Pocketster Pro Arrives

I received a comment yesterday from Razvan Dragomirescu, CTO of Simedia, producers of Pocketster/Pocketster Pro. It seems the team there has been quite busy upgrading their system and launching the new Professional version, while also managing to accommodate user demand/requests.

For the most part, the main addition to Pocketster Basic is the ability to hook into your existing WiFi networks with the new Infrastructure-Mode support. The really exciting things are seen in Pocketster Pro, which will set you back just under 15 Euros. Here's a summary of what's included:

Pocketster Pro

• All the features of Pocketster Basic
• User-defined document root for file sharing
• iPod Module

That last item really deserves a lot more attention. From what I understand about it, you can essentially chain your iPod off of your Pocket PC in such a manner that you can stream music right off of the little white wonder. This is really something fundamentally different than what Apple had in mind ;).

iTunes 4.6 and higher supported shared libraries, which essentially allowed someone to browse your music collection and stream it to their machine. Of course, there were no file transfers occurring. In this scenario, though, the files can be streamed or physically transferred. Naturally, any DRM that existed beforehand still remains in place, but the millions of "liberated" tunes are now even more free to roam.

The main limitation I see in this arrangement is the combination. I know that the Pocket PC is making great strides and has matched the Palm in market share. Still, that makes me wonder how many people are PocketPC and iPod users. The better question, then, really is how long before these smart fellows figure out how to "mount" other hardware that's dominant in the landscape, say a Creative MP3 player or even a Sony MiniDisc.

The notion of a personal server may be closer than it seems. I'm looking forward to see where Pocketster evolves to next. For the original comments, check here.