Whilst there are numerous ways around this problem including forwarding, aliasing, and other solutions, none are perfect or platform agnostic and some feel like a bit of a hack. You could spend a hefty sum on an Exchange server and incur ongoing support fees even but for most small business this is a thing of the past.

Enter Google and their growing suite of Cloud based solutions.

Big Trousers has recently started an association with Google as a Google Apps reseller and as such can provide solutions like domain based IMAP email for your business. Whilst IMAP appears similar to POP3 in some ways it requires substantial server resource and storage. A Google Apps IMAP account gives you 25 GB data storage and state of the art spam protection and security. All this and your email address need not change from you@yourdomain.com. This service is what a Gmail account does but with your domain and email address.

Email is synchronised automatically on any device set up with the account. That is as mail is deleted on a laptop it is automatically deleted from a desktop regardless of whether one is using Outlook,  iPhone Mail app or whatever. Sent mail remain in sync regardless of which device sent the email. Contacts are synced also. There is also a webmail interface that is available for when you have to use some other device via a browser and still in sync.

Accounts cost US$50 per year. If you host your domain with Big Trousers currently then there is no set up fee for the account. A fee to set up imap server ports and ssl on various devices may be required however if you are not comfortable doing this yourself. We can provide a help document for various devices however at no cost.

Full 5 metre high photographic studio and large office floor is a bonus. We will be getting this building up to speed over the next month.

Ride the Worlds Newest Nation here.

The job is a display of news and coming events on 3 big screens for The West Footscray Neighborhood House. The screens run separate keynote presentations containing HD video and slideshows all with audio in 3 different locations within the center complex. Three Mac mini’s run the program files in full HD resolution and they could not be more happy with the quality of the presentations.

There were a number of hurdles to overcome however and in the interests of others trying to achieve the same result we will list solutions to some of the problems we encountered.

Firstly because there are no keyboards or mice we needed control over the screens from another Mac on the network. A 22.5 inch iMac in the locked admin office could be used via screen sharing in house but we also wanted remote access. Once all the right bits of network apparatus were in place we could gain control over the 3 Mac mini’s using Back to My Mac over the internet from our office. We can transfer updated Keynote files, check the system for failures or launch an application. With high end bandwidth at both ends it runs perfectly. On reboot however the Bluetooth equipped Mac mini’s went looking for a keyboard and mouse. Not a very pleasant screen image to greet me on the first morning of trials. This was sorted by turning off all Bluetooth services. Open system prefs/Bluetooth and advanced. Uncheck “Open Bluetooth Assistant…” box and the system will stop trying on reboot to connect.

Now to get a file to run on reboot simply add it as a login item. Normally you would have an Application as a login item, like Mail or the persistent Skype… To make a file like a Keynote slide show a login item use the login items window in System Prefs/Accounts and select and add using the + or for big files we found it was necessary to drag and drop the file into the login window.

Finally the big hurdle, getting Keynote to close to allow automated shutdown. The screens need to shutdown overnight and reboot in the morning. This keeps the noise down overnight for the neighbors. A simple task made complicated by some new code requirement that Keynote check first if a file has been saved before allowing shutdown to proceed. A good idea for those editing presentations but a pain in the butt for our purposes.

The trick was to use Automator and create an iCal alarm that simply put shuts down Keynote without saving 5 min or so prior to the scheduled Mac Mini’s shut down. Open Automater, choose iCal Alarm, select quit application from the menu and drag it into the script window. Choose Keynote from the dropdown ( here you will need to say “other” and get Keynote from within the iWork folder), UNCHECK “Ask to save changes”, then save entering Keynote Shutdown as the iCal alarm name. iCal will open with editable parameters for the alarm in a new iCal Calendar called “Automator”. Set the repeat to every day, end never, and the timing of the event and click done.

If anyone has any other questions relating to the placement setup for function of a presentation kiosk using the Mac, drop us a line and we hope we can be of assistance. Our thanks also to Rod Langham Electrical for his great work with the physical installation and heavy lifting.

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