MyMedia
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Slingbox 500 gets My Media feature, morphs into AV player
While the Slingbox 500 lets you place-shift and sync media from your iOS or Android devices, it's a shame it hasn't been able to play other media, too, since it's parked beside your TV. Slingbox thought so as well, and announced the My Media feature way back in January that would bring video and photo playback to that device and its Slingbox 350 cousin. It's finally arrived via a firmware update, and you'll now be able to check out video and images in most formats from FAT32 or NTFS drives under 3TB in size. Also included are better streaming via iOS devices, improved SlingSync transfer speeds and minor bug fixes. It should be arriving for the Slingbox 350 soon, so if you're hoping to declutter a bit, check your device to grab it.
Slingboxes get My Media syncing to USB, Companion iPad app for at-home viewing
The Slingbox news hasn't stopped just because Dish made its big splash. An update to the Slingbox 500 at first, and the 350 later this year, adds a local My Media sync component that lets Android or iOS users offload photos or videos to a USB drive attached to the Slingbox -- they just have to stream their content instead of chewing up their mobile device storage. Both Slingbox 350 and 500 owners are also promised the new Slingbox Companion app you see above. As long as they're toting at least an iPad 2, they can find shows, share their tastes through social networks and use their tablet as a remote without the usual live video of the SlingPlayer app. My Media is arriving first, both as a firmware update and a new SlingPlayer release, in the weeks ahead. Would-be Companion users will need to wait until the app hits iPads in the spring.
