SlingPlayer Mobile 1.1 to have 16:9 support, 3G streaming in non-U.S. markets
The iTunes App Store has been more than a little embattled in the last couple of months, but at least one app developer is soldiering on: according to Engadget, the maker of Slingbox, Sling Media, has recently submitted SlingPlayer Mobile 1.1 to Apple for approval.
The most significant changes involve true 16:9 widescreen support that utilizes all 3.5 glorious inches of the iPhone or iPod touch screen, and a new browser for Dish Network users that has touch support and is native to iPhone OS, as opposed to pushing through the standard browsing screen used on TVs. There is no mention of other cable providers, so presumably they are not in on the scheme for now.
The browser announcement primarily concerns only U.S. customers, and is dwarfed by one concerning carriers that are not AT&T: the non-U.S. version of SlingPlayer Mobile 1.1 will support streaming video over a 3G connection (the current version requires a Wi-Fi connection).
Again, this is only what Slingbox has put out for approval, and the mighty mercurial temperament of Apple's app approvers still stands in the way. These are changes that Sling Media needs to happen: as of this writing, SlingPlayer Mobile 1.0 (priced at $29.99 and requiring the purchase of a Slingbox unit) is struggling a bit with customer satisfaction, and has an equal number of five star and one star reviews. Ideally, the native browser and 3G support will cross borders in both directions, which will make the application very desirable. Here's hoping Apple lets SlingPlayer take these steps.
