SlingPlayer ShlingPlayer. There's a new player in the place-shifting game. Okay, technically Sony's been in the place-shifting game with its LocationFree TV technology since before the Slingbox was born. But now U.S. users can hook up a LocationFree box to their TV, cable box, or DVD player and stream video to their PDA using Access Netfront LocationFree Player 2.0. Up until now, only Netfront LocationFree was only available in Japan.
Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices are supported. The player streams MP4 video, and lets you watch and control your TV or other device directly from your PDA. It's available now for $19.80.
1. I may be wrong here but:
Shouldn't Sony release this for free?
My reasoning is, a) ethically, Sony are only selling this to their pre-existing customer base, shouldn't this be a feature update or gift to their customers?
b) That surely makes a disparity in market in that PSP users get this service 'free' as it were, whereas PocketPC owners have to pay for the LocationFree device + the PC software.
I duuno, it just seems to me that these pig companies seem to eek out every dollar, compared to community-minded open-source projects which delight in improving themselves.
I'm usually not this communistic, but I just feel that recently I'm noticing just how profit-led the big companies are. It started when Fox cancelled Arrested Development for me!
Posted at 4:08PM on Dec 29th 2006 by edd