Who can take some software, bundle it for you? Make a free installer and then seal it up with glue? InstallEase can (with apologies to Sammy Davis, Jr.). The packaging utility, long part of the LANrev crossplatform management & audit tool, is now available free of charge -- making it very complementary to other no-cost packaging tools such as Apple's PackageMaker and the freeware Iceberg, and it compares in functionality to the $99 Casper Composer tool (also available as part of the comprehensive Casper Suite).

The idea behind both InstallEase and Composer is simple: suppose you want to install a new application on 20 computers, complete with plugins and pref files. Rather than walking around to each one, you snapshot your pre-install state on a prototype machine using InstallEase, then install the software; finally, take an 'after' picture. Just like that, you've created a package installer that can be run by the individual users, pushed out with ARD, LANrev, Casper etc., or triggered to run from a remote server. It's a great timesaver, especially for programs that don't leverage Apple's .pkg installer format for standardized deployment -- Office 2004, for example.

If you've got a passel of Macs to manage and you haven't tried InstallEase yet, give it a download and check it out.

Yesterday, stepping into iPhone development got a lot easier. "Kroo", an iPhone developer, put together this Binary Toolchain Installer for Intel Macs. Instead of taking two days to download, debug and compile, installation takes a few minutes. Download a copy and install and you're set to start programming.

You'll need to copy your iPhone files to your Macintosh for the toolchain (and the toolchain installation) to work. You can either use a tool like scp -r and connect to your hacked iPhone or you can copy the file system from one of the iTunes restore software dmgs--google for details. Rename the root of the iPhone file system "heavenly" and place it into /usr/local/arm-apple-darwin. Then run the installer.

One more thing: All the makefiles I have posted here at TUAW use the old toolchain. To use my makefiles with this new toolchain, you'll need to update the Makefile header as such.

Looking for a little hand-holding? Head over to irc.osx86.hu and connect to #iphone-uikit.

All sorts of interesting iPhone apps have sprouted up these past few weeks, but unless you're checking out our own Erica Sadun's excellent work with iPhone apps, they can sometimes be hard to find or install. While Apple wants us to keep twiddling our thumbs in anticipation for true apps to come to the iPhone (perhaps they are just waiting for Leopard), a new Installer.app (of course, a beta) could help simplify things by acting as an iPhone app management hub. Installer.app can install and update a good handful of iPhone apps (with more to come, I'm sure) over Wi-Fi, and uninstall them as well.

Of course, you'll need to use iFuntastic command line tools like iPHUC or something similar to get Installer.app onto your phone in the first place, but after that it seems like this is a good solution for endowing your iPhone with new apps until Apple opens things up.

Thanks Abdul

This is ridiculous. Apparently, part of Adobe's Creative Suite 3 (the Adobe Version Cue CS3 Server) requires the Mac firewall to be shut down in order to install correctly. The Adobe installer obligingly shuts your firewall off, but then neglects to restart it afterwards. Adobe has 'fessed up to the problem (as a "critical issue") and suggests manually starting your firewall. So the long and the short of it is this: if you've installed CS3 you need to check to make sure that your firewall is still running. Go the Firewall tab of the Sharing Preference Pane, and if it's not running, click "Start." Adobe is already on thin ice as far as I concerned with their insanely annoying installers, and now this firewall problem is just plain bad.

[via Daring Fireball]

If you're anything like me, I'm sorry for you. Ah, a little joke to open things up never fails, but you know what isn't a joking matter? That's right, OS X's Installer. That's the program that, well, enables things to be installed in OS X so it is kind of important. Now, Daniel J. Wilson thinks that the Installer could do with a little more visual feedback to cue the user into what the heck it is doing. He suggests the icon badges mocked up above, to show when something is installing, there has been some sort of error, or the install has finished.

This is a perfect example of 'The Little Things,' let's hope that Apple agrees.

[via Daring Fireball]

The Mac web is buzzing with the news of Boot Camp, the new software from Apple that will allow users of Intel Macs to easily install Windows XP (this will be a built-in feature of Leopard), creating a dual-boot system. Earlier today, Macworld conducted a brief interview with Apple VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, David Moody. He stated that, "...We are not going to sell or support Windows. You have to bring your own Windows."

In other words, if your Mac suffers from one of the ailments that you're essentially inviting by installing Windows, you're on your own.