CES2011: Skifta Service Puts Smartphone at the Center of the Connected Home

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This sounds rather cool, too bad Samsung hasn’t updated my Galaxy S Captivate yet to run Android 2.2 so I can’t even run it. Why there’s no update yet, who knows, I may have to flash 2.2 onto it just because I’m tired of waiting. The Skifta service gives smartphone users the ability to control and play their music, photos and videos on connected devices at home, at a friend’s house, at work or on any WiFi network without syncing or side loading media to the phone.

Skifta is an application-based media shifting service that allows you to access and play your digital media, whether you access it on your phone, in the cloud, or remotely from home.  Skifta also gives you the power to stream digital media to DLNA Certified™ consumer electronics, including TVs, IP-connected stereos, Windows 7 PCs, PlayStation®3 consoles and thousands more devices.

skifta

Leading industry analysts estimate that there will be nearly 2 billion DLNA Certified devices in homes worldwide by 2014.  Skifta takes advantage of the rapid adoption of DLNA-enabled devices, the growing desire for on-demand streaming media, and the increase in smartphone proliferation to deliver an easy-to-use service for taking your digital media with you, without actually taking it with you.

Skifta is designed to simplify mobile media management.  Just launch Skifta on an Android 2.2 phone, connect to a WiFi network, and choose from one of several media sources, including:

  • Your Android Phone – With Skifta, you are no longer forced to view photos or videos on the small screen of your phone or listen to music with ear buds or headphones.  Now you can stream high-quality music, videos and photos from your Android phone to any DLNA Certified player connected to a WiFi network.
  • Your Internet Channels – Skifta gives you access to many of your favorite cloud media services in a single application, which you can play on your phone or other Internet-connected electronics.  Skifta channels available today include Facebook, Picasa, Soma.fm, Revision 3, Radiofeeds UK, and Podcasts & More, which offers a handful of suggested RSS media feeds and lets you add your own personal favorites.  Additional new channels will be available in the coming weeks.
  • Your Home – Skifta also gives you global access to media stored on your home PC, media server or network-attached storage drive via any WiFi network.  Watch family photos on your friend’s TV or access your music collection from home while on vacation.

Once you have chosen your media source, simply connect to a DLNA Certified device, choose your favorite music, videos or photos, then enjoy the experience.  With Skifta, you now have your digital media collection at your fingertips.

"Our media is often unreachable when we want it because it is trapped on our smartphones, computers and online services," said Ed Smith, director of product management at Qualcomm Services Labs.  "Skifta combines the mobility and WiFi connectivity of the smartphone to create a personal global remote for music, videos and photos without having to worry about where they are stored.  It lets users enjoy their favorite content on connected consumer electronics and in a rich audio and visual environment."

Availability

Skifta beta is currently available as an application in the Android Marketplace for smartphones running Android version 2.2 and higher.

The Skifta service includes a simple desktop application for remote access to your media stored at home (PC, Mac and Linux), available at www.skifta.com.   It is also available as a custom add-on for the NETGEAR® ReadyNAS Ultra range of NAS drives.