Just under a year since first announced, the SlingPlayer Mobile application is finally available for the iPhone. But compared with the capabilities of the same application available on other smartphone platforms, the iPhone version of SlingPlayer is curiously handicapped.
The version set to arrive Wednesday costs $30, and can stream a TV signal from a set connected to a Slingbox to the iPhone. But this version is available using Wi-Fi only. It's notable because the beta version of the application was demonstrated at CES using the iPhone's 3G connection. So why is it turned off in the official release? Recent changes in the terms of service that comes with AT&T's iPhone wireless service may offer some clues.
Apple rejected the original version of the application Sling submitted to the App Store that required use of the phone's 3G service, according to Sling. It was subsequently approved when it was modified so that it will just use local Wi-Fi hotspots. Apple's exact reason for rejecting it isn't clear. There are plenty of video- and audio-streaming applications available today in Apple's App Store, from smaller streaming services like Orb and Last.fm (owned by CNET News publisher CBS Interactive), and heavyweights like MLB.com's At Bat, CBS' TV.com, and YouTube.
While Apple has certainly not been shy about exercising its veto power over App Store applications--just ask Trent Reznor, for example--it's unclear why Sling's streaming video service is being treated differently from, say, the YouTube app (owned by Apple-friendly Google), which has been available on the iPhone since the device's launch.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment about why only the Wi-Fi version of SlingPlayer was approved. But it appears the rejection also could have been at AT&T's behest. Early in April, AT&T changed its terms of service for wireless customers, saying that redirecting TV video or audio signals--as the SlingPlayer does--was no longer allowed on its network. After a public outcry, AT&T quickly reversed its decision, citing "a mistake." But then last week the company reinstated the ban in its TOS.
Then on Friday AT&T mobility spokesman, Mark Siegel went on the Clark Howard radio show and very clearly said that "Slinging"--the process of accessing a TV signal from a Slingbox from a remote computer--was banned on the company's network.
Siegel compared using Sling's service over a wireless connection to sending bulk e-mail and spam, activities, which he said eat up too much of the network's bandwidth. "You can't use a service called 'Slinging,' where you redirect a wireless TV signal to your phone. We do not allow that type of application on our phones," he said. "It's absolutely cool (technology), but if we allowed these kinds of services, the highway would quickly become clogged."
SlingPlayer iPhone
He confirmed again to CNET News on Tuesday that AT&T believes the SlingPlayer app would take up more bandwidth than it should. To be fair AT&T does have a valid point. Streaming video eats up a lot of bandwidth. Because cellular networks are divided into cells, users in a particular cell share the available bandwidth in that cell or region. So users streaming a lot of high-quality video over the network, could potentially eat up all the available bandwidth and degrade service for other subscribers in that cell.
But there's a slight disconnect in what AT&T is saying and what it is doing: Other 3G smartphones that operate on AT&T's network can use the SlingPlayer. For example, the SlingPlayer works on several BlackBerry devices, the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Pearl 8120, BlackBerry Curve 8320 and the BlackBerry 8820. Users are able to download the mobile SlingPlayer application directly from the Sling Media website onto their phones.
Siegel says that AT&T's terms of use are clear when it comes to the SlingPlayer and he suggests that anyone downloading these applications onto a smartphone for use over its 3G network is in violation of the company's terms of use.
Bandwidth usage is a legitimate concern when it comes to SlingPlayer. The software is designed to provide the best quality video experience based on how much bandwidth is available. But Dave Eyler, product manager for mobile at Sling Media, said that the latest version of the SlingPlayer submitted to Apple for the App Store capped the bit rate to ensure it was below Apple's and AT&T's threshold. He said that the application actually uses a little less bandwidth than TV.com's application.
"Our latest application, which was submitted for App Store, is under the bit rate that Apple has set for these kinds of applications," he said. "And we are below some of the apps that have already been approved for the App Store."
So why won't Apple allow the SlingPlayer for the iPhone to be used over AT&T's network if it doesn't eat up any more bandwidth than other video applications that have already been approved by Apple?
That's a good question. Eyler said the explanation given to his team was that AT&T doesn't allow video services that redirect TV signals onto their network. But interestingly, OrbLive, which is offered on the App Store, also redirects TV signals onto the iPhone. The application is designed to allow people to stream media from a PC to the iPhone wirelessly. And the company's website explicitly states that live TV can be streamed over 3G, Wi-Fi, or the slower 2.5G EDGE network, if someone is using a TV tuner card in their PC. This essentially "turns your iPhone or iPod touch into an on-demand media center," the site says.
OrbLive's application sounds very similar to what the SlingPlayer does. Eyler admits the situation is confusing and a bit frustrating. But he says the company isn't getting too bent out of shape about things.
"We think our app is awesome," he said. "There is a lot of Wi-Fi out there. Of course, we'd like it to be available on a 3G network, and that's ultimately our goal. But we don't have any more details about the decision making process."
Attention coders: Google has released version 1.0 of the Android software developer kit.
The kit lets programmers create applications that will run on Android phones, even before T-Mobile starts selling the first Android-powered G1 on October 22. The biggest difference from the previous Android SDK 0.9: software built with version 1.0 will actually, not just probably, work on those real-world phones, according to the SDK release notes.
Google hopes its Android operating system project will help spur the mobile phone industry into a more enthusiastic embrace of Internet technology. Google of course profits from ads next to search results, and Google Maps opens up other advertising possibilities that are more closely tied to a phone user's physical location.
A major part of the Android effort is Google's attempt to woo outside programmers into writing their own applications for Android phones, because Google hopes to bring the easier innovation of the PC market to the relatively closed mobile phone industry. The SDK is a key part of that effort, as is a forthcoming application download site called the Android Market. That market won't necessarily let people sell Android applications at first, though.
Also in the SDK release notes, Google called out some specific changes, such as some new abilities to make use of Android phone sensors, handle audio files, and use Wi-Fi networks. Serious programmers can look at Google's catalog of API (application programming interface) differences.
Google couldn't help adding a little nerd humor to the release notes:
"We regret to inform developers that Android 1.0 will not include support for dot-matrix printers."
It's a boon that digital photos can incorporate textual information, leaving behind some film-era complications, such as having to separately record a photo's caption or copyright status.
But there are some problems handling this so-called metadata, and now Canon, Adobe Systems, Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Nokia have banded together to solve some of them.
The companies have formed the Metatdata Working Group and released a first set of guidelines that attempts to standardize some issues that can crop up as metadata travels from cameras to computers, software, and Web sites. On Wednesday, the group announced its work at the Photokina camera show in Germany.
"Whether you're a soccer mom uploading photos to a Kodak gallery, or a pro selling images on Getty, these are issues everybody deals with," said Josh Weisberg, Microsoft's director of digital imaging evangelism and the metadata group's chairman and founder.
For example, when moving a photo from one application to another, a vertically orientated photo can get rotated 90 degrees into a landscape orientation, or captions and descriptive keywords can get lost. Part of the problem is that there are multiple ways to record metadata, including EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format), IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council), and Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform).
The working group has produced guidelines to try to bring common practices to metadata areas including keywords, description, creator, star rating, orientation, and location, Weisberg said. The group dealt with three file formats: TIFF, JPEG, and Adobe Photoshop's PSD.
The Metadata Working Group's guidelines are a free download from the Web site, and anyone is free to implement them without worrying about infringing any of the members' intellectual property, Weisberg said.
Being guidelines, others are free to handle metadata they way they want, but the collective clout of the working group members--the two major operating system makers, the top camera maker, and the top image-editing software maker--mean it's likely others will follow suit.
Up next: Handling raw images
There's more work to be done, though.
The working group got started on the current guidelines a year ago. Now, it's moving on to the next set of issues. "With the first version, we began with consumer scenarios. We're formulating a plan for a second version. It's our intent to address professional scenarios," Weisberg said.
One big issue is handling the profusion of raw file formats produced by higher-end cameras and commonly used by professionals and advanced amateurs. These formats are generally proprietary, so it's hard to handle their metadata. Windows does so by relying on software supplied by camera makers, but Adobe and Apple do their own reverse-engineering work to handle the metadata. So for example, unless a Windows Vista user has downloaded the appropriate support, the operating system's file browser software can't report when a raw photo was taken, even though that metadata is stored in the photo file.
"It is a goal to try to establish guidelines for where and how metadata is stored in raw formats," Weisberg said.
Another possible issue is handling metadata for photo licensing information, which could bring some rights management order to the today's image copying free-for-all, but that's tricky. "We're in the phase of capturing the problem," Weisberg said. "There are no standards in the industry for licensing images that are widely adhered to."
3VR Security announced on Monday the 3VR SmartCam, a new line of megapixel surveillance cameras, and a new 3VR SmartSearch Network Video Recorder. The two work together to create a complete network surveillance solution.
Because it sends only critical information, such as motion and faces, to the 3VR system for analysis, the 3VR SmartCam uses less storage, network, and computer requirements than comparable megapixel cameras, the company says. This helps minimize CPU requirements by as much as 90 percent.
The SmartCam also comes with digital pan-tilt-zoom capabilities. Operators can quickly view specific regions and see important details of scenes, or pick a smaller area of the screen to record.
The SmartSearch Network Video Recorder, on the other hand, is specifically tuned for megapixel Internet-connected cameras. With improved speed and storage, 3VR says it is ideal for monitoring, recording, analyzing, and searching video across the enterprise. It supports facial and license plate recognition, designed for integration with point-of-sale and access control systems. And although it can certainly coordinate with the SmartCam products, it also works with third-party megapixel cameras.
After all the "leaks" and hype, the long-awaited Canon EOS 5D Mark II is finally official. Here are the highlights:
- 21-megapixel full-frame sensor
- 1920x1080 video at 30fps
- Maximum ISO 25,600
- Digic 4 image processor
- 3.9fps burst unlimited JPEG/14 raw with UDMA card
- 15-point AF
- 920,000-dot 3-inch LCD
- Live View
With Apple's iPod announcements largely out there, I thought it made sense to see how Microsoft's new Zune lineup stacks up.
The good news for Microsoft is that its Zunes are priced right in line with Apple's new iPod Nano and iPod Classic line. From either company, a 120GB hard drive player fetches $249, a 16GB flash model sells for $199, and an 8GB flash model will sell for $149.
The bad news is that once again, Apple has made life harder for Microsoft--adding features like voice recording and "shake to shuffle" to the Nano. Apple's "Genius" feature, while not as expansive as the Channels feature of the Zune, also gets Apple in on the auto-recommendation game.
Apple is also moving ahead on the video front, whereas the Zune didn't make any meaningful advance. The new iTunes features TV shows in HD and Apple is bringing back NBC, erasing the only real video advantage the Zune had.
And of course there is the iPod Touch. Microsoft has decided to ignore the Web browsing feature even though all its models have Wi-Fi. That means that at the lower end of the market Microsoft has an advantage, as all its models can now download songs over Wi-Fi. But at the high-end, Apple has a player that makes far more extensive use of the wireless connection.
And that advantage is only growing as more applications are being written for the iPhone and, thus, the iPod Touch. For example, Apple demonstrated games such as Spore running on the new iPod Touch. The new Zunes do come with two games, but they sound more like the kinds of games Apple had for the Nano line some time ago.
Plus, the iPod Touch's Wi-Fi-based iTunes store will work in more places than the Zune Marketplace store built into the Zune. The Zune can only download music over Wi-Fi connections that are open and don't feature any kind of browser hijack--an increasing rarity at public Wi-Fi spots that, even if they don't require payment, want users to agree to their terms of service.
Update 11:10 a.m. PDT: Well, Apple's event has ended. As CNET News reported earlier, a rumored subscription service was not part of the mix. That leaves Zune with a key difference to tout. Subscription music is more than just a feature in the Zune world. It's what makes its music discovery features make sense. For example, new to the Zune are channels, such as Billboard's top hits. Getting those channels, either the preprogrammed ones or the custom ones based on a user's own collection, make the most sense with a subscription in which a user can add those tracks without having to purchase them one by one.
Microsoft unveiled a veritable mischief of mice today for your laptop and desktop. One features a sharp new design, another showcases a new, proprietary sensor technology.
First on deck is the Arc Mouse. There's nothing too special here other than its curved, collapsible design. We honestly don't understand the appeal of so-called laptop mice, so that you can make the Arc Mouse more compact doesn't seem like much of a plus. Perhaps you disagree. We have a feeling design nerds will jump on this one, to replace those dated Phillipe Starck mice. Available in red and black, for $60 this month.
We find the Explorer Mouse ($100) and Explorer Mini Mouse ($80) more interesting. Each features Microsoft's own BlueTrack technology, a brand new sensor designed to work on more surfaces than typical optical or laser mice. We were able to play with the Explorer Mouse at a demo earlier this summer and indeed, the sample hardware was more accurate on the shiny test surfaces Microsoft provided. Assuming the for-sale products live up to the demo, we can see a real benefit for anyone who keeps a PC in the kitchen where reflective counter-tops might legitimately impede accuracy.
What's also interesting about BlueTrack is that it's Microsoft-developed. So unlike the standard laser sensor, a product of Agilent Technologies and licensed out to every mouse vendor, BlueTrack may remain a Microsoft exclusive. Of course, those licensing fees probably look pretty tempting, too. The Explorer and Explorer Mini launch in November.
Given all the Blu-ray players announced this week, it's clear not everyone got the memo with Samsung's prediction that it'll be just five years before the next-gen format gets bumped by another technology.
In addition to the two new Blu-ray players Panasonic unveiled at CEDIA, and Sony's high-end BDP S5000ES, announced at the same show, Sony also unveiled its fall lineup of players and recorders for the Japanese market on Wednesday.
Those devices won't be available to U.S. consumers, but given the global gadget economy, Blu-ray followers outside of Japan might want to take a gander, anyway. SonyInsider has lots of pics of the players, so head on over and see what you think.
Earlier this year, Sharp introduced the BD-HP20U, which was the company's first Blu-ray player and at the time offered the fastest load times of any standalone Blu-ray player, loading up discs in as little as six seconds. Sharp is now following up on its initial player with two new models--the BD-HP21U and BD-HP50U--which both offer the quick start feature and relatively low prices tags. Let's take a look at their key features:
Sharp BD-HP21U
Key features of the Sharp BD-HP21U:
- Blu-ray Profile 1.1
- Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
- Quick start option loads discs in 10 seconds
- Deep Color support
- Available now, with a list price of $350
Key features of the Sharp BD-HP50U:- RS-232 port
- Bit stream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, but only onboard decoding for Dolby Digital Plus
- Available now, with a list price of $450
When TiVo discontinued its high-end cable-ready high-def DVR, the TiVo Series3, it was really just making room for a new product in the line: the TiVo HD XL. The new TiVo is a near twin of the existing TiVo HD, but for three changes: it's got a much larger 1 terabyte hard drive (enough capacity for 150 hours of HD programming); it's THX-certified; and it includes the premium TiVo backlit remote. The package costs $600--about the price that the TiVo Series3 was going for, and twice that of the "standard" TiVo HD.
As with any TiVo, of course, you'll also need to budget money for a subscription fee: $13 a month, $129 a year, or $399 for the lifetime of the box. True, you can do a DIY upgrade on the standard TiVo HD by adding the improved remote ($50) and a 500GB expansion hard drive ($150), but that will cost nearly as much and still leave you with less recording capacity--and a lot of extra wires. That said, the original TiVo HD is still going to be the better buy for most viewers, while the XL model is more appropriate for die-hard TiVo fans or those who like to load up their box with lots of HD TV shows, movies, and digital downloads.
