Showing posts with label mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Wireless adhoc network for all mobiles, desktops, Laptops, TVs etc

Pain-Point:
I really hate to transfer my media files (music, pictures, videos, docs) across multiple devices. What if I can access these files from any device even though they are stored on only one of the devices. E.g: I might have all my songs on my desktop and I would like to stream them and listen to them on my mobile especially when in proximity. I might want to see/stream and listen to songs from a friend's mobile or desktop.

Technology-Challenge:
You need to leverage any possible connection channels: Wifi, blue-tooth to build a connection. Some of you might argue that this is possible through ssh or scp. The common end-user cannot use them. So, this technology must be seamless and extremely easy to use. It must be something like ad-hoc network between various devices as they move. We could also use GPS for location.

Similar-products and Related Reading
1> Color: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/color-labs
This start-up does photo sharing based on proximity using GPS and bluetooth.

2> Yobongo: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/yobongo
They do proximity based chat-rooms

3> SubSonic: http://lifehacker.com/#!5505345/subsonic-streams-your-desktop-music-to-iphones-and-android
Streams music from desktops to iPhones and Androids.

4> Dropbox: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/dropbox
Simple file syncing across devices: something like rsync(linux) for end-users.

5> Bumpp: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/bump-technologies
Physically bump your phones to sync contacts, share music and pictures. Uses GPS, blue-tooth and accelerometers.

The 'big' idea is that if we can build a reliable and seamless technology, we can build a useful service around the technology. Some of the above ones are examples of the services that are already present.  Even if a service is present, it is alright because very often they are not very easy to use and not seamless. E.g: I tried to use Subsonic for music streaming. It needs me to setup a desktop server like system to do it. The ubuntu tool they gave just does not work and most importantly, I want a seamless and simple to use system with no complex to-dos. Check dropbox for how simple it makes file syncing here: http://www.dropbox.com/