It took seven taps to Rick Roll you. Too many! (But still totally worth it.)
The party was getting good when the DJ had to split. No one's got their all music with them -- but you've got your iPhone. Between you and StreamToMe, this party's about to get back on track.
This app is one slick route to getting media from your desktop to your mobile devices. Download and set up the desktop-side server, which is a snap, and you're gold. Then in the app, tap on your computer and navigate through folders to your beloved music and videos.
StreamToMe breaks content down into three groups: Shared folders that you’ve specifically chosen on the server side; all your iTunes music and movies (plus your playlists); and iPhoto albums, for when you absolutely, positively have to show someone your dog.
Access is nearly flawless, though navigation can be a chore. When you want to take over DJing, you want to work with playlists because they get you directly to songs -- in the right order. Other songs, you’ll be tapping. Tap to Browse Music, then Albums or Artists or Genres, then Name, then All or Albums or Artists again, then finally to the songs. This navigation needs a serious upgrade.
Watch video in landscape or portrait.
And while sort options exist, there’s no way to set a default. Album tracks are always in alphabetical order. Always. You can fix that pretty easily, but not permanently, so you’ll have to re-sort every time.
But for streaming, we couldn’t find a video or song format this app couldn’t deliver without a hitch, even over 3G (which requires a little router-side tinkering). No more conversion! On top of that, the app includes TV-out capabilities, so after the party, you can play your movies right on the TV effortlessly.
The bottom line. We’ve tested a number of media streaming apps and have yet to find one that works as well as StreamToMe. If the navigation cleans up, this reaches epic status.
iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running iOS 3.0 or later
Easy to set up, easy to use. Played every single file we tried with zero problems. TV-out means our media is ours, where we want it, how we want it. Universal app.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap -- come on, we're not playing a game here. Navigation needs a fix.
DJR12
February 28, 2011 at 6:14pm
Completely agree with this review. I used to use Simplify but used it rarely enough I didn't even know it had basically gone kaput after being bought by Google. After searching for an alternative, I settled on StreamToMe and have been pretty pleased. But yes, the navigation is cumbersome. I'm hoping software updates in the future will help make that aspect better. But I'd recommend it.
