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faq:iphone

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iPhone/iPad FAQ

If your Mac is Airport enabled (nowadays all laptop Macs have that), you can/should connect your iPhone directly to a network created on your Mac.

  1. On your Mac: Click on Airport icon in the menu bar (this is the one that looks like a radar scan).
    • Check that Airport is turned on, and select “Create Network”.
    • Give a name to this network. Optionally, if you are concerned with security, protect your network with a password (could be handy if you are performing on stage!)
  2. On your iPhone: Go in the Settings application, and start by turning on the Airplane mode. That will shut down the GSM, Bluetooth and WiFi antennas.
    • Go in the WiFi section, and turn it back on.
    • Wait for the networks list to populate, and select the network you've previously created on your Mac.
    • Before leaving this application, click on the blue disclosure button on the right of the network name, and patiently wait that numbers like 169.254.xxx.yyy appear in the “IP Address” field (wait around 20 seconds). This will ensure that your phone is ready to send messages on this local network.
  3. You can now leave the Settings app, and run TouchOSC, OSCemote or any iPhone music controller app you like.

By nature OSC is a protocol that is not reliable. If you use an OSC enabled application over a wireless network, the reliability of the connection can become even worse.

There are two aspects to the quality of a wireless connection:

  1. Reliability: It is given by the strength of the signal. The closer the device are one from each other, the stronger the signal will be. Also, if there is a lot of WiFi networks in your neighborhood, the signal will be less reliable.
  2. Latency: Using your iPad or iPhone as a controller requires a good timing, meaning that you want an action to happen in a reasonably fast way. The solution is to avoid intermediaries – a WiFi router, an ASDL set top box, etc. – and connect the iPad/iPhone directly to the computer using a custom WiFi network.

The best way to connect an iPhone and Osculator together is to use the procedure described in the previous Q&A. If you follow the procedure carefully, you will be able to get great results, with the best performances.

It is possible that you have an issue with a firewall configured on your machine.

If you are using a third party software to control network communication, you should disable it or set it up in order to accept OSC packets.

Mac OS X includes a basic firewall, which can be configured. Go in the System Preferences, then click on the Security button. From there you will be able to change the firewall's settings, or simply disable it if you are sure you don't need it.

If you are using Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the system will prompt you as soon as it receives a packet from outside. That means that you just have to launch OSCulator, and make the setup as usual.

Under some circumstances, it is possible that Osculator loses track of the bindings between the two applications. The simple cure is to delete all messages starting with /midi. Osculator will recreate them automatically as soon as you start using TouchOSC.

faq/iphone.1272714081.txt.gz · Last modified: 2010/05/01 13:41 by camille