Mac Curious?

The Apple iPhone Questions and Answers Page is currently showing an exciting piece of information that I had missed. Here is a quote from the website:

What kind of security features does iPhone offer?

You can protect your iPhone with a four-digit password, which is then required whenever iPhone is turned on or wakes from sleep. For secure Internet access, iPhone supports industry-standard Wi-Fi security and virtual private networking (VPN).

The mention of VPN is very exciting for business users in particular, or anyone who wants to safely browse the internet while at a WiFi ‘hotspot’ such as Starbucks or the airport.

Virtual Private Networking in its most common form, and such as the type that Digital Reality sets up for businesses, allows employees away from the office to securely access the company network from anywhere with an internet connection.

If the iPhone indeed supports this technology, users might be able to access important company files such as documents, databases and more from their shiny new portable devices starting this Friday. More information will surely be released regarding iPhone’s particular breed of VPN support, but we can be optimistic that the usage will be as I mentioned above.

In another scenario, iPhone may support the ability to reroute all network traffic through your home or office’s VPN for secure web browsing. This would come in handy when surfing the Internet at an insecure location, like a coffee shop’s free WiFi connection. Using your iPhone to tap into your home/office VPN, you could securely encrypt all data being sent to and from your computer, so that fellow java slurpers would not be able to intercept your special message to Mom or confidential stock portfolio information.

Always be aware of your surroundings at a hotspot with or without a VPN, since shoulder surfing (when a fellow patron merely looks over your shoulder at what you are typing/browsing) is just as dangerous and requires far less technical know-how on the side of the perpetrator!

All shall be revealed Friday…

Apple’s Leopard features page has some great news about the upcoming version of iCal.

Particularly nice updates:

• My personal favorite - because of CalDAV support and iCal Server, you can view attendees’ availability before you schedule a meeting. This takes the guesswork out of scheduling group appointments! Or let iCal do the legwork for you — use the new Auto Pick feature to find the best time for everyone
• Delegation - if you are out of the office, you can assign someone to take charge of your calendar in your absence
• Inline inspector allows you to click on an appointment anywhere on the timeline (day, week or month view) and edit it via a pop-up menu
• Drag and drop any documents, photos, PDFs or other files that are important to meeting attendees right into the appointment drop box - when you send email invitations, the attachments will be included!
• Room and equipment reservation

 It looks like little iCal is all grown up!