XDrive Streaming Music Service: Online iPod. I saw this news bit on Palm Info Center this morning about how XDrive is now streaming music
to Palm devices from your storage locker online. I think this is
really, really cool. Imagine having a process on your PC at home which
snags new Podcasts and then uploads them to your XDrive automagically?
This is the service I've been looking for on my mobile phone. In fact,
I'd say that's a complete business model right there.
I'm going to talk to the Orb.com's Ted Shelton tonight at MoMo about
their architecture, because I think that even though streaming from
your home PC is insanely cool, having an online server store is also
pretty damn useful as well. I don't know if Orb has some sort of cache,
but if it doesn't it needs it. Laptops are becoming more and more
popular… what happens when they're off or in your backpack and you
want to listen to some music? Having your music on a server is the way
to go. Like an “Online iPod.”
It's a race, no? Which is going to arrive first to our mobile
phones to allow them to replace the dedicated music players? Will 5GB
or bigger hard drives, decent battery life and managable syncing arrive
first? Or will 3G broadband mobile data speeds arrive making streaming
media as simple as turning on your radio? I'm listening to Launch being
streamed right now while at work, why bother with Napster or iTunes and
all that downloading syncing stuff if I could get the same experience
on a 3G network?
Very cool. Now if only there was a Symbian MP3 player that supported
streaming. Talk about a vacuum that hasn't been filled yet. [Russell Beattie Notebook]