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Skifta, a great little DLNA home media sharing app for Android, has just exited beta and is now officially 1.0. On top of the expected batch of bug fixes, they’ve also added support for 3G streaming, so you can access content stored remotely on your own hard drives, or through various cloud services when outside of a Wi-Fi network. For now, Skifta hangs its hat on sharing music, video and pictures to Wi-Fi-enabled entertainment systems hooked up to your local network, but the addition of 3G streaming means you’ll be able to access all of that stuff right on your device whereever you are. The Android app also has Share To integration built in now, so multimedia can be shot over to Skifta and your home entertainment center right from wherever the video or music resides. Finally, Skifta 1.0 includes a new desktop media center plug-in, so you can easily manage remote media access.
I’ve had some time to play around with Skifta, and though the beta didn’t have stuff like a seeker bar in the video to move the timeline around, and sometimes responsiveness was a little slow over the network, I’m still a huge fan of this app primarily because there’s basically nobody else really diving into DLNA. It’s a great standard, and though most gadgets that are compatible will have some native apps to share multimedia, Skifta takes things a step further by bringing web services like Rdio and YouTube into the mix. Skifta hinted to me that they’re on the verge of securing a preload deal with a big OEM, and seeing as the app was built through a Qualcomm incubator project, I suspect it won’t be the last phone we see shipped with the app. Skifta’s not married to the DLNA standard though, and are open to alternatives as they come up; Wi-Fi Direct, wireless USB, and Bluetooth 4.0 come to mind, but that all depends on TVs and stereo systems upgrading appropriately.
If you’d like to give the latest version of Skifta a shot, it’s in the Android Market over here.
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
