It’s a big week for Sling Media, which will be at both Macworld Expo in San Francisco and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, showing off their latest video placeshifting hardware and software. The big news from Sling at the Macworld Expo is that they’re demonstrating an upcoming version of SlingPlayer Mobile for Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod touch handhelds, and a new web-based SlingPlayer for Macs that will enable HD streaming to the desktop or laptop.
We’ve been looking forward to SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone since Sling showed an early prototype to Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) attendees last year. SlingPlayer Mobile promises to put our home television experience in the palm of our hands, with full support for changing channels on your home set-top box, viewing and pausing recorded content on a TiVo or other DVR, and select new programs to record. The company says they’ll submit a finished version to Apple for release in the online App Store later this quarter, and pricing is yet to be determined.
For Mac users, Sling will be showing off the new SlingPlayer for Mac HD, a web-based version of SlingPlayer that will be available on sling.com. The player will support Safari and Firefox web browsers on the Mac OS X platform when it’s released later this quarter as part of sling.com, and will support streaming HD content to a Mac desktop or laptop computer from Slingbox PRO-HD hardware.
These Apple-centric announcements follow the recent release of a new SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile Professional and Standard devices, with support for fifteen new handsets and four new screen resolutions. The software is $29.95 for U.S. users, and is available as a free 30-day trial for those who wish to try before they buy. Last week, Sliing also posted a public beta version of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry handhelds, officially supporting several BlackBerry Bold, Curve, and Pearl models with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The company says users may also find BlackBerry smartphones with slower connectivity such as AT&T’s EDGE Network will stream video successfully, but Sling will only officially support 3G and Wi-Fi connections.
We’re expecting more news from Sling Media at CES later this week, and we’ll keep you posted.
