Tuesday, October 7, 2008

iPhone App Review: i.TV

I try to search the App Store everyday to find the latest and greatest iPhone apps out there.
This morning, I found a gem of an app. It's called i.TV. That's "eye-dot-tee-vee." It's a free app with your local television and movie listings. It's an all-in-one entertainment app.
It's great as a movie listings app. It does just about everything Now Playing does, except for Rotten Tomato ratings and a link to imdb.com. But, it also has features I haven't seen elsewhere. You can save your favorite actors and it directs you to where you can see them on television.
As a television app, it also does quite well. But, since it is very graphic intensive, the program does move slower compared with a paid app like What's On. In fact, the app suffers from intermittent crashes. The i.TV website says it knows about this problem and will be addressed in an future update.
Because browsing through hundreds of channels can be slow, the ability to sort through television programs is indispensible. My favorite "sort" is by genre. You can even save your favorite programs to quickly see when it airs next. However, I wish I could save my favorite channel.
It's a very good app considering it is free (with advertisements). And it looks like the company who made the app put a lot of money into its software, its website and this commercial:

Apple Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Docked a point for crashing problems and a half point for relatively slow browsing performance in television listings.

Update: As of 10/10/2008, i.TV is the #1 free app on the App Store.

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