Our sister-site MediaMentalism.com, which is undergoing something of a renaissance ("about time," somebody shouted!) has news of a new Google app that enables a mobile phone to stream music, pictures and videos between your PC and any suitably-equipped home device such as your TV or Hi-Fi.
You can use your phone to select videos from your PC, and then wirelessly stream them onto your TV, all via the comfort of your armchair. Effectively, your mobile phone becomes your new remote control.
Of course, not all mobile phones are capable of doing this, but a surprising number are. Read on for more details of what's involved.The gadget in question is the Google Media Server, which is basically a desktop-based UPnP server. For those who don't know what UPnP is, it's a standard for seamlessly transferring media across devices. In order to achieve this, all devices must support UPnP. Nearly all PCs already do (and they certainly will if you install the Google Media Server), as do an increasing number of home devices, including PlayStation 3, XBox 360, certain HDTVs, Hi-Fis and Personal Media Players (just look for the acronyms UPnP or DLNA to see if yours does).
More recently, a range of mobile phones have also supported the technology, including most of Nokia's N-Series range (the N95 and N80 are particularly well-suited to this). It's with these phones that you really can stream media effortlessly from PC to any UPnP-equipped device in the house, all controlled via your mobile phone, and all thanks to Google's nifty new gadget.
Media streaming and UPnP in particular are really shaping up to be a ground-breaking set of technologies that will transform the home and the gadgets within it, and Google, as ever, are right there in the thick of things!
Source: MediaMentalism
You can use your phone to select videos from your PC, and then wirelessly stream them onto your TV, all via the comfort of your armchair. Effectively, your mobile phone becomes your new remote control.
Of course, not all mobile phones are capable of doing this, but a surprising number are. Read on for more details of what's involved.The gadget in question is the Google Media Server, which is basically a desktop-based UPnP server. For those who don't know what UPnP is, it's a standard for seamlessly transferring media across devices. In order to achieve this, all devices must support UPnP. Nearly all PCs already do (and they certainly will if you install the Google Media Server), as do an increasing number of home devices, including PlayStation 3, XBox 360, certain HDTVs, Hi-Fis and Personal Media Players (just look for the acronyms UPnP or DLNA to see if yours does).
More recently, a range of mobile phones have also supported the technology, including most of Nokia's N-Series range (the N95 and N80 are particularly well-suited to this). It's with these phones that you really can stream media effortlessly from PC to any UPnP-equipped device in the house, all controlled via your mobile phone, and all thanks to Google's nifty new gadget.
Media streaming and UPnP in particular are really shaping up to be a ground-breaking set of technologies that will transform the home and the gadgets within it, and Google, as ever, are right there in the thick of things!
Source: MediaMentalism