Never Miss Another Live Sporting Event Again With Slingbox

There's a sense of dread that comes over me when I miss a significant portion or all of a game involving a team I really care about. The feelings experienced are something like those experienced when being sent to the principal's office: you have no idea what's going to happen, but you assume it's going to be terrible. "Oh no, she's totally going to call my parents," becomes, "I bet they've turned the ball over three times already."

Sporting events are the one of the few things we actually watch live anymore. We put up with the dreaded touchdown/commercial, kickoff/commercial, end of quarter/commercial combo, because nothing sucks more than missing a game. So, yeah, you can DVR the game and wait until you get home to watch it, if you like to watch games by yourself (which kind of sucks). Actively trying to not see or hear any morsel of information about the game while it's being played sucks even worse. Your opening greeting to anyone you encounter becomes, "DON'T TELL ME THE SCORE!" (Which, if you have friends like mine, will encourage them to screw with you for the rest of the afternoon.)

But, there is a solution: Slingbox. It allows you to watch all your 1080p HD content from your TV — including recorded shows, live TV shows, and most importantly, live sporting events — on your laptop, tablet, and even your smartphone.

This means there'll be no more refreshing the interactive game tracker that's five minutes behind the action. And better yet, no more spending an entire day avoiding game updates. Plus, if you're travelling abroad, it works outside of the country. All you need is an internet connection.

That's it.

And the good folks at Slingbox have recently added two new models to their lineup, the Slingbox 500 and 350. The 500 model, on top of the capabilities mentioned earlier, lets you stream photos and other media from your devices back onto your TV. Pretty awesome, right?

Head here for some more information on Slingbox. But do it fast. The holidays are coming soon, which means visiting family members will be taking over your TV.

Patrick Burns is a writer from Plano, Texas. Find him online here.