Free remote PC access for iPhone and iPod Touch

By Tim Conneally | Published December 14, 2007, 2:39 PM

Remote PC access software company Orb has announced support for iPhone and iPod touch, allowing users to stream their music, movies, and TV without being locked into iTunes.

To start, users must install Orb on their "always on" Windows machine, and then allow Orb to bypass any firewalls and anti-virus software. It then displays the media in the Windows default folders: My Documents, My Music, My Videos and My Photos. Other folders can be added at will by the user.

These directories can then be accessed through Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and with an appropriate media player, any music and video files can be played. Conceivably, any connected device -- other desktops, laptops, properly-equipped handsets and PDAs, and video game consoles -- can access the content.

Yes, Orb is only for Windows, it supports Vista, XP SP2, or XP Media Center ('04 or '05), and requires 512MB of RAM, 100MB of available disk space, and a processor equivalent to the AMD Atholon 3200+ or 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium IV.

While the remote PC access market has many options, affording the user control of their connected home computer anywhere, most require a monthly fee. Orb is also designed to be used in a social fashion, unlike the more straightforward style of others like Gotomypc.com.

Orb offers a free solution that, in effect, eliminates the drive size limitations of handhelds, and may alter the syncing demands of Apple's devices.

Comments

If I am not mistaken, AT&T unlimited data prohibit user from streaming. So good luck those who try.

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AT&T themselves offer streaming video on their MediaNet website...

And while YouTube isn't exactly streaming, it's very similar.

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How come Orb is mentioned when it works for the iPhone, and not when it works for any other phones (such as the LG Voyager, HTC Touch, countless PDAs, ect)

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Boy, this teaches Verizon a lesson re their Bluetooth = Internet $urfing brouhaha.

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what does that mean?

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Years ago they blocked free bluetooth access cell to pc(as in syncing contacts wirelessly)... and threatened those who hacked around that. They claimed bluetooth was akin to internet service & therefore subject to their browsing rates, which to boot were usurious as heck.

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Wtf does Orb has anything to do with remote PC access? Orb used to stream video and audio to PDA for a long time. So it's new wonder to iPhone?

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I think this is a great way to have unlimited media storage on an iPhone since the data is streamed from the PC.

However, the iPhone apparently tapped..., according to these articles

iPhone a Trojan Horse For Government Surveillance?
http://www.prisonplanet....7iphonesurveillance.htm

FBI records audio from cell phone even when battery is out
http://www.prisonplanet....006/071206batteries.htm

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Do you have to post those links from that far left wing website on every iPhone article? Also the video in the second link doesn't even work anymore.

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Thanks for the feedback

I'll replace the video link with the following.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb6UCKTXL9Y

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the video says the fbi can eavesdrop when the cell is off by activating the mic... and that the only way to stop it as by taking out the battery

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"AMD Atholon 3200+ ..."

Is that one of the new cant count or spell AMD's that needs a patch ?

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