Audio Video News

SlingMedia's SlingPlayer is a popular way to place-shift your local TV programming to any broadband-connected computer in the world. Now you can do it with an AT&T smartphone too.

Thanks to a recent decision by AT&T, you can now do your Slinging over the telco's 3G cell network. Get the app for your smartphone and you can record or stream live TV programming from livingroom to anywhere yo and your phone go.

The outlook wasn't always so rosy. Just last May AT&T removed 3G streaming from SlingPlayer Mobile to prevent network congestion, pointing out that Slinging violate its terms of service. AT&T's network has been under strain from iPhone owners and other high-bandwidth users.

The new app is "optimized to conserve wireless spectrum," says AT&T. But the folks at Sling say otherwise. Ars Technica has the scoop:

"We didn't change anything," Sling Media's John Santoro told Ars. "AT&T never discussed any specific requirements with us."

Santoro explained that SlingPlayer Mobile has always contained code to adapt the stream quality to the given network conditions. AT&T has been in discussions with Sling since it was first released last year, but AT&T never asked the company to make specific modifications. No changes were made to the app's 3G streaming capabilities between its being barred from AT&T and now.

The same story also notes that the app is awaiting Apple's approval for the App Store.