JoostTeam

It’s been a while since I posted some news about AirPrint Activator… but here is some great stuff.

Many people have network based printers.  Unfortunatly AirPrint Activator v2.0 was not supporting those… that is, until now.

With the release of v2.0b9 support for non locally attached printers is now included.

Notice how there is two different computer names showing after the “@” sign? (imac17 and iMac21) This is because AirPrintActivator (APA) is now advertising non local printers… in this case the Brother printer.

You can grab a copy of this new version by going on the main APA v2 page right here.

For suport head over the forum.

I am happy to release version 2.0b7 of AirPrint Activator. There are substantial changes under the hood in the version.

I introduced the ability to customize the prefix in front of the printer name as suggested by a user. The net result is that you can not replace the word “AirPrint” with what you want or simply get rid of it altogether. To change the prefix:

1. turn off sharing
2. click the “Advanced Settings” button
3. change the prefix to your liking
4. turn sharing back on

To accomplish this I had to build a configuration file bridge between the GUI application and the background daemon by using an application defaults file. At the same time I also changed how and when missing folders are created.

As usual you can grab a copy of the latest version on the main application page over here.

You can also report issues and get some basic support in the forum.

Enjoy!

So you just got your new iPad 2 and you are wondering how you can get to print to your Mac attached printer?  Simple, there is a free solution with AirPrint Activator v2.

Simply download AirPrint Activator v2, run, turn on AirPrint on your Mac, Share your printer and voila! You can now print from your iPad 2… but what a better way than watch a short tutorial on how to do it:

So grab your copy and enjoy AirPrint from your iPad to your intel Mac running Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion.

Where can you get a copy? Simple grab it from the main application page.

AirPrint Activator V2 is a full rewrite of the original application.  It allow you to print (known as AirPrint) on your Mac OSX attached printers from your iDevice (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad). It is compatible with OSX 10.5, 10.6 and even the beta 10.7.  This new version does not mess with system files anymore and does not need Administrator rights either… which make it much more secure.

I worked hard over the week-end to add more features to AirPrint Activator V2.  One of the new feature is the ability to view a list of printers that are being shared by your Mac for AirPrint.  Here is what it look like:

This will help you know if you are sharing printers properly or not.  Rule of thumb is: “If it does not show in this list it won’t show on your iDevice either”.

Also, the overall look is getting much better.  I added a small help button that will bring you to the main page of AirPrint Activator where you can, hopefully, find help for your problem.

If you want to give this new version a spin go to the main AirPrint Activator v2 home page.

As promised I have completely re-written AirPrint Activator to be fully independent of Apple’s support in OSX/iTunes.

This new version should work just fine under OSX Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion running on intel CPU.

This implementation does not require “Administrator” rights to work as it leverage user level access only to do it’s magic.

You can find the latest beta release on the AirPrint Activator V2 page.

Let me know how it work for you.

As some might have read, I discovered that Apple has significantly changed how Lion support AirPrint advertisement of printers.

If you have been using AirPrint Activator you know that with the introduction of OSX 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 it was possible to enable a hidden feature that would advertised Mac attached printers as being AirPrint printers.

This no longer work in OSX Lion.  As a lot of you have generously donated for AirPrint Activator I just can’t sit idle and let AirPrint support slip with the introduction of Lion.

I therefore decided to completely rewrite how AirPrint Activator work.  It willno longer leverage OSX hidden feature as it will implement AirPrint advertisement of shared printers on it’s own.

At the moment my goal is to keep the application simple… essentially a single switch to turn AirPrint on or off… much like AirPrint Activator.  Eventually I might start to introduce more advanced features.

Benefits of this new implementation will be:

• No need for “Administrator” password to activate
• Should work on OSX 10.5+ for both PPC and intel
• Will allow for AirPrint sharing of non local printers (like AirPort based printers)
• No need to remove and add printers for AirPrint to work

Downside will be:

• User running AirPrint Activator will need to be logged on

As of last night I have successfully implemented the sharing of Printers on the network.  I now need to clean-up the code, build a “System Preference” interface and figure out how to start/stop a user level daemon to “advertise” AirPrint printers.

I discovered another new Lion feature today.  I call it multi-user Share Screen.

While not a new feature in the computing world it is the 1st time it is introduced by Apple on the multi-user OS.  What does it mean to you?

Let say your kids are using your  main iMac and you need to do some work in your account… simply access it via Share Screen using your UserID and Password.  Instead of viewing the kids screen you will be presented with your own account.  You can now work at your leisure.
This is a real treat!

Is this a side effect of bundling the “Server” code on the same DVD as the regular OSX OS?  Maybe… but I doubt it.  I think that it is instead a planned feature that would complement very well the ability to remotely connect to your Mac using your Apple ID.

Just a quick blog post regarding Apple OS X Lion and AirPrint Activator support.

At the moment it appear as if Apple changed how OSX Lion might support AirPrint.  I installed a fresh build of OSX Lion and ran AirPrint Activator on it.

AirPrint will make the necessary changes but AirPrint won’t work.  Somehow Apple has changed how CUPS and Bonjour integrate.  I will start to investigate what might have changed between the two and see if there is a way to get AirPrint to work again on Lion.

Until then enjoy AirPrint on Snow Leopard.

UPDATE:

You can now grab an AirPrint Activator version that work on OSX Lion on this page.

Is this the new iPad 2 screen?

It certainly appear to be based on ifixyouri.  Apparently the screen is lighter, thinner and of a better build than the current iPad screen.

No news on the actual screen resolution yet.

Exclusive: iPad 2 screen, fresh from China

The XBMC dev team just released a native iOS client for Jailbroken ATV2, iPad and iPhone 4.

This is the full deal.  A native XBMC client running native videos on iOS.  How is it possible?  The team stumbled upon a private Apple API that allow wide open access to private video encode and decode routine.

Armed with those that have been able to write an application that can hardware accelerate the decoding of all video format supported by XBMC.

Now if only there was a proper Jailbreak for the ATV2… Right now you are forced to use a tethered Jailbreak which make using XBMC on the ATV2 more of a proof of concept.

You asked for it: XBMC for AppleTV2, iPad, iPhone4. | XBMC.