Apple - Mac OS X - Features

New Features

Overview

Rendezvous lets you create an instant network of computers and smart devices just by getting them connected to each other.

The computers and devices take over from there, automatically broadcasting and discovering what services each is offering for the use of others. The network could be as simple as two AirPort Extreme-equipped PowerBook users sitting in a hotel meeting room miles from the nearest AirPort Extreme Base Station with some large files they need to share. Before Rendezvous, frustration. With Rendezvous, your computer will discover others, making file sharing completely simple.

Safari Icon

Safari, Apple’s turbo-charged web browser, uses Rendezvous to find any web addresses on your local network — for printer, router or webcam setup and administration, for instance. With the help of Rendezvous, iChat AV lets you see which people are available for chatting or video conferencing on your local network, and automatically removes them when they leave.

Printer manufacturers Epson, HP, Lexmark, Canon, Xerox and Brother are integrating Rendezvous into new printers to enable them to be added and removed from networks without configuration. When you add your Mac to a network, Mac OS X will then automatically discover and connect to the available Rendezvous-enabled printers and you’re ready to print.

AirPort

Rendezvous works over today’s most popular standard connection technologies, including Ethernet and AirPort (802.11). And it uses the standard, ubiquitous IP networking protocol for its connections, the same protocol that runs the internet itself. Indeed, all of the technologies driving Rendezvous are open and part of the standards creation process of the IETF, as is Rendezvous itself.

Apple is working with 3rd party developers throughout the industry to push for widespread adoption of Rendezvous. We’ll build it into what we make, and let the superior user experience it delivers move the market forward.

		Aspyr “The hottest game on the Mac this Christmas is Aspyr’s Rendezvous enabled NASCAR Racing 2002 Season,” said Michael Rogers, Aspyr’s President. “Rendezvous vastly improves the multiplayer network gaming experience by making it easy for players to find and join games on the network. All of our future networked games are going to take advantage of Rendezvous.”
		Brother “Brother is proud to ship the first Rendezvous enabled printer perfect for workgroups, the new HL-5070N Laser Printer is completely configured by just turning it on,” said Don Cummins, VP, Brother International Corporation. “Its absolutely great that Apple has created an open standard that gives us a competitive edge in home and small office environments.”
		Canon “Canon is adding our support to the growing adoption of Apple’s revolutionary Rendezvous networking technology,” said Amit Bagchi, Marketing director for Canon’s printer products. “We’re building Rendezvous into the new ImagePROGRAF W2200, W7200 and W7250 color graphic and large-format network-enabled print products so they will automatically configure within office networks.”
		Chaparral “Chaparral immediately saw how an innovative technology like Rendezvous could make it even easier for our customers to achieve the high bandwidth capabilities of our new RIO RAID storage controller,” said Victor Perez, Chaparral Network Storage’s CEO. “Because Apple uses open standards wherever possible, it was easy for us to incorporate Rendezvous support into our RAIDar Administration Plus software as well as qualify our solution with Apple’s new Xserve rack-mount server and deliver a high-performance robust storage solution that is required for today’s storage intensive applications.”
		Epson “We are thrilled about the opportunity Rendezvous presents,” said Dan Crane, vice president of Marketing, Epson America. “We’re integrating Rendezvous support into future products so customers can simply turn on an Epson printer and it will automatically connect to the network or directly to a Mac.”
		HP “As the largest manufacturer of network printers, HP will be integrating the Rendezvous technology in our products to ensure network printing is even easier for our customers,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP Imaging and Printing Group.
		Lexmark “Lexmark is proud to be breaking new ground in support of Apple’s Rendezvous technology,” said Paul Rooke, Lexmark executive vice president and president of its Printing Solutions and Services Division. “With Rendezvous, our customers will find it easier than ever to use Lexmark products.”
		Sybase “Rendezvous is an incredibly innovative technology that we are using to combine the best of both worlds — Sybase’s high performance, scalable database with Apple’s legendary ease of use,” said Dr. Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, Sybase Enterprise Solutions Division. “As the first enterprise company to support Rendezvous technology, Sybase’s Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5 for Mac OS X Server makes client discovery and server configuration automatic, lowering the total cost of ownership to our customers.
		TiVo “TiVo’s upcoming premium service package will use Rendezvous technology to automatically discover Macintosh computers within the home network and determine which services they provide, allowing customers to listen to their shared music or view their shared photos on their TV,” said Jim Barton, Co-founder and CTO for TiVo. “We are excited about working with Apple on other ways Rendezvous can help TiVo Series2 DVRs connect to a Mac to deliver future services.”
		World Book “World Book’s new 2003 edition for Mac OS X takes full advantage of Apple’s Rendezvous technology by allowing students to automatically share their World Book research and bookmarks,” said Robert C. Martin, President and Publisher, World Book Inc. “Rendezvous is an incredible technology that is clearly going to drive innovative new products for education.”
		Xerox “Xerox Phaser network printers will be even simpler for our customers to use as we integrate Apple’s Rendezvous technology into future products,” said Rob Stewart, vice president of Color Marketing, Xerox Office Group.