04/11/2006, 8:45am, EDT

Tuesday, April 11th

Apple ships Remote Desktop 3

Apple today announced Apple Remote Desktop 3, the third generation of Apple's desktop management software. Building on Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" innovations such as Spotlight, Dashboard and Automator, Apple Remote Desktop 3 is a Universal application optimized for Intel-based Macs and delivers more than 50 new features that deliver improvements in software distribution, asset management and remote assistance, including Spotlight searches across multiple Tiger systems; over 30 Automator actions for automating repetitive system administration tasks; a Dashboard Widget that provides quick and convenient observation of remote systems; and AutoInstall for installing software automatically on mobile systems when they return online. It is available immediately from the Apple Store (Canada) for $300 for managing up to 10 systems and $500 for managing an unlimited number of systems.

"With Apple Remote Desktop 3, we've delivered powerful innovations that make it even easier and more affordable to manage Macs," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Great new features such as remote Spotlight searching and customized Automator actions take advantage of innovations in Tiger and make Apple Remote Desktop 3 a valuable tool for anyone managing more than one Mac."

Apple Remote Desktop 3 also includes system Status Indicators that let administrators quickly check the overall health of multiple systems at a glance and a new "Power Copy" feature that copies files up to 11 times faster than with Apple Remote Desktop 2. It also features remote Drag & Drop functionality between local and remote computers, remote Copy & Paste for simple transfer of text and images, persistent Task History and Task Templates, a new Curtain Mode to hide the desktop of a system while it is being controlled remotely, and more.

Version 3 also features Application Usage and User History Reports to track software compliance and monitor the use of unauthorized applications and can also generate Smart Computer Lists for dynamically managing systems based on specified criteria. Apple also said that it supports AES 128-bit encryption for secure communications between Apple Remote Desktop 3 and clients.

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jasong

Great Pricing

04/11, 9:03am, EDT

"$300 for managing up to 10 systems and $50 for managing an unlimited number of systems."

Makes deciding which version pretty easy, huh? Sure there isn't a typo there somewhere?

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boardwalk2

upgrade from ARD 2.x?

04/11, 10:26am, EDT

Is there an upgrade price for current 2.x users? Paying full price again seems not worth even though there are a number of new features.

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testudo

Upgrade and free

04/11, 11:03am, EDT

There is no upgrade pricing. Haven't you been paying attention. Apple doesn't do upgrade pricing anymore. They haven't for a long, long time. Everythings 'list price'. No loyalty discount, because Apple knows that mac users are lemmings who just suck up anything they put out, regardless of price.

And, BTW, there should be a free version of this software for users who just want to connect to remote macs, but not needing any of the fancy crap like remote installations and the like. VNC sucks. Hell, even MS gives away Remote Desktop connection with XP, and they even have a free version for the mac that works well (surprising, I know).

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fahlman

$300!

04/11, 11:53am, EDT

Take a few minutes and look at pricing for a comparable product. You'll find Timbuktu Pro. You'll also find that it costs $680 for a 10 user license, and a 30 user license is $1,780 and who know how much for an unlimited license, compared to $300 (10 user) and $500 (unlimited) for ARD.

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benhur

new features?

04/11, 12:16pm, EDT

How about quality? RD has always been plagued with problems.

I'll wait a good while before upgrading. Anyone remember the 1.0 to ARD 2 transition issues?

Love all of Apple's products but ARD needs some help.

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jpellino

i won't bite...

04/11, 12:24pm, EDT

I can't imagine it's worth paying full price again - we just bought this two months ago, so we won't be seeing this until the next full version. ARD should be bundled with Server X and there should be upgrade pricing for things this substantial - even FMP has an upgrade price. VNC is fine for one-to-one though - we used it for our headless iTunes / iPhoto servers until we bought ARD that did OSX.

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fahlman

Waiting...

04/11, 12:41pm, EDT

I'd recommend waiting too. ARD 2.2 does have some issues, especially with copying files and installing packages.

I'm glad that most features will still work when the administrator's computer is running 10.3.9.

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testudo

Re: $300

04/11, 3:34pm, EDT

Yeah, but you can't seem to get just a single license, or a dual-license for a cheap price. Nor will getting a 10 user license actually allow you to install it on machines outside your location (at least that's the way it used to be).

It might be semi-great for administration, but there's no mid-to-low end version for those who, like jpellino, want to just be able to remotely deal with their servers or other computers from time to time.

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jpellino

no, i want full abilities

04/11, 5:01pm, EDT

we use it for everything - managing dozens of macs - but asking for another $300 to repurchase what we bought 8 weeks ago is not going to fly with my boss. I just paid $300 for the ed version and got 8 weeks out of it. frankly the new features aren't compelling - i'll wait til 4, get two years out of my purchase and come back then.

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fahlman

re: re: $300

04/11, 10:29pm, EDT

testudo, have you ever owned OS X Server? Didn't think so. If you would have you would know that you don't use ARD remotely deal with a server. You use Server Admin and Workgroup Manager. I'm guessing that anyone who has a dedicated server running OS X Server probably has a network of at least a 6 or 8 computers and should be able to purchase a 10 user version of ARD. Personally I have 8 Macs and use ARD every day, multiple times a day and it is extreamly affordable for what it does.

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