back to article Google does an Orb

Google's Android music service will do an Orb and allow you to stream your home music collection when you're out of the house. It will require a small piece of server software to run on your home PC. If this sounds a bit deja vu, that's because it is. The pioneer in this area, Orb, has had a similar service for over five years …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Bassey

    Not just Apple or Android

    Windows Mobile has, as is so often the case, had this for an age. I remember Lobster Tunes from years ago - no idea if it is still going. Didiom also recently launched a similar service. Of course, it being Windows Mobile software, it doesn't get reported because mobile apps didn't exist until the Lord gaveth unto us the iPhone.

  2. Grozbat

    Why?

    Considering the drain on batteries to stream over the net, and with 32GB memory cards soon available to store music on phones, I wonder if Google isn't just a bit too late with this idea.

    Video would be good though, if Google could get that working. I could never get Orb to work for more than a minute or two.

    1. Basic
      Thumb Up

      I've got it going

      I've got AndroOrb running on my G1 mobile and can quite happily stream full-length films (over Wifi) from my PC. I've managed to get Audio streams going over 3G with minimal buffering but video is just not smooth enough.

      Having a good home connection helps but since it's recoded before transmission, using a mobile-sized screen saves on bandwidth :)

  3. Steven Raith
    WTF?

    Subsonic

    Does this already, although it's possible the official solution will be simpler.

    It *must* transcode however. No point streaming 320kbps MP3s to your phone over 3G, you'll destroy your data allowance in short notice. Especially if you have tunes in FLAC, which android doesn't support, and even if it did, would be too high bitrate to stream over 3G.

    As for people talking about 32gb memory cards, I can say with some authority that having the choice of my entire, 60gb+ music collection from my phone without all that tedious transcoding and copying, is excellent.

    See Subsonic for details.

    Steven R

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is also on Android

    Orb is also available on Android, as are a bunch of other services. Putting it in the OS though is interesting.

  5. Mark Jonson
    Gates Halo

    Windows Mobile, the iPhone before the iPhone

    Bassey, how true that is. I've been using Orb with Windows Mobile since it was first released in 2005. I've also been using NetFront to browse the web on a touch-screen PPC with Windows Mobile before the iPhone came out, SlingPlayer on my phone and PPC before the iPhone came out, and I've been able to read my email on my phone and PPC before the iPhone came out. Of course, like you say when Apple or Google copies from somebody else, it's like it has been done for the first time.

  6. hahnchen

    Google can go one better

    Not just streaming from a home server (which is too ridiculously geeky for most), but to actually host those files in their cloud.

    That would rock.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    I recognise the symptoms

    It's a bad case of Appleitis, a virus previously only known to infect employees and customers of the fruity corporation.

    It manifests itself by putting blinkers around the eyes and brain of its host making them forget and ignore previous technological innovations, Then after a short incubation period (usually around the time it takes to develop a new product) it causes the host to ooze praise for the new product and declare how extraordinary and revolutionary it is and how it will change everything.

    The people around the poor infected person just shake their heads and point to products that have done exactly the same for years and in many cases do it better to try to help the poor deluded fool fight off the effects.

    Unfortunately there is no known cure. Just look at Steve Jobs who has suffered with it for years and shows no sign of recovery.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Simplify Media

    Google bought the server software from an iPhone developer called Simplify Media!

    It was on the iPhone already, however Simplify pulled it from the App Store a month or so ago after the acquisition. Google also shut down their streaming server access for iPhone users....

    It's not Apple's fault!

  9. Patrick O'Reilly

    "Come together right now over me"

    Opera Unite enables users to do this from the Browser.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like