Fresh off this morning’s Verizon/Sling partnership announcement, Sling took some time to show us its best and brightest. We got a chance to see the Windows Phone 7 version of its Sling Player app in action, and were definitely impressed with the quality of the streaming video. Sling mentioned that the WP7 version of its software delivers the highest-quality content out of all of its mobile apps, and based on what we saw today we’re certainly not going to argue with that contention.

We also had a chance to spend some time with Sling’s iPad App which, suitably, offers a much richer and more immersive Sling experience than is available on any of its smaller-format apps. Video quality was amazing, and choosing content from the on-board channel guide was easier than using a full size TV and remote.

The company was more or less mum about their upcoming Verizon partnership, but did confirm that they will be offering a subscription based service which will come complete with a totally unique-to-Verizon Sling box unit that will be either subsidized or free depending on the specifics of the Sling subscription that the user opts in to. More details on that will certainly be emerging in the coming weeks and months, but expect to see it hit the streets sometime in late Winter/early Spring.

Read on to see a video of the player in action and our image gallery!

It looks like Sling Media and Verizon Wireless have inked a partnership that will bring the Slingbox experience to Verizon LTE smartphones. The service and accompanying fee, which was not disclosed, will provide users with the Slingbox hardware and software necessary to stream live television directly from their TVs to their Verizon, 4G mobile devices.

“Users can enjoy their TV while having their oil changed, waiting for a flight or taking a study break,” reads the press release. “Verizon Wireless customers will be able to sign up for the offer through V CAST Apps, Verizon Wireless’ mobile storefront, beginning later this year.”

The announcement also notes that the subscription fee will be applied to customers monthly wireless bill. Hit the jump for the full press release.

SLING MEDIA announces SUBSCRIPTION offering for verizon WIRELESS 4G LTE customers

Complete Package to Include Slingbox and SlingPlayer with Easy Billing for Subscribers

LAS VEGAS and BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – From the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sling Media, Inc., today announced a subscription offering that will soon be available on select 4G smartphones on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network.

Sling Media has created a subscription service offering that gives Verizon Wireless customers the ability to watch their home TV on new 4G smartphones. The subscription service provides a Slingbox®, the SlingPlayer™ application and networking accessories.

“With significantly increased speeds and reduced latency, the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network provides an ideal environment for a fantastic Sling viewing experience with great video quality,” said John Gilmore, senior vice president and general manager at Sling Media. “Sling’s subscription offering is a new, easy way for consumers to start enjoying their home TV wirelessly, with one monthly bill from Verizon and without a long term contract for the Sling app.”

With a Slingbox at home and a Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband connection, the award-winning SlingPlayer application gives users the ability to watch live sports, catch up on the news or enjoy movies on their smartphones. Users can enjoy their TV while having their oil changed, waiting for a flight or taking a study break. Verizon Wireless customers will be able to sign up for the offer through V CAST Apps, Verizon Wireless’ mobile storefront, beginning later this year.

The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network, launched in December 2010, is the fastest, most advanced 4G network in the United States, providing speeds up to 10 times faster than Verizon Wireless’ existing 3G network. Consumer devices with a wide range of applications are expected to be available later this year. Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network currently reaches one-third of all Americans, with plans to expand the network to the company’s entire 3G coverage area over the next three years.

More details about the Verizon Wireless and SlingPlayer offering will be available during CES in Verizon Wireless’ booth (#35216 in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center) and at the Sling Media booth (#9014 in the Central Hall of the LVCC). For more information about Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network, visit www.verizonwireless.com/lte. For more information about Verizon Wireless at CES, visit www.verizonwireless.com/ces or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/verizonwireless.

Sling Media’s popular placeshifting app is now available on the Apple iPad. The company first announced the eventual arrival of its iPad offering back in March of this year, and the task was apparently a steep one. Almost eight months later, however, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad is finally here. Owners of Apple’s iPad can now stream live television and movies from their homes to the iPad over Wi-Fi or 3G. Content recorded on a TiVo or DVR can be streamed as well, and SlingPlayer is capable of remotely controlling a wide variety of cable and satellite boxes. The sizable 9.7-inch display on the iPad makes it a perfect candidate for the app, and early reports from users are definitely complimentary. SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad is available immediately in Apple’s App Store for $29.99.

[Via Dave Zatz]

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Kind of… Cablevision and Time Warner are spending $10 million to provide WiFi service to over 30 parks in NYC as part of a deal to renew the cable companies’ cable TV franchises. Here is the catch though: internet use over Wi-Fi is free, but it’s limited to up to (3) 10 minute sessions a month, a total of 30 minutes of usage a person. If you want to get your SlingBox on after that, it’s going to cost $0.99/day to access the internet. Not an exorbitant amount of money, but definitely not quite free, either.

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Today is a great day for the forever on the go TV addict, as the the latest version of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone has arrived and brought 3G streaming with it. Available in the iTunes App Store for the princely sum of $30, SlingPlayer Mobile the other week won AT&T’s nod of approval thanks to its a new optimization live streaming optimization method that AT&T has been tinkering with since late last year. So far we’ve heard and read that the app runs fairly well in heavily congested metropolitan areas, but we’re pretty keen to know the experience of our readers first hand. After all, you’re one good looking and intelligent bunch and we think this version is slightly different than the 3G-enabled version we’ve been using.

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Yesterday, we told you about an official AT&T press release that boasted of a partnership between AT&T and Sling Media, maker of the popular streaming television appliance Slingbox. In the press release AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said, “Just as we’ve worked with Sling Media in this instance, we look forward to collaborating with other developers so that mobile customers can access a wider, more bandwidth-sensitive, and powerful range of applications in the future.” AT&T’s CEO was referring to a compromise reached over the Slingbox Mobile media player that was banned from AT&T’s network due to bandwidth concerns. In a subsequent interview de la Vega continued, “They [Sling Media] made important changes to more efficiently use 3G network bandwidth and conserve wireless spectrum so that we were able to support the app on our 3G mobile broadband network.” So, what’s the problem? When Ars Technica caught up with Sling Media’s John Santoro, he had this to say: “We didn’t change anything, AT&T never discussed any specific requirements with us.” Santoro went onto explain that the code to optimize the Slingbox Mobile’s video stream, based on connection quality and network traffic, has remained unchanged since Slingplayer Mobile was first launched. A little egg in the face for AT&T, but hey, we’re getting Slingplayer Mobile, and in the words of Sling Media, “whatever the reason, we’re just glad AT&T has approved it.”

UPDATE: It seems that SlingMedia did, in fact, work with AT&T on getting this approved after all. Apparently while no code changes to the streaming portion of the application was changed due to AT&T’s requests, Sling did update it during continued development. AT&T later approved the application on their network for usage on iPhone devices. 

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Sling is coming to Vegas with four new placeshifting media devices that will allow you to sling your HD content around your house, control your Sling media with the touch of a finger and, in typical slingbox fashion, access your content on portable media devices while on the go. The four products include the following:

• Slingbox 700U – a traditional Slingbox that will connect to an internet-connected set top box via USB
• Sling Monitor 150 – a remote monitor which displays HD streaming media from an in-network Slingbox
• Sling Receiver 300 – a companion device which will stream HD media from an in-network slingbox to a remote TV
• Sling Touch 100 – a touch-enabled remote control with a UI based upon the SlingGuide electronic program guide and the ability to control SlingGuide-enabled DVRs and most line of sight controlled AV equipment

All four devices are targeted for television service providers so they may attract new customers and are not for general consumption. We know, we know. Hit the jump for the full press release and press photos of each device.Sling Media Unveils Suite of New OEM Products at CES 2010

Innovative new placeshifting products improve time to market, simplify installation for television service providers

Las Vegas, Nev., USA – Jan. 6, 2010 – SlingMedia, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS), today unveiled four products as part of an expanded strategy targeted at television service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers. Leveraging the award-winning technology in its core Slingbox® product, Sling Media has created elegant, easy-to-install new products that deliver video placeshifting, allowing anyone to enjoy their video around their home or around the world.

New Sling Media OEM Products Unveiled at CES 2010:

* Slingbox 700U
* Sling Receiver 300
* Sling Monitor 150
* Sling Touch Control 100

“For the past 12 months, we have been fine tuning an all new product lineup. We believe manufacturers and TV service providers realize that building Sling Media products and services into their offerings is the best way to acquire new customers and delight their current ones,” said John M. Paul, executive vice president of Products at Sling Media. “We are open for OEM business and excited to work with any television service provider or CE manufacturer to integrate our products and technology to bring placeshifting to the mainstream.”

About the Slingbox 700U

The Slingbox 700U is the fastest way of adding award-winning Slingbox capabilities to an existing Internet-connected set-top-box with a USB port such as the EchoStar 722K. Using a simple connection, an existing HD set-top box can be quickly SlingLoaded™, giving viewers the ability to watch HDTV via the web-based SlingPlayer anywhere in the world on a PC, Macintosh or smart mobile device.

About the Sling Receiver 300

The Sling Receiver 300 is a companion to a SlingLoaded™ set-top box such as the EchoStar SlingLoaded 922 HD DVR that can deliver an HD DVR’s full HD video stream to any other television in the home using a home network, eliminating the need to run cables or purchase a second HD DVR.

About the Sling Monitor 150

The Sling Monitor 150 is a light-weight, portable flat screen display that wirelessly takes a viewer’s primary HD DVR video experience to any location in the home, eliminating the need to run cables or purchase a second DVR. Now viewers can watch HD programming in places they may not have installed a second TV like the kitchen, office or workshop.

About the Sling Touch Control 100

The Sling Touch Control 100 is a next-generation, touch-screen remote control with an interface based on SlingMedia’s popular SlingGuide™ electronic program guide. It interacts with and controls SlingGuide-enabled DVRs as well as most line-of-sight controlled audio-visual devices.

SlingMedia will be demonstrating these new technologies in Booth 9021 at the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. we’ll let you know what we think of them.

Well, Sling has gone and done it again. This time they’ve got some iPhone app nonsense for your TiVo-addicted souls. You might remember the initial “concept” version, but the new actual application was created within Apple’s SDK guidelines, thus making it App Store friendly. Sling is aiming to get this out in Q1, so let’s hope they make it this time. Pricing will most likely be the same as their other SlingPlayer Mobile applications — $29.99 — though they haven’t announced that yet.

If you’re a Mac user, they have also got somethin’ cooking for as well. Look forward to HD streaming through Sling.com. It’s essentially a web-based Mac SlingPlayer that links up just perfectly with your brand new PRO-HD box. Good stuff all around, guys.

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As BlackBerry users sit patiently and wait for the official BlackBerry beta program to FINALLY get under way, Sling Media has just cranked out a new build of its Windows Mobile application with a host of improvements. Most notably, SlingPlayer Mobile now supports 16 additional handsets sporting a range of display resolutions that had previously been unsupported. Is your weapon of choice among the list of newly-supported phones? Look no further:

• AT&T HTC Fuze
• AT&T LG Incite
• AT&T Pantech Duo
• AT&T Samsung Epix
• HP iPAQ 910
• Palm Treo Pro
• Sony Ericsson X1
• Sprint HTC Touch Diamond
• Sprint HTC Touch Pro
• Sprint Samsung ACE
• Sprint Treo 800w
• Verizon HTC Touch Pro
• Verizon Samsung Omnia
• Verizon Samsung Saga
• Verizon XV6900
• Motorola Q9h

The folks over at Sling sure have been busy lately but you know we’re never satisfied… What’s up with an iPhone app fellas? Oh well, hopefully we’ll get there soon enough. In the meantime if you’re a Slingbox owner with one of the devices listed above, definitely click through to the download page and get slinging.

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Sling launched its video portal website to the public today, finally putting its private beta phase to bed. The new Sling.com portal offers full length TV episodes and movies, short clips and professional, independently produced web videos. Sling has partnered with large content providers like Hulu (NBC/Fox), CBS, PBS, BBC America, Warner, Sony and MGM, as well as independent Web video sites like College Humor, G4 and The Onion. Similar to Hulu, each video has short advertisements interspersed throughout the content. The portal also incorporates some social networking features that allow users to create profiles, mark videos as favorites and share their choices with other users. What sets the Sling portal apart from its competition though, is the ability of Slingbox owners to stream content from their Slingboxes via a web browser. The ability to stream live content is only supported on Windows machines and requires a browser plug-in compatible only with Internet Explorer or Firefox browser for the time being. Mac support is not currently available but is in the works. Jump on over to Sling’s website and let us know what you think of this latest addition to the online video streaming market.

[Via Cnet]

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There’s probably over 40 people I know personally that will be screaming all sorts of unprintable curse words because they have no other way to express their excitement. Many of you have been waiting for this to finally be released, and hey, if you’re a big traveler, what could be better than setting this up in an hotel room and watching your own TiVo at home? Well, Sling’s SlingCatcher will be available online and at various big box retailers starting today. Plus there’s also SlingProjector software which effectively throws up some online video hotness right to your television set. We’re excited.

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Two short weeks since the Slingbox PRO-HD and Slingcatcher were first made available for pre-order, the PRO-HD box is now alive and shipping. It’s probably safe to say that after a delay or two, the team made sure that it got this puppy out the door ASAP. For $299 ($329 for our Canadian buddies) you can be streaming 720p or 1080i high definition goodness to just about anywhere your little heart desires. The Slingbox PRO-HD also features an integrated digital tuner and plenty of inputs to accommodate your DVR, digital cable, satellite receiver and DVD player. The release also coincides with a major software revision for Windows XP and Vista users. SlingPlayer 2.0 includes plenty of updates and new features, not the least of which is much needed live video buffer that allows viewers to pause, rewind and fast forward live streams a la DVR. There is also a great new guide feature that provides a built-in programming guide outside the player window, allowing you to easily browse program schedules as you stream. Today is a big day for our pals at Sling Media and with these major updates and the PRO-HD release out of the way, hopefully we’ll see things kick into high gear on the mobile front.

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Woh, woh! Hold on there killer! It’s not like the image above suggests that’s what WE would watch if RIM and TiVo built a streaming application… We’re just saying, you know? If you happen to have a TiVo hard drive full of old episodes of a certain show you enjoy, whatever that may be, this would enable you to watch them on the go. Ok good, we’re clear then. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself when you hear that RIM and TiVo have announced a partnership, but Sling Media and HAVA shouldn’t be shaking in their boots just yet. The initial announcement only covers an integration that would let BlackBerry-rocking TiVo users remotely view program guides and schedule recordings. Ok, that’s cool. Some might say however, that Jim’s statement alludes to the fact that we can expect a bit more as this new partnership evolves:

As the BlackBerry smartphone continues its evolution as a modern lifestyle device, the importance of home entertainment integration will continue to grow and TiVo will be the key in providing consumers with greater flexibility in accessing television content.

Being able to schedule your box to record the next few episodes of Entourage while on the go is hardly “accessing television content,” so we’d like to think that Balsillie was pretty clear with his intentions. Now that the Bold gives us some 3G love, there’s no reason that someone shouldn’t provide a solid TV streaming app for BlackBerry!

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…and right on schedule! Umm, right? Yes people, the Slingbox PRO-HD and Slingcather are now officially available for pre-order from amazon.com and direct from Sling Media. With Hava picking up steam, we’ve been waiting for our buddies over at Sling Media to make good on some of the updated goodies we have been waiting for. It might not have happened as quickly as some would have liked but at least we now know it won’t be long before these puppies are shipping. For those who need a 60-second refresher course, here we go: The Slingbox PRO-HD is the first box from Sling Media that will allow you to stream full 1080i High Definition video from your home to, well, anywhere. It is also the first model to sport an integrated digital tuner (ATSC OTA and clear QAM are supported). The Slingcatcher on the other hand, is a different direction for the company. It is designed to bring content to a television as opposed to sending television content to the internet. Hook this puppy up to your set and you can view video files from a USB flash drive, stream video and other content from your PC to your TV and it even lets you catch another Slingbox’s stream so you can Sling from TV to TV with no middle man. There’s some more good news as well. Those of you who have been jonesing for some HD-streaming love will be happy to learn that the Slingbox PRO-HD is available for $299, the same price as the Slingcatcher, rather than the $399 price point that Sling Media had been announced. Solid.

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