Media servers, Smart TVs, Sony PS3s, Xbox 360s, media players, tablets, smartphones. Within the past few years, we’ve seen technologies that have transformed the living room, which has long been the mainstay for socializing between family members and friends, into a high-tech environment capable of even rivaling workplaces. But unlike the humans that share the same space, more often than not these hardware are not connected to each other.
So it’s left to software to help bridge together these devices. Enter Bianor’s award winning iMediaShare app for iOS and Android devices. Think of it as the glue that holds everything together or in the words of Bianor, turn your iOS or Android device into the ultimate remote control for your living room’s entertainment devices. The app takes on multiple roles, firstly you get to display content stored on your device to a connected Smart TV or to a media server such as the PS3 on the same WiFi network. The following list of supported players is not exhaustive:
- Smart TVs from Samsung (with AllShare), LG, Sony BRAVIA, Panasonic Viera, etc.
- Video Game Consoles: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft XBox 360
- Network Media Players: Apple TV, Sony Blu-ray, Popcorn Hour, WD TV Live, etc.
- Audio players: Denon, Sonos, Onkyo, Linn, Philips Streamium, Yamaha, etc.
- PC/Mac media servers: Twonky, Windows Media Player, etc.
- Other DLNA/UPnP compliant media players.
That’s pretty cool especially when you have tonnes of pictures or videos on your iPad or Galaxy Tab to show and you don’t want your friends and family to be limited to just 9.7″ of screen real estate. With iMediaShare, you get to share those media content to that huge Smart TV sitting in the living room or to that PS3 in your bachelor pad.
Secondly, iMediaShare has a number of online video channels available for your viewing pleasure right on your iOS or Android devices. The Full version of the app comes with a number of channels in HD, and the channel library for the Premium version includes: Animal Planet, Audi TV, Bild, Beet TV, Break.com, CNBC, CNN, COIN-OP TV, College Humor, Dailymotion, Deutsche Welle, Driving Sports, Earth Touch, Engadget, Euronews, Facebook, France 24, Funny or Die, G4, Harvard Business Review, HDNet, Les Debiles, MaYoMo, Motorz (HD), NASA TV, NY Times, Picasa, PortalZINE, PR Newswire, PSN, Revision3 (HD), Showtime, Spiegel Online, TED Talks (HD), The Onion, TWiT TV, Victoria’s Secret, VideoBASH, Vimeo, White House, YDN Design, YouTube (HD).
I know that YouTube (HD) alone is worth the price of admission for the Premium version of the app (USD 5), and the best part is, like the local media files on your iOS or Android devices, you get to display these online content onto your TV or media player. Yup, who needs a Mac and an Apple TV when your iPad (or iPhone or Android device) and a high-speed Internet connection would suffice.
Last but not least, this is probably the killer feature brought about by the latest update to iMediaShare: the ability to discover and access photos, music and video on local network media servers! Yup, if you have a Windows 7 PC sitting in your living room, you can use iMediaShare to access the movies stored in that PC and display it onto a normal LCD TV in your kitchen which is connected to an Apple TV. There are plenty of possibilities with this app and you get to try it for FREE with the Lite version. As mentioned earlier, the Premium version is available for USD 5 on the iTunes App Store (click here)
For more details, visit https://www.imediashare.tv/