currently is compatible with most software for the Mac OS X 10.x (Intel and PowerPC) there is room for improvement and 3.8 closes the gap even more. In our experience ACTS 3.8 will work for all software capable of running on OS X 10.7 Lion with the exception of software designed specifically not to run in a concurrent state.
• Improved Graphics. While ACTS mimics most of the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard certain enhanced graphical widgets and components do not display vibrantly. This has been improved as well with ACTS 3.8. Certain animation sequences will now render in its entirety if enough bandwidth is available.
• Improved Login Facilities. The performance of logging a user session in has been improved along with security improvements.
• New Features. ACTS 3.8 will include features requested by our customers including some major product enhancements and features. While we can not tell you about these features until our release of ACTS 3.8, rest assured they will be huge.

More information will follow when Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion has been released and is available for purchase and installation.  Our team is looking forward to getting ACTS 3.8 in your hands.

With the release of the new iPad 2, now is a good time to take a look at the advantages/disadvantages of using the regular FileMaker software with Mac remote desktop services from Aqua Connect Terminal Server versus using the FileMaker Go software designed especially for use on the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch. We like to think of Aqua Connect Terminal Server as being more of a complement to FileMaker Go than a competitor.

Databases that are created in FileMaker Pro can be accessed via remote users or with FileMaker Go. FileMaker Go is also capable of adding, finding and sorting through records. While it can handle special scripts, it may not be able to handle all of them. Some plugins may not work at all in FileMaker Go. One of the biggest drawbacks of FileMaker Go is that databases cannot be created in FileMaker Go.

If you would like to use FileMaker Go on both an iPad and an iPhone/iPod Touch, you would have to buy it twice. The iPad version is $40 while the iPhone version is $20. There is no universal version. You can use the iPhone version on the iPad but it will not be optimized for it. While the UI is better on the iPad version (since it has more screen to play with), there doesn’t seem to be any other differences. The iPhone version must be running iOS version 4.0, which means that first generation iPhones and iPod Touches will not be able to use FileMaker Go, as they stopped at version 3.1.3.

While Aqua Connect Terminal Server (ACTS) is more expensive than FileMaker Go, it is also capable of running more than just FileMaker. In order to use ACTS, one would have to buy both the licenses and the client software to connect. ACTS may not be optimized for the iPad, but it runs FileMaker as if you were connected to the server. So if your scripts and plug-ins work on your ACTS server, they will work on your iPad. With ACTS, you can also create databases on the iPad and interact with them in the same manner as if you had the full FileMaker application in front of you.  For years, we have been working with the FileMaker community to enhance remote access speed to FileMaker through Mac terminal services, and today we are happy to work with this community again to make the experience of FileMaker on the iPad even better!  If you have FileMaker Go and the iPad or an iPhone, than give Aqua Connect Terminal Server a try as well- we think you will like what you find!

The Macbook Air line has had an up and down track record.  Like many of its products (Apple TV comes to mind right away) Apple refuses to admit defeat and launched a new line of Macbook Air’s for 2010.  Predictably, the new devices have received mixed reviews just as they did when they were initially launched in 2008.  The Macbook Air 11in especially has had mediocre reviews because of the lack of power behind its small screen and the large price tag it carries- $1000.  While $1000 will get you this super sleek Macbook Air, it doesn’t get you much on the processing or memory end.  Wired Magazine went as far as suggesting Windows-based netbooks over the Macbook Air for the simple reason that a netbook can be had for less than half the price.  This raises an interesting question regarding price vs. platform.  Is OS X worth $500 more?  $600 more?  How about $700 more?  This is the question that a lot of people are asking, and in many situation that answer is, YES!  Consumers are willing to pay the extra money for OS X and Apple hardware, even though in performance an alternative option that is Windows-based may be a lot cheaper.  While consumers might be more inclined to spend the extra money for their personal preference, organization on a tight budget might not have the luxury to pay this premium for OS X.  In these situations, we are finding it more and more common for organizations and corporations to come to us looking for a terminals services solution for OS X.  They purchase a cost efficient netbook for under $500, throw an OS X server in a co-location or in the office, and provide OS X and Mac remote desktop services through Aqua Connect Terminal Server.  All of this for less than a Macbook Air, the ability to use both Windows and OS X, and the added power of having a server behind all of the applications and processes.  In the end, the end-users get the OS X platform they desire, and the organization can make the case for the affordability of the Mac platform.  A win-win situation for all.

As we speculated here the other day (to be honest, pretty much everyone in the Apple rumors world knew it would be 10.7 Lion) Apple officially announced that the latest Max OS X will be called Lion.  10.7 Lion will be released in the Summer of 2011, and it represents the logically timed blending of Mac OS X and iOS.  Is this a good thing?  More on that later.  Apple also announced Mission Control, a new take and extension of Dashboard, and the Mac App Store.  There was other announcements regarding iLife and such, but the big announcement in regards to OS X terminal services was 10.7 Lion. We will fully support 10.7 Lion of course for Mac terminal services.  Over the past half year, we have seen a great deal of interest in iPhone and iPad development, and couple this with amazing sales figures from Apple, and it was widely known that the new Mac OS would blend the lines between Mac and iOS.  The inclusion of a Mac App Store (this will be available in Snow Leopard in 90 days) makes Lion even more iOS familiar.  The restrictions on what applications can be listed in the Mac App Store are quite strict, and on a cursory glance of the guidelines it doesn’t seem like many applications will be making the cut.  But just like the App Store, there will surely be some growing pains and things to learn.

We look forward to giving Lion a test run when possible, and as always, we only expect good things from the latest Mac OS.

There is a great read on Bloomberg Businessweek about how Apple uses pricing techniques to actually market and sell its products. Now Apple is not alone in utilizing these techniques, and for the most part all of these have been done before. Apple might just be the most successful company to utilize them though. It seems as if Apple is set to announce a few new and possibly big things, and on the heels of the new iPod line, this is a great time to take a look at Apple news and decipher for yourself if they are indeed using price as a marketing tool. Which reminds us, did you know that Aqua Connect Terminal Server is the cheapest way to deploy OS X desktops? We thought we would mention that. You can read the full article here: How Apple plays the pricing game.

The biggest buzz in the blogosphere this week is the news that Apple is hosting an event on October 20th. Based on the invitation, it looks like they will be highlighting Mac products. Rumor has it that they will also be previewing their next operating system. Any guesses as to what the name might be?

What new products are you hoping for?  A touchscreen iMac might be cool.  Speed bumps for existing products might also be nice. We would love to hear what you think they will unveil Wednesday.

More details on the event can be found here at MacWorld.