Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Get Yer Own Cloud

I've been researching how to create a personal cloud based on a home based file server for serving videos, movies, and other files not just on my own homework but privately and securely over the internet no matter where I am to a laptop, iPad, or Android device. Several solutions have presented themselves.

Hamachi

It's not really free but it seems great for if you have a laptop. The issue is I really want a solution that can be used on an iPad or an Android device.

iCloud

I tried Apple's iCloud, but I didn't think it was easy to set up and means I would have to be way more connected to iTunes than I want to be. Not enough freedom.  I'm going to do some more research to see if it may be really useful remotely, but it only works for iOS and not Android.







AirPlay

Is really slick for streaming video from a PC or MAC to an iOS device (iPad). Really easy to set up and simple to use. It doesn't work for Android and I could not figure out how to make it work remotely, (although I think it says it can when you install it.)


ZappoTV

IS easy to set up and allows you to easily share media on all the devices on your home network. IT makes use of firmware already installed on Televisions. Worked great as long as all the mobile devices, PS3, and TV are on the same LAN. Can't use it Remotely.

AllShare

Is Samsung's app that is used for medai serving. It comes pre-installed on all their devices. I still haven't consistently been able to make it work. And everything has to be on the same LAN


Air Playit

Had me real excited at first, but I was disappointed by how hard it seemed to get it to work. It's supposed to work for Android and iOS but it's only easy to use on iOS. I mean it was real nice on my iPad running locally but it kept crashing my Galaxy S Tab. And I could not get the setting right to run it remotely even on the iPad.


Tappin

Is really good. Very, Very Easy to set up. And you can access all of your files! All of them, even remotely.  There is a free version that is serviceable.  The only downside is that the free version does not stream. If you try to play a video, it's downloaded to your mobile device instead of streamed.  I can see some real good uses for this one! Worked on iPad 2 and  Android 3.1 Galaxy Tab.


Tonido

Of all the Apps and services I looked at, I think Tonido is the best. Not only is it easy to set up, but the free version does stream music/audio and video! It even works remotely.


All in all, I think Tonido and Tappin are your best options if you want to stream video and audio and file serving in your own personal cloud environment.