Today my new employer, i.TV, an up-and-coming startup with headquarters in Palo Alto, announced our first release of the “TV & Movies” App for the iPhone. The TV & Movies App we feel will change the way you watch TV and Movies. We intend to revolutionize entertainment so that you see what you want to see on TV and in the Movies, and that starts with your iPhone.
When you open up the TV & Movies App for the iPhone it starts by asking you your location, and, based on GPS coordinates, it finds your location, and recommends your local TV providers in the area (I’m using Louis Gray’s screenshots for this – he did such a great job on them!). It then downloads listings from your area, right to your iPhone, along with Movie Theater listings around your area.
From the TV listings, you can click through, choose your favorites, rate each TV show, view actors and upcoming episodes, choose star ratings for each, along with post reviews about each show and see what others have shared. You can rate reviews even and share how helpful they were to you.
Beyond just TV listings, we let you look up what movies are playing in your area. We’ll display the theaters closest to you and let you choose from the list and see all movies showing from those theaters at given times. From each movie listing you can do the same things you can do from TV shows – write reviews, rate your favorite movies, and more!
Within each movie or TV show you have the capability to also view pictures from the show, from movies you can watch the preview for the movie right on your iPhone (something that will keep you surfing for quite awhile!). You can also recommend movies and TV shows to your friends via e-mail.
There is an entire section devoted to search. So, for instance, I can type in “football” and see everything playing related to football at a given time. Or I can type in “computers”, or “fishing”, or you name it and find out what’s playing related to that term at the given time. You can also add any show or movie to your favorites (when you give it a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”, it also adds it to your “My Media” page.
What attracted me to this company is what is coming soon after our launch though. Above each listing is a button that says, “watch”. In the near future you’ll soon be able to save to a Tivo, stream your favorite episodes, and more, all right on your iPhone!
I have been hired onto i.TV as their Chief Community Officer – my responsibilities include Social Product Strategies for the company, and I’m currently working on a social application that I think will blow your socks off if you’re a TV or Movie junkie like myself. Stay tuned to our blog for much more news to come – this is only the beginning of Media, My Way.
We are simply awaiting iTunes to post the App to the iTunes store (we were expecting it to appear today, but due to the iTunes 8 launch it may be in the next day or two). We will update you via our blog and Twitter (we’ll update Twitter first!) when it’s available. You can read the official announcement here: http://mediamyway.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/itv-not-in-app-store-yetcoming-soon/. Check out our video here (YouTube Channel coming soon!): http://i.tv.
Zdnet is reporting that apparently, i.TV‘s competition, What’s On, has been removed from the Apple iTunes App store. Searching for the iPhone App returns a listing, but clicking on the listing returns an error saying the App couldn’t be found. There is no word from What’s On, and it’s unclear the reason for the dead links.
