It’s a big week for Sling Media, which will be at both Macworld Expo in San Francisco and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, showing off their latest video placeshifting hardware and software. The big news from Sling at the Macworld Expo is that they’re demonstrating an upcoming version of SlingPlayer Mobile for Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod touch handhelds, and a new web-based SlingPlayer for Macs that will enable HD streaming to the desktop or laptop.

We’ve been looking forward to SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone since Sling showed an early prototype to Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) attendees last year. SlingPlayer Mobile promises to put our home television experience in the palm of our hands, with full support for changing channels on your home set-top box, viewing and pausing recorded content on a TiVo or other DVR, and select new programs to record. The company says they’ll submit a finished version to Apple for release in the online App Store later this quarter, and pricing is yet to be determined.

For Mac users, Sling will be showing off the new SlingPlayer for Mac HD, a web-based version of SlingPlayer that will be available on sling.com. The player will support Safari and Firefox web browsers on the Mac OS X platform when it’s released later this quarter as part of sling.com, and will support streaming HD content to a Mac desktop or laptop computer from Slingbox PRO-HD hardware.

These Apple-centric announcements follow the recent release of a new SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile Professional and Standard devices, with support for fifteen new handsets and four new screen resolutions. The software is $29.95 for U.S. users, and is available as a free 30-day trial for those who wish to try before they buy. Last week, Sliing also posted a public beta version of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry handhelds, officially supporting several BlackBerry Bold, Curve, and Pearl models with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The company says users may also find BlackBerry smartphones with slower connectivity such as AT&T’s EDGE Network will stream video successfully, but Sling will only officially support 3G and Wi-Fi connections.

We’re expecting more news from Sling Media at CES later this week, and we’ll keep you posted.

Roxio Monday launched Toast 10 Titanium for Mac OS. This new update to Toast adds a number of features, but most significantly for Mac OS users it includes an implementation of ‘TiVoToComeBack’, video transfers to a TiVo, which they’re calling Mac2TiVo. This has been sorely missing from any official solutions for Mac OS using TiVo owners.

Toast 10 Titanium also includes AVCHD Archive, which makes it easy to burn content form HD camcorders to BD or DVD, Web Video To Go, which allows users to grab video from websites to save locally or transfer to portable devices, place-shifting support which streams content from the Mac to a Streamer application on an iPhone or iPod Touch, and a number of others.

Toast 10 Titanium goes on sale today at http://www.roxio.com/ for $99.99, with special pricing at MacWorld Expo January 5-9. The High-definition/Blu-ray Disc (HD/BD) plug-in, which is required to author BD discs and is normally $19.99, is available free to those who purchase Toast 10 Titanium from http://www.roxio.com/ through February 5, 2009. Toast 10 Titanium Pro is also available for $149.99.

Press release:
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I reported on the release of SuperSync 2.3 back in April, but now version 3.03 is being announced in conjunction with MacWorld. SuperSync is an iTunes library manager for PC, Mac, and iPod.

SuperSync makes it easy to create a main library, and have a subset on computers and laptops around the house. By offering an easy way to visually compare and merge multiple iTunes libraries, all music, movies, and playlists can be synced across all devices. Any new content that is added on one computer can be uploaded to the master library.

Use SuperSync to:
* Keep track of all music across multiple computers - Mac OS X, Windows, and iPod
* Compare and merge any two music libraries
* Move music, videos, and playlists from one iTunes library to another
* Export all or a subset of a library as a well-organized directory of tracks
* Find partial albums, duplicates, missing tracks, corrupt files, and other common music library problems
* Intelligently import media from a hard drive, iPod, or network drive without duplicates
* Easily move a music library from Windows to Mac, Mac to Windows, or any combination
* Access a home music library from anywhere - upload/download songs, movies, and playlists
* Share a common library with multiple iTunes users on a network drive
* Access your MP3’s and playlists from Tivo

More information in the full release.

I’ve been remiss in keeping up with Requiem news since my last post, back in October. At the time I reported on the release of Requiem 1.8.1 which enabled FairPlay DRM removal on the Mac for iTunes 8.0.1, but didn’t work on Windows. In the meantime iTunes 8.0.2 has been released, which breaks Requiem - so don’t upgrade to that if you want to use Requiem.

But Requiem 1.8.2 was also released, which enables DRM removal in iTunes 8.0.1 under Windows. The discussion thread in the Hymn project forums has the details. If you need iTunes 8.0.1 you can get it for Windows or Mac from OldApps.com.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I do not support or condone piracy. I stress that Requiem strips the DRM but does not strip personally identifiable information. If you share the freed files they can be linked to your iTunes account. I support the use of Requiem solely for personal fair use, being able to use the music on non-Apple devices - like streaming to a TiVo or loading them on your non-iPhone smartphone.

I’d link to Requiem, but Apple sends out cease and desist notices to sites that do, so I’ll just say use Google, it is available via BitTorrent.

Buy.com currently has Roxio Toast Titanium for only $46.99, that’s more than 50% off the $99.95 MSRP. Roxio Toast Titanium is the only media burning application for Mac OS officially sanctioned for use with TiVo.

Blockbuster has teamed with Microsoft to bring digital video to mobile devices using Microsoft’s Live Mesh technology. It sounds like this will still be a download service and not streaming, based on the suggested use case of buying content from an airport kiosk to sync to a mobile device to use while traveling. Though you might think otherwise from this quote:

“Eventually, we’ll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an internet connection and a screen,” vowed Blockbuster Chief Information Officer Keith Morrow in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.

When I read “instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen” my first thought is instant streaming access, not download to watch. But that’s marketing spin for you.

Picked up from MarketingVOX.

Buy.com is selling Roxio Toast 9 for just $57.99, discounted from the $99.95 MSRP. Combined with a $20 mail in rebate it is just $37.99. Roxio Toast 9 is the only application officially sanctioned by TiVo for Mac OS to handle burning TiVoToGo files to DVD.

The new Silverlight-based Netflix streaming option is available now for anyone who wants to wants to try it out. It might not be a big deal for Windows users, who already have access, especially since the new client is still a beta without access to all videos, but this is the first client to support the Mac. If you want to try it out, it the opt-in link.

Via EngadgetHD.

Through November 2nd, Roxio Toast is only $30.99 after rebate at Buy.com. List price $99.95, Buy.com price $50.99 with a $20 mail-in rebate to bring it down to $30.99. Roxio toast is the only officially sanctioned application for Mac for burning TiVoToGo transfers to DVD, and the official application to support TiVoToGo, along with Roxio Popcorn.

Netflix has begun rolling out the second generation of their Watch Now streaming player, this time using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. Silverlight is most easily thought of as Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe’s Flash technology. The big change with this second generation player is that, for the first time, it works on Mac OS, albeit Intel Macs only. To date Netflix’s Watch Now feature has been limited to only Windows PCs. The Play Ready DRM features built into Silverlight apparently satisfy their need to protect their content licenses.

“Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users’ connection speeds,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox.”

The initial roll-out “will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers”, but it is anticipated that it will be available to all subscribers by the end of the year.

Via Engadget.