Of course we’ve they’ve been developing an iPhone and iPod Touch Slingbox client. In fact, it’s been brewing for several months and was one of the reasons I originally jailbroke my phone, although we ultimately decided not to install the software given the number of events and people I encounter.
What we’ve got here is a technology demo and a stake in the ground: SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone. As it is, the current application is an amazing technological achievement (given Slingbox’s Windows Media Video broadcast) and the team has done a great job with the initial UI. Going forward, Sling’s got an interesting decision to make (which may not entirely be up to them): Continue down the jailbreak path or get legit with the SDK and iTunes App Store (including hefty Apple kickbacks). But Jobs has said no to “bandwidth hogs,” so Sling may have to limit connectivity options (to WiFi – a non-issue with the current EDGE model) for a store blessing.
No word on timing, but if I were driving I’d put a time bomb on this alpha software and release it as part of a Sling Labs initiative (along with Blackberry, SlingPlayer 2.0, etc) to fire up the community and sell Slingboxes. Though, they’ve heard that suggestion before…