After my post earlier this week about transmitting Mac audio, readers contacted me about extending this solution. Although they liked the idea of direct audio while working out on a treadmill or exercise bike, several stated that they also wanted to watch from the sofa once the spouse or the kid go to sleep. The idea was the same: audio transmission to an iPhone or iPod touch. The source was different. They wanted to watch live cable TV or their TiVo. And for the punchline, their media center Mac lacks a tuner. Was there a similar quiet Mac-based solution that would let them transmit the TV audio from these non-Mac sources?

If your Mac has a microphone jack, internal or even through an external USB solution, the answer is yes. You can easily connect your TV audio to your Mac just like you would connect it to a pair of speakers. Run a cable between a spare audio output (modern TVs usually offer more than one, if not, you can use a splitter) to the microphone jack on the Macintosh. On my low-end TV, this means an RCA stereo cable that feeds to a standard stereo minijack plug.

Setting up the Mac host is simple. Instead of feeding audio via Soundflower, as described in the earlier post, choose your microphone audio input in the Skype settings. Start a call to your iPhone or iPod touch, switch the TV source (usually via a "Source" button that picks which signal to watch, such as Composite 1, Component 2, etc.) to your normal cable or TiVo input. Set the external speaker volume to zero. The signal arrives at the Mac microphone independently of those speakers.

You may find that the audio out signal tends to be on the low side. Many TV speakers provide their own amplification. If this is a problem for you, you can hook in an inline amplifier. (I use an old Radio Shack 277-1008C.) Alternatively, you can boost the audio via a third party program like Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro.

This solution takes a few more cables, components, and connections than the Mac Audio-to-iPhone through Skype set-up discussed in the earlier post. But if you have the cables on-hand already, it offers an inexpensive solution compared to many other wireless TV headsets on the market right now.

Earlier this month, I wrote about connecting my old Mac mini to my television . My mini offers a great Apple TV-style lifestyle with none of the Apple TV limitations. It's a real Mac running real Snow Leopard, albeit on an older, admittedly limited mini. I have Front Row, EyeTV, QuickTime, and more, all ready to entertain me on demand, as well as standard system access to mail, web browsing, etc.

The sound in my living room is powered by a couple of speakers that shipped with an ancient computer monitor. Their audio works fine for close-up TV watching and Wii playing. Move across the room and those speakers prove how limited they are. Add in a treadmill with its motor noises, and the sound decreases to virtually nothing.

So how can one listen to those great shows that are playing back on that lovely large screen across the room, especially when walking or jogging on the treadmill? I messed around with several solutions until I stumbled across one that really worked well for me. Using my home's 802.11g Wi-Fi network, I could call my iPhone from my Mac using Skype. With only the most minimal of lags, I was able to transmit live audio and watch my favorite shows on the Mac while listening on the iPhone from my treadmill.

Read on to learn how I accomplished this...

Rogue Amoeba has released version 1.6 of the nifty lossless audio editor Fission with a handy new feature: built-in iPhone ringtone saving. Fission has always been a great application for making relatively simple edits to audio files: cropping, trimming, cutting and pasting, etc. Now it makes turning MP3, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or WAV files into iPhone ringtones a one-step process. Once you save a file as a ringtone it will automatically be passed to iTunes for syncing to your iPhone.

Of course you can do it the old-fashioned way with GarageBand, but if your audio file just needs simple editing the Fission method will likely be easier and faster. In addition to the ringtone saving (and various bug fixes), version 1.6 allows you to insert periods of silence into a file and exactly set the location of the playhead.

Fission 1.6 is a free upgrade to registered owners; it's $32 for new users and a demo is available.

[via Macworld]

If you're curious about developing for the iPhone, but haven't made the plunge yet, you might want to read Rogue Amoeba programmer Mike Ash's 22-step tale of developing NetAwake, which is available in the App Store.

It's a fascinating story, with a lot of waiting, a lot of rejection, and a lot of "screwing about in Xcode."

"The errors are essentially worthless. I believe I only ever saw Xcode generate one error, over and over and over again, as it encountered a whole bunch of different problems," he wrote.

The app took a month to approve, once it was submitted. Ash says that the people he corresponded with at Apple were "nice about responding to my query" but "spending a month in limbo for a single bug is a very poor tradeoff."

As mentioned toward the tail end of this morning's liveblog chat with Rogue Amoeba's development team, there is a version of RadioShift in the works for the iPhone and iPod touch; the proof is in the (video) pudding. You can see the full-res QuickTime here.

As in the desktop version of RadioShift, you'll be able to review a radio guide and tune into thousands of streaming programs from stations around the globe. The in-progress version has a ways to go (it doesn't actually play audio yet!) but it's exciting to see the efforts of a major Mac developer extended onto the iPhone.

What do you take when you mix mutant powers, the right to bear arms and a bad case of dysentery? Why, Rogue Amoeba of course! TUAW is delighted to host Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba today as we chat about Apple and its developer program. Today we discuss how Apple makes third party development pure Heaven -- and pure Hell. Please join us in the chat, where we will be talking and taking questions from TUAW readers.

Note that if you want to disable the 'chirp' from the chat widget or turn off the autoscroll feature, those options are at the bottom of the chat window -- here's what they look like turned OFF:

As many of you have reported, there are a few hiccups for some who have installed the latest Leopard security update. Two of the areas of concern are ssh (no connectivity or a crash) and printing (errors out, documents never finish spooling), with various fixes offered (reinstalling the 10.5.2 combo update, installing a standalone SSH build) and various degrees of success reported.

One emergent common thread for some of the problems is the presence of a Rogue Amoeba audio utility, and the gang in the petri dish have responded with a revised version of the Instant Hijack framework. The new 2.0.3 version aims to address a bug that has been latent since the introduction of Leopard's position-independent executables feature, where certain sensitive processes (like, say, ssh) could be run from a randomized memory address, avoiding attack vectors that depend on targeting a specific vulnerable spot within the code.

Up until the 2008-002 security patches, according to RA, the PIE feature wasn't used for anything yet -- after the update, surprise surprise, ssh is being moved around when it runs. Since Instant Hijack inspects newly launched processes to see if they have audio properties, it tries to look at the ssh instance in memory -- hey, wherdja go? Hence the problem.

If you have been experiencing ssh issues and have Rogue Amoeba apps installed, try the patch and let us know what happens.

[via Daring Fireball + Apple discussions]

Mike Ash at Rogue Amoeba has published his fairly extensive thoughts on Apple's code signing policies and plans, as well as how they relate to the iPhone SDK. He makes some solid points and elaborates on thoughts that are being bandied about elsewhere on the 'net. In his critique of some points in the iPhone SDK announcement, his concerns regarding the "banned" iPhone apps are quite valid, in my opinion. Out of the list of apps to be denied (illegal, malicious, unforeseen, privacy, porn and bandwidth hog), he picks out a couple that are of concern.

In regards to the issue of "porn", he notes that "...Apple is making moral judgements of the apps they sign." To me, it seems like Apple chose the safe option and just categorically denied materials that could sully their reputation, which I personally think was a good (if not obvious) choice. But the question arises, as it always does, about the definition of porn and obscenity... and who makes the call. Apple, as gatekeeper, gets to make those decisions for all of us. I can see some torrid debates arising in the future.

Also of particular (and potentially more controversial) concern is the category "unforeseen," which provides a fairly broad scope for Apple to add to the list later. Again, it's likely a smart decision on Apple's part and a good way of sealing off loopholes without making the list read like a legal contract (see "License Agreement"), but leaves open the option for some heavy-handed control over what you can put on your iPhone.

Of course, this initial list is incomplete, with restrictions outlined in the SDK license agreement (as pointed out in Rogue Amoeba's subsequent post). If you take an interest in this debate, be sure to check out Mike's post, "Code Signing and You."

Rogue Amoeba, our favorite weaponized unicellular developer, has ressurected its free custom ringtone utility. Like an uncanny Zombie movie, iPhone firmware update 1.1.2 has dragged MakeiPhoneRingtone back from the beyond. 1.1.2's ringtone support once again allows you to add custom ringtones. Drop any AAC file onto its icon and the utility processes your audio and hands it off to iTunes, where you can sync it to your iPhone.

As I discussed in my earlier post, you need to keep your ringtones about 40 seconds or shorter. But other than that, you're simply good to go.

Think of all the wonderful things you can get from Amoebas. Audio Hijack Pro. Fission. Dysentery. And now Macworld! Yes, those wild and crazy Amoeboid Lifeforms want you to be their guest at Macworld. Pop over to the Rogue Amoeba site to pick up your MWSF promo code for free (or $10) Exhibit Hall Passes for Macworld 2008. You need to sign up at MacworldExpo.com before 1/14/08. The first 100 lucky readers get their passes for free. After that, they reduce your cost to just $10 each.

Radioshift is the latest app from those audio obsessed fellows at Rogue Amoeba. Thanks the to included Radio Guide, which has over 50,000 internet streamed radio programs listed, this app allows you to find your favorite radio show and record it. The power of the app is that it doesn't just record the program once, but it will record every instance of the program. Your favorite radio show airs once a week? Set Radioshift to record the stream and forget it (until it starts to play on your iPod thanks to Radioshift's ability to add the shows to iTunes).

It is worth mentioning that Radioshift, out of the box, only records radio shows that offer up an internet stream. You can combine it with the radio SHARK to record Over the Air programs as well though.

Radioshift costs $32, and has a free trial available.

Rogue Amoeba has already updated their MakeiPhoneRingtone application to 1.1, in order to bring in the Cleverboy hack that was discovered the other day. If you missed it, they also posted a guide on how to turn any audio file into an AAC file with their product Fission (but don't forget that iTunes will also do it for you as well, it just won't cut your file for you). We're still waiting on someone to make a program that turns any file into a ringtone by itself (Rogue Amoeba is talking about adding the functionality straight to Fission), but all the tools are there.

So Apple's whole ringtone system is completely, totally, and devastatingly broken. Why would anyone possibly pay money for ringtones from iTunes when it's so incredibly easy to make your own? As Gruber said in his great and very thorough commentary, the whole Ringtone racket is just that -- a racket. There's no such thing as a "ringtone" -- a ringtone is exactly the same as a song, in a different context. The idea that studios should charge more for you to choose which 30 seconds of a song you want to listen to is complete bunk.

And if you think ringtones are a joke (and I do -- I've been rolling my own ever since my first cellphone), just wait until you hear about "ringles". Unbelievable.

Today brings a lovely treat from Rogue Amoeba, the makers of Audio Hijack Pro and Fission. They've posted MakeiPhoneRingtone, a free utility that converts any AAC file into an iTunes 7.4.27.4.1-compatible Ringtone. Drop the file onto its window and a second or two later, it appears in iTunes as a new ringtone. No file renaming, no special tricks. It just worked. I synced it over to my iPhone without any snags.

Of course, Rogue Amoeba hopes that you'll use its Fission editor to make those ringtones. If you're like me and prefer non-music-ringtones, its Audio Hijack Pro may be a better choice for recording sounds like a knock on the door or the most annoying ringtone ever made.

RogueAmoeba just linked to Mark Johns' easy little app called Cursorceror. He loves the Ctrl/scroll wheel trick, just as I do (holding Ctrl and using the scroll wheel allows you to zoom in on any part of your desktop-- especially useful for watching Flash movies fullscreen very quickly), and he wanted to get the cursor out of the way quickly, so he wrote Cursorceror to attach hiding the cursor to a hotkey-- make it appear and disappear at will.

The only problem is that he didn't have to do all of that. Turns out that when you're zoomed in (in most applications, including the major browsers), hitting any key at all will automatically hide the cursor for you. So if all you want to do is watch Flash videos fullscreen, just zoom in, tap a key, and watch your videos cursor-free.

Johns' wittily-named app didn't completely go to waste though-- while hiding the cursor is easy most of the time, the keystrokes you hit will still be received by whatever program has focus, and so handing off the task to Cursorceror will keep you from making any mistakes while keying. Also, not all programs will apparently let the keystrokes through (I couldn't get the cursor to hide in iTunes or GraphicConverter in my quick tests), so Cursorceror will come in handly if you want instant hiding no matter what app has focus. It will also hide the cursor after a set time limit, which, as far as I know, OS X won't normally do.

The interview series with developers on Apple's delay of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has gone really well, with great responses from Brent Simmons and Wil Shipley already offering insight into the mind and perspective of a developer. Next up to the plate is Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba, makers of such apps as Fission, AirFoil and Audio Hijack Pro. I never realized that Paul apparently does most of his coding from his beach-side manor (I kid, of course), but I nevertheless was thankful that he took the time out of his day to offer his take on Leopard's delay, backwards compatibility and whether Apple should open up the Apple TV and iPhone to 3rd party goodness. Paul offers some great thoughts on all this and more, along with some choice advise for budding developers. Read on for my interview with Paul Kafasis on whether Leopard's delay changes anything for the state of Apple.