Things of Note:

There are a few important things to note with SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone:

• Only the Pro, Solo and Pro HD Slingboxes are officially supported. - Sling Media has made the decision to not support the Classic, Tuner or AV models.  Initially, it was rumored that these older boxes wouldn't work at all with SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone.  Fortunately, the older boxes will work at the present time (note that every 1 in 10 times you connect to an old box, you'll get a dialog that pops up telling you it is an unsupported box).  There is no guarantee though that they will work in the future.  A future SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone release or the new 3.0 iPhone OS could break this functionality.  While this decision is bound to upset a number of customers, a decision had to be made on supporting legacy hardware. It takes a significant amount of effort and resources in development, QA, and testing to continue to support hardware that is several years old. As a result, the decision was made with SlingPlayer for iPhone to drop the support for the older boxes. Enabling the older box functionality as "unsupported" is a good compromise and allows people with the older boxes to continue using them as well as giving them time and a reason to upgrade to newer hardware.

• Wi-Fi Only.  Sadly, Apple (and AT&T to an extent) have limited operation of SlingPlayer to WiFi only.  If you have a jailbroken phone, there is add-on software that enables WiFi only apps such as VoIP programs and now SlingPlayer to operate over Edge/3G network.  You'll then be able to enjoy Slinging heaven wherever you go (Note that neither SlingMedia nor Cable Networks advocates or endorses jailbreaking of your iPhone and using it in this manner.  If you choose to go this route, you do so at your own risk and you may run afoul of your carrier's TOS.).  For those who do not wish to jail break and who have an EVDO/3G data card, you can use the mobile hot spot option that I describe in this article.

• 16:9 video doesn't properly fill the entire width of the iPhone display. 4:3 video effectively fills the iPhone display from top to bottom leaving pillar boxes on the side. Switching to a 16:9 source simply compresses the video display resulting in a window box with black borders on all four sides. I am not sure why Sling just cannot simply print the video across the entire width of the iPhone display resulting in true letterbox, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I have been told that Sling is working on fixing this, but is a firmware issue and not just fixable in the SlingPlayer for iPhone software.

4:3 Video vs. 16:9 video shown below.  Notice the black outline around the 16:9 video.

• No Slide Show Mode - Users of SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile are familiar with the "Slideshow Mode" which would display one frame per second. This was useful in weak areas. SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone has no such mode. One thing to note though is that the low data rate performance of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone is very good - probably the best low data rate performer of any Sling product.

• Audio Mode shows favorites only - In other versions of SlingPlayer Mobile, if you went into audio only mode, you would get the remote control showing. In SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone, your favorites are displayed. Some people may find this useful. I'd rather have the remote, personally, as I hardly use favorites.

• Speaking of Favorites, it is really easy to add them. You can add them right in the application. Simply bring up your favorites menu and touch "Edit." You'll then be given a list of blank favorite icons. Choose the one you want and then you'll be given a list of station icons. Find the one you want and touch it. You'll be given a confirmation window and once you say "yes" the favorite is set. You don't have to enter the channel number as your lineup for the particular device is known from the information set up in Sling Accounts. Favorites will synchronize with your Sling Accounts so that your favorites in SlingPlayer 2.0 will also show up as favorites in SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone and vice versa.

• There are a few audio issues worth noting:
  
  • Synchronization: I feel that there are some significant audio/video synchronization issues on SlingPlayer iPhone. I see it no matter what network connection I use for streaming (WiFi or Cellular). On top of that, it seems to vary somewhat. Sometimes it looks somewhat decent, other times the video is ahead of the audio and still other times the audio is ahead of the video. Maybe this will be fixed by the time of release and if not, hopefully in an update soon after.
  
  
  • Muting Controls: There is no mute button in SlingPlayer for iPhone. You have to physically move the volume slider up or down or use the volume buttons on your phone. The "silence" button on the phone does not mute the audio either. So if you are at your wife's girlfriend's wedding and want to check the score of the game, make sure you turn your volume (audio output volume and not ringer volume) down BEFORE you start streaming!
  
  
  • D-Pad clicks: The D-Pad makes clicks when pressing the arrow buttons. But these sound volumes are somewhat inconsistent. They seem to follow the ringer volume more than they do the volume of the audio output volume. The ironic part is that the silence button on the phone mutes the D-Pad sounds. So they are treated as system sounds as opposed to the sound coming from the audio stream.

Conclusion

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone/iPod Touch was a long time in coming.  It will certainly open a new door of Slinging for a lot of users and will hopefully drive sales of both Slingboxes and iPhones.  While it's not a perfect program (what program is), it certainly is a great first step onto a new platform.  Yes, people will be upset about the lack of support for the older boxes, but we all want the latest and greatest anyway, don't we?

Hopefully with new releases we will continue to see new features and additions.  Given the upcoming 3.0 release of the iPhone OS and more API hooks available, maybe we'll be able to see things like being able to send SlingPlayer video to the video output on the dock connector of the phone (presently this is not supported by Apple).  Then you'd be able to hook your iPhone or iPod up to a TV or even a pair of MyVu glasses.  Think how cool that would be! 

Hey, it's just nice being able to watch live TV on my iPhone 'period.'  Good job, Sling.

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