sprites & bites

With the iPhone’s all singing, all dancing features, I thought I would do a series of my top apps available to users. Some are not downloadable apps but links to direct services.

So in no particular order:

Sky+

The Sky+ app is your sky guide in your hand.  Link your mobile phone number to your sky account and you will have the ability to send a remote record request to your sky+/HD box when you are away from home and you have forgotten to record something. If the programme has already started you cannot record it though. Sky+ app has recently had an update and now it is faster, easier to use and has a better navigation layout. The Sky+ App is free to download and use from the app store.  UK only.

TV Catchup

TV Catchup is not an app but a service you can use directly through the browser. The name TV Catchup gives the impression that you can catch repeats online but actually this service is LIVE television as it is aired.  It is not some cheap crap service showing weird Japanese or minor US channels, these are top UK channels being aired live. Channels include BBC1, BBC2, BBC 3+4, ITV1+2+3+4, Channel 4, Channel 5, Five USA, Fiver, E4, More4, Film 4, BBC News 24, CBBC and a few others, plus the +1 hour versions of the above channels.

It is a fairly substantial service and it is entirely free, no catches and is 100% legal (you need a TV license of course).

This is a great package on the iPhone, but if you want more channels (50+) then you can alternatively watch it on a proper computer.

The iPhone version uses wifi or your 3g connection. On 3g the streaming is excellent and in my experience no buffering issues at all with an excellent picture.Although this is dependent on your local mobile network.

To view on iphone point your browser to iphone.tvcatchup.com and to make it easy to access you can set a shortcut link on your home screen.

To view on home computer point your browser to www.tvcatchup.com

Both services require a signup login, but they do not ask for email address or other details, just chosen name and password. How this service manages to be free I do not know, maybe they plan to charge in the future but for now, enjoy your free TV.

BBC iPlayer

The original TV catchup service. Again, not an app but a direct service, really the iplayer needs no explanation other than it works extremely well on the iphone through 3g or wifi.  Point your browser and make a direct link to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer

TuneIn Radio

Tune In Radio is a new live radio app from the app store. It costs only £1.19 and is the best radio app I have found on the web so far.  There are many live radio apps on the app store but two things make this app stand out from the crowd.

1) The ability to browse the web while the radio is on.  They have included a web button on the radio interface which brings up a new web page for you to carry on browsing while radio is playing, whether this is a first or not I do not know but it is something all radio apps should have due to the inability to have radio playing in the background.

2) The ability to record live radio, pause rewind and forward. Yes its dab in your pocket.  The record works very well and you can record as long as you have space on the iphone, there is no restriction. This is great but a point to remember, do not forget you are recording something as you may find you run out of space if you leave it recording for a few days.  I did a test record and a 2 minute record took up about 2mb space, so this gives you an idea of what to expect from recordings.  Recordings can also be played without a connection in airplane mode, this is useful if you wish to record a bunch of programmes to take away on holiday with you.

There are hundreds of radio channels and you can browse by location, language and genre.