Back in April, TataSky+ launched 3 new features to compete with rival Airtel’s digital TV recorder. One of the features was dual access remote recording which enables TataSky+ users to schedule recording from internet using either a web browser or your mobile phone. While any TataSky+ user could use mytatasky.com to schedule recording via the web, only people with Java enabled or Symbian based handsets had the option to schedule recordings on the go using their mobiles. Not anymore.
TataSky+ has launched a free iPhone app using which iPhone (and iPod touch) users can schedule recordings on the go from anywhere in the world. All they need is data access on their mobile. The app has been developed by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd..
The iPhone app has a similar UI that of the Symbian app. Currently, the guide is limited to next 3 days on the mobile apps, whereas on the web based interface, you can schedule recordings up to 7 days in advance. Also, just like the web interface, you cannot cancel any scheduled recording. You can do it from the STB only.
We are unable to test the app as it needs iOS 4. We will be able to provide feedback in a few days when we lay our hands on an iPhone 4. However, we do not understand why they need iOS 4 for this app as (in our opinion) it won’t be using any of the key features of iOS 4 like multitasking, background transfer etc. Also, they could have easily made a web based app optimized for different mobile phone browsers and could have given access to it on m.mytatasky.com or something similar. That way, they would not have to make different apps for different platforms. In fact, TiVo, a popular TataSky+ like service in the US does it this way on m.tivo.com.
Anyways, if you have an iOS 4 based device, you can download the app form the App Store for free here.
We are happy that companies in India are working on iPhone apps. And the screenshots do look promising (click to enlarge):
[via iTunes Store]
