Tech Blog

FullBlast lets you stream music from your iPhone to your PS3 or Xbox 360

by Blogger on ‎07-31-2012 10:18 PM

     FullBlast screens.jpg

 

It’s arguable that there isn’t enough integration between smartphones and game consoles, but FullBlast offers some cool functionality to bridge the two together when it comes to playing music. In a nutshell, it lets you take the music you have stored on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and stream it directly to your PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 for playback on your TV, and whatever sound system you have hooked up to it.

 

Since Apple doesn’t officially support DLNA, and the two game consoles aren’t entirely DLNA-friendly, either, FullBlast maneuvers between the limitations and bridges a wireless connected between the two via Wi-Fi. You can think of this a bit like AirPlay for the PS3 and Xbox 360, though there’s also the added benefit that you can stream music over to a Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer running Windows Media Player.

 

Actually, because FullBlast works on DLNA, any DLNA-enabled TV or media player could recognize it, too. That means you could play all the music from your phone through a sound system. Definitely ideal when entertaining friends at your place, but even better when you can play your music as a guest at someone else’s.

 

I won’t go in-depth with a how-to here because the instructions are very clear in how to get this going. So long as both the iOS device and the console are on the same network, the app configures the connection, where you will then see your phone show up under the Music Apps menu on the Xbox 360 or the Music part of the PlayStation menu.

 

Once you get it going, you should expect a slight delay when skipping tracks, pausing or raising the volume. In fact, skipping tracks quickly will cause a delay that plays the first few seconds of just about every song along the way. Makes for an interesting mix of sounds. And just as importantly, you can’t have the app in the background for more than 10 minutes or else it loses its connection. The settings also have an option for “High Quality Streaming”, which is turned off by default. Turn it on and you will get better fidelity, though sometimes the difference isn’t overly obvious.

 

A nice touch is that you can control playback, even when your iOS device is locked. Double-click the Home button and do what you want. As you might expect, all this streaming over a couple of hours can really do a number on the battery, so plugging it into a power source over hours of streaming is a great idea.

 

The app isn’t without its hiccups, so there may be the odd time where it skips a second or two, but that may also depend on the Internet connection. It also depends on the device you’re using. An iPhone 4 or 4S will do just fine, but a 3GS might not be so good. Same with an iPod Touch that’s a few years old. Anything new will work just fine.

 

At $1.99 on the App Store, it’s a pretty decent price for the convenience it provides. At the same time, it might be a bit high for something you just want to play around with. Look out for FullBlast to be offered at half price or free on any site or app that advertises app discounts. It’s been on there a couple of times in the last few months.

 

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