That sweet little update to SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone that Sling submitted for Apple's perusal about a week and a half ago is now approved and available -- version 1.1, as it were -- bringing native DISH Network navigation, improved widescreen support, and improved response times throughout the app. Separately, Sling has updated us on the 3G-compatible flavor of the app that they've submitted for consideration outside of the US, but so far, no dice -- the company hasn't heard back from Apple, which means it's all WiFi-only for the moment. Wouldn't want to saturate those pricey little 3G cells, now, would we?

[Thanks, James C.]

As history tells us time and time again, iPhone apps / updates submitted to Apple aren't a sure deal for approval. Still, we can't help but like where SlingPlayer Mobile is going with the recently-submitted version 1.1. In addition to providing true 16:9 widescreen support that stretches across the whole screen, Slingbox owners with DISH Network can now navigate using a touch-supported native browser, instead of pushing through the TV-standard browsing screen being streamed in. That last bit's great for US customers, but it's what the rest of the world might get that has our interests very piqued. The company's submitted a version for use outside of AT&T's homeland that would finally allow for streaming over a 3G connection -- again, not a certainty for approval, but we'll be most interested to see if that one makes its way through the system.

webOS' web technology-based app architecture seems to become less and less of an issue by the day; most of our fears were allayed the moment we saw Classic break cover, and this is another strong sign that the Pre's going to be able to handle just about any multimedia-rich stuff we throw at it. A Sprint-sourced page out of a Pre slide deck entitled "The Pre Application Story" lists a series of "showcase apps" that the carrier thinks (or, at the very least, optimistically hopes) will be available around the time of the phone's launch, and the most interesting thing on here has to be a listing for Sling Media -- you know, those cats making Slingboxes and SlingPlayer builds. Beyond that, we don't have anything -- it could be 3G or WiFi-only (though the fact that this is on a Sprint slide gives us hope that they'll leave EV-DO enabled), it could launch next month or next year, and for all we know, it only works with boxes that aren't even out yet. It'll be kind of cool to see this app running as a card on the Pre's interface, won't it?

[Thanks, sdafdsfasdf]

At what appeared to be a totally wild and awesome search for Wheel of Fortune contestants in a mall, Vanna White confessed on camera her deep love of gadgets, particularly her excitement about Slingbox and the new Slingbox app for the iPhone. We suppose it's fitting for somebody who's been playing with touchscreens since before most of us knew how to spell "technology," though it's really too bad she can't enjoy her daily The Price Is Right fix without hunting down a WiFi connection first. In an even more bizarre twist, it turns out Vanna White sued Samsung back in 1993 for using a robot that looked like her (pictured) in an advertisement. You may be a "geek girl," Vanna, but we bet your robotic doppelganger is using VOIPover3G with SlingPlayer on her Jailbroken iPhone right this second. The brief segment of her talking about Sling starts at the 2:06 mark, the video is after the break.

[Thanks, Lonny P.]

Sweating bullets over network saturation, are we? AT&T's obviously taking a good helping of heat today over Sling's rock-and-a-hard-place decision to remove 3G streaming capability from its SlingPlayer Mobile build for the iPhone -- a decision that gets at the very heart of several hot-button issues plaguing AT&T and Apple alike -- and the carrier understandably felt the need to release an official statement to address the situation. Unfortunately, it prompts as many questions as it offers answers. It starts off simply enough, stating that apps like SlingPlayer could create congestion on the network that denies services to others -- and while a truly trivial number of users own Slingboxes, we understand what they're getting at; no amount of tweaking or fudging of a modern HSPA network can withstand the traffic onslaught generated by wildly popular streaming video services.

Here's where we start to lose our way, though. AT&T cites a portion of its wireless terms and conditions -- "Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service" -- and says that it considers "smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs." Sure, guys, but a RAZR shares 85 percent of its DNA with a PC and an iPhone shares 87 percent, so we're splitting hairs here -- never mind the fact that you've inexplicably labeled the S60-powered Nokia 6650 (which can run SlingPlayer, by the by) a dumbphone simply because it lacks a QWERTY keyboard. Furthermore, AT&T specifically points out that it doesn't restrict users from downloading streaming videos, which is the very problem SlingPlayer generates -- the upload from the user's TV on the far end is the ISP's concern, not AT&T's, and we figure that the network pressure generated by the download is roughly equivalent to watching a whole bunch of YouTube videos. It doesn't add up.

Next, the carrier uses the opportunity to pimp its extensive WiFi network and says that you're welcome to use SlingPlayer there; that's all well and good, and yes, it's cool that AT&T gives iPhone users free access to the hotspots, but it's no substitute for the mobility of streaming Sling over the WWAN, which works really freaking well -- just ask countless BlackBerry, S60, WinMo, and Palm users who are using SlingPlayer as you read this. The only material difference is that they can't be touched -- not as easily, at least, as iPhone users who are bound to the whim of Apple's singular, all-powerful clearinghouse.

Look, AT&T, just tell it like it is: you're saying your 3G network would fold like a cheap suit if these apps took off. Thing is, it already has in some places -- trust us, we've experienced it firsthand -- so let's make sure the blame gets distributed appropriately here.

Follow the break for AT&T's full statement.

After what has become one of the longer (and certainly one of the highest-profile) App Store approval delays, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone has finally gotten Apple's blessing -- with some serious changes under the hood. Most importantly, 3G access has been disabled, meaning you'll only be able to get your Sling on over WiFi -- a serious blow to the app and a huge change from the way SlingPlayer Mobile works on other platforms -- and likely a verification that either Apple or AT&T took serious issue with the bandwidth load imposed by this type of app on the HSPA network. Despite the restriction, Sling will be charging a whopping $29.99 for the download; in exchange for your troubles, though, they've decided to lift the ban on older Slingboxes, with the caveat that they won't be officially supported if you run into trouble.

We've had a chance to play with the app, and it certainly gets the job done -- we just wish it worked a little better. Even on WiFi, control feels laggy, and there's no native guide (though there's an icon to quickly pull up your set-top box's guide). When you're in letterbox mode, you've got black bars around all four sides of the image, meaning that the app isn't taking full advantage of the phone's display; we're hopeful this'll be fixed in a future release, though. Happily, we think Sling really nailed the app's UI -- the on-screen translucent controls are pretty cool and generally work well without obscuring the view. Look to grab your own copy some time between 12:01AM and 6:01AM EDT tomorrow morning, and in the meantime, check out our gallery.

Update: The app's now available, so get ready to part with $30 (and to not part with your 3G bandwidth -- you certainly won't need it here). Thanks, everyone!

There's an awful lot of hubbub going around today about "new" terms in AT&T's wireless contract agreement that seemingly forbid streaming video from your television to your PC or your phone -- in other words, using a Slingbox -- which would seem to be a rewrite of language added and pulled a few weeks ago. Here's the problem: the terms aren't new, and they don't forbid video streaming. One of our editors has a month-old hard copy of AT&T's terms that were mailed to him after agreeing to a new contract, and they're exactly the same -- word for word.

Furthermore, the language in question is this: "This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, redirecting television signals for viewing on Personal Computers..." but the problem is that the examples given here are referring to earlier language. In that language, we see that AT&T is more concerned about "server devices or host computer applications" -- that's subsection (i), if you're interested. In other words, AT&T's trying to stop you from uploading a television stream using its connection, not downloading -- and frankly, that sounds like the most painful operation ever conceived by man anyway, so we don't think we're going to get too many violators here.

In other words, rest easy; we still don't know whether the now-overdue SlingPlayer for iPhone will ultimately be approved, but if it's not, it shouldn't be because of this.

[Thanks, Mike and Tieguy]

Get ready, BlackBerry users, because your days are officially about to become less productive (or, at the very least, your mass transit commutes). You too, iPhone types -- not to say you didn't already have enough time-wasting apps cluttering that 8 to 16GB wasteland you call "storage" in your pocket -- because SlingPlayer Mobile is destined for both of these platforms. BlackBerry's already had it since December in beta form, but they're now at a stable 1.0 release; and speaking of 1.0 releases, that iPhone version Sling's been talking up for a while now has now been submitted to Apple's App Store for approval, so we hope we'll be seeing that on the open market shortly. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some Dora to watch on the Bold.

[Via TUAW, thanks Digitac]

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While waiting for a Caribbean cruise liner to set sail from the Port of Miami last November, a Chicago native with an AT&T wireless card and Slingbox decided to catch the Bears vs. Lions football game on his laptop. The end result? A $28,067.31 bill from for international data charges, despite the ship never leaving the harbor. Apparently the card was picking up a signal it shouldn't have, and while the bill was eventually dropped to $290.65 after a considerable number of calls to customer service, let that be a warning to mobile users traveling on the fringe of international roaming areas -- and in case you were wondering, the Bears ended up winning 27 to 23.

[Via The Register]

Now this is what we like to see, a company keeping promises. Sling Media promised that we'd see a public beta release of its SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry on December 30th, and sure enough, we're seeing a public beta release of its SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry on December 30th. As of now, select BB owners -- Pearl 8120, Pearl Flip 8220, Curve 8320, 8820, Curve 8900 and Bold 9000, officially -- can point their browsers here in order to get the OTA install going. At least for now, this is the only method of procuring the software (should cut down on support issues, we hear), but it's not like you can't handle that. Give it a go and report back, won't you? Full note is after the break.

While the BlackBerry camp sits and waits patiently for its public beta to begin in a few days, Sling has been hard at working bringing its SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile up to snuff for the latest round of devices finding their way into pockets as of late. Notably, the app supports several new resolutions -- 800x480, 640x480, 400x240, and 320x320 -- and a whole host of new phones, including the AT&T Fuze, Sprint / Verizon Touch Pro, and the Samsung Epix, among eleven others. The update is available immediately; should be interesting to see how this looks on an X1 clipping along at WVGA, eh?

Great googly moogly, we wrote about this very application like fifty weeks ago. Fifty, people! Of course, with the drawn-out SlingCatcher drama, lengthy Sling product cycles aren't a terribly big surprise, so we should just all thank our lucky stars we're going to be getting our hands on SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry before the year's out. The app officially enters its public beta cycle come December 30 for the Bold, the Curve 8320 / 8900, the Pearl 8120 / 8220, and the venerable 8820, piping your home teevee right to your handset and usurping any semblance of productivity your BlackBerry otherwise stands for. A 3G or WiFi connection is "strongly recommended" -- which we take to mean "go ahead, give EDGE a whirl" -- but BlackBerry OS 4.5 is a hard and fast requirement, so make sure you come equipped with the goods if you want to waste some quality time in front of the small screen when this goes live.

Remember those refreshed Sling apps we mentioned not long ago? They've finished baking and they're ready for prime time (sorry, BlackBerry users, we don't mean you -- not yet, anyway). The players for Windows Mobile, both Professional and Standard editions, now rest at version 1.6 while the S60 player gets upped to 1.1; changes are relatively minor, but notable, the Nokia N95 8GB is now officially supported (even though the old player worked pretty well) along with a slew of new WinMo pieces and set-top boxes, video quality is improved on some devices, new channel logos are included, and some "under the hood tweaks." The update is available now and free for existing SlingPlayer Mobile users; newbs, meanwhile, pay a $30 one-time pop.

There's still not a solid word on when BlackBerry users across the lands will be able to exchange a small sum of currency for their own license of this thing, but we're happy to report that Sling's BlackBerry player was on full display at CTIA -- and it's looking very good. WiFi or 3G is obviously recommended for best performance, but Sling was using EDGE in lieu of a solid WiFi connection at the show and we were pleasantly surprised at the goodness of the video quality. There are still a couple bugs to work out, but it's definitely on the right path, and we'd be shocked if it wasn't out in the wild within a few months. Go get 'em, Sling!