SiliconBeat

SlingPlayer for the iPhone

The problem with Sling Media’s new new iPhone application has nothing to do with the fact that it’s running on the iPhone, an AT&T spokesman, responding to the controversy over the new program, told me today.

Sling today released its long awaited iPhone application, which allows users to stream live television signals to the iconic smartphone. But unlike beta versions of the program, the final release is critically hobbled by the fact that it can’t use AT&T’s 3G network. Instead, it can only access the signals over WiFi networks.

Company spokesman Mark Siegel explained to me this afternoon that AT&T considers the streaming of television signals to any device over its wireless data network to be a violation of its terms of service.

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SlingPlayer for the iPhone

iPhone owners can now watch live television with the iconic smartphone, thanks to a new application from Sling Media, the makers of the Slingbox. But the feature has some serious drawbacks and limitations.

Sling announced in January that it would be releasing an application for the iPhone that would work in tandem with its Slingbox devices. Those devices attach to cable and satellite set-top boxes and allow users to watch both live and recorded television programs from them on Internet-connected devices, such as PCs and some phones.

Sling’s decision to bring the feature to the iPhone appeared to address a big hole in the lineup of Sling-compatible devices as well as a sizeable gap in the iPhone’s features. Although you can buy many recently aired TV episodes in Apple’s iTunes store and watch some others through the YouTube and Joost applications, you generally can’t watch live television programming on the device.

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