RealNetworks recently submitted their on-demand music streaming application for the iPhone and iPod Touch to Apple for review. Yes, this is the moment all of you Rhapsody subscribers have been waiting for.
Rhapsody is a subscription based service, $12.99/Month, that allows you the ability to listen to any single song or album on-demand. Current subscribers to Rhapsody can simply log into the app with their existing user name and password and can be streaming music in no time. If you are not a subscriber you will have the opportunity to take the app for a free limited time test drive.
The big question is whether or not Apple will approve this app but given the amount of negative press Apple’s app approval process is currently getting, we are leaning towards this one being approved.
Subscription based music streaming is in high demand on devices such as iPhone so it makes us wonder – when will Apple make it’s move into the music streaming business? Not that this would be likely to actually happen but Apple could even offer the service as an extra perk to all of us who subscribe to their MobileMe service.
Would you be willing to pay Apple for a service such as Rhapsody or are you perfectly content with current iTunes setup?
WWDC hasn’t even started yet and the news is already getting crazy. Sling Media, the creator of the Slingbox, is developing an iPhone version of SlingPlayer Mobile that’ll allow your iPhone to stream media via your Slingbox.
For those who don’t know, Slingbox is a TV streaming device that allows users full control of your TV set at home through the internet. It’s basically a combination of technological prowess and fairy dust that enables this VERY sweet product to “just work”. Meaning if you’re a Dodgers Fan on a business trip in the East Coast, you can watch their games as if you were in your own living room. If you saved the season finale of Lost to your PVR, you can watch that too.
Now that convenience is coming to your iPhone. Which is fitting since SlingPlayer Mobile has been available for WinMob, Palm, and Symbian for some time now and we all know none of those platforms offer a screen quite like the iPhone. Though it’s still very, very early in development, Sling has a proof-of-concept version of SlingPlayer Mobile running on jailbroken iPhones.
SlingMedia will also be holding live demonstrations of SlingPlayer Mobile on the iPhone and iPod Touch for those attending WWDC. Their Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10am and 4pm Pacific Time on Monday, June 9th. The demo is open to everybody, so if you’re in the bay area for WWDC feel free to check it out!
Thanks MegaZone for the tip and Rob for the heads up!