Sony’s PlayStation Vue television streaming service launched earlier this year, and while we found it had a lot of the same problems as cable television, it’s still a good solution if you want to use your PlayStation 3 or 4 as your sole media machine.
As of today, the service is available on another piece of hardware as well: the iPad. We’ve known this was coming since last year, and it’s certain to be a welcome addition for users of the service, but you might want to hold on before you download the app.
First, PlayStation Vue is still only available in three cities: New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. This applies to the iPad app as well, so if you live in Boise, for example, you’ll still be able to download the app, but you won’t be able to use it.
Second, you still need to sign up for the service on a PlayStation console before you can use it on your iPad. There might be some sort of workaround if you try hard enough, but this is still a service meant strictly for PlayStation owners, at least for the time being.
Sony has said previously that PlayStation Vue will come to more cities before the end of the year, but to date we haven’t heard anything about how many cities will be added. With E3 right around the corner, there’s a good chance that we’ll hear something soon.
The PlayStation Vue service itself starts at $50 per month and runs up to $70 per month for the most channel-laden package. The iPad app itself offers the same functionality as using the service on a console, and looks to work mostly the same as well.
If you’re not an owner of a PlayStation console and still want to stream live TV on your iPad, Sling TV offers fewer channels, but it’s also cheaper, starting at $20 per month.
