What should have been a fine moment for iPhone owners everywhere turned into a moment of frustration, anger and despair. The reason? SlingPlayer Mobile finally comes to the iPhone - unfortunately, AT&T decided to cripple the app by making it Wi-Fi-only. So you can forget your 3G.

SlingPlayer On iPhone

A lot of people have been waiting a long time for the SlingPlayer Mobile app to come to the iPhone. It’s been available for BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Smartphone and Pocket PC, and Palm OS amongst others for some time but due to Apple’s vice-like grip over what makes it onto the iTunes App Store, the wait has been long and painful.

At the end of March, Sling Media announced that it had submitted SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to the iTunes App Store. It made it on there on Wednesday (May 13) but was lumbered with a disability which makes it an altogether less attractive option.

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The battle for blocking copyrighted materials from being distributed around the web could be about to get even murkier.

It was reported yesterday on Business Week that AT&T is considering starting to use a network filtering technology called Vobile. 

At first AT&T would use the technology to filter out content like child pornography, but be assured that its ultimate goal is to use it to filter videos and other content that allegedly infringe on major copyright holders’ copyrights. 

If you recall, AT&T announced in June that it would work with the content industry to develop a copyright filter. Public Knowledge roundly criticized that announcement, and have generally been critical of calls for ISPs to filter their networks.

AT&T have stated on a number of different occasions that it won’t block, degrade or censor websites.

This argument has prevented legislation and regulation that would see telecom companies such as them be made to play fair with content providers.

Not to get too technical here, but they didn’t promise not to censor, did they? Let’s add that little crime against speech to the list of reasons why Internet Freedom/Net Neutrality is a good idea.

It seems as if AT&T was the sponsor of the Webcast of a Pearl Jam concert at Lollapalooza on Saturday night (Aug. 4). Soon after the performance ended, the band started getting word from its fans that part of a song had been cut out. 

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In a statement which has chilled the blood of many U.S. IPTV operators, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has just asked the state’s Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) to require that AT&T obtain a cable TV license for its IPTV offering.

Connecticut AG Blumenthal stated “this (AT&T U-Verse IPTV) service must be licensed as cable, regulated as cable.”

In light of a July 27 ruling by Federal Judge Janet Bond Arterton that AT&T’s U-Verse IPTV service is a cable television service, the DPUC has the ability to stop AT&T’s infrastructure improvements and construction, as well as its marketing activities for enrolling new customers until it complies with the onerous licensing requirement.

AT&T has announced that a further 38,000 new subscribers signed up to its U-verse service in the second quarter of 2007, bringing the total to 51,000.

U-verse offers IPTV, Internet access and will eventually offer VoIP to consumers across America, although the service is currently limited to just 23 metropolitan areas of the US including San Francisco, California and Dallas, Texas.

“AT&T has a strong foundation for growth in wireless and IP-based services, and in the second quarter we improved our trajectory in key areas,” said Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T. “Our U-verse video service has begun to ramp aggressively.”

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AT&T, the sole U.S. service provider for Apple’s first phone, said it activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers in the first two days after launch on June 29. Apparently, this was well below analysts expectations for the device, resulting in over a 6% drop for Apple’ stock price in one day.

The much hyped iPhone is supposed to revolutionize the cellular market, providing easy access to online video through YouTube and the iTunes video store. I am surprised that the iPhone did not meet analysts expectations in light of the intense marketing campaign and non-stop press coverage.

By all accounts, iPhones were selling out throughout the U.S. on the weekend of its release. I wonder how many of those sales were by people looking to make a quick buck on Ebay, similar to the release of the Sony Playstation 3. A quick look on Ebay shows iPhones being sold for over $1,000. Ouch!

One interesting side note to the Apple story is that the stock price for AT&T, Apple’s partner with the iPhone, was up for the day.

The Apple iPhone was released last Friday and has already reportedly sold over 500,000 copies. We also heard last week that the device will even play YouTube videos! Wowee!

But there are already two major problems:

1. iPhone users being forced to use itunes
2. At&T possibly stopping YouTube videos due to copyright policy

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