Fly or Die (TV Apps): IntoNow, Yap.TV, FIOS Mobile

Fly or Die (TV Apps): IntoNow, Yap.TV, FIOS Mobile
Once you start watching TV with your iPhone or iPad, there is no going
back. When the big screen becomes boring, you just switch to the smaller
screen, where a whole world of Twitter, email, the Web, and apps stand
ready to entertain your multitasking mind. In this week’s episode of Fly
or Die, CrunchGear editor John Biggs and I look at three TV apps
designed to enhance your TV watching experience, not distract you from
it. We give each one a “fly” or “die” verdict and, as usual, a founder
from one of the companies joins us as a surprise guest to subject
themselves to our grilling.

The three TV apps we evaluate in this show are IntoNow, Yap.TV, and FIOS
Mobile. The first one, IntoNow, is like Shazam for TV shows. It lets
you check into a show you are watching by simply listening to the audio
signature of the show and comparing that agaianst its database. The app
has a high gee-whiz factor, and it really nails identifying the shows
with one click. But there is not much to do after that other than see
what shows your friends on the app have watched and leave a comment
about their bad taste in TV shows.

We both much prefer Yap.TV, which lets you navigate shows via an
up-to-the-minute program guide or a grid showing trending shows. The
whole point of the app is to, well, yap about TV, and not just with
people you know. When you click on a show, you see a Twitter stream with
all the realtime tweets about that show, along with polls, and a window
where you can chat more privately with just your friends. The app goes
way beyond the checkin, by giving you something to do related to the
show you are watching. The app works especially well for appointment TV,
things like the Superbowl, the Grammy’s, or even The Colbert Report,
where lots of people are watching at the same time. Through the app, you
can have a conversation about what your watching with other people
across the country. I call these “apps for lonely people,” but then
again as John points out, TV is a lonely medium.

Finally, the last app we review is FIOS Mobile, which is a program guide
and iPad remote for Verizon FIOS TV subscribers. I am a subscriber, and
this app is my new remote control. It lets you tune into any show
currently on, or on-demand, through your WiFi network in your house and
your set-top box. The app itself is a bit clunky (the program guide
takes forever to fully load), but it is such an improvement over the
traditional remote control that it is now my default. I can keep looking
for something better to watch on my iPad instead of annoying my wife to
no end by scrolling through the program guide every five minutes on the
TV screen. I just wish it allowed for direct streaming to my iPAd like
Comcast’s Xfinity app allows for on-demand movies.

If you want to jump to individual segments of this show (the whole thing
is 11 minutes), here is where you can watch just the parts about
IntoNow, Yap.tv, and FIOS Mobile.

Which TV apps do you swear by?

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