We had a feeling it was coming any day now, but now we have confirmation that Sling won't be leaving iPhone and iPod touch users in the lurch when it comes to streaming TV to their devices. The bad news is the software they showed us was pre-alpha proof-of-concept, and their whole situation is hamstrung by the fact that Apple hasn't officially accepted them into the developer program yet. So what we've seen is basically an app developed out of bounds for jailbroken devices -- thus it goes without saying that Sling won't be releasing it until they can do so legitimately. But assuming all goes well, they do intend to get it out the door by sometime this fall or winter. No word yet on the Android release. Video of the app in action after the break.
posted Jun 8th 2008 8:09PM
nice
Yes it is nice, and seems to be at least usable. I wish they would just release the app, bypassing Apple's 'official' stamp of approval. Some company is eventually going to realize that more than 50%, probably closer to 75% of the iPhones / iPod Touches out there are jailbroken and that they are missing a huge market.
I suspect the reasons hinge on 'not getting sued,' but as I understand it there is nothing illegal about using the open source iPhone toolchain that has been developed by the community. Jailbreaking is de facto legal; more than half of the owners of these devices do so and they (we) are Apple's best fan base. Suing us or those developing software in this manner would be as counterproductive as the music industry suing their best customers. The difference is that Jobs is not that stupid.
If you're reading this, Sling Media, please just release the application. If you have to, just release the source and say "it's an alpha version and we aren't developing it anymore, hands off no support of any kind" to wash your hands clean. Leak it if you have to.
50-75% of iphones are jailbroken??? hahahahaha
50-75% of iphone users haven't even heard of the term jailbroken. do you have any friends who don't read engadget?
Twice as many iPhones were sold than were activated on AT&T... while AT&T had the exclusive contract. So yeah, about 50%. At least.
I'm guessing that if Sling went and released this for jailbroken phones then Apple would keep them out of official development. Of course, if someone ELSE went and "got their hands on" a Sling client and released it, well, who's to blame?
Yup, John has the right numbers there. About 2x as many sold as activated on AT&T. So half are either jailbroken or really expensive paperweights for somebody's office.
But there certainly are a significant portion of the AT&T activated phones that are jailbroken... so the real number is well above 50%. The math isn't hard here. Apple doesn't care, they want more people using their hardware to get marketshare. AT&T does, but they have too good of a deal being the sole carrier (at least, until later today) in the US that they haven't made a huge stink about it either.
So I digressed a bit there, but I stand by the numbers I quoted earlier. Fifty to seventy-five percent seems reasonable, and this market is being completely missed.
Clak, I support you :)
Just because they weren't activated doesn't mean they're in use in the US jailbroken. It means many many of them were jailbroken and unlocked en masse for sale and use overseas. Here in Philadelphia, for blocks and blocks on Washington Ave, there are small cellphone dealers who were buying up iPhones in bulk and unlocking them for sale.
This is what primarily forced Apple into the two-per-customer and credit-only sales rules.
Clak is a troll. Even without a forum.
First! let me ask, is this post meant to inaugurate the iBrick 2 coverage?
Your not first. And even if you were first would it matter? is your life so sad that you have to have the first comment on an engadget story?
Clak, you're like diarrhea, nobody likes you and everyone just hope you go away as fast as you can.
Very promising developments for the iPhone/Touch platform. A viable statement for these products from Apple. The future for these products are very promising and exciting. The upcoming WWDC will only cement the fact that the iPhone/Touch and Apple are true innovators in this category. Unlike the recent announcement by MS that Zune is now a platform also. Hmmm seems to reek with the smell of "me too" from MS.
clikety clak.
I swear to god that I didn't even read your post, I just saw your name, voted you down and then added this reply to tell you that this action is going to happen all the time, to every post you add.
I hate you like magnesium hates water.
Of course apple hasn't welcomed them into the developer program, why would they want to welcome someone for whom they probably have a competing product in design?
Everyone hates you because you're a fucking annoying bitch of a obsessed fanboy.
Only someone who has something really wrong with them would take a day off work to sit at home and hit F5 on their computer eagerly waiting for the next update on what Steve Jobs is wearing and which finger he uses to scratch his ass. Then after an entire hour of BS and misleading financial and product statistics, announce some stupid update to a product that everyone already knew was coming.
Just voicing my opinion, now go fuck yourself.
Well I must say that clak sure knows how to get attention, negative though it may be.
i guess it's time for my obligatory iphone trolling statement.
*ahem*
ENJOY YOUR 3FPS VIDEO OVER EDGE!
~fin~
Well... no.
it wasn't the time and it shall never be.
now gtfo
Actually, SlingPlayer works well over a solid EDGE connection. My personal phone is a Palm Treo 680 on AT&T and I stream using the Palm OS SlingPlayer Mobile over EDGE very successfully. I can get a solid 15fps (which is often the limit for SPM due to phone resources more than bandwidth), and that's very watchable. I've streamed to 3G phones which don't do much better because the phone's CPU and/or RAM limits the stream before the link.
@clak
Well you do care enough to reply to me ;)
NEWS FROM SLING MEDIA...
Roby,
You're probably aware that the Apple WWDC starts Monday. I would say stay tuned for some news in the next few days.
-MegaZone, Sling Media
This was in response to a question about any updates regarding the iphone on their beta site I am a member of...
And now you know why I said that...
Clak, I am officially revoking your Apple fanatic membership, effective immediately. I am as Apple Fanboyish as you can get, and you honestly annoy the hell out of me. I am absolutely ecstatic about tomorrow too, but how about you make a post about the SlingPlayer, observe.
Wow, its good to finally get confirmation on this. I bought a SlingBox because I figured it would be better than the "free" orb, but have since been pretty unimpressed, still waiting for Flash based web streaming, but Sling would be missing something big if they ignored the large screen on the iPhone. Say what you want about the iPhone, but the fact the whole thing is a screen bodes pretty well for streaming video. Just hope the price is right. Kinda annoys me that I payed $200 for a device, but they charge me for each device I want to watch it on. The question is the speed on edge, even though, I plan to get the 3G iPhone, so I don't know how that will effect me.
I think you have just effectively attempted to make fun of me but made fun of yourself instead. I didn't know you let guys blow you. Is there something you need to tell us? Either way, congratulations. I don't even have to say anything to that, you did it all for me.
And I sit here and wonder why when I say I am an Apple Fanboy I get instantly Low Ranked despite whatever I say. Makes sense now.
clak = crap-loving anal kid
OMG! I've been waiting, trolling the slingmedia forums for this....
I just hope it leaks out so I can put it on my jailbroken iphone!!!!!
Hell I had a cracked version of this on my WinMo phone before this and I loved it! (of course it was 3G)....EDGE will be a drag.... just not going to watch sports over edge(cant read the scores or see the ball), used to EDGE out of town with it....
But WiFi is pretty prevelant...
On to modmyifone to see if it's alpha is out....
This would be great. i was hoping for earlier rather than later though. My Sling works fine on my HTC Tilt & N95 over 3G. When driving, I use the audio to listen to sports, but when on the train it can get wonky, as I go in and out of the 3G coverage areas in the U.S.
It does work over EDGE, but I would typically switch to audio only, or the slideshow feature.
I'm getting a slingbox this summer so I really hope they roll this out soon. who knows maybe they will release the alpha to the jailbreak community, other established companies have...
We (Sling) have no plans to release the jailbreak version outside of the company - well, even outside of a very small group within the company really. It is an engineering exercise and is not meant for wider distribution. The only iPhone client we currently plan to release is the official version built on the SDK.
did you name you iphone Nomi?
Clak, you're a failure in life and the world hates you. I think I may call your boss tomorrow and tell him the real reason you're not at work. Then you won't be able to afford the iPhone you missed work for.
Bitch please!
Bitch please!
Did I see a Sirius logo? :)
I noticed that too. Sirius would be smart to add their web-based streamer to the iPhone/Touch. I would pay $30 to have it.
Whoa - what's up with Sling not being accepted into the developer program? Is this an indication of a problem between them and Apple -- like maybe Apple is working on something similar?
It seems odd that Sling wouldn't already be officially in the program with the blessing of Apple.
Video streaming apps are against AT&T's terms of service. Even though it's perfectly legal to use it while on Wi-fi, Apple may be reluctant to release such software. It could also cut into Apple's intended profits for selling you video downloads.
This is why giving a company control over what applications may be released for a platform is a bad idea.
I stuck a video on YouTube of the iPhone SlingPlayer in action. The alpha software is pretty slow, but the interface is slick and it streams my home TiVo - what more could I want?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Cdl546xEQ
How did you get ahold of the software?
Gotta love that even though he's a Dash guy now, Zatz has plenty of juice left at Sling. If I weren't so entrenched in tv, I'd be jealous.
To spare Dave getting too many people asking him to send them the software - he doesn't have it. :-) He shot the video from a demo in the Sling offices. So don't go pestering him for it.
Whoa. You guys got some history here... Anyway WTF is taking so long for sling player to hit the iPhone. If there is ANY phone available on the market today that SHOULD be utilizing Sling it's the iPhone. And yet, not... Steve Jobs is D-Bag. He didn't "invent" the iPhone some Chinese people did...
Holy crap. I'm sold. If that s/w comes out for a non-jailbroken phone, and can prove good streaming on 3G, I'm jumping from Sprint so fast. I would assume Apple would do something similar to this using their AppleTV or whatever it's called. Either way, good show Sling!
"I'm a grown ass man with a college education" (clak)
YOU'RE the ass-man? Kramer's looking for you dude -- you need to pick up your license plate.
clak is the biggest douchebag troll on engadget -- but since he's an Apple fanboy, he fits in just fine. --t3_slider
(I miss the good old days when Apple was but a blip on the radar. I didn't have to hear from douchebags like this)
Like most things, this is about the money. Correct me if I'm wrong, but at&t currently offers some sort of TV on phones for $X/month.
Sling isn't being let in because at&t is being greedy and trying to protect a cash cow that maintains (probably) a pretty decent margin.
Apple is probably just asking Sling that the software client can only be used with wifi. Sling is obviously saying, "wtf, hell no", and that's why we are in our current state.
Clak, You "Laughed Out Louded"?
BTW, if you want to see this proof of concept software demo'd in person, and you're in SF for the Apple WWDC, Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th running demos.
Hey Dave,
If by any chance Apple doesn't allow this app on 3g, can you email a copy of the app for personal use that I can use on my own?
:)
To be honest, I'm pretty much holding out that by the time it's ever released for the iPhone, it's still not going to work well. The SlingPlayer for the Mac OS is buggy on top of simply not written properly to follow the rules of apps for OS X.
I had a huge problem with the app recently and called their tech support. With no exaggeration, it is the worst tech support call I've ever made. Without any trouble shooting, they said the software worked fine on their computer and they suggested I use a different computer. That was their fix for my problem. I asked where their pref files were kept for their app (for some reason spotlight was not able to find them) and they said they didn't exist. Finally I found them on my own and deleted them, fixing my problem.
WORTHLESS and buggy. Then again, they are the only one's doing this right now and the set up is painless. Hard to argue, but the software hasn't been updated in a LONG time and is only worthy of being called a beta program.
What bugs do you see? Compared side-by-side against a Windows client on my home lan, they are equivalently stable and featured (and also have the same wonky behavior regarding aspect ratios when changing channels). Sure, the interface isn't anything close to Mac-like, but so what?