If all of our data is soon going to be held in a cloud, it only makes sense that developer NearVerse is aiming to eliminate all physical media sharing with its new free iPhone app, which debuted at this year’s SXSW. LoKast, short for “local casting,” creates mini social networks among users in close proximity, which then allow users to share media content, chat and then dispose of the network when they walk away.
To get started with LoKast, you’ll need to enter an email address; then you’ll want to head to the settings panel to create your user name and setup a user icon if you like. Through the LoKast button, you’ll be able to find other LoKast users within about 300 feet (plus some standard featured LoKast content).
Using LoKast, you’ll be able to share 30-second samples of songs in your iPod library with other users, and if they like it, they’ll be able to download the track through iTunes. You can also share photos, videos and contact information and browse Web links side-by-side. While it was easy to populate my media library and pull content from others, I was unable to find a way to store media outside of the LoKast iPhone app—like saving a photo to the camera roll, for instance.
NearVerse claims that LoKast is optimized to run over whatever network connection is available—whether it’s Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or carrier networks—but I found that even with two LoKast-enabled phones next to each other, the service would only work with Wi-Fi. The only real problem that LoKast faces is building up a user base—without one, the iPhone app doesn’t provide much use.
