New SlingPlayer Mobile versions on the way
Great news, you placeshifting fiends of the world: we've learned that Sling Media is hard at work crafting new versions of its SlingPlayer Mobile for S60, Windows Mobile Standard, and Windows Mobile Professional devices. The gist of the updates will be to better support newer handsets on all three platforms; specifically, one improvement we've heard mentioned is that full-screen video will look better on the N95 8GB's huge (by S60 standards, anyway) display. We've tested full-screen Slinged content on the N95 8GB and we personally think it looks great as it is, so it'll be interesting to see just how good they can get it. Look for the new releases to pop up this spring.Separately, Sling tells us that development on its SlingPlayer for BlackBerry devices is still coming along swimmingly, and they're targeting a release some time this year. In fact, the company actually demoed the player on an AT&T 8800 and a T-Mobile Curve at MWC last month, so we figure that's got to be a good sign.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John @ Mar 15th 2008 1:51PM
I hope this is free to users who have already purchased sling mobile 1.5. I just bought it today so I could check the hockey scores while I'm out drinking green beer!
Dave Zatz @ Mar 17th 2008 3:24PM
The upcoming updates will be free to those who've already purchased a SlingPlayer Mobile license. Additionally, purchased licenses can be transfered to any of our mobile platforms. -Dave Zatz, Sling Media
Gadget Chick @ Mar 15th 2008 2:56PM
i really hope they are working on the iphone sdk...
Ian @ Mar 15th 2008 8:19PM
Definitely, with the iPhone's awesome multimedia capabilities let's hope they're using the SDK!
Even though this would be considered a bandwidth hog, and a no-go set forth by Apple's SDK restrictions on the network, it would be perfect on WiFi.
KenC @ Mar 15th 2008 8:55PM
I think Sling will run into issues when it tries to sling to an iPhone because it uses WMV. The iPhone won't play WMV. The solution seems to be the newest Slingplayer due in Q3, their real HD player, because that will sling H.264, which will play on an iPhone.
russ @ Mar 15th 2008 9:24PM
i smell flip4iPhone...
Harley3k @ Mar 16th 2008 1:00AM
Even if they're working with the iPhone SDK for an iPhone player, Apple has to "approve" them to be a developer to publish the app. Not only would such an app be a potential bandwidth-hog (as already mentioned), but it would potentially compete with Apple's own iTunes sales. Why buy/rent iTunes content to watch on your phone when you can connect to your Tivo at home?
I hope it happens as I love my iPhone, but something tells me it may not.
malkmus @ Mar 16th 2008 6:36PM
because the current slingbox pro supports streaming from apple tv, so seems like the relationship is all ready there.
Harley3k @ Mar 17th 2008 11:49PM
Does it really take a relationship to sling from AppleTV? You just need to plug the video outputs into the slingbox and figure out the remote-control codes. I control my aTV with a Logitech Harmony remote, but I doubt they have a relationship with apple for this.
But I do hope I am wrong.
sean @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:42AM
The Slingbox pro HD will use H.264 with the CABAC option for even greater compression efficiency.
To my knowledge, apple's H.264 uses CAVLC (less CPU intensive at the price of compression efficiency) instead of CABAC to ensure smooth playback across the whole apple product range.
That might be a problem.
Apple's MPEG4 implemantations (be that part 2 or part 10) have always been somewhat inferior anyway.