SlingPlayer Mobile Release Still In Question
April 21, 2009
Sling Media's SlingPlayer Mobile has garnered a lot of hype for good reason, the application simply rocks. For those of you who are still unaware, SlingPlayer Mobile allows you to remotely access content from your Slingbox giving you the ability to control your home TV, watch TV on-the-go, and even manage your home DVR.
We have been reporting about Sling Media's SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone for months. When it was first shown at last year's WWDC as a proof-of-concept, people couldn't wait to get their hands on it. At Macworld in January 2009, Sling Media showed off a working alpha version of the application and announced that it would be ready by March. Sling Media was able to meet their self-imposed deadline and submitted SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone to the App Store on March 26th. Ever since then, there have been no indications from Apple or Sling Media as to when the application would finally be available. So what gives?
We can tell you first hand that it isn't because the application doesn't work properly. A few members of our staff have been lucky enough to be able to use a private beta version of the application and let's just say, they have been very impressed. So the problem definitely is not on Sling Media's end.
Of course we can only speculate as to why SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone hasn't been released. Many other sites have been covering the long delayed application, coming up with their own conclusions, but up until this point we have avoided these rumors and conjecture. What's with the change of heart you ask? Well, it comes down to our feelings of been there, done that. Our own application BargainBin had been stuck in App Store limbo for months without any word from Apple as to why and we called it being "pocket rejected." What happens is, instead of Apple dealing with the situation, they stand idly by, basically waiting for the application to disappear from everyone's thoughts. It's not just us either, Ars Technica even wrote a full length article about a few similar cases.
So has SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone been pocket rejected? We hope not. It's possible that Apple together with AT&T are simply trying to decide what to do with the application. Since it uses the iPhone's 3G, Edge, and Wi-Fi connections to stream content, the application may eat up huge amounts of bandwidth, something AT&T obviously wouldn't want. Just like everyone else, we are stuck waiting to see what the conclusion of this story will be, but don't worry, we will keep you posted.
