Slingbox on the iPhone

This morning I noticed a new update was available for my iPhone in the App Store for Slingbox.  I about fell on the floor when reading the release notes which simply said “enables 3G”.  Over the past several months AT&T has enabled (allowed Apple to enable) MMS on the iPhone and now has given their blessing to stream audio/video over their network via Sling.  So today on my drive to work, I streamed television onto my phone not necessarily because I wanted to listen to it as I drove down the road, but because I could.  Technology is a wonderful thing when it’s allowed to be an enabler.

For those that don’t know, Slingbox is a device ($150) that you can install in your home, that allows you to access your television lineup from your computer or phone.  In 2006 I spent several weeks in South Africa during the month of March and it drove me nuts that I couldn’t watch any of March Madness from my computer.  When I got home I did a little research and discovered Sling Media.  Over the next three years I pretty much lived the life of a consultant out of a suitcase, and the purchase of the Slingbox was a no-brainer.  In the summer of 2009 Sling was added to the App Store, the gotcha however was that AT&T/Apple only allowed media to stream via a Wi-Fi connection.  Today’s update now allows the phone to stream video via Wi-Fi or 3G.

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It is perplexing to me how Apple could allow the most advanced phone in the world – dating back for a couple years now – to still not have a feature as common as MMS.  Much like the Google Voice Issue that AT&T has perpetuated we sit today with an iPhone that can not send media via text messages.  MMS is not exactly a new technology, first used in 2002.  I see a few enterprising individuals have built morse code applications for the iPhone – that should be right down AT&T’s sweet spot?  Here’s an entreprenuerial idea.  An iPhone Application that takes an image, renders it into ASCII art, so that it can be text messaged on the iPhone.  I presume AT&T can handle this?

                              |\
                              | |
                              | |
                              | |
                              | |
                ))))))))      | |
              ((((    \       | |
               \\\.=<#-<#     | |
                \C     7      | |
  ,              \    -)      | |
  \\__         __.) (.__      | |
   \\\\ _    /'         `\    | |
    \_ '/   /  ,       .  \   | |
      \ \  /  /| '   ' |\  \  | |
       \ \/  / |       | \  \ | |
        \  /'  |       |  `\ \| |
         `'    |       |    \ | |
               |   .   |     \| |
               >-------<      | |\
              [~~~~~~~~~]     | | )
              [    L    ]     | \/
              [    |    ]     | |
              [____|____]     | |
               | /   \ |      | |
               ()     ()      | |
               ||     ||      | |-._
               ||     ||      | |_  `.
          jgs  )(     )(      | | `-. `.
              /==\   /==\     | |    `.;
             ooooO} {Ooooo    | |      `
             ~^^^~   ~^^^~    |/ ascii art

Should I not expect more from the American Telephone & Telegraph Company – my monthly bill would make me think so?

Remedy Alas?

The end of summer is approaching quickly and as sure as fall will bring color to the leaves, will AT&T finally be ready to flip their switch, thus turning basic functionality on to the iPhone in the US?  Hopefully Apple will release in conjunction OS 3.1, leaving me only Google Voice and Total Cost of Ownership to complain about?

In the meantime, I’m going to start researching this ascii art converter idea…

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But it had to be to good to be true?  Yep, I own an iPhone and have a plan through the agless AT&T.  It doesn’t mean I can’t use Google voice on the iPhone, it just means that there isn’t a cool app that I can put on my phone to make the process easier to use.  You see, Apple and AT&T decided to reject the Google voice application and make it not available on the App Store.  Now, to use Google Voice, I have to open the web browser on the phone, navigate to Google voice, and then make a call or send a text message.  It’s not a great option, but out of spite one that I will start using.

Andy Kessler wrote a very good opinion article in the Wall Street Journal entitled Why AT&T Killed Google Voice.  I couldn’t agree more with the article, AT&T in its fight to control the pipe between you and your contacts is slowing technilogical progress.  In this article, Andy argues for four things long overneeded in the US:

• End phone exclusivity. Any device should work on any network. Data flows freely.

• Transition away from “owning” airwaves. As we’ve seen with license-free bandwidth via Wi-Fi networking, we can share the airwaves without interfering with each other. Let new carriers emerge based on quality of service rather than spectrum owned. Cellphone coverage from huge cell towers will naturally migrate seamlessly into offices and even homes via Wi-Fi networking. No more dropped calls in the bathroom.

• End municipal exclusivity deals for cable companies. TV channels are like voice pipes, part of an era that is about to pass. A little competition for cable will help the transition to paying for shows instead of overpaying for little-watched networks. Competition brings de facto network neutrality and open access (if you don’t like one service blocking apps, use another), thus one less set of artificial rules to be gamed.

• Encourage faster and faster data connections to our homes and phones. It should more than double every two years. To homes, five megabits today should be 10 megabits in 2011, 25 megabits in 2013 and 100 megabits in 2017. These data-connection speeds are technically doable today, with obsolete voice and video policy holding it back.

What should Google’s next course of action be?  I would suggest a deal that allows them to sell Android with data only plans.  That might slice into a piece of Apple’s pie.

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