Razvan Dragomirescu of Simeda writes: ” We have completed development for our Pocket Rendezvous project. It's a web server for the Pocket PC that advertises itself to other Pocket PCs in the neighbourhood wirelessly using ad-hoc WiFi networks and Rendezvous. Windows users can look here for a Windows Rendezvous browser/publisher. Pocket Rendezvous also allows you to browse for nearby devices running Pocket Rendezvous and view the content published by the Pocket Rendezvous server on those devices. You can also browse for regular Rendezvous services published on your network.”
Here are a few cool uses for the product:
1. Personal advertising and matchmaking – Publish information about yourself (a picture, personal details, maybe a streaming recording of your voice – you name it!). Can also be used in corporate environments or at tradeshows (carry your “electronic business card” in your pocket and have people discover you and browse your “pocketable” web server for details)
2. Share your music collection with passers-by or listen to (or download) their playlists while sharing a ride on the bus. The builtin web server supports streaming, so you can preview before you download. Think of it as your “Pocket Napster” :).
3. Carry your important presentations or other files in your pocket and have them instantly available on your wireless corporate network. Whenever you need a file, just browse the wireless neighborhood using Rendezvous and find your Pocket Rendezvous server then download the files as you need them.
An additional nice feature is the use of icons (or avatars) for each service. If you put a file called favicon.icon in your Pocket Rendezvous webserver root, all other clients browsing for your service will display it next to the service name. So you can be creative: use a heart if you're looking for love or maybe a musical note if you're sharing music. Any 32×32 icon will do.
We are currently looking for a small batch of beta testers before the official launch (scheduled for mid-June). The software requires the OpenNETCF SDF 1.1 (we'll bundle it with the release, for now it expects it to be available on the device). If you want to preview music, you will also need the Macromedia Flash Player plugin. We have bundled a demo version of Wimpy Button with our software. It only allows you to preview 10 seconds of MP3, if you want you can purchase it for $25 or create your own solution.
If you are interested in giving this a try, please drop me an email at razvan.dragomirescu@simeda.com [Smart Mobs]