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While some people travel to escape the status quo, many simply cannot live without their favorite television programs, sports events, or movies. Thanks to the TV-loving techies at Slingbox, travelers addicted to home entertainment can now enjoy it from anywhere, at any time, on a full range of popular portable devices like laptop computers, smartphones, tablets and secondary television screens that are connected to Google TV, Boxee Box, or Western Digital media players.

With Slingbox, which retails for around $299, these mobile devices become on-the-go televisions, photo galleries, and cinemas. And, notably, there are no monthly fees and no geographic limits as to where in the world you can have your cable TV fix delivered to you in real time.

The Nuts and Bolts

Here’s how the Slingbox works: the device is hardwire-connected to your high-definition video sources. This could be a digital cable box, satellite receiver, DVR, DVD player or Blu-ray Disc player. This innovative platform then “slings” the content and control of these devices to your mobile device. That means you will be able to pause a program, change the channel, or set up a device to record a specific program just like you were sitting in front of your TV. Slingbox technology can even adapt to network variability to ensure the best, cleanest picture possible no matter what type of network you are connected to or your mobile device screen size.

Photo Credit: Slingbox

Nothing Compares

While there may be other devices that say they offer mobile television or entertainment on demand, none of them cover the scope, content, devices and entertainment offering of Slingbox. To further set itself apart from emerging competition in this innovative technology niche, the Slingbox 500 was introduced as a new platform with further enhanced functionality, a new look, and incredible 1080p HD resolution.

This incredibly powerful device delivers hardware that has a modern, edgy, and cool design that, thanks to built-in Wi-Fi, can sit up to ten feet away in the same room as the devices it is connecting to and still outperform anything else that dares to compare.

Simple Set-up

You don’t have to be a techie to figure out how to get the Slingbox up and running. The Quick Set-Up Guide sheet and remote control that comes with the Slingbox escorts you through the user-friendly set-up, including recent enhancements that further streamline the process. The package comes with all of the connectivity wires you will need with easy-to-understand instruction as to which is which.

New Features and Future Upgrades

With this expedited set-up you’ll be well on your way to enjoying some of Slingbox’s incredible new features like “SlingProjector” so you can wirelessly display photos and videos from a smartphone to the television. To merge the worlds of social media and entertainment, Slingbox has a suite of apps now offered as part of the new user interface that runs the various apps, including SlingPlayer for Window Phone, SlingPlayer for Connected Devices, and SlingPlayer for Facebook.

SlingPlayer for the Web offers such recent enhancements as better video quality, site performance, streaming, set-up assistance and Slingbox Directory. Upgrades to the SlingPlayer for iOS and Android devices offer greater streaming resolution on tablet apps, improved picture quality, a new look and feel for certain phone apps and a reminder function so you never forget about your favorite shows.

Even with all of this robust functionality, the savants behind Slingbox are seemingly never at rest. They are already developing feature enhancements and software upgrades that will allow users to do even more, including furthering the social experience that Slingbox currently offers.

***Some or all of the accommodations(s), experience(s), item(s) and/or service(s) detailed above may have been provided at no cost and/or arranged to accommodate this review, but all opinions expressed are entirely those of Merilee Kern and have not been influenced in any way as per the disclosure policy on our “Legal” page***