Bonjour
Latest
First Look: iStat for the iPhone
My very favorite Dashboard widget is iSlayer's iStat Pro. It is invaluable for figuring out how fast Internet connection is moving, tracking down what processes are hanging up the system and monitoring CPU usage.But what if you want to monitor your systems performance remotely? What if you have a Mac server and you want to keep track of the memory and network usage? This is exactly what iStat for the iPhone was designed to address. Bjango (the new venture from part of the iSlayer team) was nice enough to let me try the app before it hits the App Store, and put it through the paces.This is how it works:You install the lightweight iStat Server deskop app (you need to be running Mac OS X 10.4 or higher) and then you run the iStat app for the iPhone to connect it to your Mac.If you are on the same local network, Bonjour will take care of everything, you'll see your computer name on a list and you just need to enter in the passcode displayed in the iStat Server app to access your data.If you are connecting to a remote server, just enter in the IP address and port number (the default is port 5109) and your passcode and you're good to go.The iStat program will show you information on your iPhone or iPod touch and any computers or servers that you've configured with your device.Take a look at the gallery and read on (the next page) for more details.%Gallery-42277%
Friday Favorite: ShareTool
Another Friday Favorite, our weekly opportunity to get all sloppy over our most-loved applications. If you have an always-on Mac at home, a decent upstream connection and another Mac anywhere outside of your home network, you might find ShareTool to be as useful as I do. It allows you -- with an amazing degree of simplicity -- to access your Bonjour services on a remote machine as if you were still within your home network. It does this over an SSH encrypted connection (and also automatically sets up a proxy for secure web-browsing over the tunnel). Yes, you can get some of these benefits with a simple SSH tunnel, or you could set up a VPN using HamachiX, but the simple fact that ShareTool "Just Works" makes it my favorite choice for everything from screen sharing to iTunes streaming. I use ShareTool on a Mac Mini, with an Airport Extreme Base Station on a connection that gets about 800k average upload speed. iTunes streaming is flawless, and remote drive access is as good or better than just using SFTP. Setup is as simple as choosing a port (defaults to 22, the standard SSH port) to share on and hitting "Share" on your home Mac. After that, you can set it to start at login, and begin sharing on launch. Then, on your remote machine, you just need to enter an IP or domain and the port, and the rest is automatic. You can select which Bonjour services to enable or just go for broke and enable everything. I've got a static IP these days, but services like No-IP and DynDNS work great if you have a dynamic IP address. ShareTool can even handle updating the dynamic IP service for you, so you don't have to run any daemons. ShareTool is provided by YazSoft, and a free trial is available for download on the main page. The pricing structure requires a license for every computer, and a pair of licenses costs $30USD (5 for $75USD). YazSoft provides free updates within a major version number (1.x customers get all 1.x updates for free). If you're looking for an easy way to keep your entire home network handy anywhere you go, it might be worth a try.
iPod touch firmware, Bonjour for Windows close security holes
It's not all new features and delight behind the scenes with the now-shipping iPod touch 2.1 firmware -- among the updates and changes are five patches to address security issues with the device. Frameworks that have been tweaked include the Application Sandbox, CoreGraphics, the mDNSResponder, Networking, and WebKit. The mDNS fix tackles the Dan Kaminsky DNS vulnerability that sparked controversy over the pace of Apple's patch releases... yet more proof that the iPod touch is a teensy little computer, with all the risks and challenges thereto. You can review the security notes for the update at Apple's security site, and of course you can download the update through iTunes.Also updated for security purposes today was the Bonjour for Windows package, now at version 1.0.5. This utility, which gives XP and Vista machines access to zero-configuration network resources such as printers or Mac OS X web sharing, now includes a couple of DNS-related patches including one for the vulnerability noted above. See here for the full details; Bonjour for Windows is downloadable from Apple as well.
TUAW Review: DataCase for iPhone
If you've been looking for a way to turn that 16GB iPhone into a wireless flash drive, there's a new solution available for you in the App Store: DataCase for iPhone (link opens iTunes). The developers, Veiosoft, missed their original release date of July 28th thanks to Apple's annoying application approval process, but you can now buy DataCase in the App Store for US$6.99. Unlike FileMagnet, DataCase doesn't require that an app be installed on the Mac, and it can also be used with a PC or Linux machine.Read after the break for more information about DataCase for iPhone.
Turn your iPhone into a wireless drive with DataCase
One feature of many other handheld devices is the ability to use the device as a portable flash drive to move data between a couple of computers. The iPhone doesn't have that ability now, but will on July 28, 2008.That's the day that DataCase will be available in the iTunes App Store for $6.99. From Veiosoft, DataCase works with Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) and Bonjour to allow any Mac on the same network as your phone to transfer files to and from it.Your iPhone appears as a Mac volume, so you just drag-and-drop data you want to take with you. If you're a Windows or Linux user, DataCase gives you the same capabilities from your iPhone using HTTP and FTP.In case you want to view those files you've moved to your iPhone, DataCase lets you read Microsoft Office, PDF, and text files. You can create up to 16 different volumes on your iPhone, each of which can be set up with read/write/browse permissions. Volumes can be made invisible to protect data from unauthorized people or iPhone snatchers.This is an innovative app that I think a lot of iPhone owners are going to buy come July 28th.
Bonjour SCX-4500W: Apple's favorite Samsung multi-function printer goes wireless
Samsung's sexy little multi-function, monochrome laser printer, copier, and color scanner just hit the FCC with a tiny surprise: 802.11b/g WiFi and 10/100 Ethernet. That's right, Sammy's Swan (aka, SCX-4500) now comes in a SCX-4500W version supporting Windows, Mac, and Linux machines; LPR, IPP/HTTP, DHCP, and BOOTP protocols; and WEP or WPA Personal WiFi encryption. As a bonus, it also supports Bonjour to make network detection for your Mac (and suitably installed PCs) a snap. Not really a surprise since the SCX-4500W made its first US appearance exclusively in Apple's retail stores. No word on when it will pop for retail, but we expect it to snag a $300 or so price tag. FCC glamor shot after the break.
iPhone Coding: Bonjour wrapper simplifies iPhone implementation
Man, I wish this Bonjour class wrapper had been around a few weeks ago. The CFBonjour Cocoa class simplifies mDNS/Bonjour programming for the iPhone and iPod touch. iPhone developer Ecume pointed me towards this simple class that allows you to publish and subscribe to Bonjour network services with a minimum of programming. He's using this code to write a DropCopy client for iPhone. Hopefully this new step forward will make it a lot easier for more developers to get on the iPhone/Bonjour wagon--the opportunities go far beyond Zune-like file sharing. (Speaking of Zune-like sharing, my new version of SendSong allows you to squirt your music to anyone using SendFile.) Thanks to Ecume.
MDNS and caffeine: How I got Bonjour running on my iPhone
See this picture? It's a picture of my iPod touch. But here is the interesting thing. The picture you see is actually a screen shot from my iPod touch. As you can see from the iPod logo, it has no on-board camera. Instead, it's subscribed to a Bonjour service on my iPhone and using its camera instead to take a picture of itself.
Picnic file synchronizer released
We last mentioned Picnic when the beta was released in June; now Objectpark software is shipping version 1. Picnic is a utility designed to allow you to synchronize folders you specify between two Macs on the same local network. By using Bonjour it requires little or no setup. Unfortunately, I see two major downsides to Picnic. First, it seems rather expensive. Each machine/user requires a license which are $29.95 each (though there are discounts when ordering multiple licenses, e.g. $55 for two). Compare this to the similar Martian Slingshot at $29.99 for use on all your personal computers. Second, it only works over a local network and not the Internet (though I suspect you could hack it together with Hamachi or another VPN solution).A demo of Picnic is available for download.[via MacNN]
Bonjour for Windows 1.0.4 released
Apple has released a new version of Bonjour for Windows, 1.0.4, just in case you're zero-configuration networking with any Windows PCs in the area. There's no changelog available, but this version dropped as a preview onto the ADC page last month, and apparently "includes Windows Vista support and various other bug fixes and enhancements." The release is good, of course, not only for Vista, but also for Windows 2000/2003 and XP. Additionally, Apple's covering their 64-bit bases as well-- they've got a 64-bit compatible release ready too. Like it or not, we can't all be on a Mac all the time, and fortunately, Bonjour makes networking without the hassles possible on both platforms.[via Ars Technica]
Alleged OS X worm creator disappears
I'm not sure if you've been following the story of "Infosec Sellout" (it's a tough one to follow), but apparently the anonymous Mac hacker has given up blogging about OS X security-- his blog has been deleted and renamed on Blogspot. Just recently, he made headlines by claiming that he'd developed a worm for OS X called "Rape.osx," that hit a known vulnerability in the OS X mDNSResponder, an open source Internet protocol used by Apple. But apparently Infosec Sellout didn't think Apple responded appropriately to his warning (and/or his site was hacked itself), and he's gone quiet.Robert McMillian of the IDG news service has has contact with Infosec Sellout in the past, and heard from the hacker in an email that "it was a great experiment to see how the industry could handle some honesty, which they can't. They are quick to attack the credibility of others in order to hide their own flaws." From that comment, it sounds like Infosec thinks Apple is somehow claiming to be impenetrable, but as other security analysts say, that's far from true. Still another story is that Infosec's identity was close to being found out, and he quit because of that. Apparently Infosec says that the identity discovery was a factor, but not because he didn't want to be found out, just because he didn't want his employer to be approached by "crybabies."Strange story indeed. Unfortunately Infosec still hasn't revealed the hack, and says he won't reveal it to Apple until testing is completed.
Picnic offers Bonjour shared folders
Picnic appears to be an interesting tool for small Mac networks where users need to share files. It allows you to "create shared folders of files which are automatically synced between all user's accounts using Bonjour." This could really make it easier for small businesses or workgroups to share files between users (such as was requested by Stephen in a comment to the Ask TUAW post from last week). Since the files are synchronized across multiple computers it essentially gives you a kind of live backup. Mobile users retain a copy of the files when they disconnect from the network and changes are synced back when they reconnect (conflicts are apparently marked). In a lot of ways Picnic looks like the two Mac syncing tool Martian SlingShot, but with support for multiple Macs.Picnic is now in beta and available for download from Objectpark software.[via uneasysilence]
Google Summer of Code kicks off with Camino, Adium, Thunderbird and more
Google's Summer of Code is a really cool, really massive project focused on open source that first started back in 2005. It functions on a pretty simple concept: the company gives out grants to student developers (this summer they brought on 900 from a list of 6,200 applicants) to work on open source projects for the summer, and we all subsequently benefit in one way or another. Take a gander through the long list of projects on the menu for this summer, and click on any to see what the goals are. Whether or not these goals are met by the end of the summer is another thing entirely, but there are some great projects and features on the list for such apps as Adium, Camino, Thunderbird, Inkscape and much more. Adium, for example, might gain features like basic voice chat, AppleScript and Bonjour support, while a juicy feature on Camino's todo list is Tabsposé, bringing the window management wonders of Exposé (much like the WebKit-based Shiira features) to the more Mac-like alternative to Firefox. In fact, one of the developers involved with working Tabsposé for Camino is blogging the effort, with a few posts already online covering developer-oriented topics like getting caught up with minor details and coding resources, but also including teaser mockups of what Tabsposé might eventually look like. Long story short: Google's third round of Summer of Code looks like it will again do some great things for Mac OS X software and open source on a broader scale. Heck, those open source developers are even getting paid, which must be a nice change of pace for some of them. We'll keep an eye on what new features arise from this Google-funded coding powwow at the end of the summer.
iSticky offers notes with reminders, sending via Bonjour, more
Sticky notes are great, but sticky notes that can have reminder alarms, be sent to other Macs via Bonjour, sent over the web and SMS, archived and more - are better. If any of these features have your inner nerd excited, then check out iSticky - a sticky note app on steroids. Also on the feature list are themes, categories, encryption, document linking and more.While we don't think iSticky is Universal yet (at least, the author isn't bragging about it on the site), a demo is available. iSticky also offers a wide range of licenses depending on which features you need and whether you need a family/business pack. Prices run from $16 USD (single license, Bonjour sending but not over the web) up to $90 USD for a 12 license pack with all the toppings. Check it out if Apple's Stickies just aren't cutting it for you anymore.
Gawker updated with more camera support, desktop time-lapsing
Gawker, the clever app for recording, sharing and combining time-lapse movies, has been updated to version 0.70 with some unique features. It is now compatible with non-iSight cameras, including even DV cameras, and can record from up to four cameras simultaneously (when you consider the power of using other cameras through Bonjour, this gets pretty interesting). The ability to capture desktops as well as a countdown timer have also been added.Gawker is an open source project and available from its home at SourceForge.
TUAW Tip: Copying to iTunes
This tip might seem obvious to some, but I had a friend (a part-time switcher who bought a Mac mini last year) try to copy "Battlestar Galactica" episodes from his PC to his Mac mini. His solution was to manually copy the file from one Music Library to the other, then double-click the file on his mini to play it in iTunes, which logically added it into his Library properly. There is an easier way! Let's make iTunes do our dirty work for us, shall we?First, it helps to have the other computer in your network. In fact, you'll want to mount the drive with the music or videos on the Mac you want to copy them to. So if you have a Mac mini in your living room, and you want to move content to your iBook, you'll need to mount the mini's drive onto your iBook. Ars Technica has a good walkthrough of the process (scroll down to the Networking section). If you need to connect an XP machine to your Mac, Apple has instructions here.Once you've put that other drive on your local machine, fire up iTunes. The defaults should be set to always copy songs into your local Library. This makes sense, as you might carry a song on a memory stick, and want to copy it over. If it didn't copy, once the stick was gone, the song would be gone. If you want to make sure you've set iTunes to copy, go to your Preferences in iTunes (Cmd-comma is the shortcut), Advanced, and open the General tab. There's a checkbox, "Copy files to the iTunes music folder when adding to library."To add (and copy) the song, go to File, Add to Library... (the keyboard shortcut is Cmd-O). Navigate to the other Mac's drive, into the Home folder of the user with the song you want, and go to Music, iTunes, iTunes Music. Inside that folder are all your songs arranged by artist. Now just select the folder or songs or videos you like, and iTunes will copy them over. You can unmount the drive and play the content on your machine.Yes, I know Front Row avec Bonjour solves some of these issues, as you can stream content easily. Yes, I know this isn't the most elegant solution, and for always-on networks you could just as well not copy the content over. What I like to do is move stuff around between my desktops and laptops, so it works quite well. I might record a show using EyeTV on my Mac mini, add it for archiving on that machine, but later add the shows I want on my iBook for travel.
Front Row and iPhoto Updates too...
I saw Dave's post about the updates, and so I launched Software Update and found a few that he didn't mention: Front Row Update 1.2.1 and iPhoto update 6.0.2.All I have to say is: bonjour! Update: looks like Dave got the iPhoto update in there in an update to his post while I was writing this one...
