SlingPlayer Mobile now UIQ-friendly, Windows version hits 2.0 beta

[Via SlingCommunity]
Read - SlingPlayer Mobile for UIQ
Read - SlingPlayer for Windows 2.0 public beta
UIQ posts


Palm's not the only company that isn't afraid to speak out on the Open Handset Alliance. Nokia, Microsoft and Symbian made it most clear today that they don't perceive danger from the new initiative and corresponding Android OS, with Nokia stating it quite bluntly: "We don't see this as a threat." Microsoft was a bit more on the defensive. "It really sounds that they are getting a whole bunch of people together to build a phone and that's something we've been doing for five years," said Scott Horn, from Microsoft's Windows Mobile marketing team. "I don't understand the impact that they are going to have." The Symbian folks stated the obvious: "If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over," said John Forsyth of Symbian. "We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years." UIQ was a bit more optimistic about the OHA, saying that "Generally, it's positive for the industry." Apple wasn't as commital either way. "We have a great relationship with Google and this doesn't change anything," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. "They are certainly an important partner for iPhone."


It looks like the Symbian Smartphone Show is shaping up to be a bit of a showdown betwixt placeshifters today, with both Sling and Sony announcing Symbian support for their respective products' players. Unlike Sling, which announced both UIQ and S60 versions of its SlingPlayer Mobile, Sony is only going as far as UIQ support for its LocationFree on the wings of its fresh P990 smartphone -- a very Sony-like (read: proprietary) move, considering Sony Ericsson isn't down with the Nokia-backed S60 platform. Odds are Sony would've liked to have cut a version for its smartphones a year or two back, but the P990 is the first phone in the P series to rock data fast enough (via UMTS and WiFi) to handle the heavy-duty bandwidth requirements LocationFree -- or most any other placeshifting tech, for that matter -- requires. Sony Ericsson's claiming immediate availability of the Symbian client, though it's not yet live on the P990's download site. Of course, a LocationFree player doesn't do much good without the device itself, and a US version of the P990 is nowhere in sight, so just keep on toolin' around with those PSPs until further notice.









