If it has a web browser, put it to use!

This has been my motto lately. I had lots of devices lying in drawers, not being used anymore. I stopped playing video games on the PSP since I got my first iPhone. I had a WebOS smartphone only ever used for development and toying around. My Kindle was rarely used as was my iPad. I started thinking, "What a shame."

Here's all these technology enthusiasts like me, buying new smartphones, tablets, gaming devices every year. And so many of the aged devices just lying around, doing nothing. They were replaced by a newer generation, or a different, more modern kind of device.  But there's one thing most of them have in common:

They have a display, some input methods, WiFi and a web browser.

Browser devices. Awesome.

Following my motto, I've tried to make a generic solution to liberating these old devices. My ambition: It should be as easy as possible for developers to capture HTML5 devices and interact with them. They can be part of a bigger context where it's less important how fast they are or which OS they run. The web is the platform. If it has a browser, it should be put to use.

Use cases?

I've started thinking about different cases where this could be useful.

Flight simulator

In this case, connected devices get different roles in the game. Have the altimeter, airspeed indicator and magnetic compass on separate physical displays.

Video player

Main screen to be controlled by connected devices. As long as the connected device has some form of input controls, it will be possible to get a simple HTML interface for play, pause, volume etc.

Graffiti wall

Participants can use their smartphones to draw on an electronic graffiti wall.

However, I'm sure I still haven't figured out the best use case yet. There should be tons of interesting applications using this recipe. We know HTML5. What's to stop us from making awesome multi-device apps?

Your comments are welcome.