In the past, being able to get to your data from anywhere just wasn't possible. In college we'd carry zip disks in our backpacks to keep projects and other data. The idea of having all your data web accessible was foriegn just 5 or 6 years ago. Now with cheap storage and well designed software you can store your data anywhere. Remote access software like the old PCAnywhere or modern day VNC or Windows Remote Desktop allows complete access to your local computer. So you can just leave everything at home and reach it there...except your media. The problem with most forms of media is that even in its super compressed mp3/mpg format, there isn't a good way to move that media over a limited pipeline (e.g. a DSL or cable modem line). Shoutcast was a good way to move mp3s, but it's design was more for broadcasting than a user viewing his/her own media. Well in the past year or so, things have changed.
If you haven't already seen the Slingbox, it's a device which takes any media you have on your home computer and streams it over a network connection. mp3s. music. video. live or recorded tv. pictures. Anything. It's a pretty nifty device for under $200. They've even done a good job of integrating it with DVR and Tivo boxes. In addition to the Slingbox, there are a few software solutions out there which can stream your media like SnapStream's BeyondTV. One software solution I just ran into beats the previously mentioned for two reasons. 1. It's free. 2. It works with my new cell phone!
Orb is a streaming server software which works in coordination with Orb's web server to let you navigate and view all the media on your computer. I recently got a Samsung A900 phone with an unlimited data plan. With Orb I can view all the songs, video, pictures on my computer through my phone anywhere. Sprint's new EV-DO service has enormous bandwidth (1.7 Mbps on a speed test at my desk), so the limitation is actually the upstream on my cable modem. The killer feature is the fact that I can view live TV through my TV tuner card. The concept of capturing live TV, resizing the image, encoding it to a streamable codec, sending it over the internet and then a phone network to a mobile phone, and then decoding and viewing it on the spot still amazes me. You don't have to have a new phone to use Orb though. Just a high speed internet connection and media that you want to view remotely.
The potential of combined technologies like this is amazing. There'll be a lot of new applications which can take advantage of the cheap processing power, storage, and bandwidth available these days. I can't wait to see the next one.
Posted by ramk at June 15, 2006 12:35 AMThis kind of stuff doesn't really excite me, but that Orb thing sounds cool.
Slingbox is something that sounds great, but I can't imagine a scenario that would require me to use it. Maybe that speaks poorly to my imaginative abilities, but that's the fact.
Nice to see the old Captain back to what he does best, find cool, nerdy stuff and preach the word.
One complaint: I frown upon your use of the phrase "software solutions".
Posted by: Andrew at June 15, 2006 12:57 AMwill need to try out this "orb" thing. (now that we have the same phone this post seems more pertinent to me)
Posted by: Dan at August 21, 2006 11:14 AM