Filed under: Multimedia, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Sling rains on its own parade
Last week we were pretty excited that the new Slingplayer app for iPhone had been submitted to Apple for approval. Now it seems, the folks at SlingMedia are determined to really get a large percentage of their customers angry about forcing them to have the latest Slingbox hardware in order to be compatible with the iPhone/ iPod touch app.A page on the SlingMedia website suggests owners of older Sling hardware get an upgrade because the new iPhone software "and future services yet to be announced will only be supported for customers using Slingbox SOLO, Slingbox PRO and Slingbox PRO-HD products or forthcoming SlingLoaded products." That still leaves a lot of the older hardware a no-go, and that older hardware worked well with the SlingPlayer Mobile app on other cellphones, including those running on Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm and the Symbian OS.
Our sister site, Engadget, reports that they've been told that previous builds of the app worked just fine with the older hardware, so this may just be runaway greed and avarice at SlingMedia.
In my post last week I said that Sling users would be circling Apple HQ with torches and pitchforks if Apple did not approve the SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone app. Now those people might want to gather in Foster City, California to let the execs at Sling know that they don't want to be forced into an upgrade that is likely not needed.
Our thanks to various readers who sent this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
jay said 12:08PM on 4-02-2009
I am over Sling. While I loved the product, there has been a know problem among users of the slightly older Slingbox Pro where it loses the ability to connect to a network. Apparently Sling was hit with a lot of support calls regarding this issue, and while it may be unrelated, has now started charging a support call fee. When I called them about this, they wanted to charge me the support call fee and a repair fee, and offered no guarantee that the box was repairable. On top of that, they would not credit the support and repair fees towards the purchase of a new box.
What is galling about this is that there are scores of complaints about this issue on the unofficial Sling forum, and up until November of 08, some people were getting free replacements on out of warranty Slingbox Pros. That has apparently stopped.
Given this extremely poor customer support and their refusal to acknowledge a widespread defect in one of their models, I say purchase at your own risk.
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Brian said 12:10PM on 4-02-2009
stupid move by slingmedia.. i was ready to spend up to $50 on this app to use with my slingbox tuner.. i bought the slingbox about a year and a half ago. i wont be buying a new slingbox for fear of it not being supported in another year and a half. they just shot themselves in the foot.
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zachary miller said 12:48PM on 4-02-2009
Brian,
I'm in the same boat as you, I had my parents buy me the SlingBox Tuner for my birthday a little over a year ago. I bought it from amazon since it was no longer being sold on Slingmedia's site and I had asked Sling if they planned on continuing support for the Tuner before I went and ordered it and they said that they would, I know that it has been a while since that but I expected that Sling was going to keep support for the Tuner for at least a little while since it was one of the earlier versions and they only had 4 products up until that time and that the older products would number alot more than the new products at least for the time being. I feel this has alot do with EchoStars meddling with SlingMedia objectives. They just lost their CEO and Founder. What Sling is doing by cutting support for the Classic, Tuner and AV is cutting off half of their previous outbound slinging products. I'm not counting the SlingCatcher because that is a receiver. I did think that they would cut off so much of their customers.
tv junkie said 6:19PM on 4-02-2009
yup, same here, got a Slingbox Tuner for almost two years now...while I like it a lot (save cable bill at my college apartment,) I don't love Sling enough to justify upgrading for the app.
can't say I'm surprised though, the Sling Support has been downright nasty lately. A year ago, when I called in support for help, they try to help me to solve my connection problem right away, fairly professional. But a month ago when I called in for help, I was told the Tuner model is discontinued so I would have to give them my credit card number first and be charged $30-some-odd dollars for them to help me to check the network connection, without guarantee that it would work. ludicrous. I promptly replied, thanks for nothing, then hanged up.
i suspect the buyout from EchoStar has something to do with the Slingmedia's deteriorating service.
GutterIsATool said 11:26PM on 4-03-2009
Yep. I was willing to shell out a pretty penny for this app, but instead it will be getting a 1-Star review no matter how free it is. I was already considering getting rid of my Dish Network. This is simply one more nail in their coffin for me.
Matt said 12:17PM on 4-02-2009
Why do companies always screw over the people who made them flourish in the first place? Don't they ever think about what decisions like this do in the long run? Maybe it's just the execs looking to meet conditions for a big, fat bonus at the cost of driving the company into the ground. Of course, after that happens they just walk away with all their money. They really don't care. The greed in this country truly amazes me.
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Ozbone said 12:27PM on 4-02-2009
Greed truly knows no limits.
Not surprisingly, a poll over at Sling Community is showing a nearly 5:1 negative, saying they will not buy the new hardware or iPhone viewer.
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brackintosh said 12:29PM on 4-02-2009
I was hoping it was all a bad April Fools day joke, since Sling announced this yesterday. Well it's looking like Ecostar, who acquired Sling, are the fools -- this has created a big backlash.
I'm a Slingbox AV owner and have been waiting for this app to hit the iTunes store since MacWorld. I would have been fine if they would have said that the iPhone/Touch version would only be supported by certain Slingboxes at the time they announced it. Waiting a week after it was submitted to the Apps store.... hmmm now that sounds fishy. Especially since others have seen the beta work on older hardware.
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Brian said 12:45PM on 4-02-2009
seriously, i feel deceived. they got us all promoting them through word-of-mouth, and then screw us over. they could have mentioned it when they got us excited about it being sent to apple, they had to have known by then.
bruceskelly said 12:33PM on 4-02-2009
I love my sling box. Sling media, not so much. I know that when I need to upgrade, I'll be looking for a product from another company.
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rodalpho said 12:48PM on 4-02-2009
Outrageous. I won't be upgrading or purchasing the iPhone software if this is true, and I certainly won't purchase any of their future products. And I love my slingbox AV.
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Eric Carroll said 12:52PM on 4-02-2009
Yup. Sling AV Owner here. Downright pissed-off.
Can they at least offer a technical reason? Does anyone know if these SlingBoxes use a different codec, or something? ANYTHING to make me think these was quasi-necessary thing to get it working on an iPhone and not just a "Hey, iPhone Users have spare cash, lets force them to upgrade their Sling Box too" move...
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Brian said 12:55PM on 4-02-2009
nope.. there is no technical reason. it worked on the betas. just greed.
Eric Carroll said 1:17PM on 4-02-2009
Ugh. I want this badly, so badly I'll end up playing right into their stupid hands on this one...
Hematoma said 12:57PM on 4-02-2009
I can imagine the conversation in the board room now.
"Whose idea was it to actually put out a reliable product!?! How are we supposed to increase profits if people don't need to buy another unit every year!?! I want answers now! Do I have to do everything around here? Why do you think Microsoft released a console that dies faster than the battery in an iPhone? Do I have to spell it out for you? Don't make me hand out bonuses because of your incompetence, because I will. Is that what you want? Well, is it!?! How dare our customers think they can get away with purchasing a unit knowing they wouldn't upgrade a year or two down the road! I knew greed was a problem nowadays, but this just blows me away. Their money is rightfully ours! This is exactly why I am stuck with the base model corporate jet instead of the fully loaded model! I feel like a peasant when we are taxiing to the gate at an airport. I hope they are happy."
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PookieBadMuffin said 1:12PM on 4-02-2009
If there ever was a case of the pot calling the kettle black...
Apple does this all the time, folks.
(No MMS for 1st Gen iPhones?)
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Brian said 1:21PM on 4-02-2009
apple never said to us "mms for 1st gen iphones is coming soon!"
JohnJohn said 1:22PM on 4-02-2009
I don't think Apple is criticizing Sling.
Maddux said 1:30PM on 4-02-2009
Yeah, and that was ridiculous too. I don't think anybody would say that was a technically justified distinction. But to say that it's "the pot calling the kettle black" is insinuating that anybody upset at this thinks Apple's move was totally fair and justified, and I don't think ANYBODY does.
The difference here, though, is that Apple made the limitation, however contrived, known when they announced 3.0. Sling, on the other hand (or should I say Echostar), made no such claim until just now, and also doesn't place that limitation on lower spec'd devices (e.g. Palm and WinMo).
A lot of companies pull this crap, but it's still never cool.
mentalsticks said 3:20PM on 4-02-2009
mms is not a good example but apple has started doing this more and more often: limiting improvements and new stuff to recent models, even when there's no technical reasons for it.
However, that doesn't make it right. And also: tuaw's commenters are neither the pot nor the kettle.