Apple : Please Let Me Dock My iPhone On My Mac !

OS X 10.10 & iOS 8 will greatly enhance the user experience. The Continuity concept is exciting but should go beyond what was presented during the 2014 WWDC keynote.

I love the idea of receiving my phone calls and text messages on my Mac as I won't have to juggle between my mac and iPhone as often as I do it now when I'm at work.

My last post was about a dumb iPad and I do think that Apple should implement new functionalities to let their devices interact more between one another.

One great feature would be to let users virtually "dock" their iPhone on their Mac. I would love to be able to "bump" my iPhone against my Mac and then, magically, see the content of my iPhone appear in a desktop window. Wouldn't it be great to access all iPhone features through the Mac without having to deal with two devices (mac, iPhone) at the same time ?

I can't wait for OS X 10.11 & iOS 9 to implement such features !

Why A Dumb iPad Would Be A Great Device

As smartphones are ubiquitous and tablets are becoming more and more common, we frequently find ourselves configuring two different devices with nearly identical settings. It just seems to me as an awful waste of time and CPU.

I love my iPhone and my iPad but I hate to configure them and keep them up to date. I don't need an iPad with a slightly faster CPU than my iPhone and most importantly I don't notice the difference. What I want and has yet to be released is a totally dumb iPad which only purpose would be to mirror à la Airplay the content of my iPhone on a bigger and more comfortable screen.

As many apps are universal (i.e. contain the code for both the iPhone and iPad version), it wouldn't be complicated to scale them to take advantage of the iPad display.

What I want is simple :
- An easy way to pair my iPhone with my dumb iPad using either bluetooth or Wi-Fi (iBeacon ?).
- Once they are paired, I want the iPad to automatically mirror the content of my iPhone on its bigger screen scaling apps to take advantage of the iPad screen estate.
- An Easy way to unpair them (time-out after 5 minutes and/or a gesture).

This would be awesome and allow for sharing the same tablet amongst a household. It just doesn't make any sense to me to have a full-blown ultimate specs iPad with the same apps than on my iPhone. I don't want to download, install everything twice and I don't need twice the memory storage. I just need a device that has enough horsepower to mirror my iPhone content.

Please Apple, make a Dumb iPad!

The Complete Noob Guide To Installing DD-WRT & 12vpn On An Asus RT-N16 router

Installing a VPN service can be challenging for many of us but the advantages of using a VPN service are well worth the pain it causes to make things work. First of all, using a VPN service makes your internet more secure than it already is by tunneling all traffic through an encrypted channel to the location of your VPN provider. From there, the traffic will be redirected to its intended destination. You will hence be free of geolocation restrictions and should you use your VPN service on a wifi hotspot your data will be safe.

So, let's assume you bought an Asus RT-N16 router (one of the most powerful yet moderately priced router out there) and want to configure your home network to use 12vpn. Make sure before and after every firmware upgrade that you reset your router using the 30-30-30 sequence (press the wps button for 30 secs while router is on, keep pressing and unplug it for 30 secs, keep pressing after plugging it back for another 30 secs). Now, here is my step-by-step guide:

1. Make sure you download all the necessary firmwares mentioned in step 1 before your connect your router to your computer through an Ethernet cable (as you will then lose Internet connectivity) on one of the 4 LAN ports.

2. Go to this blog and follow the instructions on how to flash the factory firmware with a different one. Instead of using the Tomato firmware, use the initial dd-wrt firmware located here (Otherwise go to: http://www.dd-wrt.com then Router Database then type Asus & choose Asus RT N-16 & Image for Initial Flashing). After following the steps in order to install this firmware, you should install the last firmware through the dd-wrt web interface (by logging in to http://192.168.1.1 and going to administration). Here is the location of the latest firmware: choose the "dd-wrt.v24-15962_NEWD-2_K2.6_mega.bin" firmware. Once you're done with that, you will need to login again to the newly flashed firmware administration web interface (http://192.168.1.1).

3. Start by disabling the firewall by changing the router password and going to Security->Firewall->Firewall Protection->SPI Firewall: Disable

Save and Apply.

4. Disable Wifi as it is activated and open by default

Save and Apply.

5. Configure LAN like this (don't update the WAN configuration yet):

Router IP:

Local IP Address: 192.168.0.210

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.0.1 (This is your DSL or Cable router address, change it accordingly)

Local DNS: 0.0.0.0

DHCP Server: Disable

Save and Apply.

In this example, I'm using 192.168.0.210 as the url to access the router assuming your DSL or Cable router address can by accessed at http://192.168.0.1. In case your DSL or Cable router has a 192.168.1.1 address in order to access it then you should change all 192.168.0.xxx addresses in my configuration example to 192.168.1.xxx addresses.

I'm using a xxx.xxx.xxx.210 address assuming it is not already taken by another device on your home network. It can basically be any non already used address but if you have a DHCP server running I suggest an address close to xxx.xxx.xxx.200 to make sure it won't be attributed by the router to another device.

6. Disconnect the router from your computer and connect it through Ethernet on one of its LAN ports to your DSL or Cable Router. You will now be able to access the configuration of your dd-wrt router through your home network by entering http://192.168.0.210 in your browser.

7. Configure WAN as in the last screen capture.

WAN Connection type: Static IP

Wan IP Address: 192.168.0.200 (not the same address than 192.168.0.210)

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.0.1 ((This is your DSL or Cable router address, change it accordingly)

Static DNS 1: 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS for better performance)

Static DNS 2: 8.8.4.4 (Google DNS for better performance)

Static DNS 3: 0.0.0.0

STP: Disable

Save and Apply.

8. Go to the Services tab and OpenVPN:

Start OpenVPN Client: Enable

Server IP/Name:     CHECK 12vpn.com to choose the server you want to use

Port: 1194

Tunnel Protocol: UDP

Tunnel Device: TUN

Encryption Cipher: Blowfish CBC

Hash Algorithm: SHA1

Use LZO Compression: Enable

nsCertType verification: ticked

Advanced Options: Enable

Enable NAT: Enable

Bridge Tap to br0: Disable

TUN MTU Setting: 1500

Mss-Fix/Fragment accross the tunnel: 1300

TLS Cipher: OFF

TLS Auth Key: Leave Blank (other configurations might require ta.key)

Additional Config: Leave Blank

CA Cert: copy & paste ca-vpnservices.cer

Public Client Cert: copy & paste vpnxxxxx.crt2.pem

Public Client Key: copy & paste vpnxxxxx.key2.pem

(For certificates copy & paste between BEGIN and END)

9. Connect an additional Ethernet cable from your DSL or cable router to the WAN port of your Asus router

10. Configure any of your home computers, consoles or Apple TVs like this in order to use the VPN connection:

Static IP

ip : 192.168.0.2xx  (use an unused address for each device)

subnet mask : 255.255.255.0

gateway router address : 192.168.0.210  (this is the Asus router address)

DNS address : 192.168.0.210 (sometimes 8.8.8.8 might work better notably with an Apple TV)

11. If you don't want to use the DD-WRT VPN then configure your computers to use the DHCP server (automatic default configuration) from your DSL or Cable router and your connection will be exactly the same it was without any VPN service or Asus router. You can also switch back and forth according to your needs.

12. You might want to automatically reboot the router everyday to ensure continuous connectivity.

The added beauty of 12vpn is that they allow simultaneous connections from your home router and an iDevice (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) using IPSEC/L2TP. This means you can be connected at home and also from a wifi hotspot or 3G connection on your iDevice. The configuration on an iDevice is straightforward by following the steps mentioned on the 12vpn website.

Voila! Enjoy it!

Is Project Magazine The New Wired?

I've just purchased the first issue of Project Magazine on my iPad and must say Me Like It! Granted, it shares a common look and feel with Wired Magazine but it is a bit more aimed at a mainstream audience than Wired. Checking out the cover page animation is absolutely worth the price of the first issue! And you gotta love the idea of an iPad-only magazine!

Bouygues Telecom France Prepaid iPad Data Plan: #Fail

The French mobile carrier rumored to have the best customer service offers an iPad specific prepaid data plan. You can get unlimited data for a day for €6 and unlimited data for a month for €29.90. The only problem is that their tutorial on how to create an account after purchasing an iPad specific sim card is erroneous at best. Once you have purchased and installed their micro-sim card in your iPad, Bouygues Telecom instructs you to download their iPad app from the App Store although there is no iPad specific Bouygues Telecom app there. There's an iPhone specific app but it is not functional.

The €9.90 sim card gives you 2 days of unlimited data. After that, you'll have to create an account using Safari (as their iPhone app does not exist): any url entered in Safari when connected to the cellular network will direct you to the carrier specific page in order to create an account. The only problem is that it fails every time you attempt to do so. So, you're basically stuck calling their 1034 line where, apparently, nobody has heard of their iPad specific offers. Great for the best customer service carrier in France!

iOS 4.2.1 8C148 Is Available: Important Microsoft Exchange Information

Apple's just released iOS 4.2.1 for all compatible iDevices (iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, iPad, iPod Touch 2nd Generation, iPod Touch 3rd Generation & iPod Touch 4th Generation). The build is 8C148 which is the one that was released to developers last Thursday.

Microsoft Exchange users, be aware that upon upgrading, it is very likely that the default Contact account will be set to "On My iPhone" instead of your Microsoft Exchange Contacts. Make sure you change it back to Microsoft Exchange Contacts in the settings if you use your Exchange account as your primary contact database. Make also sure to go to Contacts, tap "back" and choose your Microsoft Exchange Contacts to be displayed instead of "All". This will ensure that new created contacts are synced with your Exchange account.

Don't forget to re-enable FaceTime if you're using an iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4th Generation.

That's it for the tips! I'm now anxiously awaiting the release of the Apple TV 4.1 firmware to try out Airplay!

Update:
Apple TV 4.1 firmware update is live!
iPhone 3GS 4.2.1 firmware update isn't the same build than the one that was seeded to developers last week. The build  released today is 8C148a.
All other builds are the same than the ones released to developers last week (8C148)!

Should You Read On An iPad Or Kindle?

This might sound like a stupid question, but the answer isn't that obvious. Surely, the iPad can act as a Kindle by either using its built-in iBooks app or the Kindle app (or even the Nook app). So why would you consider buying a Kindle (or Nook)? Well, the Kindle is much cheaper but will basically only enable you to read books (browsing the web or reading emails is too cumbersome and not practical on a grayscale screen). So if you have the budget to purchase an iPad, this sounds like a no-brainer and many people would not even think about the Kindle.

In my opinion, both products have their own strength. Reading a book on an iPad is ok if you're inside an apartment. It gets very annoying if you're exposed to direct sunlight. But this is not even main the reason why you wouldn't use an iPad to read. I believe that the main obstacle to reading on an iPad is the fact that it is too versatile. I, indeed, can't manage to read two pages of a book without being tempted to either check my emails or Facebook or Twitter when I'm using my iPad. This renders the whole reading experience terrible. It is, in fact, much easier for me to read on my Kindle where I'm a lot less tempted to do anything else than reading.

So, if you're considering buying an iPad to read, be aware of this. As a growing number of people are affected by some kind of technology related ADHD where  they are having trouble concentrating on the same task for more than five minutes, the iPad potential for distraction is huge. So keep in mind that, sometimes, less is better!

As a side note, I should also point out that I'm very surprised that hacking the Kindle 3G Sim  Card hasn't gone mainstream since this device offers international cellular connectivity at no cost at all (no contract, no fee).