television

TVCatchup (www.tvcatchup.com) has released an app for Windows Phone 8. We previously looked at the app a few days ago and AAWP stated that it would only be a matter of days until consumers would be able to download and enjoy streaming television on Windows Phone - sure enough, it's now available for download.

Unofficial Samsung Remote is an app that does exactly what the title suggests. The Windows Phone app enables users to control their Samsung Smart TV sets to take advantage of the television's advanced functionality that may not be available with the standard remote.

As well as changing channels, adjusting volume levels, navigating around the Smart Hub and inputing data into fields using the keyboard, the app boasts a number of features that's going to make any Samsung television owner drool.

Microsoft has published a new video on its Windows YouTube account, showing off the operating system's versatility and the date for launch - October 26th. The software giant is expected to unveil all features and functionality of its next desktop operating system soon enough, which will come with extensions such as Xbox Music.

"What?! How do I use this alien technology?!"

The Nokia Lumia Windows Phones seem to be making the cameo rounds these days.  Earlier what appears to be a Lumia 800 showed up on the set of the upcoming movie "The Wolverine" and now a Nokia Lumia (we believe it's a 900 in costume) has been spotted in the U.S. television show, The Neighbors. What's great about the above capture is facial expressions and the ability to add an alien-related caption to bring it in line with the storyline from the show.

We've previously looked at Windows Phones being featured in a media, particularly the music video for Fun. - We Are Young, which we to this day still receive tips on. We're going to need OEMs and Microsoft to go out in a full scale attack with product placement when Windows Phone 8 launches.

The advertisements, not only for Windows 8 and Microsoft's Surface, but Windows Phone will be on the big screens, where couch potatoes will be able to enjoy the sight of new Lumias or HTC hardware. Who knows, Samsung might even ... actually, it was wishful thinking, I know.

Thanks, Steve, for sending in the tip!

HBO Go, the service that let's HBO subscribers stream movies and TV shows to various devices, is one of the greatest blessings to the world of apps in recent times. And now it has finally come to Windows Phone...but only in Romania. You may ask yourself, "Why Romania?" Well, the answer may be that HBO Go depends heavily on regional cable providers and those carriers in Romania were the first to get agreements in place with television giant. At any rate, customers of Romanian providers HBO Go VIP/Club Romania, INES, NextGen Communications, or Romtelecom can now watch their favorite shows on their Windows Phone devices.

We last covered a Windows Phone version of the BBC iPlayer back in August last year, where we brought the unfortunate news that the corporation was waiting for the platform to support Flash before they'd attempt to bring the on-demand service to Windows Phone owners. Nokia has now informed The Inquirer that the BBC iPlayer will be coming to Lumia owners in the coming weeks.

Now, first question that springs to mind is how has the team at the BBC got round the no-Flash capability? Second, how long is the exclusivity going to be (if at all) with Lumia handsets? Nokia has been busy building relations with developers and companies to bring across apps to the platform and improve the selection of big brand names available. It would make sense for an iPlayer solution to be made available to all Windows Phone consumers, especially since Microsoft has also managed to get the service live on the Xbox.

That's the good news, and we'll look to update you all with more information on dates of availability, as well as any details on a potential Lumia exclusivity. The bad news in this article, and from the Nokia source, is that a Sky Go app is not looking likely for another few months. The service is a popular add-on for Sky customers and will prove to be an issue until a solution is available for Windows Phone with apps already in the iOS and Android app markets. Unfortunately, no details were revealed for 4OD, ITV Player and 5 on Demand.

Source: The Inquirer

We've reviewed PrimeTV and given away copies of TVShow. But which is the best television information app for your Windows Phone?

Tough call. Both offer detailed information on your favorites television shows as well as image galleries and videos on the shows. Both support Trakt.tv and Twitter (TVShow also supports Facebook). Both have live tiles and toast notifications on you favorite shows. Both have easy to navigate user interfaces.  TVShow does support subtitles but is that an across the board feature everyone uses?

But which is the best? While you can search and add favorite television series to track by keyword, Prime TV also gives you recommendations from your Trakt.tv account and from those shows that are trending upwards on Trakt.tv.

I'd love to say there's a smoking gun that would put one of these apps ahead of the other but they are so close, it's truly a dead tie. Both apps have similar features that are at times only distinguishable by how your access them. For example, TVShow has a YouTube button that sends you to a video page. PrimeTV incorporates a YouTube page into the Television Series hub.

Fortunately, both have free trials so you can judge for yourself. The full versions of both run $.99. You can find the Marketplace links and a side by side video comparison after the break.  If you find one of these two apps better than the other, feel free to share in our comments section.