The Apple Master trainer certification
Last month Apple announced that they were introducing a new certification for Apple Certified trainers called the “Apple Master Trainer” certification. The certification has been designed by Apple to recognise those trainers “who build their skills and knowledge around Apple technologies” and “stand out as experts.”
Throughout Europe there are a total of 700 Apple Certified Trainers, of which, 20 have been awarded this new certification, 5 of whom are from Amsys. So, we just wanted say congratulations to all the Apple trainers who have been awarded their Apple Master’s certification.
At Amsys training we have 6 Apple Certified trainers, Richard Mallion, Peter Argyle, Russell Harris, Hugo Costa, John Greenash and our newest addition to the team, Daryl McCartney.
Who are our Apple Master trainers?
Richard, is our IT Director with extensive experience within both windows and mac platforms, programming, cross platform integration, app development and much more! Richard trains the “Learn iOS 6 SDK Workshop,” he also created the popular revision tool, REVISE IT.
Pete’s been an Apple fan pretty much since Apple II. He is now the head of our training department and trains, ACA, ACSP, ACTC, Advanced Deployment, Advanced Directory Services, Advanced OS X security and our iOS Deployment & Security courses, he recently took our training to Iceland, which you can read about, here.
Russell, has been a member of the Amsys team for over 16 years now, initially starting out his Apple career in our workshop, he then became an Apple certified trainer in 2003. Russell trains ACMT, ACSP, ACTC, ACA as well as, Mac Support for PC, Advanced Deployment and Keynote and iBooks.
Hugo started as a service technician then progressed to Technical Management before joining the training team 3 years ago. Hugo now trains all of the Apple certifications, as well as Advanced Deployment, Advanced Directory Services, Advanced OS X security.
John also started out as a hardware technician at Amsys then progressing to onsite repairs/installations and service management which was followed by a role as an Apple Genius at the Regent Street store. Since returning to Amsys, John teaches the following courses, ACMT, Apple’s Support and Server Essentials courses as well as iOS Deployment and Security, iWorks and Keynote. John recently went to Saudi Arabia to train “Getting Started with OS X” which you can read about, here.
Time Machine 10.8 podcast – Recover Data
Hi and welcome to the second part of our podcast on Time Machine. My Name is Pete.
In this episode I am looking at recovery from a Time Machine backup, in the first part Hugo talked about backing up with Time Machine and in the final part we will look at the advanced features.
So, say one day you startup your Mac and find it doesn’t startup as usual, you see a persistent grey screen with a folder and a flashing question mark or a prohibitory sign.
The first step to this problem would be to run Disk Utility, you can get access to disk utility from the recovery partition, recovery is accessed by starting your Mac and holding down Command R at boot time or hold the option key and select the recovery partition. If you don’t have a recovery partition then you can boot from your backup drive or use Internet Recovery by holding Command Option & R if your Mac is capable.
When you have Disk Utility running you should be able to select your boot volume and then click the verify button, if verify finds errors then try repair disk. If you still have errors or no disk or volume shows up, they would all indicate a possible faulty drive.
So it’s time to book your Mac in for a checkup with Amsys, where we will inform you of our findings and if we have to format or replace the drive then the original operating system, with a recovery partition will be installed, but your data still needs to be restored from your Time Machine backup.
The easiest way to do this, from a full backup on an external drive, is to connect the drive and boot from it; this will take you to the recovery screen where you can restore your backup. If your backup is network based then you will need to connect to that network before you will be able to select the data volume and restore.
You will now see a list of the stored backups, the most current at the top, select a backup, select the destination drive and restore.
The restore will take some time, dependent upon the size of your data.
If you try to restore your backup to a different Mac you will be notified that you need to use the Migration assistant to achieve this, the Migration assistant can be found in the Utilities folder.
When it comes to restoring a single file, we have a couple of choices, the Time Machine interface or manually drag and drop the file. Firstly let’s look at the Time Machine interface, this is a very intuitive way to choose or find the version of a file you want to restore.
The interface shows windows going back in time, on the right hand side is a timeline that identifies backups, dates in pink indicate the data that resides on your Time Machine backup device. Dates in white indicate the data resides on your Mac. In OS X Mountain Lion and Lion, portable Macs have the feature of local snapshots.
Searching works just as it does in the Finder, so you can search for the files you need to restore. When you have found the file you need to restore, click the Restore button in the bottom right of the screen and the file will be restored to its original location. If a duplicate file exists in that location then you will be asked what to do, you can replace the current file with the one from the backup, you can keep both files, the one being restored will have its name appended with (original) in brackets, or cancel the restore.
Should you want to delete a file from all the backups, then select the file and click on the action menu and select the option to Delete All Backups of the selected file.
The quick look feature is also available from the same menu; this is very useful for identifying the correct file to restore.
When each backup is stored, a folder is created as is the date and timestamp of the backup. When you open this folder it will be a replica of your drive and all of your files will be current as of that backup, to restore a file you simply drag and drop the file from the backup drive to wherever you want it.
Apple has integrated Mail, Contacts and Calendars with Time Machine so that the app data is restored directly into these apps. For example, if Time Machine is started while you are using Mail, all of the windows you see going back in time are Mail windows.
If we step back in time to find an email we have deleted when we click restore a Time Machine, a mailbox is created containing the recovered messages, a similar process happens for the other apps
If you are using apps that are Version capable, like Keynote and Pages, then starting Time Machine while using these apps is the same as browsing the versions of the current document.
Thanks for watching and join us next month episode 3 on Time Machine’s advanced features.
New OS X Revision Tool for iPhone from Amsys
By Richard Mallion
Amsys is pleased to announce the release of their new iPhone revision app for Mac OS X Support Essentials v10.7 (Lion). If you want to test your knowledge of Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion) or you are preparing to take the Mac OS X Support Essentials v10. 7 Exam (9L0-410) then this is the app for you.
Over 200 practise questions.
Features include:
Study Mode:
You can select questions from any of the nine chapters of the Mac OS X Support Essentials v10.7 curriculum.
Test Mode:
Mimic exam conditions. Get tested with a random set of questions against the clock.
History:
Track your history. The app keeps your previous tests which you can review as well as check your progress via a chart.
Click here for Mac Support Essentials v10.7 revision app
Amsys System Admins Conference
We are delighted to announce this years Macintosh System Administrators Conference.
The event aims to bring together technical support professionals from Apple and cross platform environments to share news and views and discuss everyone’s favourite technology! The Macintosh System Administrators Conference will be held over a full day and will incorporate a mixture of seminars, discussions and workshop. The workshops will have machines ready so you gain some hands on experience as well as having access to Amsys technical staff for face to face discussions.
This years event will focus on Mac OS X 10.7 and IOS 5
Conference Date
Thursday December 8th, starting at 10:00.
Conference Venue
The conference venue will be the same as the last 2 years – Regent’s College in Central London.
Conference Sessions
Mac OS X 10.7, Lion
- Whats new in Mac OS X 10.7 Client
- Whats new in Mac OS X 10.7 Server
- Deploying Mac OS X 10.7 in business and education
- Indepth look at Profile Manager with Lion clients
iOS 5
- Whats new in iOS 5
- Using profile Manager to manage iOS 5 clients
- Managing and deploying iOS 5 Devices in Business:
- iCloud and cloud services in general
We are making 50 places available so if you are interested, reserve your spot now!
Price per delegate £95 + VAT
We look forward to seeing you there!
Steve Jobs : 1955 – 2011
We all want to express our deepest condolences at the passing of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple and a true visionary.
Think Different
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Apple invites press to ‘talk iPhone’ at media event on Oct. 4
By Richard Mallion
Apple has formally announced its upcoming media event after months of rumors and speculation. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 4 at 10am Pacific Daylight Time on Apple’s campus in Cupertino and will be led by Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook.
Apple’s invitation graphics (shown below) include four iOS app icons (Calendar, Clock, Maps, and Phone) along with the quote “Let’s talk iPhone.” Apple doesn’t usually get this specific when sending out its invitations, but apparently it’s trying a new, more direct approach this time around. (As an aside, the icon choices are quite clever. The calendar says October 4, clock says 10:00, map points to Apple’s campus, and the phone icon shows one phone call.)
Heres to iOS 5, iCloud and maybe a new iPhone!!!!
Mac OS X Lion Tips – No. 4 Disabling the new Window Restore feature.
By Russell Harris.
Now, most of the new Lion features I
love, but the one feature which can sometimes be inconvenient, is the new Window Restore feature. If you would like applications to NOT restore old open windows from your previous login session, this next Terminal command will specify which application to ignore this feature. I’ve used QuickTime in my example, but just replace the name “QuickTimePlayerX” in the command below with your preferred application:
defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false
I hope these little tips come in handy and maybe i’ll see you soon on a Training course. :)
Mac OS X Lion Tips No. 2 – New Customize System Preferences feature.
By Russell Harris.
Tucked away within the new Lion System Preferences menus, is a handy new feature that lets you customize the icons that appear in System Preferences. So now, instead of always seeing the whole collection of System Preference Panes, you can just see the ones that you regularly use.
This new customize feature, allows you to hide the preference panes you dont want to see by selecing the ‘View’ pull down menu in the menubar of System Preferences and then selecting the new ‘Customize’ option.
You can now ‘check’ and ‘uncheck’ the icons you want to show or hide.
The ones you uncheck are NOT deleted, just hidden from view.
You can access these ‘hidden’ ones by selecting the ‘View’ menu which lists them all, but also by clicking and holding the ‘Show All’ button in the upper left corner of System Preferences.
Nice little feature.
Cheers! Russ.
Apple Security Update 2011-005 for the DigiNotar CA
By Richard Mallion
Apple released SecUpd 2011-005 for both Lion and Snow Leopard back on 9/9/2011 to deal with the DigiNotar CA compromise.
It would be a good idea to roll that one out to your computers as soon as you can!
Security Update 2011-005 info can be found here.
Quark Xpress App Studio
By Richard Mallion
Quark has announced the availability of QuarkXPress® 9.1, a free update to QuarkXPress 9 that features App Studio™.
App Studio allows designers to create branded apps for the iPad, distribute apps through the Apple App Store, and design and publish content that can be purchased and downloaded from within the apps.
Quark have now finally caught up with Adobe in the Digital media space.
News Flash
By Adam Davies
Last week Adobe announced that it will be introducing a new product into its prolific lineup in the way of Flash Media Server 4.5. Flash Media Server 4.5 will now stream to a range of platforms including, you guessed it, Apple iOS devices. Hmmmm. An interesting turnaround from the flash / no-flash argument going back and forth between Adobe and Apple since the release of the original iPhone.
So, what is the lowdown? Well, this would apparently seem like an admittance on Adobe’s behalf that Apple have won the argument. This time. Or does it?
Flash Media Server is available in 4 different versions : Streaming Server, Interactive Server, Enterprise Server, and Media Server on Amazon Web Services. What these all essentially do is to re-encode the Flash input into an HTTP Dynamic or Live stream, which is compatible with Apple iOS devices.
From videographers to game developers, this will provide a much missing audience from their stack. All those millions with iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches will now be able to access existing content on their devices. This is a huge step forward by Adobe, who have essentially bent slightly to Apple in this latest advance – but is a win for users of iOS devices who have previously lost out on this content. Although Flash will continue to exist for those platforms that support it, it will be available without the drain on iOS devices by this latest advent.
Jobsless – The future of the Mac Workplace?
By Sarah Garrett – Amsys Recruitment Consultant25 Years Old and Going Strong
On Sunday 4th September, Amsys is officially 25 years old! Here’s a little of what happened in 1986 (see bottom for a reader’s special offer!):
January: 19th – the first PC virus “Brain” started to spread, 24th – Voyager 2 makes its first encounter with Uranus
February: 3rd – Pixar Animation studios are opened, 19th The Soviet Union launches Mir
March: 4th – Today newspaper is launched, pioneering computer photosetting and full-clour offset printing
April: 26th – Chernobyl disaster
May: 31st – FIFA World Cup begins.
June 29th – Argentina win the world cup.
July: 23rd – Prince Andrew marries Fergie
August: a pretty uneventful month!
September: 4th Amsys is founded!
October: 27th Stock exchange Big Bang!
November: Mike Tyson KOs Trevor Berbick in 2 rounds for Heavyweight WBC boxing title
December: 23rd – Voyager completes the first circumnavigation of the earth without refuelling.
So, I think you’ll agree that the most significant event of the year was the forming of the UK’s favourite service provider, now Europe’s leading Apple training company and much more. To celebrate this significant anniversary anyone who reads this can claim a 25% discount on any single training course – if you book it on Monday (4th September).
Finally I want to thank all my colleagues and our wonderful customers for making Amsys the great place it is today! We are about to post results for the year that show a 30% growth and we couldn’t have done it without all of you and them!
Here’s to the next 25!….
Announcing the Annual Amsys Mac System Admin Conference
Every year we at Amsys hold a conference for System Admins, focussing on topics of interest to our elite gathering. I august we will be looking at what is under the hood of Lion. details will follow, but please register interest if you would like to receive advance notification of the event.
Announcing Amsys Remote Monitoring (Server)
We are delighted to announce the launch of ARM – Amsys Remote Monitoring – a server monitoring tool for Mac OS X server. The tool monitors and reports on 11 different processes and warns of impending issues. Monitored by the Amsys helpdesk team we can immediately identify when you are heading for trouble, take remedial action and keep you working. Contact the support team for more info on support@amsys.co.uk
See our new Training iPhone Application
Our Training App give you our training brochure in your pocket. Course descriptions, videos and live schedules help you access Europe’s top training experience!
iOS Expertise helps Enterprise Deploy iPads
Amsys’ expertise with iOS is helping many clients shape up to deploy iPads to their business. Amsys consultants examine the current system and identify what action is necessary to match the deployment and tools to enterprise requirements. Call us if you are considering the deployment of iPads in bulk and you need some help.
