iPad and ARD

You may have seen this already, but I use it at work and at home. App Store
link<http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=300347476&mt=8>
I
can restart services, reboot servers, also keep an eye on network traffic
and storage capacity. This will be a great app on the iPad for IT folk.

--
Alan Benedict
?
Macintosh Technician
The Integer Group
O: 515-247-2738
C: 515-770-8234
http://www.integer.com

As I was driving in this morning listening to Mac OS Ken and then to
MacBreak Weekly, some ideas began to bubble up about the iPad and how we as
IT folk can use it. I think Alan and Ryan hit some pretty good spots: ARD
and Server Monitor. But what about a barcode reader?

I'm sure someone could come up with a USB to 30 pin connector that would
allow you to connect in a handheld barcode reader, right? We could then use
the JSS Mobile app, or something new written by JAMF, and the barcode reader
to grab machine info. Thin serial numbers on the bottom of Cinema Displays
or other items that Casper does not currently manage.

Or what about for grabbing info when doing a repair so that it can get
uploaded to the Apple GSX site for those of us that are self service sites.

Or go outside of IT and think about the mom or dad at Wal-Mart. This would
make a great shopping list device when paired with Evernote, or even just
Pages/Numbers. I use Evernote's check boxes in a list on my iPhone for a
grocery list right now.

Oh, and what about our friends in higher education, or education in general. This would be a good replacement for textbooks, wouldn't it? I imagine the
chances of it getting damaged/broken are higher, but with an entry point of
$499 retail, that might not be too bad.

Anyway, think outside the box and I can come up with a half dozen ways I
would use this device. Not saying I will purchase one of the first ones out
there, but I might in the future.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475
Sent from Dallas, TX, United States

most of us shrugged it off laughing at the name etc yesterday. Once we started thinking about it, there are some good uses out there now.

make a large iPhone style mount that you could clip the iPad into. Hang it in the kitchen with access to the family calendar, sling box to it and watch cooking shows. take it on a road trip (my kids complain about neck strain watching their iPods.) hang it from the back of the car seat for a vehicle theater.
(i've always wanted to move my apple TV into my glove box and mount a 20 inch monitor from the headliner)
with the monthly subscription option and no contract, it makes a great trip companion. It would be nice to have select content from your desktop
sync to the tablet so you can roam the halls and provide real time answers to peoples questions. they don't have to wait 3 hours until you can get to their trouble ticket requesting information on why the network is slow.

but this is a first gen toy, that will develop into the multi functional tool that the 3Gs turned into. cameras and all of that will come later....apple has to save somethings for future product releases.

Dan

The iPhone OS and Android already have a barcode reader. It uses the
camera to take a picture of the bar code then will search for it online
and then searches for the cheapest price online for said product. Along
with a product description of course.

To be honest, I'd rather have an iPhone over the iPad any day, but that
is just my opinion.

-Tom

Someone else here in the office brought that fact up too. My comment to
them was that shooting the barcode on a Cinema Display with an iPhone is not
an ideal thing to do. I can shoot the same barcode with a handheld USB
scanner in 2 seconds.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475
Sent from Dallas, TX, United States

I know Apple was investigating porting Server Admin, et. al. to the iPhone. Am guessing we might see something sometime this year. There is a feedback email address, I think it's macosxserver at apple.com - suggest feedback there, or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/macosxserver)

Among other things, I think the iPad is a huge potential product for schools (do k-8 kids really need a full-power, more expensive, easy to muck with the filesystem/OS computer?), so yeah, some kind of screen control/ARD functionality would be logical. Good idea to provide feedback, however...

--Robert