*UPDATE: Upon further examination of my blog stats, I found reference to an Apple IP address.  It’s true.  Apple is indeed testing Mac OS X 10.7.  Hopefully, Apple will announce details of the new OS soon!

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A few days ago, I was checking the stats of my blog using a plugin called StatPress.  To my surprise, I found that one of the visitors of my blog was using Mac OS X 10.7, which has so far been unannounced by Apple.  Could someone at Apple be testing the next version of Mac OS X?  On further examination, I could not locate any reference to Apple’s IP address range (17.x.x.x) anywhere else in the web stats.  Therefore, the mysterious user of 10.7 must have been someone outside of Apple’s corporate network.

I was disappointed that we did not hear anything from Apple at the World Wide Developers Conference in June regarding the newest version of Mac OS X, which is obviously in development right now.  Hopefully, Apple will announce something soon.  One of the fun things about being a Mac user is that we always have the pleasure of looking forward to something new.

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So you’ve decided to switch your business to Macs, and you’re wondering how to move over all of your data from Windows, and get everything else setup?  In this article, I will discuss some of the process, and show you that switching to the Mac isn’t as hard as you think.

Email, Contacts, and Calendars

These days, businesses can’t function without staying in touch with their customers, and keeping all of their employees on schedule, and organized.  Microsoft Outlook has served businesses very well, but there is no version yet available for the Mac.  Outlook holds email, contacts, and calendar data inside of one file, the PST file.  While you can move the PST file to the Mac, the Mac cannot read, or import the file.  Therefore, we must convert the data inside the PST into a form that is readable by the Mac.  There are many methods to make this conversion.  You need some type of conversion software to make your Outlook data compatible with the Mac.  Some of my favorites are Outlook To Mac, and two apps made by Mozilla — Thunderbird, and Sunbird.

Outlook To Mac (O2M) was created by a company called Little Machines.  O2M exports your email into mBox format, which is an open format.  Since the Mac also uses mBox to store email messages, your converted email can easily be imported onto your new Mac.  mBox is also used by many other mail clients such as Thunderbird, and Eudora.  O2M will convert your contacts to vCard, which can then be imported into Address Book on the Mac.  Calendars are exported by O2M into iCalendar, another open format.  The new iCalendar files can then be imported into iCal on the Mac.  If you choose instead to use Microsoft Entourage for email, contacts, and calendars, Entourage can also import your converted data.  Outlook To Mac costs only $10, but if you want a free option, there’s Mozilla Thunderbird.

Like Mail.app on the Mac, Thunderbird uses a variant of mBox to store email.  After you have installed Thunderbird onto your PC, you can then import your email and contacts into Thunderbird.  Once the import is complete, you will be able to export your contacts into LDIF.  Your emails are stored inside of the current user’s local application data in Windows.  Once you’ve moved the converted email to your Mac, all you have to do is import it into your email client of choice.  Address Book, on the Mac is able to import the contacts stored in the LDIF file created by Thunderbird.  Since Thunderbird does not handle calendars, you’ll need to import your Outlook calendars into Sunbird.  Once you’ve completed the calendar import into Sunbird, you can then export the calendar data into iCalendar format.

They key is to free all of your information from Outlook.  This process seems complicated, but it’s really not.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, Music, Pictures

All of your files created in Microsoft Office, pictures, music, PDFs will just work.  Microsoft makes a great version of Office for the Mac.  It includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Entourage.  If you’ve decided to abandon Microsoft altogether, Apple’s iWork suite of applications can open files created by Microsoft Office.  In addition, there are several office suites such as Neo Office, and Open Office, which will allow you to open, and create Word, and Excel documents.

Mac OS X already includes an application called Preview, which will open, and combine PDF documents, and even allow you to notate them.  Any document that can be printed can be exported to PDF on the Mac.  PDF exporting has been built into Mac OS X since day one.  There’s no need to purchase additional software to export documents to PDF, or to combine PDF files.

Since late 2003, Windows users have enjoyed using iTunes on their PCs.  If you’ve been using iTunes on your PC, moving your music to the Mac is simple.  All of the pictures on your PC can be easily imported into iPhoto on the Mac.  Both iTunes, and iPhoto are included on every Mac at no additional charge.

Setting up your all Mac office

Gone are the days when Windows ruled the business world.  Macs can serve all of your computing needs from basic office tasks to serving up files, websites, and email.  Accounting applications for the Mac have greatly improved over the last few years.  Intuit’s Quickbooks, and Quicken have finally achieved feature parity with the Windows versions.  There are even several point of sale applications available for the Mac.  The medical industry has several EMR (electronic medical records) options for the Mac.  MacPractice works really well for most types of medical practices.  Two months ago, I helped move an orthodontics practice from Windows to the Mac.  Their choice of EMR software was Tops Ortho.  Tops doesn’t require Mac OS X Server, which will save time, and money during setup, and the support team at Tops is awesome.  Law offices have been making the switch to Mac.  Recently, my colleagues from Kinetic Technology Group and I migrated two law firms to Mac.

Mac OS X Server includes a built in email server in addition to calendar server.  For a lot of small offices, Mac OS X Server’s built in messaging technologies work really well.  For businesses who need a messaging solution with more features, I recommend Kerio Connect from Kerio Technologies.  Like Exchange, Kerio Connect includes a robust email server, calendar server, and contacts server.  Kerio Connect is a great cross platform messaging solution.  It works seamlessly with Macs, Windows PCs, iPhone, and several other mobile devices.  Your email, calendars, and contacts stay synched between all of your devices, and computers.  Kerio Connect provides easy administration, and it is compatible with most smartphone platforms such as iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile.  If your business continues to run Windows servers, Kerio Connect will integrate easily into Active Directory, so that all of your user accounts are available in Kerio.  If you need to migrate Exchange accounts to Kerio Connect, Kerio provides an Exchange migration tool which will transfer all of your user accounts, their email, contacts, and calendars directly into Kerio Connect.  Kerio Connect runs on Mac OS X Server, and Windows Server.  If your business intends to keep its Exchange server, your new Macs will be able to work with Exchange.

If you plan on keeping some Windows PCs, or servers, have no fear.  Macs, and Windows PCs get along quite well on the same network.  Macs can use file, print, email, and web services hosted by Windows servers, and Windows PCs can do the same with Mac servers.

While the transition from Windows to the Mac isn’t as difficult as you might have believed, there are thousands of Apple Consultants around the U.S. who can assist you.  Apple Consultants are independent contractors who are Apple certified.  Their skills range from setting up home, or small office networks to enterprise level deployments.  They’re fanatical about Apple technology, and they will always try to find the best solutions for their customers.  If you have questions about moving to the Mac, feel free to contact me.

[Update] 7/17/2010

Last night, I watched Apple’s press conference.  Since I never actually had a problem with my iPhone 4, I’m very happy with Apple’s response to “antennagate”.  Even if I did have a problem, I would still appreciate their actions.  I’ve been reading several blogs this afternoon, and my point still stands…  It doesn’t matter what Apple does, or says.  People will still complain.  The bloggers who have jumped all over this non-issue should be ashamed of themselves, especially the Apple related blogs.  Apple is bread and butter for a lot of people such as myself, and for a lot of professional bloggers.  I’ve been an Apple customer for over 20 years, and I know of no other tech company who treats its customers better than Apple.  While Apple does make mistakes, and they sometimes take a long time to admit those mistakes, they always make things right.  I think it’s time for these hack bloggers to shut the hell up, and move on!  Get your advertising revenue by attacking a company that deserves it.

I’ve been using my new iPhone 4 for almost two weeks.  For the first week, I used my iPhone without any kind of case.  It wasn’t until this past Thursday morning that I was able to purchase an iPhone Bumper so that I could use my iPhone without the constant fear of it slipping out of my hand.  I have experienced far less dropped calls than with the previous iPhone.  Unfortunately for AT&T customers in Dallas/Fort Worth, there are several areas of poor coverage all over the city.  I have identified at least three specific locations where I have experienced consistent dropped calls almost on a daily basis.  For almost four years, I have called into AT&T to report these locations in the hope that these issues would someday be fixed.  Since upgrading to iPhone 4, my dropped calls in these problem areas have been reduced.  In one of the locations, the dropped calls have stopped altogether.

Although I believe that Apple should have taken more time to respond, they have responded to reports of poor reception by claiming that this is mainly a software issue with the way that the new iPhone displays signal strength.  They have promised a fix that will be issued soon.  Within hours of Apple’s latest statement, the blogosphere was full of more complaints from users who allege that they have experienced a lot of reception issues with the new iPhone.  After reading some of them, I was forced to conclude that it doesn’t matter what Apple says.  People will still find a way to complain.  After working for Apple for over four and a half years, and using Apple products for over twenty years, I have concluded that Apple will never be able to completely satisfy their critics.  If Apple announced today that they would begin to bundle a bumper with each iPhone, there would still be complaints.  Apple could issue store credits to customers who bought the new iPhone, but the complaints would continue.  It’s a no-win situation.

No Apple product that I have ever owned has been 100% perfect.  My last MacBook Pro was plagued with several hardware issues.  Last year, Apple replaced it.  I didn’t have to complain on my blog.  I didn’t post my complaints on any Apple related websites.  I didn’t try to sue Apple.  I simply called AppleCare, and voiced my dissatisfaction with the quality of my laptop.  When I requested a replacement, my complaint was forwarded to Apple’s customer relations department who agreed to replace my computer.  The whole process took about 3 days.  Apple takes care of its customers when they have problems.  Whining and complaining on every website on the Internet only makes the problem worse.  I know eight people (including myself) who have an iPhone 4.  None of us have had significant reception issues with our new iPhones.  In fact, we’ve all had BETTER reception just as Apple promised.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had two phone conversations with representatives from AT&T’s “Office of the President”, each in response to my constant complaining over AT&T’s new iPhone tethering charge.  The case that I have made from the beginning has been that AT&T is unjustified in charging an additional $20 for tethering on top of the $25 charge for 2GB of data.  Since we will be capped at 2GB of data, and charged an additional $10 for each additional GB, why does AT&T care about how much data we use, and how?  If I use all of my 2GB of data on my iPhone using Safari, or Mail, or any other app that uses the 3G network, it would be EXACTLY the same as using Safari, or Mail on my MacBook Pro.

AT&T claims that tethering my iPhone to my laptop will use more data.  This claim is ridiculous, and insults the intelligence of AT&T customers.  I was shocked when “Sophia” from the Office of the President made this claim.  It leaves me wondering if “Sophia” is an idiot, or if AT&T thinks its customers are idiots.  To be fair to Sophia, I’m going to go with the latter.

If I know that my data plan will be capped at 2GB, and since AT&T gives me the means on their website to track my usage, why would I use more data on my laptop through tethering than I would using 3G directly from my iPhone?  This logic was lost on “Sophia”.  She merely restated her faulty claim that I would use more data on my laptop via tethering than I would by using my iPhone directly.

Most of the time, I’m using a wifi network.  I would only need to tether my iPhone when I’m not within range of a wifi network.  Since 3G is nowhere near as fast as a broadband connection such as a T1, DSL, or cable connection, why would I use tethering as my default connectivity?  I have discussed this with several other AT&T customers who also use an iPhone, and who are also always on the go with their laptops.  All of them acknowledge that their 3G usage would be limited to only what they need, and would not be used for general internet connectivity.  Either way you look at this, why should AT&T care?  They’re going to charge an additional fee if we go over 2GB.

What this is REALLY about is AT&T’s desire for yet another revenue stream.  They know that we love to get the most out of our iPhones, and that we’re more likely than anyone else to use 3G data in large amounts.  The iPhone was the first phone I had that is actually capable of doing everything that was promised.  My last ‘smartphone’ was capable of sending email, and had limited web capability, but it was pretty much useless for those things, so I cancelled my data plan.  Then, the iPhone arrived.  I send, and receive several email messages from my phone on a daily basis.  I also have the ability to look up something on the internet whenever the mood strikes me.  Apple has created a great product only to have it be hobbled by AT&T’s greed.

AT&T’s stated reason for adding the extra $20 fee for tethering is bullshit!  If you agree, make sure to complain.  Email Randall Stephenson, the CEO of AT&T at:  rs2982@att.com.  Within a few business days, you’ll receive a call just like I did.  Make sure to tell the rep that you know that AT&T is just being greedy, and that you don’t accept their lame reason to charge for tethering.

When I got up this morning, I checked my email, and found this message from Apple:

Maybe I’m receiving my iPhone early because Apple wants to try to avoid the activation snarl that will ensue on Thursday?  What ever the reason, getting my iPhone a day early is greatly appreciated.  Last night, I updated my iPhone 3G to iOS 4.  I love the new folder feature, and the unified inbox.  I’m disappointed that I cannot have a customized home screen background.  According to an email sent by Steve Jobs to a Cult Of Mac reader, the customized home screen would cause performance issues.  Hmmmm…  Maybe, but I think I would have preferred having the choice to use that feature or not.  How does Steve explain the fact that jailbroken iPhones, and iPods have had this feature for quite sometime without any performance issues?  In the end, it’s not that important.  I’m just tired of the bland, black screen.

I’m sure that this isn’t surprising, but if you tweet enough about your displeasure with AT&T’s wireless service, you will inevitably be contacted by someone from AT&T.  I’ve been contacted by five AT&T employees, all responding to my repeated complaints about the quality of their network, or their latest act of evil — charging an extra $20 for iPhone tethering.  iPhone customers in the U.S. have been waiting almost a year to enjoy what iPhone users in other parts of the world have enjoyed almost from the initial release of iPhone 3.0.  The iPhone gives customers the ability to attach their iPhone to their Mac or PC, and use the iPhone’s 3G connection to access the internet without the need for a 3G card.  It’s a great feature, and I’ve waited anxiously for the day when I would be ALLOWED to use it.  The iPhone has had the ability to tether since the first day that iPhone 3.0 was released.  AT&T has stood in the way citing concerns about network capacity.  Hey AT&T, here’s a thought…  Why not beef up your network BEFORE you start selling the iPhone?  In case you’re not familiar with AT&T’s new iPhone data plans, AT&T announced this week that they are doing away with the unlimited data plan that iPhone users have enjoyed for nearly three years.  They’re replacing it with a $25/month plan that limits customers to only 2GB of data per month.  It’s true that most customers don’t come anywhere near 2GB per month (myself included), but where the evil begins is when AT&T insists on charging another $20 for the privilege of tethering.  Why should AT&T care how we use our 2GB of data per month?  Why charge another $20?  My bill is already over $100 month.  In addition, I also pay $150 per month for AT&T’s U-Verse service.  How much more of my money does AT&T need?

Tonight, I was contacted by @ATTJulia on Twitter.  She explained that the extra $20 charge for tethering is standard across the industry.  That may be true, but it does not excuse AT&T’s greed.  That’s what this is.  Normally, I’m a free market capitalist all the way.  I have no problem with being paying a fair price for quality services.  However, this extra $20 fee is nothing but naked greed.  Clothing that greed with a flimsy excuse that the extra charge is standard is not only lame, but it’s insulting that AT&T would believe that their customers would accept it.

The iPhone is a revolutionary product.  It’s the best smartphone on the market.  The sheer sales numbers over the past three years is proof of that.  What AT&T is doing is taking that wonderful product, and using it for their own greedy goals.  They have diminished the iPhone’s phenomenal user experience by shackling it to their sorry data plans, and their lousy network.  I call on every iPhone user in the U.S. to demand that AT&T treat us fairly, and stop trying to find more ways to syphon more and more money from us.  If you use Twitter, message AT&T, and voice your complaints:

@ATTCustomerCare @ATTJohnathon @ATTChrisL @ATTJulie

When you call customer care, complain.  Email AT&T’s executives and tell them you don’t like the data plan change.  Blog about your outrage.  Make your voice heard.  As it stands, I won’t be using the new tethering service.  I refuse to pay AT&T an additional $20 to be allowed to use a feature that my iPhone has had for almost a year.