The bMighty Blog -- Alan Zeichick

Alan Zeichick covers Apple and Mac issues for bMighty.com. He's also principal analyst at Camden Associates, advises enterprises about technology challenges, writes for technology print and online publications and speaks at industry events on enterprise IT, networking, security, software engineering and consumer electronics. Meanwhile, as editorial director of BZ Media’s SD Times, Zeichick drives forward the industry newspaper for software development managers.

A former mainframe developer and systems analyst, Zeichick became a technology analyst and journalist in 1984. He has authored more than 3,000 articles, worked with consulting groups, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, IDC and Anderson Consulting, and has spoken at numerous events such as COMDEX, Networld+Interop, Microsoft TechEd, JavaOne and the Software Development Conference.

He has launched several publications, including Network Magazine, 3D Design, Communications Systems Design, SD Times and Software Test & Performance. A former columnist for The Red Herring, Zeichick is currently a Senior Contributing Analyst to InfoWorld and a member of the Editorial Board for American Business Media.
Read his personal blog at zrek.blogspot.com.

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Apple Releases Yet Another Mac OS X "Leopard" Upgrade

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:38 PM ET | Jun 30, 2008

It's only been a month since Mac OS X 10.5.3 came out, and today we have Mac OS X 10.5.4. As far as I can tell, Apple has never released operating system patches so close together. That's a clear sign that something wasn't quite right with 10.5.3 — as indeed, there has been with Leopard in general. Let's see what Apple gave us today.

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Which Is Better For External Hard Disks – FireWire or USB 2.0?

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:22 PM ET | Jun 30, 2008

Every so often, I’m asked this question by Mac owners: Which port should you use to connect an external hard drive, FireWire or USB 2.0?

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Apple

Much Is Still Hazy About iPhone 3G

Posted by Alan Zeichick 01:30 PM ET | Jun 25, 2008

The next-generation iPhone 3G is due out on Friday, July 11. There's a lot that we know about the phone: It will be thinner. It will have an "assisted" GPS. It will cost $199. It will run on faster 3G networks, as well as the current 2.5-generation EDGE networks. It will come in 8GB and 16GB versions, but not a 32GB one. It will use the iPhone 2.0 software. But there's a lot that we don't know.

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Apple

CatalystWeb Brings Its Web-Based Productivity/Collaboration Suite to the Mac

Posted by Alan Zeichick 09:14 AM ET | Jun 23, 2008

According to the folks at CatalystWeb, which makes a Web-based business productivity and collaboration suite, small businesses need affordable software that’s geared for their needs – and not busting with unneeded features designed for huge enterprises. The company is trying to address that need with a new Mac version of its CatalystOffice software.

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Apple

Word Processing, Spreadsheets... and iPhones!

Posted by Alan Zeichick 05:44 PM ET | Jun 20, 2008

Who says that iPhones are for such boring things as making phone calls? Even listening to music and surfing the Web, while taking a few photos with a built-in camera, isn't enough for some people. They want their mobile gizmos to replace their desktop computer — and maybe their laptop. No problem.

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Apple

The Ultimate iTunes Remote: Signal for Your iPhone/iPod touch

Posted by Alan Zeichick 07:06 PM ET | Jun 15, 2008

If you're like me, you've hooked up iTunes-based music all over your office and your home. Maybe you're listening to iTunes (for either Mac or Windows) right now. What if you want to control iTunes when you're not near your computer? If you have an iPhone or an iPod touch, or a Windows Pocket PC with a browser, the answer is Signal.

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Apple

What About the Macintosh?

Posted by Alan Zeichick 04:33 PM ET | Jun 9, 2008

I guess Apple still makes Macs, but you'd not really know it going by Steve Jobs' keynote at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, which opened today.

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Apple

Say Hello to MobileMe, Goodbye to .MAC

Posted by Alan Zeichick 04:22 PM ET | Jun 9, 2008

Apple is upgrading and rebranding its .MAC service to be much more robust and business-friendly, with features that make it like Microsoft Exchange/Outlook, and other features that make like it like Google's GMail service.

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Apple | Cloud Computing

It's Seemingly All About the iPhone 3G

Posted by Alan Zeichick 04:20 PM ET | Jun 9, 2008

In his keynote address today at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs focused on the iPhone. The key items were the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2.0 firmware for existing handsets. Let's talk about the iPhone 3G first, and then look at the the new firmware for existing phones.

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What Do YOU Think Will Be Announced at WWDC?

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:11 PM ET | Jun 4, 2008

Next week is the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. It's the place where Apple shows off its hottest and latest hardware and software. What news will come out of this year's WWDC?

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Microsoft's New Bluetooth Mouse for the Mac

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:26 PM ET | Jun 3, 2008

Mice are personal, and in some way, they're the most personal aspect of today's personal computers, whether a Mac or a Windows PC. Some people, for example, love Apple's mice. Other people can't stand them. I fall into that category. Thus, my pleasure at seeing that Microsoft — which makes great mice — has released a new Bluetooth mouse for Mac owners.

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Apple

Apple Hasn't Forgotten Tiger Users

Posted by Alan Zeichick 06:20 PM ET | May 28, 2008

If you're still running Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" on some or all of your Macs, Apple released two updates for you today.

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The Fourth Iteration of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" Is Here

Posted by Alan Zeichick 06:17 PM ET | May 28, 2008

Apple today released its third major update to Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard." The update, technically referred to as Mac OS X 10.5.3, is a whopping 420MB download. Given the number of things addressed by the update, I recommend that business users move to adopt it after carefully testing it in their own environment.

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What Drives Mac Speed? Hard Disks!

Posted by Alan Zeichick 01:31 PM ET | May 27, 2008

I had the opportunity last week to work with a new MacBook Pro, one that's about year newer than mine. Performance on the new model was much faster. Why? Because of the hard drive's speed. That's one place where you should choose carefully.

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Apple

Time Machine Full-Disk Behavior Is Making Me Nervous

Posted by Alan Zeichick 02:08 PM ET | May 24, 2008

Yesterday, one of the Leopard-based iMacs experience a strange Time Machine error — and that error is making me uneasy about the possibly buggy backup software.

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Apple

Twice the Fun, With the 2X ApplicationServer's Mac Client

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:49 PM ET | May 21, 2008

There are quite a few ways for Macintosh users to run Windows applications from their Mac, without having to reboot their machine into Windows using Apple's BootCamp software. Some of these other approaches are very familiar, but they're not the only solutions.

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Apple

Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac Users Get Their Own Update

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:07 PM ET | May 14, 2008

Yesterday, we discussed Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac. The company also released a minor update for Office 2004 for the Mac, bringing it to release 11.4.2

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Apple

Microsoft's First Update to Office 2008 Is Big. Literally.

Posted by Alan Zeichick 09:31 PM ET | May 13, 2008

Office 2008 for Macintosh is off to a roaring start, according to Microsoft. In its first four months, the software sold faster than any other version of Office for Mac, the company says. And now the software is getting better, or at least less buggy, with Service Pack 1 now available.

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Apple

iPhone Update May Be Coming Soon

Posted by Alan Zeichick 07:49 PM ET | May 10, 2008

As of Saturday, May 10, the iPhone is currently out of stock at the Apple Store, including both the 8MB and 16GB models. That can mean one of two things.

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Apple

The Next-Generation iPhone: It's Nearly Here, We Hope

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:42 PM ET | May 9, 2008

The original iPhone is a GSM handset that uses the EDGE wireless network as well as WiFi. While the iPhone is a marvel of multimedia usability, it's not at the cutting edge of mobile networking. That may be about to change, if stories are true about the forthcoming debut of a 3G iPhone.

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Apple

Getting Windows Audio/Video Files into Your Mac

Posted by Alan Zeichick 03:39 PM ET | May 8, 2008

The world is filled with multimedia files, and if you receive files from a Windows user, it may be in a Windows format. The challenge can be to play them on your Mac, and to import them into iTunes.

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Apple

Apple Finally Upgrades to the Latest Version of Java

Posted by Alan Zeichick 05:41 PM ET | Apr 30, 2008

Java is the "write once, run anywhere" platform, developed by Sun Microsystems, which gives applications developers the ability to write powerful, portable cross-platform software. And finally, we can use the latest version on the Mac.

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Apple

Not Every Mac Can Drive an Apple 30" Monitor

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:41 PM ET | Apr 27, 2008

The flagship of the desktop display world is the 30" monitor. I have one, and love it -- it's huge, very high resolution (2560 x 1600 pixels), and can show a tremendous amount of information. While it's great for people doing graphics design, a bigger monitor makes everyone more productive. Sadly, despite Apple's promotion of these huge flat screens, not every Macintosh can drive one.

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Apple

Despite It's Friendliness, Mac OS X is Still Mortal

Posted by Alan Zeichick 10:30 AM ET | Apr 25, 2008

Sometimes things go wrong with Macs, and when they do, it can be ugly. Even though we Apple fans tend to pretend (to ourselves and others) that the platform is perfect, it's not.

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Apple

Apple Keeps Making Record Money

Posted by Alan Zeichick 09:20 AM ET | Apr 24, 2008

Thanks to iMacs and MacBooks, Apple churned out record profits in its second quarter of fiscal 2008. The quarter encompassed January-March, and resulted in revenue of $7.51 billion, and profit of $1.05 billion. But while sales are still strong, there are signs that momentum is slowing, particularly in its consumer electronics products.

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Apple

Get Ready for Mac OS X 10.5.3 "Leopard"

Posted by Alan Zeichick 01:33 PM ET | Apr 17, 2008

Version 10.5.2 of Mac OS X "Leopard" has only been out since February, but Apple is hard at work on the next incremental upgrade, which will be version 10.5.3.

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Apple

How To Send Huge Files Via E-mail

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:53 PM ET | Apr 11, 2008

I e-mail a lot of files to people – big files. Really big files. Recently, I sent an 80MB video to one person, and a whole bunch of 10MB PDF documents to someone else. A colleague sent me an entire directory of digital photos via e-mail. Yes, via e-mail. I’m going to tell you how.

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Apple

Why is Office 2004 Test Drive included with your new Mac?

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:57 PM ET | Apr 7, 2008

Why is Office 2004 Test Drive included with your new Macintosh computer? Because the Office 2008 Test Drive isn't yet ready, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, who says that while a Test Drive of Office 2008 is planned, the dates for its release haven't been announced. Note that Office 2008 came out in mid-January, nearly three months ago.

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Apple

Software/hardware compatibility and new versions of Mac OS X

Posted by Alan Zeichick 02:28 PM ET | Apr 7, 2008

A friend asked me the other day, “I’m still using Tiger, but am buying a new Mac. Will my applications run under Leopard?”

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Apple

Top Secret Leopard Features Unleashed!

Posted by Alan Zeichick 03:01 PM ET | Apr 4, 2008

I missed April Fool’s Day this year – where has the week gone? But I did want to share a funny Web site posting from a couple of years ago, which shares “Top Secret Leopard Features Unleashed!”

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Apple

A book for Mac users moving to Office 2008

Posted by Alan Zeichick 02:46 PM ET | Apr 4, 2008

On March 20, I recommended two Mac books, one for Windows users moving to the Mac, the other for power users and IT staff supporting Macs. Today, I’ll recommend one more for Office 2008 users.

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Apple

Apple's Smallest Wi-Fi Base Station Just Got Faster

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:01 PM ET | Mar 26, 2008

I have two of the little Apple's Airport Express wireless Ethernet base stations. One of them is hooked up to my living room stereo, so we can play iTunes music from a Mac desktop without running cables. The other one lives in my briefcase, and I use it to set up portable WiFi LANs. This week, Apple launched its first significant update of the nearly four-year-old product, making it as much as five times faster — and with twice the operating range.

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Apple

A great Mac transition book for Windows refugees

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:53 PM ET | Mar 20, 2008

Many Windows users have trouble making the transition to the Macintosh, and often, it's for superficial GUI reasons. For example, one Windows XP user I know was very frustrated because the way you resize windows on the Mac (pull the lower-right corner) is more "limited" than the way you do it on Windows (move any side or corner). This was enough to make him lobby to go back to Windows, believe it or not.

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Apple

The Mac's market share continues to climb

Posted by Alan Zeichick 12:31 PM ET | Mar 20, 2008

Stop feeling like a rebel by suggesting or promoting Mac usage within your organization. As the latest statistics show, Mac adoption is growing rapidly. While there still are more new Windows machines being sold, the gap is closing.

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Apple

Use Apple’s .Mac service to keep multiple Macs in sync

Posted by Alan Zeichick 08:09 PM ET | Mar 13, 2008

Apple offers an online service, called .Mac (pronounced dot-mac), which is ostensibly designed for consumers. The $99/year service offers great things for home users, like a @mac.com e-mail address and the ability to share photos with friends. However, the service also has valuable services for business users, especially those who have more than one computer.

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