When I got up yesterday I found in my email inbox a note that the Slingbox client for PalmOS had entered the Public Beta phase and was available to download. So of course I did so right away, straight from my Treo, which is also where I had read the email. I had it installed and working before I got to the car. It took me a bit to figure out the controls, and I admit I did have to check the directions at one point. But it works. It is a little slower to respond than the Mac or Windows clients, and I think it may also be a little bit slower than the Windows Mobile version that Brandy has on her phone too. But it is good enough to use, and it is just a Public Beta, I’m sure it will be refined more over the next few months.
It is good to know that now, wherever I go, if I am stuck somewhere with nothing to do for awhile while I am waiting for something, I can just watch some of my home Tivo for a little while. I will need to get one of those stereo headphone adapters for it though. I feel self conscious sitting there watching TV on my phone with the audio loud enough for people walking by to hear. Headphones are a good thing.
hmm. So you can access your TiVo on your Treo… Is there a way via Bluetooth that you’re now able to “beam” one of your TiVo shows from your Treo to someone else’s Bluetooth-enabled device? (sorta like P2P-file sharing??)
Nope. The shows themselves are never actually on the phone, it is just streaming the live video from the video output of the device you have at home (in my case the Tivo). And when you hit the appropriate buttons on your phone, it acts like you hit the corresponding buttons on your remote at home.
so what’s stopping the ability for, let’s say, setting up someone else’s PDA or Treo to access your Slingbox?
Nothing at all. If you want to try it out, let me know and I’ll set you up for a short time period. However, it is restricted so that only one person can watch at a time. So I can’t give it out to the whole world or anything.
I already get frustrated because Brandy uses it all the time now both on her laptop and on her phone, so it isn’t always available to me. (Although I can kick her off with the admin password.)
I think another Slingbox (and another Tivo for that matter) are in order before too long. :-)
that’s rather cool.
Yes, it is. :-)