September 28th, 2006
Sling Media announces 3 new Slingbox units
I am having a great time at Mobius 2006 here in Boston and listened to Brian tell us that Sling Media will be announcing 3 new devices today. Last month when I interviewed Sling Media executives I was told about these devices in confidence I wouldn't release any details. Yesterday we saw the Slingbox Tuner, Slingbox A/V, and Slingbox PRO models. The Slingbox Tuner and A/V will retail for US$179 each and are targeted to specific markets. The Tuner has basic analog cable inputs that a large majority of the U.S. still use with their cable service. The A/V is designed for set-top box users with composite and S-video inputs. These two Slingbox units are quite small as you can see in my comparison to the very small Samsung SGH-i320 WM Smartphone.
The replacement unit for the current Slingbox is the Slingbox PRO that will retail for US$249. The PRO has 4 inputs (coaxial, composite, S-video, and a component video dongle connector) and is double the size of the two other units. The video dongle connector allows you to purchase a US$49.99 dongle that will be available in October and allows you to connect a HD receiver.
You may be asking why should I upgrade to any of these two new smaller Slingbox units when I can get the current one for about the same price? These new units have 300% improvement in performance over the existing Slingbox so it isn't just a connector improvement that is taking place here. It looks like I'll have to add the PRO to my Christmas list now.
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to The Mobile Gadgeteer via Email alerts or RSS.
