Sling Media has put a stake in the ground and intends to meet their goal of delivering a Blackberry SlingPlayer this year. On December 30th, the company will release a free public beta to Slingbox owners – supporting most modern GSM Blackberry models, such as the Curve and Bold. Meaning Verizon and Sprint customers are out of luck “until RIM resolves a platform issue.” Once official next year, I assume the software will run for a one-time $30 fee, like the Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian clients.
I’ve been playing with development builds for about a year. And the Blackberry SlingPlayer features the most efficient mobile interface Sling has produced, plus it’s also the first mobile client to support Sling Accounts. Meaning, customers don’t have to mess with tracking a Slingbox Finder ID – that number is associated with an email address, which most folks hopefully have no trouble remembering.
Of course, the inevitable commentary will ask about Slingbox iPhone software… According to Sling, “It is still in development but progressing nicely, there will probably be some public news next month given CES & MacWorld.” Stay tuned!
