Stream Music, Video, Photos, and More Using Orb for iphone

Stream Music, Video, Photos, and More Using Orb for iphone.

I've been testing out the orb app for iphone and I've found that its a great solution for streaming music, video and photos from your home pc to your iphone. After you create an orb account and install orb on your computer, the software indexes the music, photos and video on your hard drive. Then, you can download the orb iphone app on your phone and sign into your orb account.

Once you log-in, you will see an interface that allows you to choose what type of media you want to access. If you choose music, you will see a screen very similar to the ipod app on the iphone.  Select an artist, then choose your music. Playback begins within seconds and you can listen to the music on your home pc from almost anywhere. Same for home videos and photos.

Its a great solution. The orb for pc is free however the iphone app does charge a one-time fee. But, when compared to other solutions that charge a monthly fee to host your music on another server, its a great bargain.

Connecting Blu-Ray Player to HDTV

There are multiple options for connecting your blu-ray to an hdtv, but the only way to get the highest quality picture is to use an HDMI cable or component cables.

The main advantage to HDMI is that it is 1 cable that transfers both Hi def video and hi def audio. With component cables you need 3 video cables (red, green and blue) and 2 audio cables.....or an alternative audio cable such as digital optical audio for premium sound.

All modern HDTV's should have an hdmi cable and all blu rays should support hdmi as well. My recommendation is to use it if its available. Its easy and it gives you the best possible quality in sound and video.

The only reason to use component is if you do not have enough hdmi ports available to support another HDMI cable via blu-ray. In this case, you can use component plus an audio cable, or buy an hdmi switcher that will give you an additional hdmi port.

iPad -- Do you want one?

Apple recently introduced the much hyped iPad. Its an attempt to bridge the "gap" between the handheld iphone and the full-featured laptop.

Its certainly a beautiful device. Its about the size of a pad of paper and is billed as the best device ever for surfing the Internet.

However, I'm not sure this will be as big of a hit as the iphone. Its a better internet device than the iphone, but it is a less effective "work" device than the laptop. Can you write letters and do spreadsheets on the iPad? Yes, but in a limited way. There will be an attachable keyboard but if you are at home, you can just use your laptop anyway.

I see the iPad as a luxury toy for now. Will it evolve into more? That remains to be seen.

3D TV Will Be In Your Home Soon - Are You Ready?

Panasonic is leading the way in an exciting new technology called 3D-TV. 3D appears to be the next major leap in technology after the HDTV revolution. But don't put all of your equipment up for sale on ebay just yet. Early reports are mixed but its likely that early adopters will be able to purchase 3-D HDTV equipment as early as 2010. But it will likely be quite some time before an extensive library of content is available to view. There are currently some great cutting edge 3D movies in the theater including James Cameron's Avatar featuring aliens on the planet Pandora, and Disney's Christmas Carol. These are likely candidates to be some of the first feature films available for purchase for 3-D home viewing.

So what will you need to replace? Everything. A new HDTV, a new 3D blu-ray player, and you will also need special 3-D glasses in order to create the 3-D effect....yes it does seem strange to picture the entire family sitting together at night wearing funny glasses. I sometimes wonder if the effect will initially be too strong and too immersive for viewers with short-attention spans. I know I often do other things why I am watching television. Will I want to putting my glasses on and taking them off over and over? Will you be able to have conversations with your fellow viewers during a 3-D football game? Ultimately, its likely that this technology will be widely adopted in 15 years, but I do think there may be a long learning period and some major adjustments in viewing habits. I can see the concept working great for dedicated home theaters, but not so well for multi-use environments. Nevertheless, I look forward to the opportunity to test 3-D TV in the near future.

Stream Pandora Radio in Your Car

One of the best new iphone apps is the free Pandora radio application. Pandora radio allows you to build custom radio stations based on your favorite artists and tweak your radio stations as you listen. Its a great free web-app for laptop music, but with an iphone you can take Pandora with you anywhere. 

My car has a simple line-in audio auxillary jack that I can plug my iphone into. The Pandora iphone app is designed to stream over Wifi, 3G or Edge, and audio quality is adjusted based on the quality of your data connection. I tested Pandora both in the city with a good 3G connection and also on a road trip where only Edge was available. 

3G streaming had great quality and zero interruptions during my test. I found it to be a perfectly functioning music option for city driving. Think of it as a free alternative to satellite radio. 

With Edge, I found the quality to be noticeable lower, however, it was still adequate. During my 2 hour drive through the country, the phone stopped for bufferring about 3 or 4 times. Most of the skips came early on when I first started the app. Once it got going, I had at least an hour of uniterrupted music. 

I found Pandora to be a nice option for road trips when you grow tired of your own collection or just want to hear some new music. I could do without the skips, but overall it was not enough of an annoyance to prevent me from using the app on the road when I am restricted to an Edge connection. 

The iPhone is Perfect for a Whole House Music System

When the iPhone released its new "app store" in the summer of 2008, there was a lot of excitement over the possibile apps that would be designed in order to give the phone new capabilities. Six months later, one thing is becoming increasingly clear........the iPhone is the perfect controller for a whole-house home music system. 

Here's why:

One of the first apps released for the iPhone was the Apple Remote. This free app gives iPhone users the ability to control iTunes remotely over a wifi network. You can also control and Apple TV and extend Itunes through the use of Apple's Airport Express router. The Apple Remote interface resembles the iPod interface. Just connect to your Itunes library over wifi and you will see all of your songs and playlists neatly organized on your iPhone. Are there limitations? Yes. You can play the same music in multiple rooms, but you can't play different music in different rooms. However, its still a very cool system and gives you the ability to access your entire music selection from your iPhone. 

Sonos recently released a free iPhone app that gives you the ability to control an entire Sonos whole-house music system. I previewed the system on their website and it looks very well done. The main advantage is that you can forgo buying a $400 Sonos controller, making it much cheaper to set-up a basic Sonos music system. Plus Sonos gives you the ability to play the same or different music in different rooms of the house, and gives you access to Pandora, Rhapsody, Sirius, and internet radio stations. 

Here's another great app for those of you that own the Roku Soundbridge. Roku Remote allows you to remotely control 1 or more Soundbridge systems using and iPhone interface that resembles the organizational structure on your Soundbridge. I find it to be a more friendly way to browse and play my music that using the Soundbridge itself. Plus, it adds album art and lyrics to your iPhone when you select a track to play. All in all, a great app. 

These are 3 great options to stream music through your house. And I'm sure there may be many more to come. If you have an iPhone, take advantage of these capabilities to get the most out of your music collection. 

Apple iPhone 3g

This is my first post in blogger using the apple iphone 3g. I'm using the blogger interface directly at blogger.com in edit HTML mode and it's working nicely. I'm able to use the keyboard in landscape mode which gives you a little more space on the onscreen keyboard. I'm still a little slow on the keyboard but I am attempting to type using two thumbs. I'll have a full review posted soon.