Over on the TCF a disgruntled Apple owner posted a note he received from TiVo when questioning the status of Mac TiVoToGo. I’m not sure TiVo initially gave this initiative the appropriate amount of attention, but I do appreciate what appears to be a frank response — despite calling Apple out (what’s a closed platform?) and despite not offering a target date for release.

My name is Jim Denney, I am in Vice President of Product Marketing for TiVo’s retail products. Tom Rogers forwarded your message to me. I wanted to thank you for your email and apologize for the delay in TiVoToGo for the Mac. I am sorry that you feel we have not paid attention to the Mac community. That is certainly not our intention. We are aware of our subscriber’s desire to get TiVoToGo on the Mac. Believe it or not, we are actively working on the project and have been for the past year in various forms. Unfortunately, developing on the Mac platform has been a little more difficult because of its closed nature. We are working through the issues we have encountered. They are not simple to solve given the needs that we balance in TiVoToGo. We don’t have a release date for the feature yet.

We have gotten ourselves in trouble in the past when we estimated it would be out by mid year this year, we obviously missed that date. In the interest of setting the right expectations this time we want to wait until the feature is actually ready. We are not ready to make that announcement yet. That is why our customer care representatives have been instructed to give the answer they gave you.

We can let you know when the feature is ready for launch. We are listening to you. Until it is ready, we appreciate your patience.

In other Mac development news, the Sling folks plan to release a public beta of OS X software on 10/31.

Never enough time…

• Apple planning satellite radio integration? (Orbitcast)
• $4k gets you a Blu-ray + HD DVD media center PC. (EngadgetHD)
• Slingbox Pro receives 4/5 star review. (PC Mag)
• YouTube faces copyright penalty of $150,000 per clip? (LA Times)

For those of you thinking about picking up a new LocationFree device, you’re in for a bit of a wait. The Slingbox competitor, originally due next week, has been delayed and no new release date was announced. As long as they don’t ship with exploding batteries or a rootkit, we can wait — right?

AP writes: She said more tests were needed to adapt its remote controller to more models of DVD recorders and other machines the product will connect with. When asked about risks to its reputation by delaying a product, Eto said Sony decided a delay was better if the product will be compatible with more of the latest models.

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Never enough time…

• New Sony LocationFree LF-B20 with WiFi reviewed. (CNET)
• Is that a laser in your TV, or are you just happy to see me? (Australian AP)
• Nielsen’s commercial/advertising tracking effort stumbles. (NY Times)
• Another day, another web site streaming pirated TV. (WebTVHub)

Sony’s announcement to offer a Symbian LocationFree player (for the P990 initially) comes as no surprise, given their OS of choice on Sony-Ericsson phones. What is surprising is that the software should be available very soon… and in countries other than the US.

Sony writes: Owners of the Sony Ericsson P990 smartphone can now enjoy their favourite local TV shows on their phones wherever they are in the world. LocationFree™ from Sony redirects TV shows from your home television to target devices such as your P990, so you can keep up with your favourite programmes whether you’re on the beach, in an airport or just in your local park. You can watch live TV, playback recorded programmes and even set up future recordings, all on your P990. LocationFree Player is available on the Memory Stick with the P990 or can be downloaded at www.sony.net/Products/LocationFree/support/.

For more Mac Sling coverage, check out a video interview and demo from DigitalLife and mysteriously obtained (large) screenshots.

Last weekend, Washington State U streamed the live football video footage and audio commentary to U Cal, Berkeley’s Jumbotron using a Slingbox. CEO Blake Krikorian shot some video at Cal’s stadium, where about 3,000 fans showed up to watch. Not only is this a cool demo of Sling’s technology, but it’s interesting in the sense that they bypassed the television network infrastructure to broadcast content one->many — YouSlingTube anyone?

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The Sling folks pinged me from London, where they’re attending the Symbian Smartphone Show. Today they will announce support for S60 and UIQ Symbian phones — first launching in Europe and Asia in Q4, followed shortly by an American release. If you recall, new Slingbox packaging clued us in a few weeks ago… but it’s nice to get an official announcement and time frame: Now I know which model I’ll need to pick up.

Sling Media writes: The new SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian OS software package will enable users to transform their supported Symbian smartphones on S60 and UIQ into personal, on-the-go digital TVs providing anytime, anywhere access to their living room television experience.

To date, over 82 million Symbian smartphones have been sold worldwide to over 250 major network operators. According to Gartner, Symbian accounted for about 71 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2006.