Sling Media Is Insane (Online Archiving)

sling-room.jpgWhen I say insane, I really mean it in the most positive of ways.

Over the summer Blake Krikorian (CEO) gave me a personal demo of a feature in the works… On his computer we fired up his Slingplayer to remotely view his satellite television feed and then he pointed out the record button. I thought that was somewhat cool — it’s not something I’d use, but I’m aware a certain percent of users have requested the ability to save clips or shows to the PC.

But then things got somewhat strange… You see, we weren’t scheduling a recording we were recording after the fact, via the buffer. And the video was being automagically sent somewhere. And then we watched the clip through a web page. That we could share with others.

I told him he was insane. I told him not enough people would be interested to offset the risk. Because, I also told him he would be sued into oblivion. Good thing for Sling Media he didn’t take my advice to bury it.

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Digital Media Bytes: Macworld Edition

Being at CES, I’ve had very little time to take in anything other than what I’me seeing first hand. Obviously this is a big day for Apple, so I set aside a few minutes to catch up with the news. No time now for a proper analysis and write-up, but I’m providing links to some … Read more

Showstoppers

The Showstoppers event was held last night (Wynn), where a variety of (mostly) smaller companies set up shop. Not much caught my eye, though I ran into the Engadget, Gizmodo, and CrunchGear teams. (That’s Peter Rojas above, with Randall Bennett handling film duties on the right.) The food wasn’t as good as Digital Experience the … Read more

CableCARD on PC

I got to touch this ATI box which provides add-on CableCARD functionality, presumably for Vista PCs. Unfortunately, there was no one around to speak with about it… Which is probably OK, since the majority of folks I’ve had questions for have been unable to address the more technical stuff. (Frustrating!) The device is about the … Read more

Hands On With PalmOS Slingplayer and Slingcatcher

Last night at the Digital Experience sideshow over at Caesars (featuring piles o’ crab cakes and lobster spring rolls), I spent a few minutes with the Sling folks and touched some of the new stuff. The PalmOS player seems entirely functional (we connected to a Slingbox broadcasting from the Golden Gate Bridge?!), though the skin/GUI isn’t complete. I also got a closer look at the SlingCatcher. The flat white piece in the third photo is the optional hard drive accessory that the Catcher will sit on (it looks like they’ll connect via USB).

I have a thorough briefing planned this AM by the Sling folks, though they slipped and let me in on to two pretty interesting announcements coming: one today, one tomorrow. I’ll share more when I get a bit more info and clearance to post.

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