Being shown off at the Macworld conference and expo in San Francisco later on today is the newest SlingPlayer for mobile phones, only this time around it’s for the Apple iPhone.
The software has been aired as far back as June last year, with the publication Macworld having seen an early sneak preview of the code in which they wrote up here.
Sling Media will only be demonstrating SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone, as it’s still some time off delivery. Although they’re hoping it’ll be passed along to Apple for ratification in the next three months, with a view for having it make an official appearance on the iTunes store in Q1.
With the iPhone’s screen being what it is, the company believe SlingPlayer Mobile is well suited for the ample 3.5-inch 480 x 320 pixel display on the handset.
If you weren’t already aware, the software links up with a piece of hardware know as a Slingbox which has the ability to transmit anything that can be hooked up to a TV anywhere in the world, over the internet.
This new software we assume will have been fully optimised for the very latest iPhone firmware, with newer features of the SlingPlayer Mobile being thrown in as compared to those seen over 7 months ago.
Reports have already come out that it has some features that weren’t seen last time around, with the likes of a new interface and integration with a Sling.com account. This will be along with the usual features of being able to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind and fast forward programs seen on a PVR.
It hasn’t been made clear as such, but we’re going to take it as a given that it will work over the carriers network and WIFI too. Rather than only just WIFI, as some forum posters are already concerned about.
Another topic that hasn’t been brought up is if SlingPlayer Mobile will play nicely with the iPod Touch. We’re going to go out on a limb here and say if the software is fully functioning for the iPhone, it will work OK over WIFI for the Touch too.
As to why it’s taken so long to get to even this stage of the development process after it was publically aired so long ago, is as good as guess as anyone’s.