Orb.com

So, you want to be able to listen to your music when you are on the road...or, perhaps, you are on a business trip for weeks on end and wanted to watch that video of the kids you took last summer...well, Orb 2.0 to the rescue...OK, the rescue piece is a bit of an exaggeration, but, Orb is a great little tool that allows you to access your media from just about any device and location with a internet connection. You can watch videos, listen to music, and setup a security webcam from you home pc and check it on the road.

The setup was rather easy...in fact, it was a download and install. You complete a registration piece with very limited amount of information so that you have a login and a password. You navigate to http://mycast.orb.com, enter your information and away you go...

I know, I know, I am over-simplifying things, but is really was that easy. We have one computer acting as a server. This computer is on pretty consistently and almost always connected to the internet. Orb does the rest. We have used Orb for the following situations:

* Checking the house while we were out. The webcam functionality is a great little tool. We have it setup facing the door of the room. While we can see the mess we left behind, we can also check if there is any damage from storms or unexpected guests.

* Grabbing documents left behind. While on a business trip, I forgot to copy some stories that I was writing onto my thumb drive. Fortunately, I did copy them to the server and into the shared document folder. I was able to pick up where I left off. I have also used LogMeIn to copy the documents to the folder so I would not have to send them..for more on LogMeIn, see this post: LogMeIn Review

* LIstening to music...yes, your music. Orb, searches the directory that you specify and lists the music. Even though we have music on our laptop or iPod, not everything goes with us...This even worked with the AT&T Tilt. We were able to stream music using the 3G connection of the phone. You can sort by artist, album, playlist, and your favorites. The search feature works just like you were at your computer.

* Watching local and internet tv shows. Sometimes, we wish we put in a tv tuner into this pc. If we did, we wouldn't need the Slingbox. However, with the TV options in Orb, we have been able to watch tv stations from other states. This is good whether we are home or on the road. We watched local weather for Florida before a trip and while we stopped at a hotel on our way. No storms, but it worked well.

* Reminiscing with family. If you do not want to upload your pictures to Flickr or some other photo sharing site, you can share them on your public orb site or have your family member create an Orb account and give them access to your pictures and videos. We used this to show some pictures and video after a recent holiday concert from our little ones. Save time and space since they could not be there.

More to come, but so far, Orb is worth the FREE price tag. Enjoy...