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Best Android apps for TV lovers and couch potatoes
Art imitates life, and that’s exactly why several million people are glued to their TVs everyday. After a hard day’s work, who doesn’t enjoy kicking off their shoes and becoming a vegetable in front of their TV, simply soaking in shows and movies? TV is more than just for entertainment, however; it can be used as educational tools for children, as well as for adults. Getting into the groove of TV can be difficult though. Unless you’ve purchased a TV guide from the nearby store or you’ve seen an ad for a certain show, being able to catch something of interest can be difficult and can lead to hours wasted on mindless channel surfing. We’ve put together a list of apps that’ll help you overcome the chaos of TV programming to find the shows that you want to watch as well as apps that give you the power to watch TV even when you aren’t at home.
One of the things that’s been drawing people away from the TV and to the internet is how unpredictable the show lineup is. Unless you watch TV daily and you’ve pretty much gotten all the shows and their schedules memorized, chances are, you won’t know what the next show is until the channel flashes a schedule card at you. With TV Guide on your Android device, you won’t have that problem. You can quickly see what’s on TV right from the palm of your hand so you can decide what channel you’ll be watching even before you turn on the TV. You can also manage your favorite channels and set up reminders for your favorite shows. TVGuide.com also gives you the latest and juiciest gossip and news regarding your favorite actors and actresses. Stop wasting precious time surfing channels; get TV Guide for your Android device today and always know what’s showing on the TV.
Here’s another app that’ll give you an idea of what’s on the tube even before you switch it on. Covering 13, 000 channels in total, TV Listings for Android TV24 gives you an overview of what’s going on right now in shows, movies and events. Open the app and see what’s showing on what channel. If you don’t care for certain channels of whatever’s showing on them, you can delete them from your lineup so that every time you check, you only see the channels that matter to you. It also gives you options for reminders for when your favorite show is on, the ability to rate movies, filtering, search and more. Unfortunately, it’s only for USA Android users. The app is free to download from the Google Play Store but is ad supported. It’s a small price to pay to be able to get an idea of what’s on the TV.
For those of you outside of the US and located in the UK, we’ve got you covered. From the same developers as TV Listings for AndroidTV24, TV Guide UK gives users a 14 day TV listing. You’ll know in advance when you want to watch something, so you can clear your schedule and call your buddies over to watch a show with you. Just like previous TV guide apps, TV Guide UK allows you to add reminders and to receive notifications when your favorite show will start. You can also access the movie page to see what movies are showing for the whole day as well as a sports page to keep you updated on the world of sports. TV Guide UK has a built in search function for easier navigating. Some users have complained that TV Guide UK doesn’t seem to include all free channels and doesn’t have channel list profiles which makes picking programs from a never ending list tedious. Apart from those snags, TV Guide UK is a handy companion for your channel surfing.
Ever catch yourself channel surfing and suddenly stopping on a channel because the show looks promising? So you’re sitting there, actually enjoying the movie, when you realize that you don’t actually know what movie this is. You can recognize an actor or two but the movie’s scenes don’t exactly give you a name to pin on it. If you’ve got your behind firmly planted on the couch and you’re achieving potato status, pick up your Android device and try to match a name to the movie using IMDB Movies & TV. It’s a must have for people who need to know movie and show titles. You can also view movie trailers through the app, as well as user reviews for movies and TV shows. If you’re feeling dorky, take a look at their list of quotes, trivia and fun things about movies and series. IMDB Movies & TV also gives you a TV listing for your local time zone as well as a recap of TV shows from the previous night.
Who hasn’t heard of HBO? Packed not only with a great selection of recent movies and providing original entertainment with series like Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and Band of Brothers, HBO is a must have for any couch potato and TV enthusiast. But sometimes we need to step outside of our homes and miss out on that series we’re religiously following. Rising from your couch will no longer be a problem when you can have HBO in your pocket. With HBO GO on your Android device, you can watch over 1,400 of your favorite HBO shows which includes original programming, movies, comedies, and sports. Take HBO with you anywhere and make sure that you’re always up to date on your favorite shows. Using HBO GO, you can create a customized watchlist so you can watch what you want, whenever you want. Unfortunately, HBO GO is available only in the US and minimum 3G connection is required for viewing. But if you happen to be lucky enough to be in the US, you won’t ever have to miss out on movies and series.
Enjoy the best of TV right from the comfort of your Android device. TV.com, developed by CBS Interactive Inc., brings your personal TV to your phone using WiFi and cellular networks. You can access the videos that you want anywhere you go. Imagine being able to access full videos for free. You can access videos from CBS, CW, CNET, ET, Showtime, and CBS News. Take a look through the featured videos, and you’ll see if an episode is available in full. Under each video’s title, the video’s length is indicated. Tap on any of the tabs on top and catch up with your favorite shows. Some episodes are available in full while others are only available as teasers. If you previously had TV.com had uninstalled it due to force close problems, TV.com’s recent update seems to have fixed that. You can download TV.com for your Android device, for free, from the Google Play Store.
Imagine being able to watch whatever you want, whenever you want. A number of apps already let you do just that, by giving you access to certain series but what if what you want to watch isn’t available on any website? You’ll have to wait until an episode is available on DVD and that can take weeks to months. With DroidTV Primetime, you can turn your Android device into a DVR and video player. DroidTV Primetime allows you to record or watch individual episodes or automatically record every episode as they become available. Episodes are recorded from the internet or over the air and are stored on your own dedicated DVR in DroidTV Primetime’s data center before it’s automatically transferred to your phone for viewing. You’ll be able to store any number of episodes on the virtual DVR but the number of episodes you can view on your phone is limited only by your SD card’s available memory. With DroidTV Primetime’s broad lineup, you’ll never miss your favorite shows. You can download DroidTV Primetime from the Google Play Store for a small fee.
With how unpredictable movie lineups on the TV can be, you might find yourself channel surfing all day and never finding a show you like. Even with a TV guide, there are just days that the channels aren’t giving you the shows you’d like to watch. When you’ve got one of those days, pick up your Android device and launch Crackle. This app lets you watch full length Hollywood movies and shows on your Android device, free and on demand. Not only do you get American programming, you also get popular anime such as Samurai X, Blue Exorcist, Viper’s Creed, Blood+ and Durarara!!Unfortunately, Crackle is only available in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Both the developers and users hope that Crackle will be available for other territories in the future. You may experience some sound issues when you download this app; the developers advise switching to the newest version of Flash to fix this. You can download Crackle for free from the Google Play Store.
TV isn’t just limited to mind-rotting shows. If you’ve got kids or if you’re in the mood to learn new things, download Discovery Channel for your Android device. You’re probably familiar with the channel, giving you a daily dose of the wonders of the world, solving mysteries in history and showing us the possible future of science and technology. With the Discovery Channel app, you won’t just get new videos but you’ll also get daily news stories, quizzes, photos and TV schedules. You can watch some of Discovery Channel’s famous shows like Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs and Ghost Lab. Unfortunately Discovery Channel doesn’t give you full videos but you do get teasers and previews of their shows so the next time you sit down on the couch and pick up the remote, you know what show you’d like to lock onto. Download Discovery Channel for free from the Google Play Store today and enrich your world.
Sometimes when you need to get out of the house, it can be difficult to tear yourself away from your couch and your TV but thanks to SPB TV, you can do your TV watching anywhere you go. SPB TV also has a TV list integrated into it, so you’ll know what’s showing and you can stay up to date on your favorite TV shows. Want to see what’s showing on other channels but don’t feel committed to actually switch the channel? Browsing other channels can be done without leaving the one you’re watching thanks to a picture preview of what’s showing. You not only save time but you can prevent having your episode interrupted. With over 20,000 downloads, SPB TV makes sure that you can still enjoy TV programming outside of your home with over 120 available and fast channel launching and switching. Get SPB TV for free from the Google Play Store today.
With any of these apps, you can now sit back and enjoy your TV viewing experience. If you happen to be out of the house, use your Android device to make sure you aren’t missing out on your favorite movies and shows. If your favorite TV lover or couch potato app didn’t make it to our list, let us know what it is in the comments section.