Radio @AmbientSignal

I've been publishing my meP3 stream out to a bunch of different platforms (e.g. FriendFeed, Tumblr, Soup.io) but the one that I'm most fond of right now is the Twitter station that I'm passively programming @ambientsignal. There are actually many parts of the experience that are substantially worse on Twitter than on the other platform - most notably the lack of an integrated media player - but you've got to go where the people are, right?! A quick addition (and hopefully future evolution) of playTwitter and StreamPad (shoutouts to both Lucas Gonze and Dan Kantor) could make this even more powerful.

While I was originally focused on constructing a station by crawling a single user's social graph, I've shifted focus a bit more to the simple aggregation of a users *own* stream. Each user can publish their own, then just simply follow the others they want. Where I think it could get really interesting is in Twitter clients. Each user could create their own "group stations" comprised of any single or collection of meP3 streams. Then just throw a small media player into those Air and iPhone apps and you've got a social listening and discovery service that I think would be as compelling as any out there. TweetDeck, Twirl, Twitterific, et al... are you out there? Not only does it power great content discovery (I've personally been exposed to at least 5 new bands that I like in as many days from @friendP3), but it would/will stimulate endless water cooler conversations around the content.

My friend Dave now is also powering his own Twitter station @ZprocketRadio. It's just starting to load up with tracks, but when I hear something I like I will inevitably reply to @ZprocketRadio with a 140 character note on what I think about it. He also has brought up some interesting ideas around the use of #hastags to power collaborative playlists that I may play around with today.

If anyone out there is interested in being one of the first stations (or wants to build a killer Twitter Radio client) drop me a line at jherskowitz (at) globallistic (dot) com and I'll help you out. It's still super-hacky and exceedingly geeky... but I'd be interested to see if a community evolves around this concept.

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@friendP3 on your iPhone (sort of)

When you deal with hosted MP3s you are reminded how much you *could* do with music if all of the shackles and protections were removed (e.g. DRM and required Flash players). Here is a video highlighting how things "just work" on your mobile...


@friendp3 Radio on iPhone from Jason Herskowitz on Vimeo.

There is no reason that this same scenario won't/doesn't work with simple SMS alerts, email, IMs, etc. The only real work needed is for playlisting of these tracks to be supported in these apps...

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iTunes.fm?

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown I just read a really good post from Read/WriteWeb with more speculation on what is coming with iTunes 8.0 software next month (click the link below to see the whole story):

The Case for an Apple iNetwork: Welcome to the Social - ReadWriteWeb: "While most of that is common knowledge, what most people overlook is the glaring lack of any community aspect to iTunes. There are millions of people, many of them with similar tastes, flocking to the same destination every day, yet they never interact with each other... because they can't. If Kevin Rose is to be believed, however, (as discussed on TWiT 157) that all is about to change with iTunes 8.0.

He says, '... the one thing I hear about iTunes 8.0 is that it's gonna do something along the lines of, um, looking at your music, and, uh, kind of recommendations based on certain things.' In other words, the next version of iTunes will monitor your media purchasing and consuming habits and correlate them with everyone else using the system to figure out which songs you will probably like but haven't bought/listened to. If you're a fan of collaborative filtering systems or internet radio (Pandora, Last.fm, etc), you're probably familiar with the idea already and that iTunes may be considering implementing this doesn't come as a surprise (I found myself wondering why this wasn't introduced 2-3 years ago)."

To make a real play at being a music network I think Apple needs to give iTunes a web presence (outside of the client application), but nonetheless the potential notion of Subscription + Cloud + iPhone + Taste Networking = pretty compelling proposition. Last.fm, iLike and iMeem have established the market for such experiences now. This is about the time when Jobs likes to walk in with an offering (while claiming they *invented* it).

I still think that they will come in with subscription at some point (if not now), but I'd put pretty good money that September announcements include MobileMe + enhanced taste networking/discovery features (with still an outside shot of full-blown subscription being announced too). Apple wouldn't be going through the headaches with MobileMe transition (aka "upgrade") if it wasn't key to their strategy moving forward - the next logical step for it is cloud storage (and playback) of your iTunes library with the additional kick of wireless (push) sync management of that media down to your iPhone/WiFiPod. Once your content is in the cloud and universally accessible, then limited sharing (streaming) to a small social network of your friends enhances discovery of new content, with easy "buy" links back to iTunes which can then push the newly purchased content to your device, computer and cloud all simultaneously.

Thoughts?

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Apple's SDK Restrictions Limit Innovation in Social Media Applications

The lack of multitasking support is a bigger limiting factor than what appears on the surface for the iPhone (e.g. "it sucks that I can't view my calendar and listen to Pandora at the same time"). Particularly hamstrung are the social music and discovery applications, and the consumers that love them.

• You can't run apps in the background therefore you can't build a "scrobbler" for things you listen to locally on your device - see the (shameless plug) Strands Social Player that runs on Symbian, Windows Mobile and other mobile OSes but can't be implemented on the iPhone due to their restrictions
  
• The SDK doesn't allow you to touch any of the local music, only streaming content (or so I've been told), so you can't build an alternative local music application that has social features built-in (who else is listening, top fans, etc.)
• No support for flash - so you can't port/expose existing flash players in the Browser
  

Therefore, if you are a social media company/developer that wants to do something with music you are really pretty limited to building streaming applications (much to the chagrin of AT&T I'm guessing). Unfortunately, that hinders many discovery companies and applications from doing really compelling stuff around helping people discover new content based on what they are currently listening to (locally).

As for the streaming apps, it is interesting to note the impact of their format decisions on performance (at least on EDGE).

• Last.fm is basically unlistenable on EDGE - each song buffers for an extended period of time (a minute +) so once the song starts playing back it is good but the in-between song silence is almost longer and more unlistenable than a commercial break. This is presumably a byproduct of their 128k MP3 streams (or so I think).
• Pandora *almost* will sustain a stream in my car at high speeds - I believe they are streaming 64k AAC(plus?)
• AOL *was* in a prime position to offer a great EDGE streaming use case, for many years they were supporting 16k AACplus streams for their dial-up users - I don't know if this infrastructure was abandoned or whether it was a business decision by CBS, but they disable all but terrestrial simulcasts when you are on EDGE.

Dear Apple, let the reins loose a little bit and let the ecosystem thrive. The first batch of music apps is a great start, but there is so much more that can be done if allowed.

iPhone Music Apps

iPhone Music Apps - Page 1
Originally uploaded by jherskowitz

The iTunes Apps store has started to surface this morning (installiTunes 7.7 update and then click here.

Here is a screenshot of them, with the ones I find most interesting circled. (Not pictured: TapTheBeat, Tuner and TyroTuner.)

I assume that both Pandora and AOL Radio are only streaming over WiFi but at 64kbps AAC/MP4 it is certainly possible that streaming over 3G is possible too. The "Remote" app lets you use your iPhone and/or iPod Touch to control your iTunes - think about your laptop (or AppleTV?) hooked up to your stereo while you site on the couch or sit in the backyard controlling the tunes.

The rest don't look all that interesting to me, but I'm sure there are thousands more in the works as we speak.

Share on Strands:

Danger, Danger, Will Gates

News today that Microsoft has just bought Danger (creator of the Sidekick phone/PDA). I've never owned a Sidekick (apparently it is the only device I have not owned a version of) - but I know that there was a fairly large group of people that are/were big fans. I don't see them around as much as I used to though... I'm not sure if maybe I'm not the target demographic or whether their sales have tailed off due to increased competition.

Either way, it was Microsoft's Xbox/Zune/Windows Mobile group that drove this acquisition.... so you've got to figure this is the first step in a rush-to-market iPhone competitor. Besides the fact that it just seems like another reactionary "how do we keep up with the Joneses" move, it also once again directly pits Microsoft against their licensees. This is far from the first time they have done this... most recently, this was the shift taken by the same group when they realized that their PlaysForSure/Windows Media Player storefront strategy wasn't working. When none of their PlaysForSure partners (CinemaNow, Napster, Rhapsody, FYE, AOL MusicNow, etc.) could mount a truly competitive offering against Apple, they (MS) went back to the trenches and said.... "ok, let's do what Apple has done and see if we can beat them at their own game".

In mobile phones, the tack was to license Windows Mobile to be the de facto standard of mobile device operating systems. The good news... they managed to kill Palm. The bad news.... Apple and Nokia not so much. So, what about a Zune-phone? I'm skeptical, but I'll be interested to see how it unfolds.

Oh yeah, there is actually another device that I just thought of that I have never owned.... a Zune.

Apple Gets Their Dominoes in Place

I've been thinking more about the odds of whether Apple will decide 2008 is the year they launch a subscription music service (of some sort) and been asking others what they think the likelihood is.

The consensus (or lack thereof) is that people either lover or hate the subscription model. And I thought (once again) I would wax (un)poetically about what I'm currently thinking...

As someone that worked on subscription service, I can say without hesitation that the biggest consumer question (and hurdle to trial - and therefore adoption) was "does it work with my iPod"? In response, all of us in that business would do a little tap dance and reply with something akin to..."Uh, no... but check out these cool devices from Creative and iRiver. You should just get rid of your shiny new iPod (and Mac if you have one of those too) and buy one of these instead so you can try this really cool service that your not sure you understand the value of yet".

As subscription services suffer from the "TiVo problem" (where users don't fully appreciate the value until they try it), getting trial is key. If the the addressable market that can actually try it (aka the iPod installed base) is then in the hundreds of millions, the wall comes tumbling down and subscription takes off - albeit at the expense of Rhapsody, Napster and others (sell, sell, sell!).

A 3G (or maybe even WiMax?) WiFiPod/Phone with all-you-can-eat streaming/mobile downloads for $10/month? Done. Trials spike into the tens of millions virtually overnight and conversion rates give Apple a subscription base larger then all other competitors. Offer movie rentals for a couple more bucks a month and now Apple kills Netflix and Blockbuster too. Oh yeah, while they are at it Apple can throw a Skype client onto the device and begin to marginalize the carriers while they are at it by offering voice services for a fraction of consumers current voice plans.

All of this pervasive "Apple-Ready" content then drives adoption of AppleTV (and Mac Mini's) - or at least next generation ones that also support CableCard. People start forsaking their rented Cable Set-Top boxes for Apple boxes they own outright (and also allow them to do more then just watch videos). These boxes bring them broadcast and IP content delivered seamlessly to their living room and the public starts to wonder... "why am I paying Comcast $100/month for TV when everything I'm watching is on-demand content being delivered over the web"?

Apple then controls the devices and the delivery pipe for all your content ("you" pertaining both to the labels/studios and consumers) - and communication. The dominoes are in place... do you dare topple the first one?

If you listen closely you can hear Steve Jobs in the background.... "BWA HA HA HA HA!".

Another Holiday Gift from MyStrands - iStrands

OK, so maybe you didn't get a Wii this year (see previous post) but you still want some MyStrands love for you sparkly new iPhone? Well, if you have one of those devices that you have "jailbreaked" (or is it "jailbroken"?) and you want to be able to track what you are listening to while you are out and about, do we have a hack for you!

Last week the "iStrands" app was added to the STE Repository which can be found in the Nullriver Installer App (aka AppTapp). Unfortunately, no one has made it real easy to use AppTapp on an iPhone that is running the latest firmware (1.1.2), but if you are still running 1.1.1 then it's a snap.


INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Tap on "Installer" in your iPhone(if you don't have it, download it in your mac from here: "http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/" follow instructions, and install as required if you iphone version is allowed)

2) Install iStrands tracker. To do so tap on "Install" tab of "Installer" app, navigate inside the "Multimedia" folder and then install the "iStrands"

3) Congrats, iStrands is now installed in your iPhone you now just need to configure it, this is done through the regular iPod preferences in your iPhone (down to the bottom of the iphone preferences list)

iStrands will now be sending playcounts when connected over WiFi or EDGE (presumably you can deactivate EDGE connection through Settings->General->Network->Data Roaming). While being offline iStrands keeps a backlog (up to several hundred songs) that is sent to our servers when becoming online again.



If (like me) you are running the latest firmware (1.1.2), it is a bit more complicated. So, for the brave you can follow theses detailed instructions.

Otherwise, look for some more goodness when the official iPhone SDK is released... the last I heard was this was looking to be February (perhaps more details to be released at Macworld in a few weeks).

Universal Music to Take the Reins - But Can they Reign?

BusinessWeek breaks more details on Universal's plans to try and wretch the power back from Apple. Basically, they want to build a consortium (comprised of the major labels) to launch a new tweaked model of music subscription service.

Universal Music Takes on iTunes: "While the details are in flux, insiders say Morris & Co. have an intriguing business model: get hardware makers or cell carriers to absorb the cost of a roughly $5-per-month subscription fee so consumers get a device with all-you-can-eat music that's essentially free. Music companies would collect the subscription fee, while hardware makers theoretically would move many more players."

This feels a bit like Microsoft telling all their device and subscription/DRM partners, "we're tired of waiting for you guys to make a market, get out of the way and we will do it ourselves". Now that frustration has moved further up the chain and the world's largest record label is saying, "I'm watching my business go down the drain and a guy in black mock turtleneck has got me over a barrel - get out of the way, we will do it ourselves".

Questions? Sure, I've got a few...

Q. What about the indies? How bad are they screwed in this scenario?

Q. DRM? I sure as hell hope not. If it doesn't play on iPods and iPhones, it doesn't play.

Q. How quickly does Napster and Rhapsody America bleed customers if this happens?

Q. Pressplay and MusicNet... anyone remember the fate of those major label subscription consortiums?

Q. Will they expose APIs so that they can syndicate this content everywhere, or are they going to drag everyone to a central "store"?

I'm sure I will have more thoughts on this over the coming days. What do you guys think?

WiFiTunes & DRM (Correction)

So, I updated by iPhone with the latest firmware so I could get "WiFiTunes" support on it (you also get a newly skinned calculator for some unknown reason). The store looks pretty sweet at first glance, but what I didn't notice was anywhere I can buy the DRMless "iTunes Plus" tracks. Are they not offered?! And if not, I can only imagine that this was purely a business decision and not a technical one?

UPDATE:

Sorry, false alarm. I did indeed fine "plus" (DRMfree) content... it appears your preferences are synced over from your iTunes client.

Also, other new features of this update include (bold added by me for emphasis):

Listed new features in this 152.3MB update include:

* iTunes Wi-Fi music store
* Louder speakerphone and receiver volume
* Home button double-click shortcut to phone favorites or music controls
* Space bar double-tap shortcut to intelligently insert period and space
* Mail attachments are viewable in portrait and landscape
* Stocks and cities in Stocks and Weather can be re-ordered
* Apple Bluetooth Headset battery status in the Status Bar
* Support for TV Out
* Preference to turn off EDGE/GPRS when roaming internationally
* New passcode lock time intervals
* Adjustable alert volume

Undocumented features There are also few new features that Apple didn’t mention:

* There is now the ability to change your voicemail password directly from the iPhone. Tap “Settings,” then “Phone,” then “Change Voicemail Password.”
* You can now change the sound that is played when a new text message is received. Tap “Settings,” then “Sounds,” then “New Text Message.”
* There is now a “Debug console” for Safari, which shows HTML errors when rendering Web pages. Tap “Settings,” then “Safari,” then “Developer”
* There are new options for Video playback. You can start playing videos where they left off or from the beginning, and you can use closed captioning. Tap “Settings,” then “iPod.”

Review: iTunes Wifi Store - Rocketsurgeon's Music 2.0 Blog -

The WiFiTunes firmware update is now available for your iPhone (click "check for update" in your iTunes sync menu. I'm installing it now - hopefully it won't delete all the 3rd party apps that I put on there using AppTapp - but check out Jadam's (aka RocketSurgeon) review below...

Review: iTunes Wifi Store - Rocketsurgeon's Music 2.0 Blog -

UPDATE:

After a nerve-wracking several minute update (that appeared to have crashed at times) - I have found that if have used AppTapp to install 3rd party apps to your iPhone, this update will wipe those all out. Not sure if I can reinstall it yet or not...

Apple Tightens Shackles Between iPods & iTunes

I can't say it's a surprise, but it is unfortunate nonetheless...

ipodminusitunes: Apple cuts us off: "So, it's finally happened. Unhappy with other media players being better than iTunes, Apple have apparently decided to stop them from working with the new range of iPods."

This is bad news for Winamp, Songbird, ephpod and/or Linux users in general. This was already basically made a moot point by the iPhone since it uses iTunes to sync your contacts and calendar - but now the entire new line of iPods is literally and physically locked to iTunes too.

Me, Myself & iPhone

Yeah, I broke down and got an iPhone. There are a couple of minor things that are a bit annoying - but that is to be expected. And yes... as everyone else has already reported, I too, would love it if it used the 3G network and that it supported Flash content. But in short I think it's great. I wasn't going to get one - I was going to sit on the fence until the second generation then decide. I didn't want to be the Apple fanboy that thinks any/everything that comes out of Cupertino is the best thing ever created. I even posted that I hoped the iPhone would be a total piece of crap and that it would fail. But alas... it is not. When I went back and looked at my old posts about what I have always wanted in the ultimate phone (wifi, MP3, video, large storage capacity, *relatively* fast data network) - I realized that I was in denial that the iPhone met all of these criteria. The one it didn't meet was that It doesn't support subscription music services - but see my post from yesterday as to why this criteria no mattered for me. But in lieu of support for Windows Media DRM, it even threw a spectacular UI and a qwerty keyboard that works pretty well even though it is virtual. Not as good as my old Blackberry's hardware keyboard but it works good enough for me.

As *many* people have posted about the overall usability and UI - I will share a personal experience that I think is very illuminating. If you hand the iPhone to an adult (particularly someone from my parent's generation) - the initial response is "wow"! This is because they have been trained and beaten down over years that technology (particularly cutting-edge tech) shouldn't be this easy.

On the flipside, when I handed the iPhone to my 3 year old daughter for the first time I got *no* reaction. That's because she didn't know any better - to her it worked like it was supposed to... completely intuitive.

So, after a few weeks with it - I've compiled the list of apps and websites that I have found to be the most indispensable for you other iPhoney's.

1. Handbrake - rip a DVD then transfer it to your iPhone. Note: In Handbrake select the iPod settings but make sure that the output size is no larger than 640x480 (I had to go in and manually change this one parameter of the iPod setting). If you don't do that then the file won't sync.
2. iPhone Remote (aka Telekinesis) - Not only can you use your iPhone as a remote control for you Mac (opening applications, etc.) but you can also stream content off of your Mac to your iPhone (music, videos, snapshots from your webcam). Works great over my LAN, but not sure if/how it will work outside the house since I don't have a static IP address. Still playing with it, but has *lots* of potential. Another option is Signal, but it does less and costs more ($29 vs. free).
   
3. Facebook Mobile - If you love Facebook, then the iPhone optimized version of the site is a must-bookmark.
4. Seeqpod for iPhone - MP3 search engine optimized for iPhone. Search for a free range MP3, and stream directly to your phone. Obviously better to try when on WiFi. Another great option is Grabb.it's iPhone interface.
   
5. TinyBuddy IM - A web-based AIM application (built by folks at AOL) using the "standard" iPhone UI. The other option is Meebo which also works well.
6. Netvibes - I actually just went through the pain of migrating all of my feeds from Pageflakes to Netvibes just so I could get the same content on my iPhone. It takes a long time to load over EDGE, but when on WiFi it works very well.

What are you guys using?



----------------
Now playing: Weezer & Soul Coughing - American Girl
via FoxyTunes

iTunes Annoyance of the Day

All I want is a simple "enqueue" function. I don't want to build a playlist... I just want to be able to find a song and either "play next" or "put at end of current queue". Winamp is great at this, but alas... I'm on a Mac and I'm not going to run Parallel's just for this purpose. I think Songbird probably does this, but I've got an iPhone and Apple has been smart/underhanded enough to use iTunes as the sync agent for not only your music but also as the conduit into you calendar and contacts.

So... yes, Apple has once again used a proprietary system to lock me into a sub-optimized experience in my opinion. Fool me twice...

Anyone know of any hacks or tricks to get iTunes to queue up songs?

iPhone to Support Streaming Radio?

I came across this story the other day....

iPhoneology : Blog Archive : iPhone Firmware Hints at New Apps, Widgets: "The most exciting of these seems to be the mobile.radio, as it suggests the possibility that Apple may be looking forward to supporting streaming radio or hopefully, an FM tuner on the device."

There is some speculation that this means the iPhone may at some point include an FM receiver - I think that the highly more likely scenario is support for streaming radio over EDGE/WiFi. Considering that the Radio stations that show up in iTunes are really just a selection of SHOUTcast stations, I doubt that Apple is looking to create their own radio programming - but instead just looking to bring a streaming experience to their iPhone consumers.

What would be really interesting is streaming radio support in conjunction with over-the-air downloads. As you are listening/switching stations, your iPhone is tracking what you have listened to, thus giving you the opportunity to click "buy" on any track that you have heard and/or highly rated. The could then download the track directly to the iPhone (and simultaneously make it available in iTunes when you get back to your computer.

If I bought a la carte tracks, I would think that was pretty cool. Cooler yet would be the ability to cache a streaming station to the iPhones hard drive.... RadioTivo, but I find it highly dubious that Apple would ever enable a use case like this that could cannibalize their sales.

Free Range MP3s and the iPhone

I have been asking a lot of people lately, "what happens when you click on an URL to an MP3 while web surfing on any iPhone? Does it stream? Does it download? Does it do anything?". I have been a bit shocked that virtually everyone's answer back to me has been, "I don't know, I haven't tried it.".

Well, I finally got my hands on one long enough to try for myself. The answer? It launched the iPhone's QuickTime player, buffers a little bit, then plays it. Cool... as I had hoped. :-)

Granted, I was doing this over AT&T's EDGE network, so it quickly stalled trying to stream a 128k MP3 over a network that is generally slower than that - but I assume that over WiFi it would do just fine.

Warning: Experiences On The Horizon Are Not As Distant As They Appear

I'm traveling again, and all week I have been dreading the fact that part of my journey requires a 2+ hour shuttle bus ride from the airport to my destination. To top it off, my mp3 player died on the flight, my laptop batteries were drained, I forgot a book and there is only a limited amount of entertaining things you can do with a Blackberry. Nothing scares me more than extended time with little other than my own thoughts.

But, as I got settled into my seat on the shuttle bus, I looked up to notice the sign "Free Wireless Internet Now Available on the Bus". Nice! But that only solved half my problem considering the state of my laptop battery. One eureka moment was followed by another when I looked above my seat to notice that there were AC outlets running along the roof of the bus.

So, here I am.... in the middle of nowhere, writing this, charging my laptop, streaming music from Streampad and being all-around productive. Yes, this will be a huge welcome addition to airline travel (hopefully soon), but what is more exciting is the in-car experience. Yes, Slacker is building out a dedicated satellite network to do this. Zing enables some great portable music consumption experiences via WiFi (in the Sansa Connect) - although it requires a Yahoo Music subscription. iPhones obviously support WiFi, although no one has yet to tell me how it works for streaming music from the web (and I haven't broken down and gotten one... yet). But, some of my buddies over at Sprint have been assuring me that WiMax (aka "4G") is real, and it is coming sooner than you might think.

As I've ranted about before, once we can get reliable IP access in the car (and to a lesser degree to our pocket) - the music consumption experience for the masses changes forever. Bye bye, XM/Sirus. Adios terrestrial radio. CDs, what the hell is a CD good for? The technological solution is virtually on top of us. The *real* challenge is the user experience - UI, personalization and discovery. Whoever gets those right - on mobile devices, PCs and car stereos - owns the layer between the consumer and the content. And, whoever owns that layer controls the advertising - and reaps the lion's share of the benefit.

Let the battle begin....

iPhone - Stream Your Media

My biggest question about the iPhone has been "can it stream MP3s over WiFi and/or EDGE?". Until this morning, that question still remained unanswered. To be honest, I have been a bit shocked that every first review didn't go about answering this most basic and compelling (given the nature of the device) question.

It appears that they answer is... "yeah, kind of". Insight was gathered from application details on one of the applications ("telekinisis" aka "iPhone Remote") created at iPhoneDevCamp.

MediaStreaming - telekinesis - Google Code: "Streaming video and audio

If you store movie or music files on your computer, you can watch and listen to them on your iPhone using telekinesis after enabling the feature in the preference pane. This feature is off by default for security reasons, please see below.

The files you play have to be supported by the iPhone:

* H.264 Baseline Profile Level 3.0 video, up to 640 x 480 at 30 fps.
* MPEG-4 Part 2 video (Simple Profile)
* AAC-LC audio, up to 48 kHz
* .mov, .mp4, .m4v, .3gp file formats
* Any movies or audio files that can play on an iPod.

Over EDGE you stream media in real time up to 160kbits (in practice 80-100 however.)

To play a media file, simply touch it in the file browser mode. The CoreMedia (Quicktime plugin) player will launch and start to buffer the media. You can use other applications (Mail, Phone, etc) while the media is playing but you cannot navigate to other MobileSafari pages.

As of now there is no way to stream playlists or queue multiple files.

Caveats of media streaming

The iPhone doesn't appear to accept media encrypted with a self signed certificate. To enable streaming, iPhone Remote needs to send it insecurely.

If you choose to enable this feature, anyone can connect to your machine to access m4b, m4v, m4a, mov, and mp3 files if they can access your computer and know the full path to the file

Do not enable this unless you are sure your network is secure.

You can enable this feature in the preference pane. Hit "Restart Server" after checking the box.

This application (still alpha) sounds very promising to me although I will certaily wait until it is at least Beta (and I actually have an iPhone). Any of you out there that already have one want to give it a try and let me know how it works?

Best iPhone Review Yet (or at least most entertaining)

Courtesy of the New York Times...

Mossberg Dishes on iPhone

Walt Mossberg has spent the past two weeks playing with the iPhone, and now he tells us what he thinks. Below is a snippet, follow the link to read the whole review:

The Mossberg Solution - WSJ.com: "We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions."

Some of the more interesting tidbits:

• He thinks the lack of a physical keyboard is a non-issue - after 5 days he was typing as well on the iPhone as he does on his Treo

• While we knew this first model would only use AT&T's EDGE network (in lieu of their faster 3G network) - but this model will not be upgradable in the future. So, if you want 3G you either need to wait for the next version - or to Steve Jobs' delight - buy one now and another later.

• The lack of any dedicated hardware buttons make some features a few taps farther away then most would like.

• There is no way to cut/copy/paste - it sounds minor but I bet this becomes a big annoyance pretty quickly.

• Battery life is very good.

• The 2 megapixel camera only takes stills - no videos.

• The only streaming media supported is the the newly available H.264 encoded versions of YouTube videos - no streaming audio.

• No (Adobe) Flash support - this is major... all of the web widgets and embeddable players that we have all grown to love won't work in their mobile version of Safari.

On the last issue, I wonder if the lack of Flash support is specifically for the purpose of limiting the ability to stream MP3s from the web - as oppossed to buying them from iTunes. Conspiracy theory? Perhaps, but doesn't it seem like an odd omission to you considering Apple's claims that this is "the real internet" on your phone? If it was the real internet, why won't they support a technology that is installed on something like 98% of consumers' browsers?