Ever since the Apple iPhone hit the market, people have been asking for a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for the platform. To date Sling has only expressed their desire to support the platform when it is possible to do so. But with the Apple WWDC kicking off this week, they’ve been showing off a bit of what they’ve been up to, and a number of blogs have coverage:
Engadget (video)
Gizmodo (video)
Zatz Not Funny (video)
PVR Wire @ TV Squad
Ars Technica
Macworld
NewTeeVee
Electronista
jkOnTheRun
The Mobile Gadgeteer
Crave
CrunchGear
AppleInsider
Mobility Today
Gizmos for Geeks
9 to 5 Mac
I4U News
Gear Diary
Download Squad
Unwired View
GottaBeMobile
Nerd Beach
Brighthand
Geek.com
SlingCommunity

And I’m sure there others that I haven’t spotted.

Dave Zatz posted this video to YouTube:

Note that this is a proof of concept, a technology demonstrator, and not the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone that will eventually be released. This was an engineering project written for jail-broken iPhones to characterize the performance of the platform and ensure that Sling could deliver a high quality customer experience on the iPhone & iPod Touch platforms. This allowed Sling to gain experience with the platform while waiting for the SDK to be released. The official SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone will be written using the SDK and sold through the iTunes App store like other official iPhone/iPod Touch applications. At least that is currently the intent.

If you’re attending the Apple WWDC this week you can get a look at the proof of concept application first hand. Sling Media Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th running demos.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media.

I was happy to see Apple announce today that they’re boosting the iPhone’s capacity from 8GB to 16GB, and the iPod Touch from 16GB to 32GB. I’m not really much of an Apple fanboy, in fact, the only Apple product I really use is my iPod and iTunes. I do think OS X is a great operating system, and if they’d sell it for use on generic hardware I’d probably use it, but I haven’t been willing to pay the Apple Tax on their laptops. (Yes, I know about Darwin.)

But I really do like the iPod, and, having tried a number of alternative portable digital music players, it is still the only one I really recommend. However, I’m still using a 60GB iPod with color, initially known as the iPod Photo. The first generation of video iPods just wasn’t enough to make me jump - the screen is too small. And I have almost no interest in the iPhone. I’ve played with them, I know people who own them - and I still prefer my Treo 680 to the iPhone for my needs. I really use my ‘phone’ more for email and such - text applications - and I just didn’t like typing on the iPhone. It is shiny and sexy, but that’s not enough for a serious relationship.

But I do love the screen and the interface for other things, including the browser. So when the iPhone was announced I was excited, not because of the iPhone, but because I knew it was only a matter of time until an iPod popped up with the same design. And it did, the iPod Touch. But when it was announced I was very disappointed. What I wanted was a high-capacity unit with the UI of the iPhone. I was thinking 80GB, or even 160GB, with the same screen and UI, not 8GB or 16GB! I’m getting close to filling my 60GB iPod, and I like having all my music on tap. I started with a 20GB iPod and quickly dumped it for the 60GB model because I couldn’t stand picking and choosing which songs to load, invariably not having the song I wanted to listen to on there, of course. So there was no way I was going back to even 16GB.

So I’m happy to see the 32GB model announced, not so much for what it is, but because the next logical step is 64GB. I just have to wait and the price/performance curve will bring Flash memory prices down far enough for Apple to kick up the capacity again. And when they finally launch the 64GB model, I expect to finally upgrade. I think it’ll happen in the second half of this year.

I can wait.