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This is a bitter sweet kinda review. So let me get to it. When the iPhone 2.0 update came out last year and the iPhone was open to 3rd party app development, one of the main apps on my wishlist way back then was a SlingPlayer Mobile app. After all Sling Media had produced mobile versions of their player for other mobile platforms and the iPhone seemed like a natural for this kind of app. So I waited. Then I thought my dream might actually come true. I actually got to play with an early Alpha fo the SlingPlayer Mobile app back in January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The app was beautiful with a nice translucent display for onscreen buttons. I started getting really excited until I heard those words. They said, "well we're just about ready to begin the submission process to Apple." That's when it dawned upon me that even though this app was being developed, that doesn't mean that it will actually make its way into the hands of users. Unlike most other mobile device platforms, Apple has to approve every app submitted for the App Store. So there's always a chance that the app could be rejected. Back in late March, the news broke that SlingPlayer Mobile app had been submitted to the App Store for approval. The approval process takes about a week on average. When two weeks went by, I knew that there was trouble in paradise. Something was wrong. Another week went by and I had pretty much assumed that this thing would never see the light of day. I had a suspicion that the problem was not with Apple, but with AT&T. AT&T has recently been reemphasizing their polices on streaming data and bandwidth to wireless devices. The SlingPlayer certainly would violate this policy. Even though they later came back and said that the update was released in error, the writing was on the wall. So it was no surprise to me that when the SlingPlayer Mobile App finally got released this week that the ability to stream video over 3G networks was removed. -

It's finally here! SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone

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What's a SlingBox and SlingPlayer?

To save time, if you have no idea what a SlingPlayer is and why you'd want one, go read my review of the Slingbox Pro here. Go ahead and read it now. We'll wait….. -

How well does the SlingPlayer Mobile App for iPhone work?

Now that we've gotten past all of the politics (well not quite, but let's put that on hold for a sec) and what a Slingbox/Player is, let me concentrate on the app itself.  The idea of the SlingPlayer and SlingPlayer Mobile app is that you can watch your TV (DVR, DVD player, Apple TV, basically any video source you have connected to the Slingbox) on the go. I LOVE the ability to watch recorded shows from my DVR anywhere I happen to be as long as I have my laptop and internet connection. The SlingPlayer Mobile app promises to give you that same capability on your iPhone or iPod touch. It's great to have this ability when you find yourself with some down time or sitting in a waiting room somewhere. Plug in your headphones, fire up the SlingPlayer Mobile App and using the on screen remote control interface you can change channels, switch sources and watch recorded shows from your DVR.

My DVR of choice is the TiVo HD. I have Comcast cable and I do have one Comcast (Motorola) DVR. This is the DVR that I have my SlingBox Pro connected to. Why not connect it to one of the TiVo HDs? There's a reason that I have it connected to the Comcast box instead of my favorite DVRs. When you use a SlingPlayer to watch your TV/DVR remotely, you are physically controlling that DVR in real-time. So whatever you do will be seen by the people in your home if that TV happens to be on. So as to not disrupt the TV viewing for the rest of my family, I put the SlingBox Pro on the DVR that no one likes to use. Yep, that'd be the Comcast box in my office. This way I can have it to myself when I'm on the road. I downloaded the SlingPlayer Mobile app the minute it became available (something like 1AM my time).  I wanted to see how well it worked and of course tell you about it as well. The app works great! I haven't had a single issue yet. When I first fired it up, it requested that I log into to my Sling account online. I hadn't actually set up an online account yet, but I did right there on the spot. Took just a couple of seconds to get going. Once I had my account setup the app/site found my Slingbox and I was watching live TV! Wow! It works! I don't really have much interest in watching live TV, so of course the next thing I wanted to see was my DVR. The integration was right on the money. I pressed the onscreen DVR button and it sent the proper commands to my DVR to bring up the list of recorded shows. I was able to easily navigate to a show and start playing it. Again, it just worked as advertised. Although I don't really use the SlingPlayer to watch live TV, I wanted to test these features too. So I setup my "Favorites" buttons so that I could switch to any of my favorite channels with the press of a button. It worked fine. -

What could be better?

"This is 4:3 content while the player is set to the widescreen mode. If it's set to the 4:3 mode, the content will fill the screen top to bottom.

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As we enter the official summer blockbuster movie season I'm relying more and more on the apps on my iPhone to give the latest and greatest movie info and showtimes. I've choosen "Movies" by Flixter as my iPhone App of the Week this week because it seems to the closest app to offering all the things I want. You would think it wouldn't be that hard to come up with a movie showtimes app, but I've got 3-4 of them on my iPhone at any given time. That's because each one offers something that the others don't offer or each one has a better user interface in one area or another. -

Here's what I want…

• show times – this is the main reason for the app! So I want to launch it and get to the showtimes for the movie I want to see as quickly as possible. I hate it when an app makes you click through an ad to get to this info. I'd rather just pay for the app then to have to deal with ads that get in the way of functionality. Also only list times that haven't happened yet for that day. Don't show movie times that have past.
• ratings/rankings – I need know what the movie is rated (G, PG, PG-13, R, etc.). It's also nice to see how it's rated/ranked by those who have seen it already.
• Location based – of course the app needs to take advantage of Location Services. If I'm traveling, I want to know about the movies playing around me.
• Favorite theater – when I'm not traveling, I go to the same theater about 99.9% of the time. So I really just need to know quickly what time is the movie that I want to see playing at my Favorite/Default theater.
• Trailers – Movie trailers are nice if they are fast. Half the time I get bored waiting for the trailer to load. Chances are I've already decided on the movie I want to see anyway. So trailers are cool, but not a deal breaker.
• Little to no Ads – Like I said above, given a choice of ads or pay for the app, I'd opt to pay for the app not to have to see the ads. I know that free apps are often subsidized by the advertising in them, but unless the ad is a banner ad that doesn't get in the way of how the app works, I'd just rather not have them period. Whatever you do don't make me have to watch a full screen ad before I can get to the info that the app provides. That really grinds me the wrong way!
• Map to theater/directions – If I'm on the road, having a link directly to built-in Maps app is key. This way I can not only see the closest theater, but also see how to get there from where I'm at.
• Buy tickets – oddly enough there's only one app (Fandang0) that supports buying tickets at my closest/favorite theater. The other apps allow for ticket purchases, just not at my theater. Buying tickets via the app is nice, but what would really make me use this feature a lot more is if there was a way to buy the tickets online via the app and either print them or email them to my computer for printing. I would love to print the movie tickets before leaving the house and just go straight to the ticket taker person.
• Add movies to my Netflix queue – Usually when I'm sitting there before the movie starts I'm watching the trailers for other movies that are coming out. Many times I'll see a movie that I'd like to see, but know that I won't see it in the theaters. So I like to add it to my Netfilx Queue right then and there while I'm thinking about it.

• Bonus Features/Nice to haves – these are not deal breakers, but nice to have features:
• email show times to friends – if you're going to the movies with friends, it would be nice to either email or SMS the movie times so that you can all pick a time and meet up at the theater. If you're going to have this feature, I guess you'll also need the ability to email the map/directions to the theater too.
• See upcoming movie/DVD releases – It's nice to be able to see what movies are coming to the theaters or DVD/Blu-ray on which dates/weeks.
• Facebook, Twitter integration – usually after I see a movie, I want to either tell people how great it was or how much it sucked! So having the ability to rate the movie and instantly post that rating on Twitter and/or Facebook is a plus.
• Concession Stand Ordering – How cool would it be to also place your food order (fill out the mortgage app first) before getting to the theater so that you can just pick it up when you arrive and walk straight in with your printed tickets too.

So out of all the things I want above, Movies comes the closest and seems to be the one I tap on first most times. I just fired it up to see how quickly I could get to the show times for Star Trek at my favorite theater. The first thing it hit me with was the option to play the trailer:

When I hit "Skip" it took me to the Box Office Screen to show the list of movies Opening this Week. Star Trek was at the top of the list. Cool, but I already know the movie I want (Star Trek) and I know which theater I want to see it at.

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