Access your media library remotely using Orb and Smart Hal
Chapter 1: What is Orb?
In this tutorial we are going to talk about a piece of free software that enables Smart Hal (or Pocket Hal) users to remotely access and play their entire personal digital media collection on their "always on" computer at home directly from their Smartphone or Pocket PC. This includes music, podcasts, videos, webcams and even television and radio (if you have a TV tuner card installed in your home PC).
Orb, from Orb Networks of Emeryville CA, is a piece of freeware streaming software that turns your broadband-enabled home computer into a virtual jukebox for your Smartphone or Pocket PC.
Once the Orb software is installed on your home PC, your computer acts like your personal broadcasting system, giving you the ability to stream your entire music collection, podcasts, and live and recorded Internet radio directly to your Smart Hal-enabled Smartphone or Pocket Hal-enabled Pocket PC on-demand wherever you are in the world.
So whether you're stuck at work, visiting a friend, or traveling, you can stream your music anywhere, anytime. No more copying MP3s onto your Smartphone using ActiveSync in advance; all of your audio is with you at all times using Orb.
Orb is also very clever, in that it automatically detects the type of device that you're connecting from, and adapts the stream type and its speed according to your device's default media player and its Internet connection speed. For example, on your Windows Mobile Smartphone Orb will use Pocket Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player (both of which work extremely well with Smart Hal and Pocket Hal out of the box) to stream the content from your home PC to your Smartphone or Pocket PC.
Chapter List
- You are currently reading: What is Orb?
- Step 1: Install Orb
- Step 2: Get online
- Step 3: Visit Orb online
- Step 4: Browse files
- Step 5: Navigate
- Step 6: Find files
- Step 7: Select
- Step 8: Play
- Step 9: Enjoy