Orb reportedly set to announce support for iPhone, iPod touch

Not that it comes as a huge surprise given the wide array of devices it already supports, but according to The Register, Orb is apparently set to finally get official with its support of both the iPhone and the iPod touch "in the next few days." As with other devices, that'll let you get in a little place-shifting with the aid of the iPhone's browser, including letting access your music collection via the Orb-powered version of Winamp. On the iPhone, you'll also have the added benefit of being able to send links to songs in an SMS chat session. Of course, just 'cause it's not official doesn't mean you make use of Orb in its current state which, for all we know, could be exactly what's in store when Orb does make things official.

[D. A. @ Dec 12th 2007 1:30PM]

Orb is an awesome company that gets very little attention. I've been using their software for a while now to watch my tv home while traveling in my phone / notebook. And the best of it: it's a free service! These guys are amazing.

[griff @ Dec 12th 2007 1:37PM]

Is there anything like this for the Mac ?

[Jon @ Dec 12th 2007 2:12PM]

I have a mac that I use with iPhoneRemote (not sure of the url, but google should do the trick). It's only meant to be used on a LAN as far as I know, but a little dmz hosting might fix that..?

[JT @ Dec 12th 2007 3:41PM]

For macs there's http://www.dottunes.net/iphone.html

Works fine over wifi. Edge, meh.

[Alberto @ Dec 12th 2007 4:31PM]

The best app for this type of thing is Simplify Media, even though it's still in beta. There's a native iPhone app which lets you access your home music libraries from anywhere in the world. You can also add friends and have their iTunes (or WinAmp) libraries show up under "Shared" in your iTunes as if they were in your local network. It's genius!

DOT.TUNES is extremely buggy. I regret having paid for the iPhone module. Other apps to check out are Signal, which is similar to Dot.Tunes and Remote Buddy, which is a brilliant way to control your computer from your iPhone (does not require jailbreak).

[Jon @ Dec 12th 2007 4:34PM]

Agreed!! Don't waste your money on DOT.TUNES!! Biggest POS software app I have ever paid for!
Perhaps others have had some luck with it, but man what a waste of money it was for me.

[Jon @ Dec 12th 2007 1:33PM]

Because I needed another reason to sell my beloved BB8820 and go to the iPhone, damnit Apple 3rd party developers and hackers, give me a reason NOT to switch...

[Mikey-D @ Dec 12th 2007 1:58PM]

Is orb.com the right website for them? It asks for a login and password :(

[Erick @ Dec 12th 2007 2:29PM]

Yea...there should be a link to take you to their more corporate site.

[Jon @ Dec 12th 2007 2:02PM]

I use orb on my iphone now to listen to Howard Stern/Sirius Radio and absolutely love it! The current interface is sluggish but getting Sirius on my iphone makes it more than worth the hassle to me!!
I hope orb will get live TV working on the iPhone too! I'll never have to miss another Yankee game due to work/girlfriends again!! lol

[brad @ Dec 12th 2007 2:04PM]

I was about to ask if tv worked for you...audio works for me right now but tv is a no go... For now

[Erick @ Dec 12th 2007 2:30PM]

Get TV working for me and i cant think of one reason not to get an iPhone (outside of price, coverage, slow network, bad customer service).

[brad @ Dec 12th 2007 3:11PM]

erik get the iPod touch, its what I have and am writing this reponse on too

[CB17 @ Dec 12th 2007 2:29PM]

How the hell are they gonna pull this off without RTSP? I mean I'm all for this I love ORB and I'd love for this to work. But I thought the iPhone only supports fast start of files....

[Riles @ Dec 12th 2007 3:13PM]

Have they added for support for macs yet?

[Jon @ Dec 12th 2007 2:37PM]

@ Erick
You're an idiot. If you don't like or want an iPhone, why the hell are you posting here?
What a loser.

[Erick @ Dec 12th 2007 3:00PM]

Wow. Touchy are we?

For the record, I own a mac... So don't call me a mac hater. Ill just call you a touchy flake.

[Jon @ Dec 12th 2007 3:15PM]

@ Erick
You're a mac hater!

[Erick @ Dec 12th 2007 4:29PM]

oh...ok.

[Justin @ Dec 12th 2007 6:59PM]

You can already do this, and more, with iPhone Remote:

http://code.google.com/p/telekinesis/

Took me a while to figure out how to configure my router to work outside of my LAN, but it works, even on edge. iPhone remote also allows you to:

- View and control your desktop remotely
- Take a snapshot of your isight camera
- Stream music AND movies or TV episodes (videos take a while to load on edge, but works)
- View image files
- Spotlight search
- And more!!

It is absolutely amazing. Was cool to play around with on my LAN, but is so much more useful when you get it working outside your LAN.

[Bob Dobbs @ Dec 12th 2007 6:27PM]

webot.com has had an interface for the iphone and itouch for months. WeBot allows you to access multiple boxes simultaneously from anywhere anytime. It's built for win, mac, linux with iPhone and iTounch interfaces and a Nokia interface coming within days....

[Billy Watts @ Nov 17th 2008 9:30PM]

yea, webot worked great for the iphone! i especially liked the digital photo viewer part. i loved that software, then they just quit and the website disappeared! anyone know what happened?

[johnzilla @ Dec 12th 2007 6:57PM]

I have an iPod Touch, so this article caught my eye. Too bad they don't mention what "Orb" is, what it does, or why I should be interested.

[Hostile slick inbound @ Dec 14th 2007 12:29AM]

Orb works well on the touch right now, the only problem is it can't transcode files that are unable to play on the touch/iphone like avi and the like. TVersity does this but it doesn't do it "on-the-fly" which means when you want to watch an episode from your computer on your touch that is in avi format. You have to allow it to transcode and finish before you can even start to watch.

If Orb can do on-the-fly transcoding that that will be sweet.