That is exactly correct. The application can be as narrow as you wish. Basically, the important things to remember are:
- It lets you push commands without needing a push server.
- It works on the iPhone or Android (and even Windows mobile, and some blackberries).
- It works with most recent major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), including IE 8, and even Opera.
- It lets you write apps without thinking of it as "sending messages", you just call the function as if it were locally defined.
- Your "app" is hosted on the same server as your website -- the controller is just an HTML page. When TubeMote "wraps" around the controller page (when the controller page gets loaded up inside TubeMote -- and by the way, TubeMote is itsejf just a web page), it enables it to send messages in real time (except that from the point of view of the developer, they need not be thought of as messages, only function calls that look like they are local). This means that all web developers are already "compatible" with it. You don't have to learn anything new to leverage the power.
We chose the term "website" because it is the least inaccurate relevant term we could think of -- but maybe "web application" works better. What we really mean is "any digital surface powered by a web browser". I am not sure if that helps. We believe there is a whole class of unexplored web applications that this API will power.
Here is just a small subset of possibilities:
- Controlling a slideshow (not just on the projector, but on all the participants' laptops simultaneously)
- A chat system/video playback app that lets friends watch videos together at the same time, around the world.
- A remote control for a public TV connected to the web (i.e. in a bar).
- A remote control for a web-based game.
- Controlling a web-cam in real-time.
- Controlling an RC car powered by a computer running a web browser, with a local client receiving commands from the remote control.
- A voting system attached to a public billboard at a sporting event, where the public can vote from their phones whether a foul was commited.
- A remote for a personalized music player.
- If the mobile device has a GPS, and the browser has permission to access it, then commands could be passed to a website based on the user's location. This could, for example, trigger lights to turn on or off. An algorithm could be in place that adjusts lights appropriately if more than one person is in the room.
- Lazily watching videos on a screen from the couch, with (or without) a Google TV or an Apple TV.
Nope. Sorry, never heard of it. TubeMote does not use node.js or web sockets (i.e. TubeMote works even with Internet Explorer). If you check the whois records, tubemote.com was registered a full month before the birth of this person's idea.