Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I normally take holidays off from doing reviews. However, since this is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for I thought I would recognize one of the most recent Apps I'm very thankful for and that's the NEW SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad. This is one of the Apps I've been waiting for since I got an iPad on day one. While the original SlingPlayer Mobile App for iPhone functions on the iPad it doesn't take advantage of the iPad's screen size and therefore the video can look kinda bitmappy 
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad was worth the wait!
This App is everything I hoped it would be. It's clear that Sling Media took time and effort into making a great iPad App. The interface is slick and the video quality is AWESOME! The controls are easy to use and laid out in a logical manner. I have no real complaints about the App itself. It rocks!
A rocky road to success
Let me reiterate that I'm "thankful" for this App, but that's not to say that I wasn't kinda ticked off in the pricing of it and what it took to get it setup. First off the App is $29.99. It's not a universal App so it means buying it again and there are no discounts for previous owners. OK fine, a lot of work went into this version and well no one put a gun to my head to buy it. It costs what it costs, take it or leave it. I took it! The next surprise was that it didn't work with my Slingbox Pro! WTF??? Now granted when I went back and looked at the fine print on the App Store page it clearly states that it requires a Slingbox Solo or Slingbox Pro HD, however I figured that if the existing SlingPlayer App for iPhone supported the Slingbox Pro that the iPad App would too. Afterall, is there any technical limitation between the two players that would have prevented this? My "guess" is NO! As luck would have it I had just upgraded my other Slingbox Pro (which died) to a Slingbox Pro HD. So after doing some room swapping and reconfiguring I now had the appropriate hardware connected to my TiVo HD. What's next? "You need a firmware update!" Argggghhh. OK, fine. I logged into the SlingPlayer App for Mac to update the firmware only to be told that there was no update available. Yet the App clearly stated that I needed a newer version than what I had. I went to Slingbox.com in search of the one to download and as it turns out Mac users (for whatever reason) can't install the firmware updates manually. "You've got to be kidding me! It's 2010! Really?" Fine, as luck would have it (yes I'm pretty lucky), I had Windows installed on a MacBook Pro and rebooted into Boot Camp. Sure enough logging into the same site with Windows XP/IE 8 I was able to update the firmware no problem and finally I was able to use the SlingPlayer App for iPad.
The Bottom Line
The App is GREAT! Yes, I'm still thankful for it and many other blessings in my life. I'm more than a little annoyed by the price and the fact that it won't work with a Slingbox Pro (like the iPhone version does). Sling Media, you definitely need to get on the ball with Mac support. There's no excuse for that at this point. I would also like to see the betaremotes.slingbox.com site work on a Mac as well or simply add the ability to "learn" remote buttons right in the SlingPlayer App itself. It's odd to have to create a whole new remote just to be able to use my HDMI switcher when there's an "input" button sitting right there on the onscreen TiVo remote doing nothing.
Unfortunately SlingMedia is not the only company playing the "you must have our latest hardware to use our iPad app" game. The upcoming TiVo iPad App is going to require the latest TiVo Premiere too. So if you have a perfectly working TiVo HD like I do, you're going to be out of luck with their iPad App as well.
Putting my rants aside, if you have a Slingbox Solo or Slingbox Pro HD and an IPad, you want this App!
Update
Performance over 3G: I got some questions regarding performance over 3G, so I did some testing over the weekend. The first test was in an area with relatively weak AT&T 3G coverage. I was getting about 2 bars. The SlingPlayer for iPad App in that location was unwatchable! No matter if I tried to watch in HQ or standard quality, the video paused every 3-5 seconds. Then I tried it at home where I have a strong 3G signal of 4-5 bars and I had no problem watching in HQ over 3G. It paused for a couple of times for the first few seconds and then played continuously without skipping a beat.
Therefore I would have to say that the current 1.0 version of the iPad App is a lot less forgiving for low bandwidth than the iPhone App. Although the iPhone App would really go down in visual quality on a slow connection it would still play without pause most of the time. That's just not the case with the IPad App. Hopefully they work on an update to improve performance especially given the price paid for the App.
You can get the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad App for $29.99 here from the 
You can get the original SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone/iPod touch App for $29.99 here from the
You can get a Slingbox Solo here or a Slingbox Pro HD here.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I was all set to spring for a Slingbox for a Christmas present for my husband, especially after your review of the new iPad app. But when I went online and read the reviews by a great quantity of very unhappy customers I changed my mind! Anything else out there that accomplishes the same thing more or less with good technical support?
Actually, you can force a firmware update with a Mac. Don’t use the SlingBox App, though – use the web interface. As soon as I connected up and went into the settings for the SlingBox, i was told there was a firmware update, and started it up.
Thanks for the info Terry. I’m so disappointed that I will need to lay out an additional $30 for the iPad version. I bought the iPhone version about a month ago because there was no hint as to when they would ever release the updated version. Also, I would have waited had I know I would have to pay for two versions. I guess it’s to be expected but you would think that after spending a couple of hundred bucks on the player they could cut us some slack on the mobile apps.
I think I might hold off on the iPad version because I am seriously thinking of switching from DirecTV to DishNetwork and the Dish DVR is slingloaded. That means I get the same service as the slingbox and the iPad app is free.
Terry,
Dio you know if the SlingPlayer Ipad App allows for video out, so you can hook it up to a televsion with component cables and watch on a larger screen. Thanks.
I own two Slings, a Pro and an AV, both blocked in the app from connecting. Everytime a post to Slings forum is placed their mods delete. I have been so happy for my Slings, which are placed in the US, while I am in Europe, However, this latest scam will cause me to never recommend them again. If the Sling logic held true, then my new laptop with Full HD should not be allowed to connect either, but it actually does. Take a look thru the discussions to see all the probelems they are having with this HD, before you invest in this.Most people are not seeing any HD video at all. Most people do not have the upstream bandwidth to stream HD either. It seems like a scam to get people to purchase a new disposable peace of hardware that will be obsolete as soon as a new fancy device, like the IPAD comes out.
Yes I am disappointed, because I was looking forward to this app for a while now.