SlingBox released the most recent version of its iPhone app today. The app allows SlingBox users to view streaming video from their home television wherever they are, whether or not there is a wireless network available. Sling had already announced its return to the 3G network at the beginning of the month, but the apps update just appeared this morning.
The Slingbox app runs $29.99, but for those customers that have already downloaded the app, the update is included. The announcement comes as part of what may be an exciting week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
While we’re excited about SlingBox coming to the 3G, we’re also wondering if Skype might be releasing their 3G version this week. Peter Parkes, the social media communications lead at Skype, interviewed Russ Shaw and posted a blog on Skype saying the company would be making “a couple of exiting announcements” this week at the conference.
According to the video, which we’ve included below, Skype will make announcements concerning “how [it] makes apps available for download, either through Skype.com or app stores”, work with handset manufacturers and partnerships with mobile operators. The one company on everybody’s mind – Apple – was decidedly absent from the video and the blog.
Both Skype and Sling were pulled from the 3G network last spring, before being allowed back on the network just recently. When AT&T announced that it would allow Sling to broadcast over the 3G networks at the beginning of this month, it said that it had worked with the company to make sure the app wouldn’t eat up too much bandwidth.
According to an email from Marc Lumpkin, director of communications at Sling, the company made “improvements over time to the SlingPlayer Mobile app and worked with AT&T to ensure the application was optimized for AT&T’s 3G network. The app that AT&T tested beginning in December 2009 was significantly improved from previous versions.”
