iCal Server. Now taking appointments.
Introducing iCal Server, the first calendar server for Mac OS X Server. Now it’s easy to share calendars, schedule meetings, and coordinate events within a workgroup, a small business, or a large corporation. Built on open standard protocols, iCal Server integrates with leading calendaring programs. And unlike other calendaring solutions, iCal Server doesn’t impose a per-user license, so you don’t have to pay for additional licenses as your business grows.

An easy schedule.
Does it sometimes seem like scheduling a meeting is harder than actually getting through the meeting? Using iCal Server, colleagues can propose and set up meetings, book conference rooms, and more, quickly and easily. iCal Server is a full-featured, standards-based calendaring solution designed to make your life easier.

Works well with others.
iCal Server uses open calendaring protocols for integrating with leading calendar programs, including iCal 3 in Leopard, and popular CalDAV clients from Mozilla, Open Source Application Foundation, and others. These open standard protocols include CalDAV — a set of extensions to WebDAV — and interchange formats such as iCalendar, iMIP, and iTIP. Apple is a member of the CalConnect Consortium and is committed to open, standards-based calendaring and scheduling protocols. To further the widespread adoption and deployment of these standards, Apple has made complete source code to iCal Server available through the macosforge.org website.

Podcast Producer. Less work, more play.
Podcast Producer is a complete, end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts. Ideal for employee training, university lectures, presentations — or whatever audio or video podcasts your organization requires — Podcast Producer simplifies the process of recording content, encoding, and publishing podcasts for playback in iTunes and on iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.

Start and stop.
A podcast starts with the new Podcast Capture application in Leopard. This innovative tool makes it easy for users to capture high-quality audio and video from local and remote cameras, record screen captures, and upload existing content into Podcast Producer for encoding and distribution. Podcast Capture records audio and video from a wide range of devices, including digital video cameras connected via FireWire, USB microphones, and iSight cameras.
record buttons. Recording a podcast is a snap. Simply launch Podcast Capture, log in, and select the type of podcast you would like to record — then click Start. When finished recording, click Stop. Give your podcast a title, add a description, and pick the appropriate workflow. It’s that simple.

It’s automatic.
Once recording is completed, the file is automatically uploaded to Podcast Producer for processing. Podcast Producer leverages the power of QuickTime to encode content into standard formats such as H.264 and MPEG-4. And with Episode Podcast from Telestream, Podcast Producer can accept and re-encode media from other popular formats including Windows Media, Flash 8, VC-1, and more. Podcast Producer includes a dozen built-in workflows to automate publishing of podcasts to blogs, iTunes, iTunes U, or even multimedia-enabled cell phones over high-speed wireless networks using QuickTime Streaming Server. Workflows include the ability to archive recordings, apply custom Quartz Composer compositions with titles and watermarks, add opening and closing videos, notify the iTunes Podcast Directory of the new episode, and send out an announcement email. Podcast Producer uses Xgrid distributed processing technology for large-scale podcast productions — encoding tasks are automatically distributed to other servers. All that is required is another server running Podcast Producer and a shared file system such as Xsan or NFS

Wiki Server. Collaboration for teams.
Mac OS X Server makes it easy for groups to collaborate and communicate through their own wiki-powered intranet website complete with group calendar, blog, and mailing list. Users can create and edit wiki pages, tag and cross-reference material, upload files and images, add comments, and search content with point-and-click ease.

Communication is key.
Whether it’s a small business or a workgroup inside a large corporation, all members need access to the same materials in order to work effectively. Wikis assist users in the clear exchange of information, eliminating confusion and ensuring that all members of a project have access to the resources they need. Buttons. The wiki blog is the perfect place for sharing team news and status reports or encouraging brainstorming. For shorter comments, there’s a space at the bottom of the wiki page where users can share their thoughts or provide feedback. You have the ability to control who can add comments — nobody, only authenticated users, or anyone who has access to the wiki. Teams can also use the wiki for file exchange — uploading shared documents, images, or movies for distribution; even tracking revisions on documents. And shared calendars help users stay on track by ensuring that everyone can see meeting schedules and milestones.

Customized web workspace.
Wikis allow you to create custom, project-specific websites. Select from 20 built-in themes with different colors, fonts, and layout styles. You can customize these templates with your own banner image and a custom sidebar title that displays pages with a user-defined tag at initial login. Once set up, it’s easy to add, delete, and edit content in whatever way makes sense. No syntax or markup knowledge is required — what you see on the page is exactly what you get. You can insert hyperlinks, link between pages, add images, attach files, and change formatting — all with a few clicks. Because wikis feature RSS support, team members can easily track changes and be notified when new content is added, edited, or tagged. Wikis RSS icon You can subscribe to RSS feeds for the entire wiki site, any individual page, or any tag or search results. And you’ll never have to worry about making mistakes. Since the wiki maintains a complete history, you can always revert to a previous version of your document. Once you create a wiki website and give access to members of the workgroup, everyone has the same capability to contribute to the site. And it’s not limited to text and images — users can access a group calendar to track meetings and deadlines or send messages to a mailing list to keep others informed. The blog feature is perfect for brainstorming or commenting on work. And there’s an option for subscribing to a podcast — so anyone who missed that important conference call can catch up on the news.