Hold on there Mobile iPhone Slingplayer People!

Posted by | 04/03/2009 | 7 Comments

Humm   What’s going on here??   What has AT&T done to the license agreement?   I wonder if this means that there will be no Slingplayer on the iPhone??

“This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, customer initiated redirection of television or other video or audio signals via any technology from a fixed location to a mobile device, web broadcasting, and/or for the operation of servers, telemetry devices and/or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition devices is prohibited.”

I was really looking forward to this application, I guess mobile iPhone people aren’t going to get their home TV!

From the AT&T Wireless Data Terms and Conditions

via – Slingcommunity

UPDATE – Please see that AT&T has retracted this change in the TOS

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Category: Mobile

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As a News and Features Writer for GBM, Matt lives and breathes gadgets and mobile computing. In addition, he contributes to daily news posts, InkShow video reviews, and podcasts.Send email to Matt
  • http://www.notebooks.com Xavier

    I don’t get it…hasn’t Sling been available for Windows, Symbian, Palm and other devices for ages?
    http://www.slingmedia.com/go/spm-requirements
    Why does AT&T have a problem if I stream content from my Slingbox or Windows Home Server, but give the green light to YouTube and other video apps?

    Maybe AT&T will end up charging more for an ‘Really, Really, Unlimited’ iPhone data plan.

  • Johnny

    Give me a break…so AT&T will no longer support streaming Slingbox Mobile for the 20 OTHER phones it currently works with??

  • http://www.gottabemobile.com Matt Faulkner

    Not sure…. it sure does seem that way though. I know on my ATT Tilt I had the Slingplayer software on there.

  • C-141XLer

    AT&T is still acting as if they are the old AT&T Ma Bell we grew up (some of us anyway) hating. The were broken up by the governtment and now years later have re-acquired much of the same power they had been stripped of. Net Neutrality needs to be the law, and AT&T needs to be disassembled – again!

    Also, I don’t think it a coincidence that my cell phone never works at home (4 homes over 8 years, and at friends too), so I still have to have a home phone. Yet Verizon and Sprint work fine.

  • Mark

    The change in service is for there data connect laptop plans, not for the iphone. It is because they are now offering subsidized netbooks. I don’t agree with it but it does not effect the iphone. If this did effect the iphone it looks like the youtube app on the iphone would be out of the question.

  • blash

    The contract invalidates itself – although, at first, “downloading legally acquired songs” is permitted, “audio signals… from a fixed location to a mobile device” is disallowed, which means that downloading those songs wouldn’t be allowed unless they were first compressed (i.e. a ZIP file), since there’s no real legal distinction between an audio file and an audio signal, and the contract doesn’t consider the former to be an explicit exemption.

    Furthermore, Apple’s going to hate ATT for this, because it invalidates the YouTube application on the iPhone (since Google’s servers are going to be in a fixed location) – so theoretically, ATT could boot most iPhone users and Apple would have one hell of a PR problem on their hands.

    Oh yeah, it also disallows landline-to-mobile calls, if those calls were forwarded to the cellphone after unsuccessfully trying another number, like a VoIP home phone. Think about it. The entire section is FUBAR and needs to be scrapped.

  • blash

    As for the discussion about what should or should be done about the mobile industry:

    a) get rid of CDMA – waste of resources for EVERYONE, just change over to GSM and then any resources dealing with (for example) creating a CDMA phone can be redirected to GSM technology and quicken the rate of progress.
    b) stop locking people into 1 carrier for years – it’s anti-competitive
    c) (somewhat radical, but…) nationalize the physical infrasture, allowing cellphone companies to buy bandwidth wholesale from the government with no restrictions from the government and at 1 rate fixed by law (similar to the rent restrictions in NYC). This does the following: 1) since every company has access to every tower, all customers get a much improved signal and the elimination of roaming charges 2) better competition, since cell phone carriers are now competing on price and software features (i.e. join T-mobile, we offer an exclusive ESPN channel) and 3) cuts costs for the carriers because they no longer have to worry about infrastructure; in fact, it essentially turns every carrier into a MVNO and allows the creation of many more carriers – i.e., Apple can now create their own carrier as can Google, etc., which improves competition.

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