Looks like all that pent-up demand for
SlingPlayer for iPhone has caused the suits at Sling to go mad with greed -- the company just posted up a page saying that owners of every older SlingBox save the Slingbox PRO will have to upgrade to a Slingbox SOLO or Slingbox PRO-HD in order to stream to iPhones. Yes, this is totally ridiculous: we've been told that the limitation is purely money-driven and that previous builds of the iPhone client worked just fine with older Sling hardware -- hell, if a Palm Centro can stream off the original Slingbox, there's no reason at all the vastly more powerful iPhone can't hack it. Sling's offering a $50 credit to owners of older hardware, but honestly, we can't say some token coupon is going to take away from the bitter taste of a forced upgrade here -- unless Sling comes up with legitimate technical reason for crippling such highly-anticipated software like this, we'd say it's about to piss off a lot of formerly-happy Sling customers.
[Via
SlingCommunity; thanks David]
posted April 2nd 2009 12:01AM
That's OK. I have plenty of uses for my money. And it won't be for Slingbox. Perfect timing for another Competitor. Meanwhile, I will stick with Orb - works fine. Screw Sling.
I've had a Slingbox Classic for many years. I'm not surprised of this alleged limitation of the new Slingplayer for iPhone. Since Slingbox forced users to upgrade the firmware with software version 2.0 my Classic, which worked absolutely perfectly at home or away, now has about 1/2 the streaming speed, crappy picture, and intermittent problems with remote streaming. And Sling has been useless in helping me and the many others that suffer the same issue (according to the Sling forums). I suspected all along that Sling is trying to get users to upgrade their original Slingboxes even before this iPhone limitation, so it makes sense if this is true. And I do have an iPhone and was looking forward to watching TV on my iPhone, but with the way my Classic has been acting up lately, I either upgrade or just forget about enjoying my slingbox again. Shame on you, Sling, if this is true, I used to love you, now---not so much.
I have an older SlingBox and love it. I control my slingBox with iphone at home. When I am out, Simplify media lets me stream my entire collection to my Iphone. Tons of free radio apps for the iphone too, if you want radio. SO, we basically don't need the new sling app aor hardware.
Been a loyal slingbox customer for a long long time. I have no intention on upgrading my slingbox so that I can use the new iPhone app. Boooooo Sling Media.... Booooooo.
I will sum up all the comments so far: "I hate sling! I
Am not going to upgrade! I have been a customer for yada yada years! They are a bunch of jerks!".
Same comment over and over like a broken record! Zzzz
Bad move, Sling dudes. I too own an original SlingBox, nice way to screw over your early adopters and pundits. It'll be a Hava purchase for me. The Hava guys must be rejoicing with this Sling announcement.
The real winner here is Hava (unless you have a Mac but the Mac client for Sling blows anyway). Their boxes are cheaper, include wireless and their mobile clients are FREE. If this comes to pass I will retire my AV and buy a Hava.
Total crap! Shows a total disdain for their customers.
Also that they only inform their customers on the 11th hour shows what kind of company they are.
They lost all my loyalty.
Does anyone know how to contact Sling to submit feedback/rage?
I own the Sling Tuner, and frequently suggest the product to friends and coworkers. I've been a vocal advocate of their product for 2 years. I love it. That ends now...
I bet there will be some mod to the iPhone binary that will allow jailbroken people to use the app with older hardware. Or atleast I hope so.
Well, there goes all my excitement at finally getting the slingplayer for my iPhone. I also have an original slingbox and see no reason at all to upgrade. It does exactly what I need and want it to do. I don't care about watching HD streams, I don't need HDMI, or component or digital any kind of connections. I like my 480i stream coming off my s-video connection. It looks fine and does exactly what I want it to do. Now I would have, even though I really feel it should be free, bought the player for my iPhone. Now Sling lost out on even that revenue from me. I'm already in the mindset that I don't need it for my iPhone anyways. But if per chance this is an April Fools joke, then I'll be pretty happy and they can have my money.
i gave up my treo and slinging for an iphone over a year ago, paying Apple and AT&T premiums to not watch TV on the roll. Now the greedy folks at Sling want even more? Next thing you know they will cripple the software on my laptop so that i can only watch stills coming off my old Classic box. So much for product support....
This Blows!
I just contacted SlingBox Cst Svc.... Got blow off .... figures
I just went into a support chat on slingbox's website and the tech confirmed this. She also stated it was because a technical constraint but couldn't tell me what that was.
I am very dissapointed, what are some other good tv streaming brands out there?
I recieved the same response from their Chat support...
I expressed my frustration and confusion as the "beta' versions worked with the Slingbox AV/Classic....
This is nothing more then a money making ploy ... they have a product that is in high demand and they are trying to force upgrades...
The funny thing is I would have paid up to 50 dollars for the software... now they are gonna get no more of my money ... what BS
Great move by Slingbox who has to find some way to keep selling units. The iphone market is perfect for this. This is what apple does to its customers and they love it.
Again, a very smart move. Most of the posters on here will buy new Slingboxes even if they claim otherwise. There's no viable competition.
This is complete crap, thank you engadget for posting this story of corporate greed and bs. If the bad PR spreads far enough maybe they'll see the error of their ways on this.
ROFL...Sling. Echostar...ROFL
You guys really miscalculated this time. You could have had it all...with a little patience. I don't have a HD TV, but I am looking to upgrade which means I would have purchased a new box, and the app for me and my dad.
My plan was to make give my old Sling AV to my dad who also has an iPhone and I was going to purchase the app for him as well as a father's day gift.
Now, no app sales and no new box. I'm still getting the HDTV though along with the Series 3 Tivo. ROFL.
Hmmm .. Sling is now going the way of Apple by screwing early adopters... figures .. I have had a slingbox since 2005 and have previously purchased their WinMo version for $30. Well I am thru with them. I havent used my slingbox since I got my iPhone and it was more of just a cool thing I could do that something I regularly used. I would have purchased the iphone app in a heartbeat tho. Thank you very much for saving me the money. I'll just go buy a netbook and hackintosh it up.. for bout the same price ..
Absolute horse$%#& Echostar! Way to take a great company and a great product and royally @%&# it up! I've been a Sling user since the beginning owning two slingboxes along the way and now neither of them will work? I doubt this will be the end of it as they'll do the same with future releases like the Pre, WM7, etc. I was actually going to buy an iPod Touch to use primarily as a 'sling tv' but forget that. It's only a matter of time before these a-holes start charging a monthly fee to Sling.
LAME. I bought the first slingbox the day it came out. I promote it to everyone in large part because they improve on the functionality of the original unit. Way to alienate your strongest supporters. Do they not realize that most people don't GET slingbox? It almost needs to be explained by someone who has it.
Way to be shortsighted...
That's a good point. Something like Slingbox really relies upon word-of-mouth marketing. Many people know what a iPhone is, so why wouldn't Sling want as many of their products as possible to be associated with it?
Absolutely outrageous. I will not be upgrading, and I will no longer purchase sling products or recommend them to my friends.
I won a Slingbox Pro a year ago, so I got lucky. But when I first heard this announcement, I thought it was due to technical limitations of the older hardware. If it is just a cash grab, that is shameful.
It has been _confirmed_ to be nothing less than a cash grab, as beta versions worked find on all three generations of slingboxes.
Why don't you just let their media relations person know how you feel about Sling's recent announcement? He / they are the ones that crafted the press release that didn't address any specific reasons why the older hardware wouldn't be supported.
Here is the contact info listed on sling's webpage:
Jay Tannenbaum
Sling Media, Inc.
Direct: 650-293-8007
jtannenbaum@slingmedia.com
SlingMedia just killed their social marketing!!!! Way to go!!!! I used to recommend it to everyone - you'll be lucky to hear 1 nice thing!!!!
Folks, this can be stopped if we do two simple things...
1) Post a comment on this blog or at the SlingCommunity forums. Just make it known that you will NOT upgrade and you will STOP recommending Sling products to your friends.
2) When the iPhone app is released, DO NOT purchase it. If it costs about $30 as expected, that will be significant loss in expected revenue for the Sling folks. They will get the picture very quick and we might see this rectified.
Couldn't a simple firmware update fix and change the streaming of wmv to h.264? However, with what we've seen from this, they may just be too damn lazy do do something like this.
Guys, again, the streaming codec is unimportant. Beta versions of the iphone app worked on all 3 generations of slingboxes. There is no technical limitation. This was done to increase revenue, period.
I agree! and as original owner - I hope the sling community agrees... either give a FAIR discount/trade out program or release a full app
Have your say:
For more information about Sling Media, please contact:
Jay Tannenbaum
Sling Media, Inc.
Direct: 650-293-8007
jtannenbaum@slingmedia.com
Kate Stevens
AxiCom Public Relations
AxiCom Court
67 Barnes High Street
London SW13 9LE
+44 (0)20 8392 4083
www.axicom.com
Kate.Stevens@axicom.com
Do you actually have a source for this comment?
"we've been told that the limitation is purely money-driven and that previous builds of the iPhone client worked just fine with older Sling hardware"
Sounds like it could be speculation
Yes, they showed off the beta at CES in january, and it could connect to classic/AV slingboxes then. No NDA-breaking necessary.
No way am I going to buy sling for my ipod touch now, pointless, I am not buying a new slingbox. Pure greed. Without all of the people who bought the old slingboxes, they would be nothing. We the customers are what made sling successful. This has to be Echostar the parent company pulling the strings. This is pure BULL.
Total total BS.
I used to recommend Sling to people. Even encouraged my father to get one.
Not anymore.
Do we have any REAL PROOF that the Slingmobile app worked with the AV and Classic on the iPhone or touch? So far we have people saying it worked, but do we have any REAL PROOF?
I'm wondering if there's a technical reason for this. I wrote months ago on the Sling Community Board, when the idea of a Sling app for the iPhone was first proposed about whether or not we'd have to buy a new box. I have a SOLO. I had learned that my SOLO slung WMV, when the specs on the Pro-HD box came out. That's when I learned that the Pro-HD used H.264.
I knew my iPhone did not play WMV, and did play H.264. So, I wondered all those months ago, whether or not my SOLO would be able to sling to my iPhone.
It seems to me that the SOLO's chip can be used to encode in H.264, even though it is currently encoding in WMV. The Pro-HD is already encoding in H.264. I wonder if the Classic and AV don't have a chip capable of handling H.264. I wouldn't be surprised. Those boxes came out ages ago, when H.264 was still not quite as ubiquitous as it is now. Encoding in H.264 is far more taxing on the chip.
If that's the case, then I don't understand the comments about beta users being able to stream to their iPhones. Does anyone have proof that beta testers were able to use those old boxes to stream to iPhones, or were they just assuming that since those boxes could stream WMV to other Slingmobile devices that they'd be able to stream to an iPhone? That image of Vicky's Classic as one of the source devices back when the Slingplayer was still in Alpha is not proof.
Either way, it would have been nice for Sling to explain whether this was a technical decision or not. It sure would smooth alot of feathers here, if people knew that it was a technical reason and not a whimsical one.
Kenc29 - Here's the proof that you and many folks are lookig for...
Listen to what the Sling Media rep says at 3 minutes, 10 seconds into the video.
http://www.on-a-mac.com/2009/01/10/iphone-slingplayer-mobile-app/
As well, on the sling community forums, there are people who were at the trade shows that connected the iphone player to a classic, and it worked.
So Sling Media has crippled the iphone product. They have also done a great job of Misleading and or LIEING to their customer base.
Also, in spinging this on us all at the LAST SECOND, it keeps the prices of the older hardware higher so they can cash in while the old hardware is dumped. It's just good business as long as everyone out here is stupid enough to go along with it.
Most people can get through this by downloading a FREE copy of ORB server ( www.orb.com ). With just the software alone, you can stream downloaded video/pictures/audio over to your iphone. The iphone viewer is free at the APP store. If you want more features, the fully functional viewer is around $14.00 bucks. If you want to watch TV, just buy a compatable TV tuner card for around $50.00 bucks and you'll have it all.
As a owner of 2 original Slingboxes im angry that knowing the beta version worked with the iphone and now the release version is requiring a equipment upgrade... can echostar at least offer a stripped down version to those who own the original versions of the unit as the point is to watch tv on your mobile device im sure those who own the orig. slingboxes will be fine with that and if they want the extra features then an upgrade would me manditory... but to leave all the people who adopted early and sang the praises of the slingbox and made it what it is today is a "SLAP IN THE FACE" and only hurts EchoStar in the long run... GREED shouldn't be a reason to alienate all the happy slingers that happen to own a iphone and have been proud owners that always said nothing but the best about sling media.
Vote with your wallets BOYCOTT THE APP!
I like everyone else here have been waiting eagerly for this app.
I have also been a massive fan of Sling and their products for a few years now....and have also raved on like a nutter to other people trying to pursuade them to buy slingboxes!
Sling....this is called making money by "Word of mouth"....or "Free positive advertising" if you will!
I too was more than willing to pay my money for the App itself....Sling this is called "A 100% chance of having my money!!"
Slingbox was set up by normal people who just wanted a solution to their TV watching probs! And low and behold we loved the solution they came up with.
How many other products are loved so much that they have their own community for goodness sake!
Sadly those moneygrabbing guys at Echostar just don't get that at all and are all in it for making money.
Business is of course business and nobody minds a company making money, but to totally sh*t on your most loyal customers from a great height just isn't cricket!
Sling this is called "very very bad PR"
We can complain as much as we like in forums like these, but really, honestly the ONLY way you can really show your disappointment is by NOT buying the App once it hits the Appstore!
Sling know how hotly anticipated this App has been....and if it doesn't sell after all their development, they'll know somethings up......it will also hit them in their pockets....remember there is NO technical reason why you need to upgrade your box for it to work....Just Greed!
BOYCOTT THE APP (until it's available on all slingboxes!)
Don't know who is responsible, Apple or Sling, don't care, won't buy another app. of any kind until everyone gets their heads out of their asses.
Why does AT&T's globe logo appear next to the carrier name? I have never seen another iphone do this.
Cancel DISH Network if you have it. EchoStar owns Sling & Dish.
I am done buying EchoStar products and I am done recommending them to people.
What a sham. Class action lawsuit?
Man, this blows. I'm on call for a certain company that owns a lot of Slings. I used to connect via my Treo to check field issues without necessarily booting my laptop. I seriously doubt we'll be upgrading all the Slings in the field just so I can use my iPhone in the field. I'd rather go without phone streaming that put more money into my entertainment center right now at home, also. Lame!
Voted Sling products down to once star on Amazon, e-mailed support and jtannenbaum that I can no longer support or buy products from Sling Media.
It's not a slingbox, it's a suckbox. Suck this Slingmedia >:-(
I would encourage everyone to sign an online petition around this whole issue
If we get enough signatures we can get a message to Sling Media stating our disappointment and anger at Sling's approach to their loyal fan base. Enough signatures may well force them to change their mind
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/slingplayeriphone/
Why the outrage over this? Apple does this with every generation of iPod. My Cambridge SoundWorks i765 works great with my older iPod but isn't 100% compatible with my 3G iPhone because of some goofy authentication chip that Apple has. I have no idea why they did this except as a way to make more money by forcing people to buy new accessories.
Sling is just following Apples lead here.
JUST WOULD LIKE TO SAY ONE THING TO SLING MEDIA TEAM
A HUGE F-U-C-K - ALL OF U.
fuck disrespect with all your clients.
ill sell my slingbox av and NEVER buy anything from you guys again.
they let people wait for months !!!!! let people think they will have a nice app to enjoy with the FUCKING SLINGBOX I BOUGHT !
they charge 30 bucks for an app that should be FREE , no 3G support , and now no "OLD" slingbox support ? WTF ? you guys are fucking crazy or what ? i bought my slingbox AV 1 year ago !!! i dont fucking care if you guys have new ones , and force people to buy the new one , thats crazy... i hope people do something about it.