Orb Opens iPhones - No More iTunes Jail

Play all your media on iPhone or touch — Downloaded videos, TiVo recordings, live TV

EMERYVILLE, Calif. — In a major breakthrough for iPhone and iPod touch owners, Orb Networks today announced that owners of these popular Apple devices can now play all their media – music, recorded and live TV, downloaded and home movies, and more – directly from their computers. Orb’s new OrbLive iPhone application enables users to enjoy content in any video format – downloaded BitTorrent files, TiVo-to-Go files, DivX, Mov, MP4, even live video and TV streams.

The Apple® iPhone® or iPod® touch, while extremely popular, offer a limited multi-media experience, since they are constrained by the titles offered via iTunes. Many other less expensive phones on the market deliver broader access to media files and formats, because they stream content and are not tethered to iTunes. In addition, since a growing number of media publishers are offering their titles for free, having to pay for them via iTunes makes the iPhone and iPod touch expensive to operate, not just expensive to buy.

“Face it, sync-ing was a good way to get your media 5 or 10 years ago. Now it is just a way for Apple to control – and make money on – things you watch and listen to,” said Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks. “NBC makes their shows available for free on their website, and TiVo says it is OK to watch your recordings on your computer; why does Steve Jobs get to decide what you watch? Before you know it, Apple is going to be like that soup guy on Seinfeld. ‘No Tivo for you!'”

With OrbLive on your iPhone or iPod touch and the free Orb Media Center application on the PC where you have all your media, all the media from that PC – music, TiVo-to-Go recordings, videos and movies in any format – are all available while you are away. Users no longer have to sync with iTunes or wait for titles to become available. If the media can play on the PC, it will play on the iPhone.