Blog posts tagged with 'iphone'
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So this is an interesting tidbit I heard today. The Receiver for iPhone which came out in May does something really neat. It reports a unique device name to the XenApp server when it attempts to connect to applications. The name always starts with Xen_iPhone and is quickly proceeded by what appears to be a random number. This is similar to connections from Web Interface (Receiver for Web) where all connections through there begin with WI_. In our case, if you are using XenApp for application virtualization and allowing users to access server-hosted applications using their iPhone (via Citrix Receiver for iPhone), then you can apply device policies that prevent these users from doing certain things or to change the user experience. With Receiver for iPhone users only have access to your apps, not directly to the network so if you control access to apps then you control access to the network. For example, I can change encryption settings for devices whose names begin with Xen_iPhone. I can have a dedicated server with just the applications I want these folks to be able to access and prevent iPhones from connecting to anything but that dedicated server and the apps available from it. First, you would create a policy in the Policies pane of the Advanced Configuration Tool (aka Citrix Management Console). Then do the following: |
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- In the left pane of the Advanced Configuration tool, select Policies.
- From the Contents tab, select the policy you want to apply.
- From the Actions menu, select Policy > Apply this policy to.
- In the Policy Filters dialog box, select Client Name.
- Select Filter based on client name.
- Select Add to add specific client names. Type Xen_iPhone* and enter. Make sure Allow is selected in the Client Name filters window.
Here are some example of things you can change, control and optimize for iPhone users:
- Remove Visual Effect like wallpaper
- Control session limits (e.g. virtual channel controls for clipboard, sound, com, display, etc.)
- Control client devices (Audio, drives, ports, etc.)
- Control encryption
- Assign a service level
Now, bear in mind... I haven't played with this extensively so some of these settings may not even affect the iPhone user simply because the feature is not available for Receiver for iPhone (e.g. some SpeedScreen/HDX settings). It doesn't hurt to turn some of these off though and experiment. And the ultimate of course is controlling encryption and security settings. Also, once we release our next rev of the Receiver for iPhone which will have improved support for Access Gateway, I am hoping it will allow the assignment of policies based on Access Gateway connections. So at that point you can filter applications for iPhone users as well as control the experience they have with applications when they connect to a XenApp server.
KEWL!
Post to Twitter
A lot of Buzz is in the air about what Apple is going to release ( or not ) at WWDC next month. As usual Apple has done a great job of keeping people guessing about what will be announced and when it will be available. Since the release of the Citrix Receiver for iPhone there has also been an increased interest in the iPhone for business use and how it can be utilized to be more productive ( and have a little fun ). The interest has also increase the desire for more, lots of people want the iPhone to become the " NirvanaPhone " by adding video and Keyboard capability , but there are other requests as well. " This would be awesome if it only did X ... "
So let's make some predictions and put some numbers to the features and announcements we want at WWDC.
On May 5th, Citrix released Receiver for iPhone 1.0 at Synergy in Las Vegas. Receiver for iPhone is a wonderful testament to the HDX experience we're moving towards. The engineering team involved (winks and nods to Steve Parry, Gus Pinto, Ruiguo Yang, et al) graciously accepted a literal barrage of feedback, input, direction changes, and general user griping about usability for this app. The result is a testament to what's possible when you consider the form factor when porting software to different OS's and adjust to suit. In that same vain, and in conjunction with the Receiver for iPhone, Citrix also released two features called Doc Finder and App Viewer.
Doc Finder
Doc Finder is kind of like a mini- Windows Explorer. It's built for the small form factor (SFF)(mainly the iPhone at this time) and it let's users traverse folders and files easily. The assumption is that the user of an SFF device wants to start with finding a file and then open the associated application from there. I love this feature because it saves me time. Rather than opening Word, for example, and then clicking the File button, then open, then zooming in and out and panning and using the native file dialogue in Word to find my file and open it, I just use Doc Finder which saves me about 20 taps. One of the other cool things is it looks like a native iPhone app that is installed locally but it is a Windows application published and running on XenApp. What's more, it respects GPO's already in place so you can hide server drives and specific folders from users just as you normally would from the full blown Windows Explorer. |
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App Viewer
In addition to Doc Finder is another really cool feature called App Viewer. The idea behind App Viewer is simple - make the browser invisible. Contrary to what you might think, many, many customers publish web applications for delivery via XenApp. There are a number of reasons for this but that's another blog post. In any case, publishing web apps to small form factor devices like the iPhone wastes a lot of precious real-estate for browser controls and fields that are built for PC's. For example, a user of a published web app from the iPhone doesn't need the URL bar or the window title bar of Internet Explorer... they just need the page. Plus, if you've created a lightweight page for the web app that is customized for SFF users, they probably don't even need scroll bars. This is where app viewer comes in. It's just a web browser with no controls, fields, buttons, scroll bars, etc. To help you understand it more, think about it this way. There are a lot of apps on the iPhone that are actually web pages. They use the Safari browser but it is invisible. Bank of America is one such application. It's a web page but you wouldn't know because of the way it's presented to you. App Viewer makes this possible for applications that are hosted on XenApp. Essentially, App Viewer preserves the experience that users are already familiar with when they access locally installed web apps on their iPhone. Even better is that App Viewer can be used to deliver hosted web applications running on XenApp to Windows Mobile devices as well. In fact, you can use it with any form factor. It's completely configurable. All you need to do is make sure you have an appropriate application interface for the form factors you want to support.
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Xcelsius Dashboard on iPhone
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Xcelsius Dashboard on Windows Mobile
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I'm tellin' ya, the engineering guys that worked on this did a great job thinking outside of the box. If you want to check these features out, visit citrix.com/iPhone for more information.
As you can probably imagine, life in a fast-paced technology company like Citrix can be a little hectic, especially around product launch time and around events like Citrix Synergy. Now picture this...
I'm at Citrix Synergy watching the keynote and all of a sudden I start getting e-mails from Citrites in the audience and back at headquarters who are looking for more information on connecting back to headquarters using our shiny new Citrix Receiver for iPhone. Now, I know that I posted a short document on the step by step process for doing this in our environment. The problem is that the document was missing a critical piece in it (my fault) and I needed to update it immediately. The show was at the MGM Grand (a huge sprawling hotel in Las Vegas) and my room was pretty far away so it would have taken me 15 minutes to get to my room, 10 minutes to update the doc, and another 15 minutes to get back. I would have missed 40 minutes of the keynote. I had no connectivity from the keynote area except using 3G with my iPhone. What better time to put our new stuff to the test.
So... I logged into our Access Gateway via the Receiver for iPhone and used my domain credentials and RSA token to login and get a list of my apps. I tap Doc Finder, open my instruction doc and edit it using a full version of Microsoft Office. No big deal... just had to add a couple of lines of text. I save it off and then go back to my app list and open Internet Explorer. From there, I visit my Sharepoint site and upload the document. I even manage to make a couple of updates to the web page where it's posted before I sign off and 'reply to all' that the solution has been posted and problem fixed.
It took me 15 minutes to do it and I didn't miss a single second of opening keynote at Synergy. Sure... you could argue that I needed the exercise and should have walked back to my room but the opening keynote speaker was amazing and I'm happy I didn't go. The Receiver for iPhone allowed me to get my job done in a pinch to keep other employees productive. Now that's value you can take to the bank.
What was my experience like? I imagine there were lots of folks using the Receiver from the keynote over 3G and I was experiencing some sluggish performance but not enough to make the experience unusable. I think we still have a little bit of work to do on click/tap accuracy because there were a couple of times where I had trouble positioning the cursor (it could have also been Sharepoint. On memory, I can't remember where to place the blame 
). It took a little bit of practice but I got the hang of it. Thank goodness for Pan and Zoom and copy and paste on the keyboard. The Save button also afforded me a little extra time too. All in all, it worked quite well in the pinch I was in. This is exactly what the Receiver for iPhone was created for.
Now if only Apple would create a cradle that could turn my iPhone into a thin client. That would be awesome!
Learn more at [http://citrix.com/iphone].
Citrix just announced the new Citrix Receiver for iPhone. And a companion utility was also released called Citrix Doc Finder. As one of the creators of this utility, I will explain some of the history and rationals behind this product.
The leap from no access to access anywhere
Together with Receivers for other mobile devices, Citrix technology now allows you to access applications not available to mobile devices before.
You may wonder how usable the applications designed for desktops are going to be on small screens. It is surprisingly usable especially on the iPhone with the relatively large screen and multi-touch capabilities. Give it a try yourself. It certainly beats not having access at all.
The challenges with fitting desktop applications in a small screen
But can we do better? Certainly. Take windows file explorer for example. Although powerful, the interface is not ideal for mobile devices. For instance, the fonts are too small and especially not good enough for my fingers. I wouldn't blame my finger being too fat As the result, opening a file takes too much scroll, zooming and panning than necessary.
One solution "re-skin"
What if we modify the user interface to optimize it for mobile devices? Many web sites have mobile sites. But I am not aware of any good existing examples of mobile version of windows applications yet. Are you?
Why file explorer?
There are many windows applications we can "re-skin". Given that most people are likely going to want access their corporate documents on mobile devices, it seems logical to create a mobile version of windows explorer as the first example.
Why not implement Doc Finder as a native iPhone application
Yes, it is possible and I've given it serious consideration.
I can think of two possible approaches of a native iPhone implementation. Both have the advantages such as utilizing the iPhone graphics, animation etc. Both have their drawbacks though.
- Download files to iPhone and open it natively.
Cons: Poses additional security risks since files need to leave corporate network. And iPhone's capability to handle many file types is still lacking
- Download directory and file information only and use XenApp to open selected file.
Cons: Requires a web service which needs to be accessible outside corporate network. May require changes to core XenApp product. It seems more complex than simply deploying another modified application on XenApp.
More importantly I would like to help non-iPhone mobile users as well. Implementing Doc Finder as a windows application hosted on XenApp gives me the advantage of serving a broader mobile user base with a single code base.
Since I know windows development pretty well already, I can build Doc Finder quickly. It would be a daunting task to build a separate application for many different mobile platforms.
My development experience.
It took me only a few days to come up with a functional prototype. And it proved so useful and it was productized in a very short amount of time.
Where to find more information
Here is a demo video of Citrix Receiver and the Doc Finder. Doc Finder section starts at around 5:20.
Here is the direct link to that part of the video.
Here is the complete video demo.
Doc Finder is featured in the free demo at CitrixCloud.net. Please give it a try. For more information and to download it, please visit Doc Finder community site. Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. I encourage you to use this user forum for Doc Finder related discussions.
What's next?
But wait, similar type of optimization should be possible to many other types of applications as well both windows applications and web applications. I will leave that subject to another blog.
Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
Check out my other blogs
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The Citrix Receiver for iPhone 1.0 is now available in the App Store ! This is the product thousands of our users have been ( impatiently ) waiting for. The 1.0 release includes support for Access Gateway and RSA 2 Factor authentication enabling secure access over WiFi or 3G networks anywhere.
To provide some history on what influenced this new Citrix Receiver look back to last year when Apple released the iPhone SDK. We had lots of discussion inside Citrix about the priority and significance of developing a client for the iPhone. Although it was possible to access Citrix servers from mobile devices in the past, the user experience was poor due to screen size, slow networks and cumbersome input. The iPhone finally provided a platform that had a relatively large screen, a 3G network and the awesome gesture feature that made panning and zooming usable.
So we knew we could do it, the question was should we do it. Beyond the typical business case with projections of users/licenses and data points of individual customer requests we did an experiment by posting the question to the entire community. As you may have noticed this single blog post now has over 200,000 views and 200+ comments.
Interestingly the comments came not only from our common base of IT pro's but a surprising amount came from end users as well. These are just a few examples of what we heard..
" Hospitalists want to use this. We have Cerner here, and I need Citrix working to connect to it. I would use this 50 times a day. Right now I have to repeatedly sign in to different terminals. The iPhone is the right form factor for this. Laptops / tablets are too bulky for doctors to carry around -- we often do not have a surface to put them on. ..David"
"It's not just the medical community. I'm Director of IT for a large chemical company. I have a highly mobile user base - engineers visiting the production facilities, etc. Currently they are all armed with Blackberry devices. That's great for email only..... but forget attachments or getting into some of the apps we currently host in a Citrix environment (such as our production scheduling tool). An iPhone client solves these problems. We'd be off the Blackberry platform and onto the iPhone with Citrix very quickly. By the way, we have a huge investment in the Citrix platform, and it's getting larger - more and more of our users are moving away from laptops to thin clients. A Citrix client on the iPhone will come close to eliminating the need for any laptops at all from most users. Do it, and do it fast ! "
"It's not just the medical or chemical companies, I am the CIO for a logistics company, and we do all of our global operations using MetaFrame, and having it on my iPhone really helps."
Regarding the use cases, the blog comments describe many of them. I think it's mostly a matter of how mobile the users are as to how often this client will be used. For office based workers that have an iPhone it may be a just another cool app helps out in a pinch. But for the increasing mobile workforce that absolutely needs access to apps & data anywhere ... it's priceless... ( just like when you need to get to a server and you only have your phone with you) It seems that most everyone would like to be able to leave their laptop home, myself included.
So let us know what you think, do you agree with the rest of the Citrix Community? Does it live up to your expectations ? Download the Citrix Receiver from the App Store and try it out. If you are not ready to put it in your production environment yet, register for the free demo at CitrixCloud.net and test the sample apps plus the great new App we built called Doc Finder. If you want to build your own environment to test your own apps try the C3 Lab in Amazon EC2.
For more information, news, questions and suggestions go to;
From your iPhone, check out;
m.iphone.citrix.com
It's still not official .... but the Tech Preview of the long awaited Citrix Receiver for the iPhone is now available in the AppStore. Anyone with a properly configured Citrix XenApp environment can download the Citrix Receiver and access authorized company apps from their iPhone today ! Now is the time to start testing the iPhone in your environment, look for ways to increase productivity, and have some fun.
There are some restrictions in this Tech Preview so be sure to check out the iPhone Community pages we have set up for requirements, tips and forum discussions. If you want to set up a separate test environment to test your apps over 3G we have a preconfigured XenApp Virtual Appliance in Amazon EC2 that you can copy and set up in 15 minutes.
As part of Citrix Receiver we are also providing a new feature called Doc Finder that runs on XenApp but provides an iPhone experience to allow users to easily find, view, edit and send documents. Because the Documents are hosted securely in the data center nothing is downloaded and Doc Finder provides fast one click access to all of your important files.
For more information, news, questions and suggestions go to;
From your iPhone, check out;
m.iphone.citrix.com
To get the real scoop on Citrix Receiver, talk to the experts, plus get some official news, I recommend you attend Citrix Synergy in May... and bring your iPhone... Learn more at www.CitrixSynergy.com
And finally, a big thanks and shout out to the Braeburn project team .. Well Done ! ( actually .. they're not done .. 
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This is a follow up to my earlier blog.
Do you wish to use your iPhone to access Flash based applications? So far you are out of luck. According to the recent news article from CNET, "Flash 10 coming to most smartphones in 2010". And iPhone is not on the list.
But why wait? With the upcoming Citrix receiver for iPhone, you will be able to run Flash based applications not only from iPhone but also from many other popular mobile devices. Initially the focus will be to support business applications.
The Citrix technology also adds another additional layer of security by only transmitting the display to the mobile devices. A typical flash based business intelligence report may contain sensitive data. If downloaded directly to a mobile device, the data may be vulnerable to leaks. For business users,the added security may be important.
Here is a quick preview of what is to come.
Here is the iPhone friendly version
A business intelligence application is demonstrated above. You can find the demo application at this Adobe web site.
If you know any Flash enabled web application/sites that may be useful when accessed from iPhone, could you let me know by posting comments?
Please check out our iPhone project community site for more details.
Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
Check out my other blogs
For those familiar with XenApp, you already know a key capability of XenApp is delivering Windows applications to many different client devices. Most of us probably don't think about it much, but this capability translate into a couple of really important benefits for our customers, especially in today's economic climate:
- You easily can deliver Windows applications to endpoints running variety of OS'es (Windows, Linux, netbooks like the eeePC and of course, the iPhone - coming soon). One example is companies are implementing work-from-home programs to eliminate commute time, reduce electric consumption and consolidate office real estate. Users can work from home, using their own computer. They have a Windows PC - no problem. Mac - sure, we've got a client for that too. eeePC? check out the link above.
- You can also extend the life of those equipment & extend your hardware refresh cycle - imagine having the ability to run a Office 2007 or your favorite business critical apps on a legacy Pentium II desktop.
That said, I'd like to take a poll on what OS you're using to access XenApp. Please login to vote!
| What OS is your XenApp plugin (new name for ICA client) running on? | Choose |
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| Windows XP |  |
| Windows Vista | |
| Windows Server 2003/2008 | |
| Windows 2000/98/ME | |
| Mac OS | |
| Linux | |
| UNIX | |
| Java | |
| Windows CE/PPC | |
| EPOC/Symbian | |
| Other (IBM OS/2, Windows 16-bit, DOS) | |
Besides demoing the Citrix Receiver for iPhone at MacWorld, I got a chance to check out the exhibit hall to look for other interesting products, here is what I found:
Video for the Nirvana Phone ? The MicroVision projector looked really promising, right now works well for movies in the right lighting conditions, the text clarity is not ready for applications though. Rev 2 maybe ?
The latest MyVu looked really good including text. This is ready when we get application Video out from the iPhone.
How about a Keyboard Dock for the iPhone ... I was hopeful but no luck. I did find a developer who has a keyboard working with a hacked iPhone , couldn't get him on camera though..
The "InYourFace" clamp to hold your iPhone anywhere, I liked this a lot !
xDock another desktop stand, looks cool and works pretty well.
iRecorder rips any video right to your iPhone
Play tunes on your iPhone
Do you wish to use your iPhone to access Silverlight enabled web sites? Silverlight is growing in popularity. Check out the Silverlight showcase.
While currently iPhone doesn't support Silverlight natively, you will soon be able to view Silverlight powered cool web sites via Citrix Receiver for iPhone. Here is a quick preview of what is to come.
Did I forget iPhone doesn't support Flash? Here is an iPhone friendly version. I will blog about Flash on iPhone soon.
A business intelligence application is demonstrated above. You can find the demo application here.
Some Silverlight applications will work better on iPhone than others. But at least you have an option to use them now. Citrix also enabled opportunities to optimize Silverlight enabled web sites for iPhone. More on that later.
If you know any Silverlight enabled web application/sites that may be useful when accessed from iPhone, could you let me know by posting comments?
Please check out our iPhone project community site for more details.
Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
Check out my other blogs
For those looking for some new news from MacWorld, plus may want to hear from random attendees what they thought of delivering Windows apps to the iPhone. We took to the floor and asked, here is what they said :
I am really impressed .. I see this for remote sales reps
I can use this for document access ? ... check
Holy ... is that real windows office 2007 ? that's awsome !
That's the only beef I have with the iPhone is I can't do my Microsoft stuff .. great job !
Yes there were those purists that we scared away at the thought of Windows on the iPhone ... plus some others that said "why would you ever need that ? " For those with real jobs, they got it right away...
There is a lot of discussion in the industry about IT's resistance to supporting the iPhone. This is largely due to security concerns and application availability. As readers of this blog know, Citrix app delivery goes a long way to address these concerns. More and more we are now hearing from IT Pro's that want the iPhone to improve their own productivity, this shows up on our blogs as well as some recent impromptu reviews from the floor at MacWorld.
Since there was not many new exciting iPhone demo's at the MacWorld Keynote, we decided to release some of our own. Check out Cut & Paste from a real PowerPoint doc to Word. It works with Citrix ! Let us know what you think of the file navigation application as well.
Nothing to announce regarding release date ... but we are making good progress...
In the mean time chat with the developers over in the iPhone project site at
Http://community.citrix.com/iphone
Prediction #1: The iPhone goes Enterprise
- The iPhone will gain rapid adoption in the Enterprise driven by user demands including executives, road warriors, and knowledge workers asking for access to the apps they need ( including windows apps ) from anywhere. IT will increasingly support the effort based on new improved security capabilities and productivity gains ( including for themselves ).
| .. | Choose |
|---|---|
| I am in IT and we will support the iPhone in 2009 ! ( I need the Citrix Receiver now... ) | |
| Blackberry reigns in the Enterprise, no change for '09 ... | |
Prediction #2: Corporate issued laptop model will be challenged
- Companies looking to provide access to day extenders without the full expense and maintenance of a company laptop will increasingly adopt application delivery infrastructure like XenApp that can provide safe IT hosted application access from un-trusted personal PC's. In addition, companies will begin to pilot the BYOC ( Bring Your Own Computer ) model for knowledge workers seeking personal choice while reducing IT expense and support costs.
| .. | Choose |
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| We already are saving significant $$ by enabling safe access from home PC's | |
| We are planning to allow controlled access ( via Citrix ) from home PC's in 2009 | |
| Status quo, corporate laptop access or none at all. | |
Prediction #3: Virtual Desktops grow beyond a niche
- Improvements in user experience capabilities of VDI solutions combined with the reduced support cost model will drive increased adoption of VDI beyond the initial niche deployments.
| .. | Choose |
|---|---|
| We are moving from VDI pilots and special use cases to broader deployment | |
| VDI is not ready for the masses, we will wait and see | |
Prediction #4: IaaS Cloud Providers are no longer just for web startups
- The recent Windows offering by Amazon will validate the IaaS ( Infrastructure as a Service ) model as a viable platform for companies small and large looking to add test and targeted production capacity without capital and facility costs.
| .. | Choose |
|---|---|
| We have started to use Cloud VM's or Storage for test and plan broader use in '09 | |
| What is IaaS ? No way are we putting anything in the cloud... | |
| Not sure, need to try it first | |
Prediction #5: Netbooks drive Servers, Clouds and Linux clients
- The rapid adoption of Netbooks based on low cost and light weight convenience will increase the desire to run server hosted apps ( Web and Windows ). A significant number of the new mini laptops will be used for occasional use vs a primary PC which makes maintaining local apps and synchronizing data problematic. This in turn will help break the traditional model of running Windows apps installed on PCs and laptops.
| .. | Choose |
|---|---|
| We are getting more and more requests for access from Netbooks, all they need is Citrix and a browser. | |
| Netbooks are just toys for kids ... ( small & big ) | |
Agree / disagree ? what are your predictions ?
Also seen at Sys-Con Cloud Computing Computing Journal
As we have announced here on the Citrix Blog ( still no Press Release though ... ) we are actively developing a Citrix Receiver for the iPhone that will bring the world of millions of Windows apps and developers to the iPhone. As part of our testing and demonstrations we are looking for examples of compelling applications that will not run natively on the iPhone, however if the app was hosted on XenApp and delivered to the iPhone it would provide a great visual example of the power of Citrix and the iPhone.
Some things that come to mind are;
- Web sites that require flash
- Medical Apps
- Web apps that need IE
- Cut & Paste ( within Citrix sessions )
- ?
We have received great feedback and use case descriptions on the original post ( keep that coming ) now we are looking for specific apps or new ideas that would really open eyes to the possibilities.
Thanks !
Since the dawn of time (in Personal Computer time at least) there has been a clear separation, or should that be chasm?, between PC users and Apple users. The differences are not only philosophical there are practical differences.
Each of the O/S's has it its own quirks and usability paradigms. The classic example has always been the mouse. Apple users have always been happy with a single button, while PC users have always wanted more buttons...
The iPhone has introduced yet another paradigm, with its all touch screen design.
The Citrix Receiver for iPhone is being created to allow access to windows applications, through an Apple device which uses this new user experience. As the designers and builders of this software we need to "Bridge the gap" between all three interaction methods.
I have to say this has led to some "vigorous" debates on the various suggestions to build this bridge. Currently we have a few gestures and we think we can do almost everything a windows user would want to do.
However, I see scope for improvement. I would like to hear you ideas on how a Windows user would like to interact, how a Mac user would like to interact and even how a Linux user would like to interact.
Now I don't want to start an OS war.
What I am looking for are real suggestions and ideas.
To kick things off:-
Question 1
Does the Citrix Receiver for iPhone need to have "extra" keyboard keys? For example would Alt, Ctrl, Tab, Delete etc be useful?
Question 2
If these keys are useful, what keys are needed?
I look forward to your responses.
Colin Warren
Lead Strategic Services Analyst
Advanced Products, Sydney
One of the exciting parts of being able to work on this project is the fresh and innovative approach we are taking to get the software in your hands as soon as we can so we can shape future releases. It's fair to say that the Braeburn team is working schedules like never before and using a much more agile approach to the project's release.
We are aiming to be very transparent (through the use of this site) so that you know what's going on with current and future releases of the project.
The way we are approaching the initial release is that we will be getting our version one on to the AppStore as soon as we can so we can get feedback from all of you... our plan is that it will have the core technology which will allow you to manage and make connections to the Citrix Delivery Center and as I mentioned, we are working on a very aggressive schedule and we will be having many regular updates to the project available on the AppStore as we add additional feature after feature.
But it's not all about features that you have grown to expect from other the other App Receivers available to connect to Citrix infrastructure, we also have a few tricks up our sleeve that we think you'll love on your iPhone... let's just say we are thinking differently about ways to access and interact with your information whilst going mobile with the iPhone.
Each release will also incorporate suggestions from you guys as well (and of course the odd bug fix as well!), so please - make sure you contribute to the forums on this site (they will be up and running really soon).
Adam
Hi and welcome to the Citrix Receiver for iPhone community site,
First let me introduce myself, my name is Adam Jaques and I'm one of the Managers at Citrix who is responsible for the release of the Citrix Receiver for iPhone (known as project Braeburn). If you haven't seen it already, I'm the guy doing the iPhone demo earlier on in the year of one of our very very very early prototypes!
The group that I work for within Citrix is called Advanced Products, we are a worldwide group that typically looks at future technologies that Citrix will develop or utilise within our product set. In fact, earlier this year we caught up with Brian Madden whilst he was in Australia, he wrote about us on his site.
Project Braeburn is certainly a global effort with development taking place out of our offices in Sydney, Australia (can anyone guess why it's called Project Braeburn?), but also being contributed to by engineers and architects in the UK and USA. We are all really excited to be working on this project on such a great platform.
You'll be hearing much more from me over the coming months leading up to the first release of project Braeburn, but I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you to the site and encourage you to check back here regularly to get the scoop on how the project is progressing. This site will also give you a great opportunity... to interact directly with the team that is actually producing the project.
This site will allow you to:
- Meet the team and find out what were thinking of for the evolution of what's sure to be a very cool piece of software.
- Learn about how Citrix intends to release Project Braeburn onto the Apple AppStore.
- Ask questions of the team through the forums.
- Report any issues you have with the client when it is released and let us help you out.
- Add any feature suggestions or point out anything we've missed so that we can get right on it!
So once again, welcome! And I look forward to you being a regular visitor.
Adam
Lately main stream media picked up on the fact that we're building an ICA client for the iPhone. Several stories emerged, many pointing back to Al's blog as well as our most popular blog post ever by Chris Fleck.
Some have questioned if we were really working on a client or just some vaporware.
I can safely tell you that what you've heard is true, we're building an ICA client for the iPhone, but that's not all. We're not just building an ICA client for another mobile platform, we're redefining the mobile experience for Citrix users, we're building a Citrix Receiver for the iPhone.
iPhone is remarkable for its design and simplicity and we do not intend to change that, in fact, we find ourselves inspired by all its novelties.
Our goal in delivering a Citrix Receiver to an iPhone is to ensure a completely seamless transition from personal to enterprise, all in one device. Virtually millions business critical application run today on Citrix XenApp, and soon enough all of them will be at your fingertips in an iPhone near you.
We are following the very same guidelines every other native iPhone app follows, and to ensure that, we have teamed up with our friends at Apple to deliver nothing but the smoothest experience to our users.
The Citrix Receiver for iPhone will not only look and feel native to this platform but it will leverage many of the software and hardware advancements incorporated into this ingenious device. Expect a rich combination of multi-touch gestures, great usage of the iPhone's accelerometer and many more.
Our timeline can not yet be disclosed, however I can share with you that the first edition of the Citrix Receiver will be released to the App Store within the first half of 2009. In the meantime, we are building an iPhone community site within CDN, allowing us to contribute and share information with the industry as well as a mainline of communication between our development team and the community; this new site will be available soon, stay tuned.
The Project name is Braeburn (Project Braeburn), I'm the Product Architect, Al Grandville - Product Manager, and a highly skilled team of our finest Mac developers; we form the squad in charge of getting the Citrix Receiver released into the wild. On the new iPhone community site you will be able to chat, ask questions and exchange ideas with all of us.
Stay tuned, iPhone magic is coming soon!
best,
Gus
