i've noticed..

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Thanks to some of the great comments I’ve received on the last post, I’ve found ways to simplify the setup and enhance the presentation of the Mute OSX script. I’ve even written the script for you this time around!

Install the script

Head on over to this link on github and download mute.php. All you need to do is place this file in the Sites directory in your home folder.

Also, I’ve included an icon in the file. To use this, simply save the image bellow as “muteIcon.png” in the Sites directory.

Note: You may need to enable PHP. I’ve found a good guide here.

Okay, the script is in place. How do you access them?

First, you must make sure that you have Web Sharing enabled by opening the Sharing panel in System Preferences.

Once this is enabled and you are on the same network as your Mac, you will be able to access the script from your mobile phone by going to the following address in your web browser

http://computer_name.home/~User/mute.php

Here is the only “iPhone only” part of this post:

You can then simply bookmark the page and add it to your homescreen and you have a “Mute My Mac” button on your iPhone!

Any smartphone with a web browser will be able to run the script. Just bookmark the page for easy access.

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Countless nights, I would be laying in bed when my iMac would announce “It’s 11 o’ clock”  from one room over. I had been listening to music or watching some video and left my volume up. Now, I was forced to either walk to the other room to turn it down or deal with Adium chimes and time announcements all night while trying to fall asleep.

Or.. I could reach over to my nightstand and grab my omnipresent smart phone and mute it from there. To do this, you will need to write two simple scripts.

Update: Check out the Updated Article for a much simpler way to do all of this.

The scripts

The first script is used to set the volume of the computer to the lowest value. Name the file “.mute.scpt” and place the file in the Sites directory in your home folder. The file contains just one line to set the volume to 0.

set Volume 0

This number is variable and you could use the steps in this guide for any number. In fact, I have scripts named “loud”, “louder” and “loudest”.

The second script is to run the previous script from the web. Since this file is an OSX script, it could be run in any number of ways. I, however, wanted a “button” on my iPhone to mute my iMac so I set up a script I could access through mobile Safari. In the same directory as the previous script (Sites) create “mute.php”

<?php exec(“osascript .mute.scpt”); ?>

<h1>MUTED!</h1>

Note: You may need to enable PHP. I’ve found a good guide here.

Okay, the scripts are in place. How do you access them?

First, you must make sure that you have Web Sharing enabled by opening the Sharing panel in System Preferences.

Once this is enabled and you are on the same network as your Mac, you will be able to access the script from your mobile phone by going to the following address in your web browser

http://computer_name.home/~User/mute.php

Here is the only “iPhone only” part of this post:

You can then simply bookmark the page and add it to your homescreen and you have a “Mute Computer” button on your iPhone!

Upgrading to iPhone 4 through AT&T’s website is an absolute mess right now. It is all kinds of screwed up, with frequent gateway timeouts, pages routing you to the beginning of the process, inability to move forward and general slowness.

But this one takes the cake. I just got this message in my “Message Center” inbox. This message has information that is, what, a year old now?

From: A message from AT&T

Received: 06/15/2010 8:53 AM

Now with MMS support from AT&T, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS customers can send any type of message – text, photos, audio, video, and more.

Start Messaging

To enable MMS messaging, connect your iPhone to your computer and click “Check for Update” in iTunes. Once the update is completed, restart your iPhone by turning it off then on again. Note that iPhone OS 3.1 is required so you may need to perform that software update first. Once you connect to iTunes, you will be prompted through the correct steps.

For more information about enabling MMS on your iPhone, see Apple’s support site at:www.apple.com/support/iphone/.

NOTE: MMS messaging is only available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Original iPhone customers will continue to use www.viewmymessages.com to receive picture messages.

To:

Sent from my iPad nano

Got this error when restoring my iPhone today. Did a little research and came across this blog post. This person was having the same problem and determined it to be caused by his USB hub. I realized that I had a USB extension cord between the iPhone and my computer. Removed the extension and plugged in closer to the machine and the error disappeared.

Strange, but I believe these two cases conclusively point out that this is a USB related error. Don’t use crappy cords, says Steve Jobs.

Enabling emoticons on iPhone allows you to use them in messages to other iPhone users, whether they have enabled the emoticon keyboard or not. I’m pretty much going to steal this post from Appmodo. It’s not like I have a large audience, but I feel the people I do reach would like this information.

To enable emoticons on your iPhone keyboard you have to activate the Emoji international keyboard. To do this, follow these (very strange) steps:

1. - Download the free app “Spell Number” from the app store
2. - Start the app and enter the number 91929394.59 and hit “return”
3. - Go to your iPhone Settings
4. - In settings, Select General > Keyboard > International Keyboards
5. - Find the Japanese Keyboard settings
6. - Enable the “Emoji” keyboard

Now that you’ve enabled the icons, you can use them almost anywhere you can enter text on the iPhone. To do this you simply select the Globe Icon in the bottom left corner of your keyboard.