TVSquad

Sling Media offers SlingPlayer clients for PC, Mac, and a variety of cellphone models. But so far there's been no support for one of the most obvious mobile devices: the iPhone. It looks like that could all change soon. Sling Media will be showing off a proof of concept version of SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone at WWDC.

There are no plans to make this version of SlingPlayer Mobile available to customers... yet. You need a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch to use the player at the moment. But the company does plan to use the iPhone SDK to release a commercial version in the future.

If you want to check out the proof of concept version, and if you happen to be in San Francisco tomorrow, stop by the Starbucks at 120 4th St between 10am and 4pm and look for product manager Vicky Shum who will be demonstrating the application.

Sling Media has launched an update to its SlingPlayer Mobile software for Windows Mobile and Symbain S60 phones and PDAs. The software lets Slingbox owners use their mobile devices to tune into live or recorded television streaming from a slingbox connected to their TV, TiVo, cable box, or other video device at home.

Today's update featured improved video streaming quality and support for additional telephone handsets including the Nokia N95 8GB, the Samsung i760, and the Palm Treo 500v. There's also support for additional set top boxes, which means that the software is more likely to bring up a virtual remote control that will work properly with your cable box or PVR.

The update is free for existing users, while new customers will have to pay $30 for the software. There is a 30 day free trial available.

Current SlingPlayer Mobile customers are entitled to a free upgrade. New customers are offered a free 30 day trial, then SlingPlayer Mobile is a one-time $30 (USD) fee. In addition to these mobile OSes, we also offer SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS - plus Symbian UIQ and Blackberry support will be available later this year.

Sling Media officially launched SlingPlayer for Symbian phones today. That means Slingbox users who have Palm, Windows Mobile, or Symbian phones can stream live TV over the internet from their home to their phones.

The Symbian version of the SlingPlayer software has been available to beta testers for the past few months. The application is designed to work with Nokia N75, N95, and E65 phones, but may also run on other phones using the Symbian operating system. You'll need a Wi-Fi or 3G internet connection in order to stream video at a decent rate.

SlingPlayer Mobile software usually costs $30, but Sling Media is also announcing a partnership with Nokia to offer the application free to all N95 users. Of course, the software is useless if you don't shell out the $130+ to get a Slingbox, so the move makes good marketing sense from Sling Media's perspective. In fact, we wouldn't be too surprised to see the company negotiate similar deals with other companies to build a market for Slingboxes.

On the other hand, once EchoStar completes its acquisition of Sling Media, the company might not have to work so hard to build brand recognition.