When you first take home your fancy new cellphonethat can hold endless gigs of data, run circles around the Internet andconnect to the rest of the world in umpteen different ways, you'repretty proud of yourself. It's only when you try and get your phoneconnected to the sources of that data that you realize that there wasone question you forgot to ask: Just how easy is it to get at themusic, video and photos on your computer and on the Internet?
It'sthen that you realize that not all "smart phones" are all that smart.If you have an iPhone, for example, getting your device hooked up is ano-brainer: You plug it into your computer, and iTunes takes over. Somephones come with a halfway decent interface program, but often theinstallation process for the software isn't so simple; most companieshave one program for dozens of different models, and the plug-ins andpatches for each model often have to be downloaded from a hard-to-findWeb site. And then there are the phones that don't come with anyinterface program at all - and can only connect to a computer if youare willing to shell out another 30 bucks or so to buy the software!
What "the rest of us" non-iPhone owners really need is a deviceinterface program that works like iTunes: One that connectstransparently and automatically to your phone, can access music andvideo on-line and doesn't cost anything. But where, oh where, could youfind a program like that?
Right here - at Dazzboard (http://www.dazzboard.com/), a newon-line application that supports not one phone from Apple, but dozensof phones from Nokia, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, LG and others,as well as MP3 players and even some GPS devices. The site lists allthe devices that can connect automatically - meaning you just plug inyour device, and it appears on the Dazzboard device manager, where youcan move movies, music and photos from your computer right onto thedevice.
If that's all Dazzboard did, it would be enough. Butyou get more! Along with the program, you get the "Dazz Me"bookmarklet, which lets you easily connect to sources of video (YouTubeet al.), music (muzik.com, others) and photos (Flickr, Photobucket,etc.) and drag them right into your transfer window, from where theymake their way to your device with the click of a button. You're notlimited to the sites the bookmarklet connects to; it's easy to replacethose sites with your favorite download sites. Meaning that Dazzboarddoes the iPhone one better; not only does it make connecting yourdevice simple, it turns the whole Internet into your own iTunes store.
http://www.newzgeek.com
| More about: | Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung Group, Nokia |