Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on August 30, 2012 by CyberNet.

I like to keep track of my of when my favorite TV shows are going to be on TV, and I’ve used all kinds of iOS apps to help me do that. The short list of the ones I’ve tried include TV Show Tracker, TV Forecast, and TvShow Time. Most of them are paid, and they each have their own strengths, but none of them felt like they were exactly what I was looking for.

Once I turned to iTV Shows 2 [$2.99 on iTunes] there was no looking back. This universal app looks beautiful on both the iPhone and iPad, and with the built-in iCloud syncing any show you add on one device will immediately appear on your other iOS devices. That also means the notifications for upcoming shows will appear on all your devices so that you know a little before or after they are going to come on. I find it to be a great companion to sites like Hulu since you can have it display a notification up to a day after a show airs, which in some cases is when they appear on the streaming sites. iTV Shows also keeps track of the shows you watch so that you know exactly where you left off.

There is only one thing that I don’t like about this app. If a TV show has multiple upcoming episodes, such as Burn Notice used in the screenshot above, it will only show the next upcoming episode in the list. I want an option to show all upcoming episodes of a show in the list so that I don’t have to click into a TV show to see the other soon-to-air episodes. It’s a minor complaint, and given how much better this is compared to the competition it’s something I’m able to overlook for the time being.

iTV Shows 2 Homepage [iTunes Link – $2.99]

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There’s more than a few apps (and even DVRs) that promise to help you find something to watch, but one of the more interesting efforts came from Dijit Media’s NextGuide app for the iPad. It launched its assault on the old grid-style layout last month, and an update rolling out is adding listings for more content from Amazon VOD and Prime streaming, plus support for new gestures like two finger swipe between show cards, pinch to hide and more. The “Your Picks” algorithms that attempt to figure out what else you may like before you do have been tweaked, and it can also pull up more information about any show or movie with saved searches and Wikipedia bio lookups. Hit iTunes to give the free app a shot, and see if this is a push in the right direction for your TV watching experience.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

NextGuide iPad app continues its fight against boring grids, adds Amazon, gestures and more originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already seen many companion apps on mobile, but now TV Guide is diving in wholeheartedly with the next generation of its app for iOS devices. While the previous versions of TV Guide Mobile on iOS and Android let users create watchlists and get reminders, version 3.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is completely redesigned to make TV watching simpler with filtering for HD-only and favorite channels, links to streaming videos from sources like Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Crackle and iTunes — Netflix and Amazon are not on the list, although additional video sources are promised in the coming weeks. Like any good companion app in 2012 it also brings social networking features with check-ins and Twitter / Facebook integration and a trending social hot list based on what other users search for.

The downside compared to many of the apps from cable providers like Comcast or Time Warner, hardware manufacturers like TiVo or even other third parties like Dijit is the inability to use it to directly change the channel, but perhaps that’s in the next version. There’s more details in the press release after the break, and screens in the gallery below, if you’re willing to give another contender a shot at assisting your TV watching habits, the free app is available in iTunes at the source link.

Continue reading TV Guide Mobile relaunches for iOS with a new look, links to streaming video and social networks

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablet PCs, Software

TV Guide Mobile relaunches for iOS with a new look, links to streaming video and social networks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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