Flash 10.1 will (finally) Bring Slingbox to Android & Palm Web OS

Slingplayer Mobile on my PalmOS Treo 700P was a huge feature that I wanted in my next smartphone.

I would use the player to watch shows in bed as I was drifting off to sleep, or watch breaking news events. I was driving home the day the bridge fell in Minneapolis and was able to see live video while stuck in LA traffic on my commute.

iPhone, Palm OS, Blackberry and Windows Mobile have supported SlingPlayer Mobile for some time. Each of these solutions is flawed in a serious way:

iPhone- WiFi only. Like so many other apps in the ATT / Apple walled garden, this is LAME.

Palm OS- This is a dying platform

Blackberry- I have no interest in this antiquated OS.

Windows Mobile- See Palm OS

Sling announced this week at CES it will support Adobe Flash 10.1. Devices with Flash 10 support will be able to view Sling Player content on their desktop or mobile devices. Word is this will only work with Slingbox® Pro-HD and Slingbox SOLO. I believe Sling tried restricting which devices would work with the iPhone when the app was released and eventually supported all Sling Devices.

I have sold my SlingPlayer Pro on eBay anticipating Sling wold never get around to supporting Android. I may be shopping for a new Sling in the near future when Android 2.1 comes to the Samsung Moment in the first half of 2010.

UPDATE:  3/20/10 Engadget has a demo here

Google Listen - Android's Answer to Kinoma Player?

It looks like the PalmOS legacy may be one step closer to being overtaken by the iPhone, WebOS and Android tri-fecta. With the October 11th release of the HTC Hero, it seems like I will finally make the jump into the modern era of smartphones. I really, really wanted to like the Palm Pre, but there is too much Apple influence and it is growing too slowly for my tastes at the moment, I may check back with Palm WebOS in a year or so, but the HTC Hero with the Sense UI have me really intrigued right now. What did Palm do in anticipation of the Hero launch? They served up the Pixi with a fantastic form factor, but dumbed it down by omitting WiFi and an external memory slot.

I have been a hold-out Treo 700P user for over 3 years. I wanted to like the iPhone when it was introduced. I went to the Apple store the day after it was launched and played with the stunning GUI for over 30 minutes before admitting it was definitely not for me. Simple? Yes. Easy to use? Check. Useful? Not Quite.

I am so accustomed to:

Kinoma Player- I listen to podcasts literally every day. NPR hourly news multiple times, TED talks on occasion, Adam Carolla, This Week in Google. I don't have a set listening schedule and I can't be bothered with subscribing to podcasts in iTunes and downloading them to my phone. I want to find and listen to casts instantaneously. Kinoma player allows me to do this on my Treo 700P. The user interface is tired, yet functional after all these years.

-----> Google Listen and DoggCatcher both seem to offer the functionality of Kinoma on a modern platform. I am VERY enouraged by this.

Documents to Go- Creating and editing real MS Office documents and syncing them with my laptop. Rarely does a day go by that I don't jot a business idea or blog post into a word file. I could use a "cloud" version of google docs, but I do find myself on planes enough that I am much more comfortable with native files. For all you sneering about my comments regarding audio streaming above, calm down. When I am preparing for a trip, I may stream & download a few podcasts to the phone in the airport lounge prior to boarding. I like to keep my options open all the time.

----->Available for $29.99 in the Android Market! I paid $30 for Kinoma player and a similar amount for Docs 2 Go several Palm OS devices ago.

SlingPlayer- This is the tricky one. iPhone has a useless version of this that restricts use to WiFi networks only. If I have access to a WiFi network, there is a good chance that:
A. I am at Home and can watch my own TV
B. I am in a public location that does not lend itself to uninterrupted TV viewing.

Sling seems unwilling to develop an app for Android. Orb seems like it may be a convoluted option.