Tested with a macbook pro and a mac mini server, each sharing the iTunes library to a first generation iPad.
Requires:
- shared local wifi connection
- ios 4.3 device
- iTunes 10.2 or greater on a Mac or PC
- An AppleID
A. Enable Home Sharing in iTunes on primary iTunes machine(s)
-- In iTunes menu .. Advanced->Turn on home sharing.. enter AppleID when prompted
B. Tap into the Home Sharing from the iPad
-- Settings->iPod->Home Sharing.. enter the identical AppleID used on the Home Sharing machine when prompted
C. In the iPod app on the iPad
-- Tap the "Library" icon in the list of available media. A "Home Sharing" panel appears which allows switching from "My iPad" to any listed shared libraries.
Shared libraries automatically appear to iOS 4.3 devices when they are on the same wireless network, using the same AppleID credentials. The network setup is zero config for the user in other words.
In Pictures:
iPad Favs folder listing from library "My iPad", listing is from last sync, not from sharing.
Select a different shared library. Share names are based upon user login names for machine in question. "Doug Brethower" on macbook pro, "dougbrethower" on mac mini server.
Note in this case, a couple of music videos are now available in the iTunes share, that were not available from iPad syncing. Ritchie Blackmore's "Man on the Silver Mountain" and Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs"
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ritchie-blackmores-rainbow/id404206
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bridge-of-sighs/id263386585
Simple enough with the right instructions - versions current as of late December 2010.
XCode and admin Required
Requires admin login.
Requires XCode tools to gain the ability to compile open source applications. XCode OS X development software is included with every copy of OS X, but not installed by default. Version 3.2.5 of XCode was used to compile in this instance.
Get the Files
PCRE is required in the APC compile, so it must be built and installed first.
ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-8.11.tar.gz
http://pecl.php.net/get/APC-3.1.6
Configure, Build, Install
Create a workspace to extract the files.
~/Desktop/source was used in this case
Copy the downloaded files into the source directory.
Move into the source directory, build and install PCRE:
- # tar xzf pcre-8.11.tar.gz
- # cd pcre-8.11
- # ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
- # make
- # make install
Move back up one level into the source directory, build and install APC cache:
The configure options passed in step four are all one line.
- # tar xzf APC-3.1.6.tgz
- # cd APC-3.1.6/
- # phpize
- # MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6 CFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -g -Os -pipe -no-cpp-precomp" CCFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -g -Os -pipe" CXXFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -g -Os -pipe" LDFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -bind_at_load" ./configure
- # make
- # make install
When the build is complete, tell php to load and use the apc extension by adding the following line, all on one line, to php.ini which is typically found in the /etc folder
- file.extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/apc.so
Restart apache and view the output of phpinfo() to verify APC cache is installed and working.
After the builds, drag the source folder to the trash to clean things up.
Hosting multiple sites on the same server, may require creating a site by site instance of APC cache by implementing a custom php.ini on site by site basis.
No bench testing or performance improvement details yet. Will get that up when time allows.
Original source for this info was Apple discussions:
The animated gif above was created in OS X in 5 minutes start to finish using instructions below.
PNG is the default format for screen captures in recent versions of OS X.
However most image formats are supported natively. All that is required is to tell your local machine which format you prefer for saving image files.
Switch the default screen capture format to gif by opening a terminal window and entering these commands..
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type gif; killall SystemUIServer
"killall SystemUIServer" is the second instruction if not visible in your browser. It saves having to logout and back in to effect the change.
To switch back to PNG after capturing gifs..
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png; killall SystemUIServer
With screencapture type set to gif, perform periodic screen captures after typing each letter or word.
I sized the textedit window to a reasonable size for Web browser display, then used Cmd-Shift-4-spacebar and selected the textedit window to record each step of progress. Do not worry about the file names at this point.
When finished with captures, review the files in Finder..
- set file ordering to display oldest to newest
- set file display style to Cover Flow
- select the first file in sequence
- click spacebar to preview it
- down arrow to move through files as preview of final animated version
Begin creating the animation by opening the last and final GIF in the Preview app by dragging it from Finder to Preview icon in the dock. If you start with the first file in the order, it will be moved into last position in finished product.
Then in Preview.app View->Sidebar->Show Sidebar to open up a sidebar that acts as a hot zone for collecting the rest of the gif files.
In Finder, select all the other files to include with this animation. Drag and drop them directly on top of the icon for the original file in the sidebar. Dropping them on open space in sidebar will not add them to the original.
- Down arrow through the sidebar images to preview the finished animated gif
- If anything is out of order, re-order images by dragging and dropping them to correct locations in the sidebar
- When satsified, save the finished product as a gif file. I named mine "animated.gif"
Drag the completed product from a finder window and drop it on a browser icon in the dock. Safari, Opera, Firefox all seem to work fine. Verify the final version works as desired.
Place the file in a Web accessible location, like /Library/Webserver/Documents folder on the local machine, to serve it as a web page. Browse to http://localhost/animated.gif to view finished results if following along step by step.
Thanks to Robert Harder and pantyo.com for basics and inspiration.
-- http://blog.iharder.net/2009/10/22/gif-create-animated-gifs-with-mac-os-x-preview-app/
Ezwebin is the eZ Publish Web Interface extension that simplifies creating and maintaining web content in a traditional CMS style.
eZ Flow is another such extension developed and maintained by the eZ Systems developers. eZ Flow explores the very latest design features like device dependence and time scheduled publishing-unpublishing.
Both extensions are so feature laden they would require a book to describe the inner workings and how to use them. The code developers show no inclination to write such a book. Even if they commissioned one, the frantic development pace would outdate the book shortly after it was put to ink.
If there is written documentation regarding use of the "image map" feature for banner images in the ezwebin extension, I could not dig it up in half a days search. So it was time to go debugging this useful feature to figure out how to use it. I will spare the debugging details, the usage details are below.
Image Maps Definition
Image maps are clickable overlays of html images on a web page that act as hyperlinks to other content. The MAP tagging is standard html, defining the regions is a bit of an art form. More MAP tag info at w3schools.com
Simple Image Map Generation
This online image map generator quickly brings newbies up to speed by supplying examples via automated code generation.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
The image map for the banner on the front page of lakedata.net circa December, 2010.
image map for ezwebin banner
Sample Code
<map id="#banner_map" name="banner_map"> <area shape="rect" coords="1,24,125,129" href="http://innovation" alt="A Decade Makes a Difference" /> <area shape="rect" coords="304,2,446,147" href="http://Crazy-Apple" alt="Crazy Apple" /> <area shape="rect" coords="632,17,759,133" href="http://Mobile" alt="Mobile Future is Here!" /> </map>
Because the CSS is custom for each page, a standard naming convention of #banner_map is used.
That was the missing piece of information that required a debugging session to discover.
It really works, and it really works slick.
Get the Find My iPhone app, install it on the iPad.
First time it opens, you will be prompted to sign up for the free version of Mobile Me if you are not already a Mobile Me subscriber. The current free version is dedicated simply to finding iDevices.
Then on a computer, login in to http://me.com and enter the Mobile Me credentials that apply to the device to be found.
Find My iPad, Searching
Find My iPad, Found
Find My iPad, Send Message
Find My iPad, Message Sent
What it looks and sounds like on the iPad. http://lakedata.net/index.php/eng/Apple/Find-My-iPhone
Multi-tasking on the iPad .. http://www.gilsmethod.com/multitask-ipad-ios42
ios 4.2 on iPad where did the screen orientation lock go? Double-tap home key, scroll to far left of bottom pane. See Multi-tasking link for more info.
PDF files, the Portable Document Format is a standard way to communicate electronically across platforms. The advantage is that documents render visibly the same on Windows, Apple, Linux and unix operating systems, with no additional software required. That makes the PDF format ideal for email communications, and document storage.
Creating PDF Files
In Mac OS X, creating a PDF is easy. From any application with print functionality, print to PDF is a button click that selects PDF format rather than sending the job to the printer.
PDF Print in OS X
Then the pdf file can be emailed as an attachment or stored for future reference.
iTunes
PDF capability is a well hidden feature in the latest releases of iTunes.
When e-Books became available for sale in the iTunes store, pdf storage came along for the ride. iTunes is a dead simple way to store and distribute pdf documents, especially onto mobile devices.
1. Print your content to PDF. I just re-discovered some excellent content by Martin Bauer. I might have even printed some of this stuff back in the day. If so, I would not begin to know which rathole of papers it is in. This time I simply Print to PDF, save it on my desktop with descriptive name of "Martin Bauer Content MMT Missing Link"
2. Drag and drop this PDF creation from desktop onto the iTunes icon. If Books was not already a listing in the left pane of the window along with Music, Movies, etc, it now appears.
PDF listing in iTunes Books
3. The file remains on the desktop, delete it, email it, whatever else needs done with it immediately.
4. The PDF file now syncs with iPhones, iPads, mobile devices in accordance with iTunes settings for the device.
PDF book shelf on iPad
5. Also, the PDF file may be restored to anywhere in the file system on demand. Drag and drop it from iTunes to the desired location.
I know how much everybody likes to buy printer ink and finely hammered out dead trees, but when you don't have the time or money, this can make a handy interim solution.
Bonus Feature
An added bonus, is that once in iTunes, the PDF document can be categorized using the same folder structures used to organize music collections. That way a single file can automagically appear in numerous folder locations as needed, without creating multiple copies or shuffling to and fro.
With that headline, and searching for a way to profile multiple iDevices, I started looking into it.
Could not find the older 2.1 version, figured 3.1 would be backwards compatible even though the download page specifically says it is for ios 4 devices.
Downloaded it here.. -- http://support.apple.com/kb/dl851
Discovered it is not compatible with iPad, that could have been accomplished with a little reading..
-- http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9184323/A_look_at_Apple_s_updated_iPhone_Configuration_Utility by Ryan Faas
-- http://www.cultofmac.com/apple-releases-iphone-configuration-utility-3-1/58435 by David Martin
Then no luck finding 2.1 on Apple site.
Fortunately, a Google search found 2.1 at:
-- http://mac.brothersoft.com/apple-iphone-configuration-utility-2.1-download.html
Then trying to launch the 2.1 version crashes instead of starting, quite reliably, arghh!
Hunted down and deleted the plist file in ~/Library
2.1 then launches.
Somehow, probably the magic of xml?, the test configuration profile that was set up in 3.1 is still there in 2.1 even with plist file removal.
Regardless, it all is working now.
It references this blog.
iPliance blog may look abandoned, but just not much worthy of note lately.
The original documentation as I learned eZ Publish is at http://webportalmaster.com/index.php/eng/Blog Use the search box!
More general info http://lakedata.net/index.php/eng/Latest-News
Thanks for the mention in the demo pages!
Took a little while to iron out the details, but of course it works, and it works well. Not sure of the load on the server. But if loads get too high, easy enough to move to Podcast, QTSS formats, or increase Web server capacity.
http://webportalmaster.com/index.php/eng/eZ/Advanced/Embedding-iPad-Capable-Video-into-eZ-Publish
Another interesting way to serve video to the iPad is to simply create a directory structure at the Web server root, set the directory index listings to display, then browse straight to the desired content in the form of the original file.
Also interesting, grabbed this shot straight from the iPad device, no itunes sync required. Just use the image capture utility built into Snow Leopard.
Image Capture App for easy iPad screen shot transfers.
With the advent of Podcast Producer, it almost seems Quicktime Streaming Server is in the process of being forgotten . It took a little digging to find this simple command to pull a stream into a Web page.
<EMBED src="nanopuppy.mov" WIDTH="478" HEIGHT="359" qtsrc="rtsp://mini3.local/nanopuppy.mov">