Exclusive hands-on: Get the full version of Hulu on your iPhone (or iPad) with PlayOn
The new iPhone app works much the same way, streaming the content from Hulu and other sources from a base PC on your network to your iPhone. Simply download and install the PlayOn software on a laptop or desktop (there's a two-week free trial), and have it run in the background. Once you install the PlayOn app on your iPhone, it will see the PC and connect, then let you choose from a variety of media sources. Navigation within the app is as clunky as it is on the Xbox 360 or PS3, and Hulu especially requires a lot of scrolling to find a specific program. A good workaround is to sign in to your Hulu account (there's a tab to enter your log-in info on the PlayOn server app on your PC), then add shows to your personal Hulu queue, which is easy to get to on the iPhone app. Even though this is an iPhone-only app, we managed to get it installed and working on an iPad as well. Image quality was fine on the smaller iPhone screen; blown up for the iPad it was clearly low-res, but still watchable. [Update: a PlayOn rep says the company is working on adding support for higher iPad-resolution streams in the very near future.]Watching "Justified" on Hulu via the PlayOn iPhone app.Hulu is the main attraction here, especially if paying $20 or so per year sounds preferable to the $10 per month Hulu Plus plans to charge. Many of the other channels built into the software, such as Netflix and Pandora, are already duplicated by native iPhone/iPad apps, but some are unique, including Comedy Central, CBS, and PBS (these are all essentially repackaged versions of what these broadcasters offer on their respective Web sites). Though the PlayOn iPhone app largely works as advertised, the prerelease version we tested did crash occasionally, and it required a very robust Wi-Fi connection. If one has a properly configured UPnP router, it's possible to stream the content to your iPhone remotely, without having to be on the same Wi-Fi network (but we haven't been able to get that set up properly yet). One major shortcoming is the lack of transport controls while watching a video. The onscreen controls are limited to volume, pausing, and rewinding to the start of the episode (as the PlayOn software on your PC is transcoding as it streams, so media player shuttle controls probably wouldn't work--and in fact, fast-forwarding and rewinding even on the Xbox 360 or PS3 with PlayOn is iffy). PlayOn for the iPhone hits the iTunes App Store on July 15, and is free to download, but keep in mind that it requires the sold-separately PlayOn media server software.
