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Orb MyCasting Fuels YouTube’s Viral Video Craze With First PC To Mobile Sharing Via Text Message



Orb Users Can Now Send Text Messages with Links to Share Popular Internet Videos Direct from the PC to Mobile Phones

EMERYVILLE, Calif. — February 8, 2007 — Orb NetworksTM today announced its free MyCastingTM service (www.orb.com) now allows users to share Internet videos from their PCs to mobile phones by text message links allowing people to instantly enjoy videos from popular Internet sites including YouTubeTM, GoogleTM, DailyMotionTM and YahooTM. This new capability, offered first in beta to users in the U.S., will be rolled out internationally in the coming weeks.

"Demand for Internet video on the PC is insatiable with more than 100 million streams daily on YouTube alone and many of those streams are being forwarded and shared virally via email and IM," said Joe Costello, Chairman and CEO of Orb Networks. "Those are staggering numbers considering these sites didn't exist 18 months ago - so we know consumer demand is high. Now factor in more than 120 million handsets today are video-streaming enabled worldwide - and it's pretty clear consumers will quickly seek that viral ability to share Internet videos to the mobile phone. That's what Orb did."

"We're breaking out Internet video sharing from the PC only and onto the mobile phone," said Costello. "Think about how you typically find out about an Internet video - your friend pings you on IM or sends you an email with a link so you can watch it. Orb takes that spontaneous moment of sharing to another level - you send a text message with a link to the video from your PC to your friend's mobile phone. They click and watch anytime, anyplace. It's that simple."

Mobile sharing is the latest in a series of Internet video capabilities introduced by Orb in the past two months. Orb was the first to bring Internet videos to mobile devices with its MyCasting service, as well as the ability to search for, find and play Internet videos directly on mobile devices using the phone's native video player.

"Mobile sharing is another way for consumers to bust a bigger hole through the walled garden of closed mobile content that carriers like Verizon continue to support," said Costello. "Consumers will engage more if they have more choices. Carriers should worry about giving consumers the best possible service and leave content selection and how they choose to consume it up to the customer."

How Orb Internet Video Sharing on Mobile Works:

  1. Download Orb onto your always-on Windows home PC and then download the OrbThis Plug-In to any Web browser for quick addition of Internet videos to your Orb wherever you are. It takes less than three minutes.

  2. Go to mycast.orb.com, find your "recently added" online videos in your video channel and select the one you want to share.

  3. Click on "Share," select SMS, type in the mobile phone number and hit send.

 

More about Orb MyCasting

Orb MyCasting is more than just mobile Internet video. Orb unlocks the home computer, making it possible for people to organize, enjoy and share their music, photos, TV (live and pre-recorded), documents and other digital media when (time) and where (place) they want it, using the devices - be it a mobile phone, PDA or laptop - that they already own.

A simple download of the Orb software to an always-on Windows PC is all it takes to start MyCasting. Instantly, the Orb applications allow users to stream media feeds from their home computer to any Web-enabled mobile device with a browser and a streaming media player. No specialized mobile software or separate carrier contract is required to enjoy Internet videos on mobile.

Due to the native format of online video, very few mobile consumers could access Web-based clips on their mobile phones. MyCasting makes the process easy, by reformatting media to play on mobile devices. Orb automatically transcodes the video or audio streams into the appropriate media format, bitrate, and if necessary, screen resolution for the user's mobile phone.

The Orb MyCasting service is available for free download at www.orb.com and the OrbThis Plug-In is available at www.orb.com/orbthis .

About Orb Networks, Inc.

Orb Networks is an award-winning developer of software and services that unlock the digital media stored on personal computers. Orb MyCasting gives consumers secure, free, instant, and everywhere-access to everything from their photos and video to TV and music on virtually any Web-enabled device. The company's partners include: AOL Winamp, AMD, Creative Labs, Hauppauge, Hutchison, Nokia, and Vodafone. Orb Networks is a privately held company in Emeryville, Calif. For more information about Orb Networks and the Orb MyCasting service, please visit www.orb.com.

Orb and MyCast are trademarks of Orb Networks, Inc. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Orb Networks is not affiliated in any way with YouTube, Inc.

 

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