Less than a year on the market, the SlingCatcher’s entrance fee has dropped more than 50% from retail launch pricing of $300 down to a rock bottom $130. I can only assume sales are horrible. Which pains me on personal level. The digital media Swiss Army knife vision of the SlingCatcher was a factor in my joining Sling Media way back when. And the execution of that vision was also a factor in my decision to leave. (”losing my religion“) However, despite it’s imperfections and unfulfilled promise, $130 to merely stream from a Slingbox to another television in the home or abroad is a great value – neverminding those hobbled extender and DMA capabilities. (Performance/functionality firmware updates have been trickling out.) Here’s hoping this “sale” also foreshadows a new SlingCathcer in the pipeline with the sort of chipset the upcoming Popcorn Hour C-200 utilizes. But with Sling’s corporate ownership and industry-wide weakened retail sales, I wouldn’t count on it.

While there seems to be a resurgence of Slingbox haterade, EchoStar isn’t sitting by idly. A SlingCatcher software & firmware update was pushed out a few days ago, a Palm Pre mobile client is in the works, and we recently covered that unfortunate WiFi-only iPhone Slingplayer. Now, as promised back at Macworld, Sling.com has enabled OS X Slingbox streaming… via Safari 3 and Firefox 3 web browsers using a lightweight Java plugin. (As opposed to the full-on desktop client.)

The new Sling.com functionality is described as a “beta, sneak peek.” And I’m not quite sure if true HD streaming is possible yet (from a Slingbox PRO-HD). However, we do know that the plugin is limited to Intel-based Macs and the Slingbox SOLO, PRO or PRO-HD models. Is this an(other) arbitrary delineation or does the plugin request H.264-encoded video versus WMV?

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Thanks for the tip, Jacob!

Channeling Dave’s Twitter feed here on ZNF…

• Looks like the Slingbox iPhone embargo has been broken. Yes, Apple (& maybe AT&T) had it neutered. WiFi streaming only. $30, get it tmrw.
• I’ve been running the pre-release SlingPlayer for a month or so now. Will blog more thoughts in the AM.
• One more thing – Sling saw our pushback… All models of Slingbox will work with the iPhone client. No need to upgrade hardware.
• @blam Dunno. I thought $20 would be a more reasonable price point. Drive hardware sales and make a little money. Then again, $40 would have been worse than $30.
• @muhlman If they ever switch from WMV to H.264 on the iPhone client, you’ll be happy you have the newer hardware.
• @muhlman Yep, agreed. Maybe we’ll have better luck on Sprint with the Pre. Sling tells me they’re deep in talks with Palm & feeling positive
• @kermit24 Let me direct you to the AT&T rep that talks about banning the Slingbox from your network: http://bit.ly/TFmtk
• AT&T doesn’t really mind 3G video streaming. They just want us to buy *theirs*. If all the cool apps are WiFi only, I don’t need AT&T do I?
• Retweet @saschasegan: our review says iPhone Sling has surprisingly blah video quality.
• @saschasegan Sling tells me 16:9 video will properly fill the iPhone screen in a future release.
• Unfortunately, they wouldn’t commit on the possibility of a portrait mode for dockable viewing.
• One last Sling iPhone tweet, then I’m done: The UI is slow and using it pauses streaming – shoehorning WMV onto this platform takes a toll.
• The voipover3G iPhone jailbreak app might allow 3G slinging. And Skype, too. But I’d rather just switch to a phone/carrier that respects me. (Does one exist?)

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My initial impression of the Verizon Hub wasn’t entirely positive – I’d rather have a touchscreen Eee Top in my kitchen. -DZ, 02/09

Given my pre-release proclamation above and after catching Brad Linder’s (Lilliputing) ASUS Eee Top ETP1602 review, I had to get my hands on a unit. Fortunately, Brad (and ASUS) were quite accommodating and I’ve been playing with his very same review loaner the last couple weeks. Whereas Brad dropped the Eee Top (~$500) in his office, being a fan (conceptually) of the Audrey and Icebox computing appliances of lore, I placed the 15.6″ all-in-one PC in our kitchen. Where I believe it belongs.

First off, while definitely plasticy, the Eee looks pretty sharp. Minus the cable clutter. My phone related paraphernalia could easily be cleaned up, but I positioned it front and center (well, off to the left) to demonstrate connectivity. Unfortunately, the wired keyboard and mouse would require an additional investment to free yourself of cables. In fact, if we’re counting pennies, I’d prefer ASUS provide wireless interfaces over the touchscreen – which I found myself rarely using. (Perhaps compounded by the review unit not shipping with its bundled stylus.) I appreciated the volume and brightness controls located on the bezel, in addition to the screen blanking button. And the Eee Top rear, which Brad photographed, features a simple yet effective, adjustable kickstand and various ports.

The custom apps (i.e. Eee Easy Mode) and third party software (i.e. Cyberlink media shell) that Brad felt made the Eee Top stand out, were mostly a distraction for me. (But are perfectly suitable for non-techies and children.) Thus, they were banished in relatively short order. Windows XP has been around for eons and I’m comfortable mousing around the UI as designed. To meet my widget needs, I installed all of Google Desktop. For telephonic capabilities, I plugged in the magicJack ($40, free US calling the first year) on a side USB port. (Although Skype would also work well, given the built-in microphone and video camera.) I had hoped the ETP1602 would made a great web-based kitchen television, but the video capabilities are a mixed bag…

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DISH has joined other DVR vendors (DirecTV, Verizon, TiVo, Moxi) by (officially) launching online scheduling. While TiVo was a pioneer in this space, they’ve begun to lag as others provide a direct connection for interactive conflict resolution and to view listings of recorded shows or scheduled recordings. As DISH now offers broadband-connected ViP 612, ViP 622, ViP 722, ViP 722k DVRs. Additionally, they’re leveraging the (EchoStar) Sling Media acquisition by embedding a web-based Slingbox player into the DISH Remote Access site, providing one-stop shopping for dual Sling+DISH customers. (And as we saw at CES, the next generation DISH Network DVR, due later this year, will ship with integrated Sling placeshifting technology.)

This one’s been percolating for some time within Motorola’s labs. We last saw the “Media Mover” back in September sporting a different enclosure and name (MCUBE). Motorola (MOT) hopes the device will become the “Swiss Army knife” of USB widgets. And they’re well on their way.

Not only will the inexpensive bus-powered Media Mover puck transcode all sorts of video stored on your DVR, it’ll also broadcast (transfer or streaming) that content locally or remotely (think Slingbox) via WiFi or Bluetooth (BT transmission is obviously local only) to cellphones and computers. At The Cable Show, Motorola was demo-ing video playback on a Q9 cellphone, laptop (VLC with DRM plugin), and iPhone. Additionally, this little Media Mover gizmo houses an SD slot (for offloading content?) and a low-res camera that Moto described as a placeshifting nanny cam.

While they were reluctant to talk hardware costs and specific distribution plans, Motorola sees this as a low cost way for their cable partners (and their respective customers) to add value to existing services/subscriptions.

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AT&T Wireless has pretty explicitly dropped the hammer on Slingbox owners, amongst others, via their revised terms of service:

customer initiated redirection of television [...] to a mobile device [...] is prohibited

Some speculate this language is in response to oversized and unintentional roaming fees. Others believe AT&T has “oversold” or is approaching their network capacity and this is a way free up bandwidth. I have a more pessimistic, Net non-Neutrality theory in that AT&T would prefer we subscribe to their limited selection of MobiTV television content in lieu of streaming home video (which I’ve already paid for). Regardless of the reason(s), I’m not a happy AT&T customer today. (more…)