TV Guide App

I love this app. It's full name is TV Guide Now and Next. When you open it it displays a full scrolling list of all the channels available on your TV platform (Freeview, Sky, Virgin etc) with what's on now and the next two programmes after that.

It uses the phone's clock to determine the time and display the right results. If you want to you can go into each individual channel and see the programme synopses but I just use it to see what's on now. In fact I have found myself using it more than the built-in EPG on Sky because I don't have to log-out of the channel I am watching to do it.

The list of channels if fully editable so you can just display the list of your favourite channels if you like. Really handy.

The TV Guide App for the iPhone does exactly what the name suggests. It's a simple to use guide to what's on TV and when. When you click on the icon you are taken to a Now & Next summary of all current and next two TV programmes for all the major TV channels from BBC One and ITV 2 through to Sky Sports, CBeebies and E4+1.

You can customise the channel list to show additional channels or to trim the list down to match just the channels you're interested in.

Clicking on one of the channels lets you see the schedule for the entire day with a synopsis of each programme and viewer ratings too. You can skip forward or back a few days and there are links to the BBC iPlayer, although this doesn't always seem to work properly.

The only reasons this doesn't get a 5 star rating is that they are missing the functionality to add reminders to your iPhone calendar for your favourite shows. I'm sure this would be easy to build in and it would make so useful for a forgetful middle aged man like myself!