September 15, 2004
File-sharing leaps from internet to cellphones
Music, videos and games could soon be swapped between cellphones using a mobile file-sharing network developed by phone maker Nokia, reports New Scientist Magazine.
"Lorant Farkas and colleagues, at the Nokia Research Center in Budapest, Hungary, have adapted the peer-to-peer (P2P) schemes used by internet users to share files and tested them on their 6600 model cellphones
Computers connected to a P2P network act as both client and server and also relay messages to neighbouring computers, removing the need for a centralised server. Popular internet file-sharing networks such as Gnutella and Kazaa allow users to search one another's hard drives for music or video files and then download them directly.
The prototype network developed by Farkas can currently be used to share images and text. "Nowadays you can take pictures and record videos with a smart phone," Farkas told New Scientist. "We were primarily thinking of this kind of content."
But future versions should go further. Farkas says developing the ability to share digital music, compressed in formats such as MP3, is also a priority"
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