MonkeyTunes and Subsonic

Never an iTunes fan, in fact I'm a complete hater, I've always used MediaMonkey for local music management, and iPod/iPhone music sync.  Today in my never ending quest for home AV utopia I just took two more steps.  I think forward, but actually maybe not.

Wanting to control my music from the garden (yes I know iTunes has this) I found MonkeyTunes & SubSonic.

MonkeyTunes adds a plugin into MM which then uses the iTunes (irony) bonjour service so you can control your music from the regular iPhone iTunes remote.

Subsonic installs a web service which displays, and streams your music via the browser.

I'll probably use them both once.  But there you go.

OS 4 Upgrade on 3GS iPhone

Jumped in with both feet .. works fine, even Lotus notes traveller.

One problem so far which was my photos were showing as really crappy resolution.  Plenty of google hits for this which are basically disable photo syncronisation in iTunes, apply, re-enable.

The first time this left me with black squares were pictures should have have been, repeated the process and that's fixed it ..

iPhone Cisco VPN 3030

The iPhone has a default MAC OS VPN client which I easily got connected to the corp VPN appliances we have.  Cisco 3030.

Trouble was I could'nt seem to get the proxy settings to kick in on Safari.  When connected on the VPN I could browse external sites but nothing internally.  I Installed a few more network apps, ping, ssh etc and narrowed it down to DNS not working.  And not working only for some apps ! ie Safari !

A Quick Google and I stumbled across a post advising to set the local domains in the split DNS names part of the IPSec group config, under the client config tab.  Did this and everything works a treat ..

 

 

Official Apple support for the 3xxx series is vague, but it works fine ..

Update : 24/05/2010

Tested against ASA 5540 with IPSec VPN and it works fine.  The Same issue with DNS exists.  Add the domains to the ASA Group Policy assigned to the IPSec Connection Profile ...

Apparently the next release of IPhone OS supports SSL VPN .. If it does I'll try it ..

iPhone duplicate contacts

Note entirely clear on this, nor can I reproduce it .. But I'm writing it down so next time I can try the same method.

With my Blackberry I could sync my Gmail & Domino contacts perfectly using the native BB OS and Google sync.

On the the iPhone Google support contact syncing with Active Sync.  And seeing as the OS only supports a single Exchange ActiveSync, which on mine is configured for our corp email - Lotus Notes Traveller(LNT), then I needed plan B.

I opted to disable LNT contact sync and make use of the iTunes Sync to Gmail.  This was all working fine until one morning I noticed my phone contacts had 5 or 6 duplicates.  They where identical in content although on some the fields where in different order.  Some of the duplicates contained lots of information and some just an email.

Regardless of what I did I couldn't remove them.  Theres plenty of hits on google none of which resolved.

In the end I picked on one of the contacts and deleted it from the phone and gmail.  Sync'd the device, contact gone, good.  Added them back as a Gmail contact, synced the device - warning, you are changing >25% of contacts.  Odd, I have a backup so clicked yes.

Bingo, all duplicates gone !

I've since tried to reproduce the problem, edited local contacts, Gmail contacts etc  .. But each time the sync works fine, and as expected.

Will keep an eye on it ... to be continued ...................

TVersity & Windows 7

My ongoing quest to enable all my media on my iPhone has led me back into the world of TVersity.  I've previously used this way back when to push MP3 content to my PS3.  I then got my hands on a NAS which I installed MediaTomb on making TVersity redundant.

MediaTomb & the NAS works fine for just MP3 streaming but for Video its CPU is just too slow.  So I've just been using the PS3 web browser and navigate to the NAS running Apache to show a file list and play from there.  Which work's great.

The iPhone on the other hand can't do the same.  I'd previously installed Plug Player which found MediaTomb and the music with no problems ..

So Enter TVersity again.  Installed it on my office PC, Windows 7.  Installed fine and I could browse to http://server:41951 but couldn't see the UPnP server either from PC's, PS3 or from PlugPlayer iPhone app.

The Tversity Trouble Shooting FAQ was the answer :

If the computer running the media server has more than one network interface, you need to make sure that the the TCP binding order on your machine is such that the network interface on which it is supposed to communicate with the media player appears first.

Start |  Control Panel | Network & Internet | View Network Status & Tasks | Change adaptor settings | Advanced | Advanced Settings.

I have Cisco VPN client installed which had inserted into top position.  Pushed my onboard NIC to the top and bingo.  All my devices see Tversity.

iTunes - I tried

Its music management is horrible.  Always has been, and even though I tried its just not as flexible as Media Monkey.  Something which I've been using at home for a couple of years.

Followed this guide 

http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Guide_to_ipod_sync 

and moved Music & Podcast syncing to MM .. Podcasts are bit of a hack.  I cant see a way to get the final url from iTunes Store so have been subscribing to the Podcast where you can then right click and copy url, which I then add to MM.  Need to google that ..

Unfortunatly I still need iTunes for backup, contacts, video, ringtones ... I'm sure the time will come.

I feel cleansed ..

EDIT : Also just found that MM cant handle Video podcasts.  So they also need to go via iTunes.  I feel half and half now.  Not such a happy place but better than only iTunes.

iSip SIP Client to Cisco Call Manager

After finally getting SIP phones working on our Call Manager 6 attention was turned to getting the iPhones connecting via the corp WLAN, and then via VPN.

The first part of this assumes your on a local network to the Cisco Call Manager (CCM).  First find your iPhones MAC address.

Settings | General | About | Wi-Fi Address

Set the SIP phone up as you would normally in CCM - See other Blog post.  Note.  Only one user can be assigned to a SIP device, so if you already have a SIP phone assigned to the end user you'll need to create a new one.  You can of course still assign the same extension number.

Install iSIP from the app store. 

Connect to your WLAN

and create the account as:

Display Name : Up to you

Domain : IP addr of your CCM Publisher

Username : Phone extension

 

In Advanced :

Auth Username : CCM end user

Proxy : IP addr of your CCM Publisher

Phone Number : Phone extension

Its possible Proxy and Phone Number in advanced are not needed.

Any problems then I suggest installing X-Lite, switching the MAC address and testing to make sure the User, digest etc are all working .. Then turn your attention back to the iPhone.


Connecting over a VPN worked seamlessly ..

Case-Mate Barely There For iPhone

I guess the clue is in the name.  Barely there is correct.  All it would protect is the back from being scratched.

Having owned the same 'barely there' case for the Blackberry Storm I heading into this purchase with none of the normal online purchase, cant see it or touch it worries. - Wrong

Its a well made case, but really doesnt cover enough.  The corners and all the front is completly unprotected, a face first fall would wreck this thing.

Needless to say I have gone back to my cheapy rubber case.  Now modified so the on/off button is exposed rather than hidden behind a faux rubber button.

NB//No front picture !

iPhone invisibleShield

I'd purchased a screen cover and a cheap rubber case as emergency protection when I first started using the iPhone.  The screen cover was from Carphone warehouse and was unbelievably crap.  When you read reviews about spending that little bit more for a cover, do it !

I opted to get the invisibleSHIELD from Zagg. Its not only a screen cover but a clear protective shield for the back, top and bottom.  Comes in 4 pieces.

I kinda rushed the installation and should have paid more attention to the instructions, or at least watched the video :)

Anyway, its on, the fiddly side over laps on the back piece are not exactly perfect but I've put the rubber case back on for that inevitable 'drop' experience so you cant see them.  The screen cover is excellent though. 

Creating iPhone ring tone from MP3

iTunes 9.1.0.79



1. Open iTunes.

2. Find the song that you want to make into a ring tone.

3. Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. The chorus may be a good place to start.

4. Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

5. Right-click the song and select "Get Info."

6. Click the "Options" tab.

7. Type in the start time of your ring tone in the text box next to "Start Time" in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 2:01) format.

8. Type in the end time of your ring tone in the text box next to "Stop Time." Make sure the ring tone is no more than 40 seconds long.

NB// 7 & 8 are optional, if the track is 40 seconds or less anyway you dont need to amend the start/stop.

9. Click "OK."

10. From the menu click Advanced | Create AAC version.
In older iTunes versions you can right-click your song again and select "Convert Selection to AAC." Wait for iTunes to convert your song. Either way will create a duplicate version.

11. Optional - Right-click the original file under Music and select "Delete."

12. Right click on the new AAC file and 'Show in windows explorer'

13. Find the file. It's usually in your User folder under Music > iTunes > iTunes Music and under the band's name. It will have an extension of "m4a."

14. Replace the "m4a" extension of your ring tone with "m4r". You can either double-click slowly to rename your file, or right-click and select "Get Info" on a Mac or "Rename" on a Windows PC.

15. Click "Use .m4r" or the PC equivalent when the system warns you that the change may affect the use of your file.

16. Double-click the ring tone file. ITunes will automatically add it to your ring tones folder in your iTunes Music Library.

17. Connect your iPhone and sync your ring tones.

Blackberry to iPhone

We're a Domino shop and have an onsite BES server but needed to provide email access to other handhelds.  IBM have a product called Lotus Notes Traveller which supports iPhone, Windows & Symbian by default.  Its possible to get Android working using a simulator - we installed this a few weeks back with good feedback.

So being the dedicate support professional that I am I decided it was time to switched my Blackberry Storm for an iPhone which I did last week. Shame huh ..

So far so good, LNT works relativly well.  Once big downside is it needs a constant connection to the LNT server.  Which means you cant delete or send anymail with no service.  A pain as I used to clean out the days mail chuff while travelling home on the underground.

But other than that the iPhone is great .. Messing around with VPN, SIP phone to Call Manager and some networking apps.  As well as the paper toss, Google earth etc :)