I wrote an article a while back that mentioned how bad the Sling Player Mobile interface was when compared to the iPhone. But today, All I can say is thank you Sling Media. One of my biggest pet peeves about any company who makes apps for mobile phones is the lack of cross device support. You have to make your software support ALL MAJOR DEVICES. There is no way everyone is going to settle on one type of Smartphone. So if you want to win, support them all. Also, every interface should have relatively the same look and feel. The biggest disappointment, to me, and the biggest offender for this was Sling Media. The iPhone interface for SlingPlayer Mobile was a million times better than Windows Phone. But with the release of SlingPlayer Mobile 2.0 not anymore.
I have a Slingbox. And if you don’t have one, you need to get a Slingbox right now. It is the coolest device. It basically allows you to watch TV on your mobile phone. There are two types
Slingbox Solo 179.99
Slingbox PRO-HD 299.99
They both work great. The biggest difference is the PRO-HD allows you to stream HD Video (provided your internet speed is fast enough) and it allows you to connect multiple devices to it (Satellite, DVR, Cable).
How I found out
I was driving home and launched my SlingPlayer mobile app. Imagine my surprise when I am prompted to update the software. I proceeded to step on the gas pretty hard and got home, let’s just say much faster than I should have. I jumped on my computer, went to www.slingbox.com, and what do I see in the downloads section?
You can’t download to the PC then transfer to your phone ( at least that’s what the site says) so here is the mobile link. Also this update is for Windows Phone 6.1 or later.
The Install
Oh my god. I could not believe it. I thought they would never get this done. I immediately downloaded the software to my phone and started the install.
I had no idea what to expect but there was already a new screen at the end of the install which I thought was a good sign.
Now that I had successfully installed it, I went to the Start Menu and saw a shiny new icon that was updated from the previous version, another good sign.
I hesitated because I didn’t want to be disappointed, but I finally went through with the click. When the screen immediately switched to landscape a tear rolled down my right cheek. In the old version you had to switch it manually. I was thinking did they actually make this work like the iPhone app they built?
Next I agreed to the EULA and the next screen that was presented to me was a sight for sore eyes. In the desktop app you created an account after you installed your Slingbox and SlingPlayer. When you logged into another computer that had the desktop SlingPlayer running instead of having to enter all the information again to connect to a particular Slingbox, all you had to do is log into your account. All your saved Slingboxes are presented to you. This feature would be especially useful on a mobile device because no one wants to type all the characters needed to connect to a Slingbox. Slung Media added this feature to the mobile version.You can even tell that I have different types of Slingboxes by looking at the pictures.
I have the original Slingbox and if you do too you will get this warning. It is the same warning you get when you connect with the iPhone. But not to worry it still works as you can see.
Oh how nice, the same tip you get when you first launch the player on the iPhone you get on Windows Phone now. But I guess we did not need it because we didn’t have this interface!
Look at the new buttons just AWESOME! My Soda can sized fingers can not miss these buttons.
But wait, what about the guide? Oh my, they updated that too.
The number pad on the remote has been updated too. Who couldn’t use this?
I can not tell you how excited I am. I was so mad at Sling Media and in an instant it all went away. But my joy didn’t stop here. There was icing for this cake. They added a DVR button. When pressed it brings up my recorded programs. With nice sized buttons to navigate.
There are a few other features but these are the ones that stood out to me. I have had a Slingbox pretty much since they came out. It is one of my favorite gadgets of all time. After I saw the app they created for the iPhone I had been down on Sling Media for a while. Well let me take this opportunity to say
It’s about time!
No apologies here. This should have been done a long time ago because Windows Mobile users where the first to support Sling Media and they left us behind. But I can also say Thank you Sling Media for showing other companies, who make mobile apps, how it’s done. Let’s hope they follow suit.
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If you know Chris well you will know this man loves TV and Movies. I was just busting his chops about doing an article on Sling Box and he said I just cannot because the interface on Windows Mobile looks so awful. Well all that has changes and something tells me Chris will be doing more sling box watching in the coming days.