

A gadget blog has posted a rumor that Apple plans to deny SlingPlayer — a popular TV-streaming service — from appearing as an app in the App Store. Why? To please AT&T, according to the unnamed source.

Electronista cites "a source close to Apple's approval processes," who claims Apple is giving SlingPlayer the red light because AT&T fears it will strain bandwidth on its network.

SlingMedia, which submitted the iPhone app in late March, could not confirm the rumor.

"I know there's a lot of rumors swirling around, but we talk to Apple pretty frequently about all sorts of stuff, and we haven't heard anything one way or the other as to acceptance of SlingPlayer for iPhone," SlingMedia spokesman Jay Tannenbaum told Wired.com.

AT&T and Apple declined to comment.

If the story turns out to be true, it would not be the first time Apple rejected an application to appease AT&T. In August, Apple clumsily approved and then banned an application called NetShare, which enabled tethering with the iPhone. NetShare developer Nullriver told Wired.com that Apple pulled the app because it conflicted with AT&T's terms and conditions.

Though the App Store has its share of success stories for developers, Apple has been scrutinized for being unclear with developers about its iPhone-app approval process. FreedomVoice Systems, for example, submitted its iPhone application Newber in October — and still hasn't heard an answer from Apple. As a result, FreedomVoice tabled further development, complaining that this lack of communication could cost the company $600,000 in funding spent on Newber.

The rumor about SlingPlayer Mobile and AT&T is questionable, but believable. You can certainly imagine why AT&T would feel worried about bandwidth on its already strained network. PCMag's Jamie Lendino wrote a hands-on report on an alpha version of the app, and she noted the app played streams "with reasonable smoothness over a weak 3-G signal and near 30 fps animation over Wi-Fi."

However, Wired.com thinks SlingPlayer will appear in the App Store for a few reasons. First, Sling is a very high-profile, popular service whose plans for an iPhone app have been well-documented; a flat rejection would cause an uproar. Second, Sling tells Wired.com it has a good, communicative relationship with Apple, and we trust Apple will not break that relationship. Third, Apple already announced it's optimizing live streaming in the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS — a Major League Baseball app using this improved streaming support is already in the works, although it remains unconfirmed whether this will only work with Wi-Fi.

Therefore, if Apple does reject SlingPlayer, we believe Apple will give Sling instructions on modifications it would like to see — most likely Apple would ask Sling to make its app work only with Wi-Fi and to disable the cellular network support.

What do you think? Would you care if Sling only worked over Wi-Fi? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.

Wired.com's Ryan Singel contributed to this report.

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