Device Compatibility & Performance
Orb support for handheld devices is limited to those that include a media player that allows you to stream media. This means that most Windows Mobile-based PDAs and smartphones will work (we used a Windows Mobile-based Treo 700w), but it excludes - at least for the moment - the popular Palm OS-based Treo 650. Orb will also work with a variety of Audiovox, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony-Ericsson phones. (The company maintains a device compatibility list on its Web site.)

Given that streaming a file is a much more performance-intensive process than simply downloading it, Orb is particularly dependent on system performance and available network bandwidth for proper functioning. Orb recommends a system with at least a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 processor or equivalent for optimal streaming performance, and each time you log into Orb it reports the speed of your PC's upstream connection as well as that of the network you're logging in from (typically a cellular or WLAN connection). Orb consistently reported our cable modem's upstream bandwidth as about 350 kbps, and the bandwidth on the Verizon cellular data network as 115 kbps (we had the National Access service, as opposed to the faster EV-DO based Broadband Access, which isn't yet available in our area).

Accessing Files
When you download the Orb application onto your PC (XP is required), it automatically catalogs the multimedia contents of the My Documents folder for the user that installed the software. (You can add your own custom folders too.) Orb also catalogs the XP Shared folders, so it can work well on systems with multiple user profiles even if you're not logged into the computer back home. You can only have one system per Orb account, and though you can create multiple users on it, they all get the same level of Orb access.

There's no software to install on the mobile device, and you access your system by logging in at Orb's SSL-encrypted Web site at my.orb.com. From your browser you can access remote files, which are automatically organized by media type and interspersed with additional streaming audio and video content from various providers (along with the occasional ad from vendors like Amazon.com).

You can easily tag any piece of content as a favorite so it's easier to find on your next visit, and while you can also specify files to share via e-mail links, you can't do that from a handheld device—only from a regular PC. Orb also provides a File Browser which lets you browse the contents of your remote system's hard drive. As with similar features in other remote access products, we're not entirely comfortable with this comprehensive level of access when only a username and password is needed to log in.

We had mixed results using Orb to stream various types of files to our 700w. Perhaps not surprisingly, photos displayed without any problems, but getting files to stream was more of a hit or miss proposition. Video or audio files would often stream without incident, but frequently they would appear to buffer up and then simply not play, or indicate that playback was taking place even though no audio could be heard.

This occurred with the provider content as well as with our own, and since we didn't experience these problems when using Orb to access the same remote computer via a conventional system and a speedy broadband connection, the 700w would appear to be the culprit—or perhaps more specifically, the comparatively slower and more variable (read: less reliable) nature of a cellular-based data connection. (Orb says it adjusts it's streaming based on network performance as well as other factors like the codec and bitrate of the file and the capabilities of the display.)

It's nice to be able to stream media from a remote PC to a handheld device instead of having to download it. We wish Orb's streaming had worked a bit more consistently, but it's a testament to the need for a speedy and reliable data connection. For many, the software may work a lot better from a regular PC than from a PDA or smartphone, but if you've got a handheld device with a reasonably fast data connection, Orb is certainly worth checking out.