Sling Player coming to Android and Palm handsets
A job listing at the Sling Media Web site suggests the firm is considering expanding its presence in the mobile market. It could make it possible for some handset owners to watch their cable boxes on the move via 3G without restrictions.
Sling has produced a series of devices for remotely viewing video, most notable the Slingbox. That’s a device which plugs into a video source at your home (such as a cable box) and then plugs into a network connection. Owners can then view the footage anywhere they can get online, such as on a laptop while staying in a hotel. As well as viewing TV channels anywhere, users can also access their DVRs while away from home.
Earlier this year, the firm launched an iPhone app which allowed viewers to view content from a Slingbox. As the service already works best on a laptop through in a small window rather than full-screen, the small size of the iPhone screen would appear to be an ideal outlet for watching Slingbox content: in theory, it would mean you could have cable TV on the move.
However, AT&T partially put the kibosh on the app, blocking it from using the 3G network, meaning users could only use it in Wi-Fi hotspots. While AT&T got into a technical debate about its right to block such an app, it seemed clear it feared the network demand if people on unlimited data plans used 3G for lengthy video streaming.
Sling has since released versions for the BlackBerry plus Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. The firm is now advertising for a mobile user interface designer. Among the job requirements is that candidates:
… be knowledgeable about and/or interested in becoming an expert on the existing user interface paradigms used on iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android, and Palm WebOS
It’ll be interesting to see what if any restrictions apply to use of both the Android and WebOS editions of the software. The Android version in particular may prove more difficult for networks to limit how it is used.
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