Having Problem With Sling App - iOS Being Used To Sell Other Goods And Services

When Sling Media made available an app for the iPhone and iPod touch it was a game changer as far as I am concerned. With the Sling Pro, I was able to watch television from just about anywhere I can and when I wanted. I know of someone who has hooked up a DVR, a sat TV setup, and some contraption to stream video.

And the iPhone app worked well with the iPad. Until recently. There is a separate iPad version of the Slingplayer that requires a newer version of the Slingbox hardware. I don't get why that is?

I think it's shameless that the Slingbox Pro that was out only a couple of years ago cannot work with today's iOS player.

To say that it is irritating is putting it mildly. And if I wanted to use the regular iPhone app on the iPad or, heck, just on the iPhone, I am forced to upgrade the firmware as well. And I get the feeling that Sling is trying in a very sneak manner to get me to update the Sling. Just a feeling but a feeling nontheless.

I think the iOS is a great platform for companies to sell services. And with the mobility being such an important part of our lives, companies can capitalize on selling us services or, in this case, hardware to use the service.

I'm fine with that. But at the same time, they have a responsibility to make it easier to use the apps. And i'm not alone. Just look at the ratings and comments on the App Store about the Sling app.

Slingplayer on EDGE (T-Mobile's T-Zone)

It's done.  Slingplayer is now working with T-Mobile's T-Zone.

But as you probably guessed, it didn't work right out of the box...ah...download.  It took some tweaking, frantic calls to Dave the mobile warrior, and persistence to get it finally working.

It simply irks me that in this day and age we are limited by terms dedicated by self-professed wireless overlords who are fine with milking what they can from us with public spectrum.  But that's another issue.  The main issue is that I refuse to abide by those terms.  And I whole-heartedly encourage my fellow mobile warriors to put ATT on notice.  In your own manners.

Now, back to Slingplayer.  I'm putting together a video that I'll have on youtube tonight or tomorrow showing Slingplayer for the iPhone working on the wireless network.  You'll notice it's on T-Mobile and not ATT.  Well, others have gotten Slingplayer to work on ATT's 3G network.

Quality.  How is it?  Well, it works well enough.  The quality, I don't know if you'll be able to see it on the video later today, is adequate for EDGE-like speed.  There a lot of buffer.  A few times, it would buffer every 30 seconds, while other times, I had streaming without any issue.

It's my belief that had ATT not crippled Slingplayer, it is conceivable that Sling would have made efforts for wireless streaming.  Now, that's less likely to be the case.

Oh, and it works fantastically over Wi-Fi.  No buffering at all.

I got Slingplayer working on the iPod Touch a day after it appeared in the App Store.  Piece of cake.  Five stars out of five.  Getting SP to work on the 2G iPhone required that I update the underlying OS to 2.2.1 (it was at 2.2).

My Mac Mini was kept at OS X 10.5.5 and iTunes was version 7.  After downloading iPhone 2.2.1 and the latest QuickPWN (2.2.5) tool, I updated the iPhone and proceeded with the QuickPWN application.  That was when I ran into trouble.  During the process, I was met with the Steve Jobs cartoon and an error message from iTunes.  For those who have unlocked or jail-broken iPhones, some of you might know what I'm talking about.

Luckily, Dave the mobile warrior advised that I download iTunes 8 (latest version) and repeat the process.  It took a while to repeat the process.  Longer than I anticipated.  Eventually, iPhone 2.2.1 was installed on the 2G iPhone without incident.  I quickPWNed it.  After making sure that it worked as advertised, I synced the iPhone including Slingplayer.

Why QuickPWN?  It's to unlocking the iPhone to work with T-Mobile.  Just as important is to install VOIP3G that tricks the iPhone into believing that when it access the Internet, it is going through Wi-Fi when in fact it's going through EDGE (3G access for the 3G iPhone).  But I had issues with it so I downloaded another variant.  I think I used Tricker 3G.  I don't have access to the iPhone as I'm writing this entry but it's a simple enough matter to search for "3G" on Cydia.

After syncing ("synching" is also correct, BTW), I met up with a couple of college friends to watch Star Trek.  It was pretty good.  A bit rushed in my opinion.  It was really made to recruit a new generation of Trekies.  Sorry. Back to the Slingplayer on the iPhone.

Next step was setting up Slingplayer with my account information.  After going through the setup (very simple), the video started to stream.  Love it!

And the added benefit to this is that Skype calling is also enabled.  I had a few calls domestically and no one had any idea that I was call them via EDGE.

So, would I recommended going through this?  Well, that's entirely up to you.  Personally, it was more the rebel in me than anything else.  I just hate being screwed over and I'm sure a lot of you feel the same.  I'm sure there is an enterprising attorney out there now looking to see if ATT violated anti-competitive laws (word on the street is that while ATT is truly concerned about 3G overload, they are also paving way to offer their own TV service) and the FCC looking into this matter.

If you do give this a try, love to hear what you think of the quality.