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What is Orb??
Orb is a FREE streaming software that enables users to remotely access all their personal digital media files including pictures, music, videos, webcams and television.[1] It can be used from any Internet-enabled device, including laptops, pocket PC, smartphones, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii video game consoles.

Orb is available for Windows or Media Center PCs. You need to create a free account. With that account, it is possible to log into the PC remotely.

Access to all videos, audio, images online!!
All the music, pictures and video files stored on a home computer are made available for streaming, provided that the computer is connected to the internet. The media files are transcoded and streamed directly from that PC, or available for download with the use of a file explorer plug-in.

The current version of Orb can be used as a replacement for Microsoft’s Windows Media Connect software for computers running the Windows operating system. This allows the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 consoles to access the videos, audios, and images on the computer with Orb installed, natively. This allows the user to also watch videos not in the Windows Media Video format without having previously re-transcoded their videos. Orb will transcode the video files from the computer on the fly as they are requested as long as the computer running Orb has the correct codec for doing so.

Access to a Tuner Card or Webcam and Webbased DVR
If there is a tuner card installed on that PC, live TV is also available for streaming. Furthermore, Orb offers a DVR functionality, like a Tivo, Hava, or a Slingbox. One can schedule TV recordings and stream the recorded video files remotely via the Web-based interface.

Same is true for a webcam (there’s also a webcam surveillance feature).

Sharing Your Media!!
Orb also allows the user to share photos and videos without having to upload them to an online service. To do that, one has to select the files one wants to share, and enter the email address of the person that should have access to that data. That person will receive an email with a link to view the files.

I personally use this for access to my Hava on the web and with my iphone.  BTW, there is a FREE Orb iPhone app too! Imagine all forms of media accessible anytime and anywhere you need it.  All I can say is Wow!

Hope this post was helpful.  Find out more at http://www.orb.com

Brian McCumber

FREE Online FavIcon Generator

Use this FREE online tool to easily create a favicon (favorites icon) for your site.  What is a favicon? A favicon is a small, 16×16 image that is shown inside the browser’s location bar and bookmark menu when your site is called up. It is a good way to brand your site and increase it’s prominence in your visitor’s bookmark menu.

Example Favicon:

I personally use this free favicon generator to quickly create my icon files.  I think compared to the other free tools out there, this one produces the clearest quality at a 16×16 icon dimension, which is pretty hard to do manually.

Click on the icon to the right to start generating your own favicons:

This is a perfect tool for the bootstrap internet marketer or internet DIY business owner to get that extra professional appeal for your web site.  Big thanks to Dynamic Drive for putting this tool online for free use!

Regards,

Brian McCumber

Going to the polls to vote for our local general election. Make time to vote!

OpenGoo is an easy to use Open Source Web Office.

It is a complete online solution focused on improving productivity, collaboration, communication and management of your teams.

OpenGoo is a complete solution for every organization to create, collaborate, share and publish all its internal and external documents.

You and your team can create and collaborate on:

• Text documents
• Spreadsheets (coming soon)
• Presentations
• Task Lists
• E-mails
• Calendars
• Web Links
• Contacts

OpenGoo gives you all the tools to manage the work of all the divisions of your company. You can plan and manage all your projects, easily following the status of every task.

I personally have tried many others web office like solutions and OpenGoo is one of the best open source solutions.  Let me know if you need a tutorial on installing it on a Windows Server.  Here is where you can get a copy of OpenGoo: http://opengoo.org

Regards,

Brian McCumber