Browse Your Phone From Your PC Browser
Remote Access is beta release from XDA member link8506 that lets you browse the contents of your phone from your PC’s web browser. So you can easily transfer files but beyond this there are two really neat features. The first is viewing photos. Once you have enabled access, on your web browser you can see the photos on your phone. There are thumbnails across the bottom of your PC’s browser of the pics from your phone and when you click on them you get a larger view of the pic on your PC. It’s a pretty neat way to look at photos on a larger screen. Just have a look at the inserted pic for a sense as to how it looks. The second really impressive feature deals with music. Again, once connected you can browse and listen to music stored on your phone through your PC. Aside from the aesthetics of this app, the program is only installed on your phone. There’s no local client on the PC so anywhere you go you can easily transfer files, play your music and show some pics on a larger platform. All you need to do is connect your PC over wifi or ActiveSync, then type the IP into your web browser and you’re set. Oh and as a bonus there’s a registry editor included as well.
This is still a beta with more features to come but I have to admit I like where this is going. It’s a really nice way to show off your phone’s contents and since no PC software is included it’s an easy method to share your media wherever you go. For more info check out this XDA thread and the download is available here.
UPDATE: A new version (3.2) is available from Julien’s website. The original version had a time bomb that would have expired. IE6 compatibility, data transfer rate and other bug fixes are included.
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Comments
Julien MANICI @hmm
I’m the author of this application and I understand your fear, as I’m myself very careful with apps coming from unknown developers.
As you can see on my profile on xda, I signed up on this forum two years ago, but I never had to post anything because there was always the informations I was looking for on existing posts.
Nothing I can say would be enough to prove my app is not harmful, but the popularity of one of my other application should show you that many people already trust me (including some people at microsoft, as you can see in the links of this page: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/This+Week+On+Channel+9/TWC9-Sven-Groot-Beer-taste-test-Office-Web-ASPNET-Auto-Starts-System-IO-changes/ )
Anyway there can’t be any security risk PC side, since nothing gets installed on your computer when using this.
steve I would love to have this work over 3G! Having access to my phones pictures and doing file transfers from any PC would be great! That’s software I’d pay for!
jimski I understand the “wow’ factor of this app (very nice idea), but wouldn’t your phone typically be a couple feet from the viewing PC, making USB or WiFi connections practical solutions.
I guess with a 3G connection you could have a 3rd party view your photos – transfer files from afar using a PC, but can’t you sort of do that already with file sharing sites, email, etc. Trying to grasp the potential end use for this app.
davidk Jimski – Not everyone has wifi set up and some people don’t even have activesync (in 2009!:)). For me it would be an ease thing. I always have 3G on so why do any other steps. Also if I go to another persons place think of the simlicity of doing nothing more than typing in an IP and they can see photos, listen to music, etc. You can share your photos today but then you’re uploading them all…this solution is more like browsing a library of photos.
Julien MANICI @steve, jimski, and davidk
I’m discussing about the 3G connection feature request on XDA, I’m sure a lot of people (including me) would be interested by that, but there is no easy way for me to implement it, more info here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=586654
[...] Read more about the app at its home page here, on XDA-Dev here, download the beta here or use our Microsoft tag (gettag.mobi). Via FuzeMobility.com [...]
jimski @davidK – OK, now I got it. Never thought of the “being at a friends house and sharing data” concept. That’s a good use.
So then you would probably need some kind of 3rd party server (can’t get a fixed IP through 3G). That’s how I have my Linksys camera setup at home. I don’t want to pay for a fixed IP address at home but I can login to the camera from any PC via SoloLink. This is a fee based system ($20 year/I think). Wonder how many users would be willing to pay for access.
[...] page here, on XDA-Dev here, download the beta here or use our Microsoft tag (gettag.mobi). Via FuzeMobility.com Powered by: Phone-review.org addthis_url = [...]
Julien MANICI @jimski
the problem is not about dynamic IPs
That would be very easy to solve with a free dyndns like service.
The problem is that most mobile network operators don’t provide a public IP address. They provide a private IP address (like 10.0.200.5) that is not routable over the internet! Mobile devices access the internet through a NAT device operated by their mobile provider. But a computer on the internet can’t ping or etablish connection to devices connected to a mobile network, since the NAT translation won’t work in this direction.
The only solution is to use a server to relay data between the mobile device and the phone, or make the phone connect directly to the computer (but that is not always possible due to firewalls, proxies, and nat devices)
jimski @Julien – Thank you for the explanation. Seems then that 3G connectivity is something that a service provider like AT&T can most easily resolve and probably offer as a pay per month service for access, which would make them happy. Don’t know where that leaves your exciting new app, but maybe you need to talk to someone.
Julien MANICI @jimski :
Sure it would be more efficient if mobile network operators decided to give people public IP addresses. But this is not gonna happen, since this would need important changes (although mostly software based) and mobile operators don’t care about the 0.001% of Windows mobile users who want to use this kind of remote access app. Even selling a subscription based service to have a public IP address will not interest them, because too few people will want to pay for that, compared to the cost of changing a network infrastructure.
jimski @Julien – Actually I was thinking more of a service provider using their server to route connections thru to mobile devices, so the provider would have total control. I may be oversimplifying something that is very difficult but it certainly seems doable. This could work for anything that used 3G, like smartphones or Net Books. It could allow any PC web browser to communicate with a mobile device, without any extra hardware, servers, etc. on the users side. Using some snazzy software (like yours) users could share music, photos, video, files and other stuff. And make software available for every platform, including iPhone. Hey, AT&T charges $1.99 per month to access their Wikipedia applet (which is otherwise free), so why not a few bucks a month for the freedom to share info. At that price point it might even interest me.
vyapaar I downloaded and tried it. Works perfect for pics..but when I click on the music stored on the phone, it does not play.
Am I missing a step ?? What can I do to fix it ??
Julien MANICI @vyapaar
This feature was designed to work on Internet Explorer (it uses windows media player activex control). But it actually works with Google Chrome too which seems to be able to use the WMP activex control.
also have a fuze but i rarely use...
I’m a little concerned about trying this out seeing that the poster isnt credible(?) on xda with only 2 posts(all from his thread). since this app connects with your pc i want to be cautious. Is there any reason to worry?