Unknown to most users OS X contains all the engines needed to allow iPhones/iPads/iPod Touch to establish a VPN connection with your Mac back home… the only problem is that [...]]]> Following the success of AirPrint Hacktivator I am thinking of writing another little Hacktivator application to help with the activation of the OS X dormant VPN capabilities.

Unknown to most users OS X contains all the engines needed to allow iPhones/iPads/iPod Touch to establish a VPN connection with your Mac back home… the only problem is that multiple files have to be created and services started to make it work.  This is essentially what the OS X Server does with those same files via the provided GUI.

As you might guess this GUI is missing from OS X “user” edition.  Here is where VPN Hacktivator will come handy.  It will offer a minimalistic way of activating the dormant capabilities.  I expect the 1st release to be fairly simple.  Just enough to get a VPN connection possible via PPTP to your Mac using an existing Mac user account name.  Future release should be able to add more functionality/options.

What will you be able to do with this VPN connection?  Print to home printers via AirPrint, access home based web servers via mobile safari, ssh into home servers, remote control home machines via VNC/RDP, etc, etc.  I am sure you can come up with other good reasons to use this thing.

Once the VPN is up and running the only thing left to do will be to configure your home router to allow the VPN connection to your Mac… this is going to be the hardest part as VPN Hacktivator won’t be there to automate the configuration.

I will keep you posted on the progress with the application.

This ensure that no Apple files need to be re-distributed in AirPrint Hacktivator.  The end result should be the same as versions 1.0-1.6: printing from your 4.2.1+ iOS devices to an OSX 10.6.5 shared [...]]]> I rewrote most of the hack part of AirPrint Hacktivator so that only one line need to be added to the apple.types file.

This ensure that no Apple files need to be re-distributed in AirPrint Hacktivator.  The end result should be the same as versions 1.0-1.6: printing from your 4.2.1+ iOS devices to an OSX 10.6.5 shared printer.

This application is free way to activate AirPrint on OSX 10.6.5.  The application is easy to use and won’t require you to manually modify your system files.

I tested this new version and all seem to be fine on my end.  Let me know if you have issues with it.

Visit the main AirPrint Hacktivator page to get the latest version.

Visit the main AirPrint Activator page to get the latest version.

The installer, and last.fm portion are ready for beta.  The new Apple TV2 iOS 4.2.1 will require some major ajustment but nothing too big.

The Couch Surfer is 80% there and is now able to play HTML5 video.  You can [...]]]> fireCore just published some news regarding the development status of the aTV flash application for jailbroken Apple TV2.

The installer, and last.fm portion are ready for beta.  The new Apple TV2 iOS 4.2.1 will require some major ajustment but nothing too big.

The Couch Surfer is 80% there and is now able to play HTML5 video.  You can see a short demo below:

HTML5 Video on AppleTV 2G from Fire Core, LLC on Vimeo.

CODEC/NAS streaming is 35% done.  At the moment the development team has been able to play non iTunes files like AVI, MKV and WMV.

The one thing needed right now is an update to ba able to jailbreak the new version of the Apple TV.

I now use the familiar iOS style button to turn AirPrint Hack ON or OFF.  There is also a status light and text indicator about what the current state of AirPrint is on the system.

Same 3 files copy under the hood.  I must say I have [...]]]> I just made a slightly better looking version of AriPrint Hacktivator:

I now use the familiar iOS style button to turn AirPrint Hack ON or OFF.  There is also a status light and text indicator about what the current state of AirPrint is on the system.

Same 3 files copy under the hood.  I must say I have a blast learning AppleScriptObjC at the same time.  It’s a pretty powerful language that is easy to learn.

Grab the updated version right here.

aTV Flash installer will communicates directly with the AppleTV (no wires or USB drives required) and allows aTV Flash (black) to be installed onto the AppleTV in just minutes. A windows version [...]]]> fire CORE, the companie behind aTV Flash for 1st gen Apple TV is about to release the 1st beta for the Apple TV2.

aTV Flash installer will communicates directly with the AppleTV (no wires or USB drives required) and allows aTV Flash (black) to be installed onto the AppleTV in just minutes. A windows version of the installer will be available at a later date.

Once installed additional apps (and updates) can be installed from the newly added ‘Maintenance’ item.

A web browser called “Couch Surfer” is also planned for the 1st beta release as can be seen in the live demo below (sorry about the youtube copy… for some reasons vimeo embeds won’t stick in wordpress):

The last component part of the 1st beta will be Last.fm client.  A short demo can be seen below.

Video playback is not something that will be part in the 1st beta.  fire Core is hoping to add video playback in subsequent beta release.

You can register for the beta right here.

I can’t wait to give the beta a try.  The two demo look awesome, slick and polished!  Great work fire Core!

Source: http://blog.firecore.com/3314

Visit apple.com this morning and you will be greeted with the above screen.

Apple will announce something memorable tomorrow about iTunes. Could this be iTunes streaming?  Cloud based iTunes… you library in the cloud? Apple just built a massive Data Center and some have speculated that it might have to do with iTunes in the cloud.

Maybe this [...]]]>

Visit apple.com this morning and you will be greeted with the above screen.

Apple will announce something memorable tomorrow about iTunes. Could this be iTunes streaming?  Cloud based iTunes… you library in the cloud? Apple just built a massive Data Center and some have speculated that it might have to do with iTunes in the cloud.

Maybe this will confirm the rumor… but “That you will never forget.” statement better be paired with something BIG! I mean, this better be a game changer… and not just the Beatles coming to iTunes.

I have made some minor modifications to the AirPrint activation utility.  It will now attempt to verify if your Mac run the appropriate versions of OSX and iTunes before letting you install the hack to activate AirPrint.

I have added an icon to the application to make it look a bit better… but really, the icon is [...]]]>

I have made some minor modifications to the AirPrint activation utility.  It will now attempt to verify if your Mac run the appropriate versions of OSX and iTunes before letting you install the hack to activate AirPrint.

I have added an icon to the application to make it look a bit better… but really, the icon is a bit lame, sorry!

You can find the new version right here.

Hopefully these changes will raise awareness of when the system does not meet the minimum requirements for AirPrint activation.

Based on the Fedex record the unit should be at my door on Wednesday the 29th.

Last week some people reported delay in the delivery of the new “hobby” device… but this prove it was [...]]]> I just got confirmation from Apple that the AppleTV 2 have started shipping… at least to Canada:

Based on the Fedex record the unit should be at my door on Wednesday the 29th.

Last week some people reported delay in the delivery of the new “hobby” device… but this prove it was wrong. Apparently it is shipping straight from the manufacture in China.

Looking forward to get the new toy!

This is huge as it essentially validate my toughts that an iPad + AppleTV will [...]]]>

9to5mac is reporting that the AppleTV will be able to play any h.264 encoded video sent from the iPhone/iPad. This means that as you surf the web and discover something interesting to play you can stream it to your AppleTV.

This is huge as it essentially validate my toughts that an iPad + AppleTV will be a GoogleTV killer.  Use the iPad to do all the serching and simply display up on the AppleTV the videos you have found. As simple as that.

Add to this the potential of streaming applications to the AppleTV once an AppStore is created and you got a game changer product.

Airplay is Apple’s ‘Go to Market’ Internet TV strategy | 9 to 5 Mac.