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MediaSharing posts

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Photo, Video, News, P2P, Social Software, iPhone, Mobile, Web

Now finally available - ubiquitous media sharing with Orb for Mac


It was pretty exciting news at Download Squad to hear Orb, the "sort of software version of Slingbox," was available for Mac. Orb allows you to broadcast your media to any device that has a web browser. After downloading Orb to your "always on" Mac with a high speed internet connection, you can access all your photos, songs, TV shows, and videos from any device with a browser and media player.

After downloading the app, Orb indexes your media and then prompts you to either log in to mycast.orb.com, or create a log in if you don't have an account. After you log in you can see your dashboard and all your media goodies.



Though my songs appeared immediately, my photos did not. There are various feed settings you can play with and channels to explore. Also, with a simple drag drop interface you can share your media with your friends via email, SMS, widget on your blog, or a public URL.



Checking it out from my home computer is one thing, but would it work on other devices? Success! I was able to access my media from my Dell PC.

A note for iPhone owners: The esteemed and indefatigable Jay Hathaway noted that he received errors when he tried to download the free version of OrbLive for the iPhone, which he tried from both his iPhone and his iTunes account on his Mac. There are 3 flavors of Orb available for the iPhone: OrbLive free, OrbMedia ($4.99) and OrbLive ($9.99)

Note to Orb: Please update your landing page to include PC and Mac, ok?

Filed under: Internet, Web services, P2P, web 2.0

Upload, Share, and Mirror in One Step With Rapidspread


There are plenty of great places to upload and share files, so why not use a bunch of them all at once?

Rapidspread is a a simple file upload site that automatically forwards your files to as many as 10 filesharing sites. From the upload page, simply browse for your file(s), agree to the terms of service, and click share. Once the upload is complete, RapidSpread displays a URL to send to your friends as well as direct links to your file on the supported hosts it's been transferred to.

My test rar file successfully uploaded to eight of the ten possible hosts - not too shabby. When I chose to upload several images, RapidSpread was even smart enough to limit mirroring to the media-sharing services (ImageShack, Badongo, ZShare, and ZippyShare).

Anyone that uploads files on a regular basis will appreciate the simplicity and power of RapidSpread. If the developers would just intergrate a short URL service like bit.ly, this would be a truly killer service. Give it a shot, and see how it stacks up against your favorite service.

Thanks for the tip, Eran!

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Video, Macintosh, Productivity, Social Software

PictureSync 1.8 brings Expression Media, Lightroom support



It's becoming harder and harder these days to exist at just one social media site or another. Some of your friends are sharing pictures at Flickr and Zooomr, while others are uploading videos to ImageStation and Vox. Making sure you keep all these communities updated with the pictures and videos from your adventures can be exhausting, but PictureSync from Holocore can make mince meat out of all that uploading. As a Mac utility for now with a Windows version coming soon, PictureSync allows you to select or drag and drop pictures and videos from the Finder, iPhoto, Aperture and more, and upload them to one or every media sharing community that PictureSync supports. As you add services to your one-click-upload toolbelt, the amount of time PictureSync can save you becomes exponentially immeasurable. Even better, PictureSync can handle metadata associated with your files such as iPhoto keywords, captions and ratings, and send them along to any compatible services. Still trying to keep track of how much time you won't waste using PictureSync?

As if all that wasn't enough, a new v1.8 update just released brings support for Microsoft Expression Media (which was once iView MediaPro) and Adobe's Lightroom. Along with support for more pro apps, however, comes a pro license: in addition to the $15 standard license, a new $30 license is being introduced for those who want to use PictureSync with the likes of Aperture, Expression Media and (possibly) Lightroom. On the bright side of this new license is the fact that you'll be seeing two: a $30 PictureSync purchase will include a second license for those who can't be bound to just one computer.

Be sure to check out the rest of PictureSync's features - like a full-screen annotation mode and upload memory - to see everything it has to offer. A demo is of course available for test drive.

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