WelcomeToYourMac

I’m proud to announce that today is the release of WelcomeToYourMac v0.1.1! (It was going to be just v0.1, but I found a bug right after I uploaded to Google Code, so now it’s v0.1.1, since the Google won’t let you re-upload a version :P). Notes to follow:

Download

Download  WelcomeToYourMac v0.1.1 (7.9Mb zip)

Features

1. SSL encryption with user/pass authentication
2. Browse your Mac’s filesystem on your iPhone or web browser.
3. Email a file from your mac to any email address
4. Download any file from your Mac
5. View files on your iPhone (supported file types only, plus .rtf files)

Notes

I haven’t done a full security check of the code, and the legacy app window still ask you if you want to share media insecurely. Later versions will tidy up this hole, but for now you should be able to uncheck that sharing media option and feel safe that everything is going through SSL.

Currently the main page of the web app only shows 2 buttons: 1 to your home folder and 1 to your documents folder. Later versions will let you customize this view, as well as provide other “tapps” that you can install to WelcomeToYourMac.

The email feature uses php’s built-in mail() function, so emails will likely land in your spam filter. If you run your own mail server and filter that more aggressively filters out spam, you may have to do some tweaking to let these emails through. Later versions will let you set up an SMTP account to send these emails through, which will fix the vast majority of spam filtering issues. For now, just check your spam folder. Also, take care in sending very large files. Currently there’s “no limit” enforced for emailed files by WelcomeToYourMac. Later versions will let you send out a secure download link (with optional password), for files that would be too large to email.

Summary

All in all, this version should provide you with a secure way to browse, download, view, and email files from your Mac (just turn off insecure media sharing option). I’m sure issues will come up with this release - so please leave feedback so I can work to make it better :).

Instead of releasing by Friday, I’m going to push the first public release till early next week. Development is going well, but it’s not stable enough to put out in the open just quite yet. What’s more, my schedule is full up at work, so spare time is nil at this point.

Hopefully I’ll have an update Sunday night with more info.

Cheers

I’m just a few days away from having a stable lightly featured WelcomeToYourMac release, so you should certainly expect something by Friday, if not sooner Out of all the features planned for the 1.0, you can expect to see the following list in this not-even-a-beta version:

1. Browse and view your files: just like column view in Finder
2. Email any file on your Mac to anyone
3. Email a secure download link to any file on your Mac to anyone

And naturally, all of these features are available via browser or iPhone. Shortly to follow, the next release will aim to include:

1. Control your Mac’s screen from your browser
2. Browse your media: view detailed info about movies, music, and TV episodes

And to prove that something is in fact getting done… screenshots of the current development versio

Coming from a largely web-based background, it’s been a lot of fun [one hell of a crash course] diving into the xCode project of WelcomeToYourMac. One funny thing that I came across was the localization of the application name when it’s compiled - even after I had changed all of the project’s settings to the name “WelcomeToYourMac”, the compiled application still showed the old “iPhone Remote” name. I finally stumbled upon the InfoPlist.strings file, but when I double clicked it in xCode, it wasn’t quite what I expected:

The trick, I learned, is to open the .strings file in plain text mode instead of source code mode (the default). Right clicking the file solved that problem

I’m sure this is a no-brainer for many of you Xcode elites out there, but it took me the better part of an hour to find that last remaining “iPhone Remote” string.

All that to say, I now have an official development environment set up for WelcomeToYourMac, and I’m looking forward to getting the first release out the door soon.

The WelcomeToYourMac website is officially online - even though I officially don’t have any content on the site :). Even without content, the site is running on WordPress, with the Cutline 3 theme, and looking pretty good if I do say so myself!

So what is WelcomeToYourMac? In short, it lets you easily access your Mac from any web browser, and many of its features are optimized for the iPhone. You can browse your files, view and control your Mac’s screen, and access your media - and what’s more - everything is open source, and we provide a clean API for you to build your own modules right inside! easy!

Some of this functionality is available now, some will be available soon, so check back often!

What’s next on the to-do list, you ask?

1. Finish uploading code to Google Code
2. Flesh out the About Page on the site
3. Begin filling out site content including:
   • About Page
   • Features Page
   • Coming Soon Page