Over at the Qualcomm booth today was a strange little application called Mikz from a company called Conveneer. Just launched on select Qualcomm phones, Mikz gives your cell phone a URL so that other people can browse the media on your handset.
I know. First reaction: Huh? But here’s why it’s cool. You can set permissions for the people you want to have access and for types of media you want them to see or hear. For example, with Mikz I could have all of my CES pics on my phone instantly available online for anyone I want to see them. And while it’s not ready yet, the VP I spoke to said video support is on its way.
Mikz also has a Facebook widget (I foresee pic-publishing disasters at college parties everywhere) and can show your location on a map. The company says more phones with the app are on their way. I’ll update this post if we manage to get a listing of currently supported phones, carriers, and regions.
That’s actually pretty cool. I can think of ideas to use it already. Imagine setting it up with Flicker to just suck pics out of your phone whenever you take the pictures, without having to do anything.
RSS feed from your phone. Add a contact, or note or calendar event on your phone and external apps can suck them in.
Anything that allows for the creation of third party – off phone apps that can acceses and use the content to your phone is terrific.
What about pushing content to the phone. Does the app support that?
Interesting.
No, no, no! That’s the antithesis of “cloud computing” and actually a big waste of your valuable time – possibly more evil than locking everything to a desktop computer.
All the big media sites ( Flickr, YouTube, etc. ) already have mobile extensions that are open and easy to use and don’t “lock” your data up in a walled garden.
Where I can protest this particular app and the people behind it!