Apple has two three* ways to secure company data on an iPhone in the event an iPhone is lost or stolen.

If you have a subscription to Apple’s MobileMe you can now find a lost iPhone and/or wipe all of it’s data from the MobileMe website. More info on the MobileMe capabilities are available on the Apple website.

Many corporate users do not use the MobileMe service (which costs $99/year) but still need to protect the data on their iPhones. Well, Apple has you covered there as well. You can enable a four digit passcode on your phone. If the incorrect passcode is entered 10 times in a row, then all the data on your phone will be erased. If the data is erased accidentally or the code is forgotten you can restore the phone from iTunes.

Here’s how you would enable the setting to wipe your phone after 10 incorrect passcode attempts. From your phone choose:

1. Settings – General – Passcode Lock
2. Enter a 4 digit passcode twice to confirm. Be sure you won’t forget this passcode!
3. From the next menu click on Require Passcode and choose a timeout. A shorter time is more secure.
4. Make sure Erase Data is set to On. Screen should like the image below.

That’s it! Your iPhone will now wipe all data if an incorrect passcode is entered 10 times in a row.

Each method has it’s own advantages and disadvantages. We feel the built-in feature of using a passcode is the most straight forward solution and provides a high level of security.

*Companies running Microsoft Exchange Server can remotely wipe an iPhone. Please see your company’s system administrator for details.

Running Windows on a Mac is not new. One of the available alternatives for running Windows on a Mac is VMware Fusion. With VMware Fusion, Windows is not installed directly on the Macintosh but rather in a Virtual Machine. Simply put, a Virtual Machine means that the entire Windows environment is just another application for the Mac OS.

For basic business purposes, VMWare Fusion works great. With Fusion, Windows can be accessed without restarting the Mac and files can be seamlessly shared between the Mac OS and Windows running under Fusion. However, Fusion cannot run applications that have intense graphics (design programs, games, etc) as well as BootCamp.

While Fusion allows the Mac OS to treat Windows as another application, Apple BootCamp partitions part of the Macintosh Hard Drive for a native Windows installation. With BootCamp, you partition the drive, install Windows and then during the boot process hold down the ALT key and select either Windows or Macintosh. The advantage of BootCamp is that Windows is running directly on the Mac hardware instead of a virtual machine therefore increasing performance. Windows looks great on a Mac, in fact Windows looks better on my Mac than my PC at work! Keep in mind that with BootCamp, changing environments from Windows to Mac or vice versa requires a restart.

So, which option is the winner in the VMware Fusion vs BootCamp bakeoff? It depends on your needs of course. For casual access to Windows from within a Mac without a reboot, VMware Fusion is a great option. For those users who would use Windows on their Mac for graphics, gaming or spend a fair amount of time in a Windows environment, BootCamp is the clear choice. Keep in mind, both options require a license and media to install Windows. (BootCamp is free, VMware Fusion costs ~$75)

A word of advice for BootCamp users. Be sure to leave plenty of disk space for your Windows installation. I was overly aggressive and had to increase the space for my Windows installation after the install was complete. Luckily, this is not as difficult as it sounds.

1) Install a copy of WinClone
2) Create an image of your Windows partition to an external drive.
3) Use BootCamp Assistant to delete your Windows Partition. (reboot for good measure)
4) Use BootCamp Assistant to create a larger Windows Partition.
5) Use WinClone to restore your backup to the newly created BootCamp parition.
6) From within WinClone, use the tool menu and choose “Expand NTFS Partition”

There you have it, your BootCamp version of Windows now has more space!