Slingplayer for iPhone rejected by Apple/AT&T?

Uggghhhh!!!

Boy Genius tipsters say that the Slingplayer for iPhone was rejected by Apple/AT&T today.  This whole Slingplayer saga has been a huge bust for us, and if true, the rejection would be a fitting end to this circus. 

First of all, it has been almost a year since the App Store opened. Sling is just getting around to submitting an iPhone App now. We had a Windows Mobile version working almost two years ago (and it still works today!).   It even works over EVDO on Sprint’s network. Another streaming video app, Joost was able to make an iPhone app in a matter of months. What took Sling so long? CBS and MLB also had no problems making applications that stream video over WiFi.

Next, Sling decided it wanted to get some extra upgrade revenue out of iPhone owners so they said it would need some extra horsepower to make smaller resolution, iPhone encoded videos (Never mind that Windows Mobile devices have worked for years).  If you didn’t have the latest hardware, you’d need to upgrade.    We’ll say it again, they needed more power to make smaller resolution videos.   They were selling upgrades to iPhone owners saying they wouldn’t be able to use their iPhones to watch Sling broadcasts.  How many iPhone owners paid money to upgrade and now aren’t going to get an app?

Next, if the rumor is true,  Apple would have no reason to reject such an app. This is clearly the work of AT&T (are you as sick of them as we are?).   How much AT&T horse54!t do iPhone owners have to take? The question that immediately comes up is: why can’t Sling make the app WiFi only?  Are they worried about Jailbreakers allowing Sling to work over AT&T’s network? 

And finally, and this really makes us ill, AT&T is rumored to have a video service of its own coming to the iPhone soon. This could easily be their way of cutting out any competition.

Sling,  if you are listening, how about we make a truce? Put your app in that Cydia  Jailbroken apps repository, and let all your Slingboxes work with the iPhone app. Then charge us a nominal fee of 10 or 20 bucks to use the application. We’ll be square.   That’s more money than you charge your Symbian and Windows mobile customers and you’ll sell a lot more boxes.

Cool?

Update: from publicknowledge.org from last week,

Quietly, last night, AT&T revised its wireless plans. In the latest changes to the service terms, it looks like AT&T is trying to exempt its own video services but prohibiting services like the Slingbox or other video web sites. See, this change (changes emphasized):

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.

Sling never had a chance to work over AT&T.  So why the rejection?

Update 2 :BGR says Sling says that they “have had no word from Apple.” Yay!