On the menu today: Mac and Cheese … or keep it PC?
Imagine pulling up to a drive thru window at a computer store and taking a look at the menu. So many choices: powerbooks, netbooks, desktops, Mac, Windows, dual core, quad core, Microsoft Exchange, RAM, solid-state hard drives, iTunes, YouTube … and the list goes on and on and on!
You sit there in your car, considering the menu, pondering: Can it play the right games? Does it come in green? Sure, it’s cool… but can it do this or that? Would it just be a guilty pleasure? Too many calories? What would my friends think?
There are so many choices on the menu, but the prevailing stereotypes never leave the back of your mind. Windows does certain things really well, and Macs are not for serious business users… just for animators, musicians, and people who think they’re too cool for Microsoft.
Since just about everyone is, or has been, a Windows user, let’s talk a little about the ‘low fat’ portion of the menu. Let’s talk about Macs.
Just like Democrats, Republicans, the undecided, and the flavor-of-the-month club, there are diehard Mac fanatics, those who (like my mother) see the good in everything and everyone, the Mac-curious, and of course, the militant PC junkie. In the business world, I’d have to agree that Windows (that old workhorse) has usually been the favorite of the everyday data cruncher and preparer of documents, with those tried and true icons: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Exchange, and their lesser known brothers: Sleepy, Dopey and Sneezy.
But who makes all of these products? Microsoft, of course! Sure, Microsoft has extended the olive branch a little, and produced ‘masterpieces’ like Office for Mac (included the infamous Entourage), but they always seem to not quite satisfy the average appetite. Let’s face it… if Microsoft made perfect products for Apple, then everyone (or at least many more) would change philosophies and cross the virtual floor. Apple, in the spirit of brotherhood, returned the favor with such snacks as iTunes and Safari for Windows, but I’m not sure that was a fair trade. Mac, of course, has iThis and iThat, but you really wouldn’t want to show up at a meeting and present your financial wizardry or propose a hostile takeover by showing people homemade slideshows of your kid’s 5th birthday party, complete with a soundtrack and cute captions (including Ken Burns style fade-ins), would you?
But, my fellow diners, to use a recently popularized ‘buzz word’, a change has come our way! Or perhaps a more appropriate word would be ‘Exchange’. Macs, thanks to two recent menu offerings (one from Seattle and the other from Silicon Valley) have made Apple more than just iTunes, iPods, iPhones, iMacs and MacBook Pros (or as considered by many, really big iPods). Yes, there’s more to Apple that just uber trendy gadgets and one billion tunes at a buck a piece. Mac users no longer have to settle for leftovers and can finally enjoy the Exchange experience in the dining room.
La soupe du jour comes from the kitchens of Mac itself: Snow Leopard. This most recent upgrade of the famous OS X Leopard has included a tasty little morsel bound to tempt the taste buds of the undecided and Mac curious: Mac Mail, iCal, and Address Book now work with Exchange! And quite well I might add. For a meager thirty buck upgrade, the Exchange experience can now be enjoyed using a genuine Mac product. And the setup couldn’t be simpler. Just create a new account, enter your email address and password, choose, Exchange and enter your outgoing and incoming mail server, and voila… you’ve got perfectly functional Exchange on your giant iPod! How cool is that? I’m not so sure that it will find your Public Folders, or that you can link it to SharePoint (that remains to be tested) but, if you’ve found Entourage to be too salty, the waiter has just offered you a low sodium alternative.
The second and potentially more tantalizing treat comes from the chefs at Microsoft: Entourage Web Services Edition. Gone are the days of disappointing meals that leave a slightly ‘less than full’ feeling in your belly. Microsoft Entourage Web Services Edition fills your plate with all the ingredients and functions you’ve been missing, and it’s pretty much at par with its big brother Outlook. There’s a little work required in the setup, but it won’t cost you anything. First, you have to get all the possible updates for your current version of Entourage 2008. If you don’t already have Entourage 2008, SherWeb users can follow this guide to get it. Then go to Macotopia or simply google ‘Entourage Web Services Edition’, download the new edition and install it. The setup is pretty easy too! Just follow this guide if you’re a ShebWeb user, and you’re in!
Pretty simple, wouldn’t you agree? Now those who prefer to stick with the low fat, sodium free side of the menu can finally have their cake and eat it, too, without the bloat or guilt!
If you’re still not satisfied with Entourage or Mac Mail, installing Windows on a Mac has never been easier. That way, you can pretend to be using Mac, which will always get you a second glance when you whip it out at happy hour, but deep down you’ll still know that you’re cheating on your diet!
So there you go. The menu has more choices than even before. And if, after all that, you’re still not happy, the choice is obvious. Go for the calories… get a PC!
by Stephen Pelley. A Level 2 Tech at SherWeb, Stephen supports Exchange (but prefers monogamy). He has been with the company since March 2009, and has been a Mac addict since his wife forced him to buy one in 1996 because she thought they were ‘cute’.
Hi guys
Great post – we are heavy users of Macs and Sherweb Hosted Exchange here in NZ.
We have found an interesting issue with iCal since moving to Snow Leopard. The initial sync works great yet adding a new meeting with multiple attendees ends up with an error that means the hosted calendar is not updated. All the proposed invitees are there in the meeting when accessed via webmail but the appointment isn’t sent.
Any clues on how to resolve this?
Best Regards
Miki Szikszai
CEO
Snapper Services
NZ
What’s the word on Mac getting Outlook?
I heard 2010 … is that true?
It would seem so. Microsoft appears to be planning to include Outook in the Office 2010 for Mac release. According to what I’ve read, we can expect that sometime around end of 2010. So, start writing your wish list now …. only 416 shoppping days until Christmas … 2010!
I’ve just upgraded to Snow Leopard and can’t seem to get the Exchange 2007 account that I’m setting up in Mail to connect with Sherweb’s hosted exchange. I am able to use the account that is setup with Exchange IMAP (which I think uses OWA).
Can you post some screen shots or settings for me to use? I’ve iterated through a number of options to no avail.
Please advise.
Thanks!
RE: Adam – Snow Leopard and Sherweb Exchange 2007
Took a bit of guess work for me, but I found the following settings worked for Snow Leopard Mail:
In Preferneces/Accounts/Account Information:
Account Type: Exchange 2007
Description: (whatever)
Email Address: (your Sherweb email address)
Full Name: (whatever)
Internal Server: webmail.ihostexchange.net
External Server: (blank)
User Name: (SAM account name e.g. ihost\joe_blogs.co)
Password: (SAM account password)
Preferences/Accounts/Advanced:
Internal Port: 443 (use ssl ticked)
External Port: 443 (use ssl ticked) (may not be necessary)
Stephen – I have Entourage installed and upgraded to the Web version but cannot setup successfully the emails. The Sherweb guides you are referring to aren’t made for the web version (which has different screens)….any specifics setup to make it work?
Martin,
The process to set up the identity in Web Services is more or less the same as with Entourage 2008. The slight difference being that the server address field is not on the ‘account settings’ tab: it is on the ‘advanced’ tab.
You can enter https://webmail.ihostexchange.net/Exchange/youremailaddress@yourdomain.com in this field. Make sure that the box ‘This DAV service requires a secure connection (SSL)’ is checked and that ‘Override default DAV port’ is unchecked. If that doesn’t work, enter https://webmail.ihostexchange.net/EWS/Exchange.aspx in the ’server address’ field, and try again.
Another tip: the Account ID on the ‘account settings’ tab is not your email address: it is the SAM account name. To find your SAM account name, log into the SherWeb Control Panel, selecting your user and look in the User Statistics box.
I hope this helps.