Orb Networks - stream your media
A friend pointed me to Orb.com a few weeks ago. He had an EDGE phone that had the Windows Mobile operating system, and was able to stream video and live TVfrom his desktop at home to his phone. It took a few seconds of fussing with his mobile's web browser, but he was able to bring up a TV show he had saved on his computer. It was pretty impressive and got myself an account when I got home. The service performs even better on a computer with a broadband connection (the video display size gets readjusted based on the available bandwidth).
It is pretty easy to set up. After you register at Orb.com, you download and install their software that basically turns your computer into a server (so that means you have to leave your computer on). Then just select which directories of media to share (video, photos, audio, live TV). To access your selected media, you log on to orb.com with your web browser, click on the link you want to play, and a stream will be delivered to your device.
Orb Networks could use some minor refinements...
The user interface could use some work, movies with a separate subtitle files aren't fully supported, sharing media with your friends is a bit cumbersome, and it is only available for Microsoft platforms.
Besides its minor drawbacks, this free service is pretty freakin great. It is so far the closest thing I have found that will allow me to have persistent access to my media library (I would rather have it hosted on some server with fatter pipes, but I'm sure that's coming in the near future). With this service, I can have podcasts downloaded on my desktop, and then delivered on demand to my car through a cell phone’s audio jack. If I had a video out on my cell phone (hopefully Helio will release some), I could go to a friend's house, plug the phone into their TV, and start streaming movies without having tto haul around DVDs or a hard drive. Perhaps it is the mobile phone will conquer the living room, and in-car entertainment all at once.
