iphone 3g and Enterprise Computing

I have been playing with the enterprise features of the 3g iphone and I'm having very pleasing results. I recommend grabbing a copy of the iphone Configuration Utility as you need it to expose the settings you need to configure. Bear in mind it is a bit of a pain to publish the configuration file to the iphone. I used an IIS 7.0 webserver and an appropriate bookmark on the iphone to solve that issue. However the good thing is if you uninstall an iphone profile, you clear out all those settings. This makes it easy to troubleshoot and experiment with different generated configs.

These are the features I've configured:

Wifi: I have setup multiple wifi profiles, one for home and the other for work. I had no trouble configuring settings for both a basic wep profile and a WPA Enterprise / PEAP profile. The iphone is quite intelligent in switching between cellular and wifi networks.

VPN: Again, I had no worries configuring settings for a CISCO IPSec VPN via a Safeword token and group authentication. One downside is you may need to configure the server-side connection profiles as the iphone doesn't support all the IPSec features. I was disappointed I couldn't specify backup VPN servers.

Exchange: Fortunately I already have a properly configured ActiveSync Exchange 2003 sp2 setup so configuring this part was easy.

Credentials: I quite like this method of installing the appropriate root certificates you'll need for setting up the above features.

All in all the enterprise features are very encouraging. I like the profile management and it's quite capable. Apple has a good base to work from to improve these features in later updates. Certainly a fuller implementation of the Exchange ActiveSync would be warmly received.

 

Hackintosh

I'm currently playing with the Kalyway Leopard 10.5.2. The exiting thing is that with the right hardware running Mac OS X on standard PC parts is very doable. With plenty of Mac knowledge on the web plus Usenet binaries on our side it is straightforward and rewarding to give it a shot.

Windows Movie Maker and mpeg2

Windows Movie Maker 2 (MM2), for all its limitations can be a really handy tool. One thing this is a pain is a lack of native support for mpeg2 video in the WinXP version.

Here's a method I found to be able import mpeg2 encoded video into Windows Movie Maker 2. The basic idea is if you install the appropriate DirectShow compatible filters, then MM2 can handle the video. You read more about it here. The trick is finding the right filters. I had success with this combination:

• Mpeg2 Splitter - Install Nero Burning ROM.
  
• Video Filter – GPL mpeg-1/2 from sourceforge
  
• Audio Filter – AC3 Filter from sourceforge