- Mobostick Makes any USB Device a Video Receiver, Any Android Device a Sender
- Any File Format: Video, Audio, Pictures, Text, PDF, Presentations
Apple’s AirPlay is a wonderful technology for streaming videos, music and pictures from a device like an iPad, iPhone or PC with iTunes to a TV set or stereo receiver that has either an Apple TV connected or, with Apple’s permission, AirPlay embedded. The new version that’s in Apple’s iOS 5 can also “mirror” the sending device’s image to a TV set. It’s like Intel’s WiDi technology that a number of companies such as D-Link, Belkin, Asus, Buffalo Technologies and Netgear have built into receivers that connect to the TV set. For its part, Intel is pushing PC makers to embed WiDi in every portable PC.
Until now Android devices did not have the same capability.
Home Server Technologies (HST) says its $89.95 mobostick USB device adds AirPlay- and WiDi-like functions to Android smartphones and tablets. It plugs into a USB- equipped TV, stereo, PC, Mac, media player, game console, television, stereo or digital picture frame. Many stereos now have USB ports. A mobostick app on the Android device streams the video or audio.
The mobostick app uses Wi-Fi to stream to a device with the mobostick plugged. A file manager in the Mobostick app is used to select the files to stream.
Mobostick Turns Any Device with USB into a Receiver
While it’s streaming, the Android device can be used for other functions like making phone calls, taking pictures or browsing the Web.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cto1oy0Krz8
Mobostick’s is much smaller than an Apple TV or a WiDi adapter. It is easily carried and used on other devices such as a TV at the office for making presentations.
WiDi displays the screen of the computer on a TV. It requires that Intel’s WiDi chipset be built in the laptop and receiver be attached to the TV. Mobostick does not display the screen of the Android device on the TV. Instead it enables devices to see and playback files that reside inside the Android smartphone or tablet.
The app uses Wi-Fi to stream files in two ways: through the home’s wireless router or the Android device’s built-in access point (hotspot). The receiving device sees the mobostick as a flash drive but in fact the files it’s receiving are stored in the Android phone or tablet.
HST said its mobostick and mobostick app are unique in wirelessly sending videos, music and photos from the Android device’s internal and external storage. Users of Android devices, it said, “no longer need to carry cables to stream media files from their Android phone or tablet.”
HST managing director Harry Diamantopoulos poked at AirPlay and WiDi’s vulnerability by saying, “Not all of us have the luxury of purchasing new appliances in order to enjoy media files we generate with our mobile devices. Android devices now have an accessory that offers seamless integration with the users’ existing device ecosystem even when a wireless router is not present.”
He said the mobostick technology complements technologies like DLNA. However, it does not require a DLNA enabled device on the other end. It is portable and works with media files and other files like word processing, presentations, spreadsheets and text.
Mobostick can also be used to copy files from the Android device, a step beyond AirPlay and WiDi.
It can be used to stream music in the car, copy files from a tablet at school, share presentations in the office or show pictures and videos to friends without having to join their networks or reconfigure the device.
Portable, Secure, Device Agnostic
At $89.95, the mobostick sells for about the same price as the $100 Apple TV or one of the several WiDi adapters that go for about $100.
HST points out the product’s strong points:
- Device agnostic. It works on any device that has a USB port including old DVD players, Blu-ray players, printers and game consoles, whether or not they have Wi-Fi.
- Any file any time. DLNA/UPNP deals only with media files it understands and has codecs for. The Mobostick app handles any file format such as PDF, text, spreadsheet, contact file, system file, movie, photo, music or video.
- Longer battery life. The mobostick app is not as taxing as other apps although HST did not name them.
- Secure. All transmissions are encrypted from the device to the mobostick.
- Control. Users can share what they want and share nothing they don’t want to.
We expect that every cellco will want to sell mobostick in their stores and on their Web site. The product fills a need that many do not realize is being filled by Apple’s AirPlay — and filled without any competition.
We asked HST, “Where’s the mobostick app for iPhones and iPads?” but its director of sales Alexis Kostis gave no indication that an iOS app is being developed.
The last question we have is which home networking chipmaker will embed both Apple’s AirPlay and HST’s mobostick technology in its chipset?
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