Finnish startup Linkotec is close to debuting the public beta version of dazzboard, a browser-based media manager that it says has all the goodness of iTunes but without the disadvantages of Apple’s closed environment.
Granted, we hear that a lot, but I’ve been invited to take an early peek at what they’ve been cooking and came away fairly impressed.
Dazzboard is currently invitation-only but is shooting for a Wednesday release of the public beta version. TechCrunch readers with limited patience (yes, you there) can already sign up to take it for a spin before that: 500 of you can register for an account right here. Note that the web application currently requires Windows – a Mac-compatible version is in the works – and works best when you’re using the latest Internet Explorer or Firefox browser.
With dazzboard, you can plug a wide range of mobile devices into your computer and easily transfer multimedia content like photos, videos and music to the web-based management interface, after which you can organize all your files and seamlessly share them through a variety of social networking services. It goes both ways: with the use of the ‘Dazz me’ bookmarklet you can download content from the Web to the media manager and distribute it to your favorite social network or your mobile device once it’s transferred to your account.
Dazzboard supports any portable device that can be used in mass storage or media transfer mode. The company divides the range of portable media players and mobile phones it supports into two groups: full supported devices (supported and maintained by the Dazzboard database, meaning no specific user action is required) and so-called generic devices (not fully supported by Dazzboard so handled as a generic media hub). In the latter case, it’s possible not all functionality of the media manager will work without any glitches.
All in all, dazzboard worked as advertised with the few portable devices I used to test it, and it does a great job syncing media content from and to social networks like YouTube, Flickr, etc. Of course, supporting ‘thousands of devices’ means that the company risks getting flooded with just as many device-specific support questions on a daily basis if it takes off. There’s a reason why closed platforms sometimes win.
Give it a whirl yourself and tell us what you think.
Just a heads up – the link says the invitations are taken. But I changed it from
http://www.dazz...ites/Dazzboard/
to
http://www.dazz...tes/Techcrunch/
and it worked.
Ah, nice one! I wish I’d refreshed before I commented about the link.
Thanks!
Thanks! It’s windows only though
“Sorry, this invitation pool is not open anymore!” 500 invites gone already?
Hm…
“Sorry, this invitation pool is not open anymore!”
Sounds like an interesting service, but did 500 people really already sign up?
Hey Brandon,
Check out what I said earlier (ie http://www.dazz...tes/Techcrunch/ works, but not the link in the post)
> works best when you’re using the latest Internet Explorer or Firefox browser
actually it looks like FF 3.5 isn’t supported yet.
heiko: FF3.5 will be supported in the public beta launch next week.
“All the goodness of iTunes” … except iPhone support, right?
There are limited videos on the site.
Thats a -1.
Site felt kinda laggy and slow on my IE8. The site doesn’t work on FF3.5
It did well in recognizing my Creative ZEN X-FI.
Breaking News. Arturo Gatti found dead in his hotel room. He was 37.
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Just signed up and tried it. Seems to only support IE and FireFox on specific Windows OSs. No support of Macs at all.
Yes, dazzboard currently supports Windows XP/Vista and Windows 7. We are working with Mac support. Be patient..
Tero Salonen
CEO
LinkoTec / Dazzboard
Oh my god am I late. Let me check it out then
Does it transfer DRM music purchased through itunes?
Doesn’t support the iPod or iPhone. I would consider that a pretty significant failing for something being compared to iTunes.
We started the development with Windows/mobile phones environment that is lagging most in media management, but iPods and iPhones are in the road map and coming.
Tero Salonen
CEO
LinkoTec / Dazzboard
Doesn’t work on Firefox 3.5, but I believe it will be sorted out before they release it for public beta, unless they want people to shoot emails to them complaining that this whole thing just wouldn’t work.
Hmm, I see Larry Chiang, the Stanford MBA gai who works for Business Week was mentioned in the article. What ever happened to him? Does anyone know?
in Palo Alto
Can I just use this to sync my device without the social networking?
I hope this will work with the latest Firefox browser.
If at any point they consider charging for this – I hope they sort out their asertions on the website!
Applied for a beta login based on the statement on thier front screen that “dazzboard supports all your mobile devices (mobile phones, MP3 players and media players)” and all the hoo-haa around the web about it being an itunes competitor.
Well the whole thing couldn’t be further from the truth! No iPod or iPhone so a complete waste of my time.