More on Orb - Killer Smartphone App (for podcasting and more)

Michael Gartenberg | December 28, 2004, 01:11 PM

Actually it's a pretty killer app in general. I spent some more time using it and the more I use it, the more I like it. So far it, worked on everything I threw at it, from Smartphones to a Macintosh running OS X. Palm support seems lacking though. On each device, all my media was there for me, ready and waiting. Driving to the mall, I set up a playlist of podcasts from my PC and let it play over the Audiovox SMT-5600, through the stereo. Not a glitch. It just played through, like it was supposed to. Sound quality was lower than I'd like so I'm not replacing my iPod just yet.

What else is missing? Well, it needs to support more than MCE on the backend and I had problems getting a new dual tuner MCE 2k5 working correctly. Also, it seems to detect the client device, not the actual bandwidth correctly, so when I streamed to pocket PC from a GPRS connection, there wasn't enough bandwidth and the connection stuttered. I'd like the ability to change those manually if needed. These are pretty minor quibbles though. This is an amazing product that does what it claims to do at much lower cost than current competing products. It's enthusiast for now but as we know, that designation can change quickly.