Having returned from vacation, I was geared up to revisit a few sidelined projects — including the new Roku Slingbox channel. Unfortunately, it’s vanished from my Roku without a trace. According to Sling support:
With the Roku and the iPhone we are having an issue with the units connecting. We are working on this issue and should have it solved in a timely manner. If you look at your Roku you will see that Roku has removed the App so that it can be corrected and work perfectly with Android and Apple phones. If you keep looking at the forums we will keep everyone updated when the fix come out.
Now I’d heard of some connectivity issues, but had assumed they were localized. However, given the channel’s current status, the problem is clearly larger than first thought. Sling’s new DIAL-like approach, versus their previous and more traditional set-top apps, seems more simplistic on one hand… yet given the potential number of smartphones, Slingboxes (4), and Roku devices (12) at play there’s clearly additional communication complexity that Sling needs to work out. And hopefully in short order.
Update: SlingPlayer has returned to the Channel Store! Despite the support agent’s note above, I’ve heard unofficially that this was a technical glitch on Roku’s end. Although it’s not one I’ve seen before… as I had to reinstall the channel onto my Roku. The version listed remains 1.0, so Sling’s still got work to do.
(Thanks Tres!)