The iPhone (or iPod Touch) as an internet tablet – it’s almost perfectly suited for surfing through your favorite online forums, shopping sites, and, ahem, TMZ.com. There’s just one thing missing. If only there was a way to download all that cool web-content straight to your iPhone.
Well, now there is! iPhone hacker hachu has gone ahead and developed a plug-in for your iPhone’s Safari browser. The plug-in allows you to download (rather than stream/playback), say, an MP3 file to the var/root/Downloads directory on your iPhone’s local disk. You can find instructions for installing the plug-in here. After installation, whenever you click on a link to any media (like a ZIP file), a green “Download” button will appear. There’s a bit of .plist editing required, so if that kind of “hacking” makes you break out in cold-sweats, you might want to stay away from this one.
Anyway, Erica Sadun from TUAW has modified her SendFile application to allow you to playback said MP3 files from your iPhone’s local-disk (even while offline). SendFile will now search your ~/Downloads and ~/Media/Documents directories for any media that you might want to send, share, email, and now playback. Grab the modified SendFile application here.
Make sure you check the hackint0sh forum for installation instructions.
Or, keep reading for a quick rundown on the installation procedure.
Here’s a rough idea of what you’ll need to do:
- Download the Safari plug-in here.
- Copy the plug-in bundle to “/System/Library/Internet Plug-Ins” and reboot the iPhone
- Add this string to your Info.plist (use a standard text editor as opposed to Mac OSX’s editor) in order to download AVI files
<key>video/x-msvideo</key>
<dict>
<key>WebPluginExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>avi</string>
</array>
<key>WebPluginTypeDescription</key>
<string>avi File</string>
<key>WebPluginTypeEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict> - Add this string to your Info.plist in order to download MP3 files
<key>audio/mpeg</key>
<dict>
<key>WebPluginExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>mpeg</string>
<string>mpg</string>
<string>mp3</string>
<string>swa</string>
</array>
<key>WebPluginTypeDescription</key>
<string>MPEG audio</string>
<key>WebPluginTypeEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict>
<key>audio/mpeg3</key>
<dict>
<key>WebPluginExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>mp3</string>
<string>swa</string>
</array>
<key>WebPluginTypeDescription</key>
<string>MP3 audio</string>
<key>WebPluginTypeEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict>
- Here’s the string for downloading RAR files
<key>application/x-rar-compressed</key>
<dict>
<key>WebPluginExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>rar</string>
</array>
<key>WebPluginTypeDescription</key>
<string>rar File</string>
<key>WebPluginTypeEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict> - Torrent files
<key>application/x-bittorrent</key>
<dict>
<key>WebPluginExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>torrent</string>
</array>
<key>WebPluginTypeDescription</key>
<string>torrent File</string>
<key>WebPluginTypeEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict>
Keep in mind, these are rough instructions to give you an idea of what’s in store for you if you decide to implement this plug-in. Head on over to hackint0sh and read the thread to get a complete picture of the installation procedure.
[Via: TUAW]