New App Could Change How We Watch Television

Forget TV Guide and its small, hard to read grid listings. Forget your cumbersome onscreen cable or satellite guide that is packed full of worthless information that can make your head spin. What if you could take the television listings and merge them with your personal preferences? Now you can, thanks to a new app called Peel. Advertised as “A new way to enjoy television” the app was just released to the App Store for your iPhone/iPod touch. After using Peel for several days, I can honestly say it's an enjoyable user experience and we here at AppAdvice highly recommend it. Created by Peel Technologies, Inc., the app is all about matching your personal interests with what is on television right now. When started for the first time, Peel asks you to enter information such as where you live, how old you are and whether you are male or female. It uses your location information to determine what type of programming is available in your area either through cable or satellite. Next, it needs to know what types of television programs you typically like to watch. These include comedies, dramas and animation just to name a few. It will also ask you for your sports programming preferences.

Once it knows more about you, Peel begins to do what it does best. It designs a personal programming package. Included are real time programming choices characterized as Top Picks, TV Shows, Movies and Sports. Best of all, you can advance the app to future times or days and, you’ll see its recommendations created especially for you. Each programming choice is shown visually using a photo and the name of the show. It also gives you a description of the program. Users can even tell friends about the program using FaceBook or Twitter. You can integrate either of these two social networking sites into the app by adding your contact information.

Finally, users can rate current or upcoming shows. Based on these ratings, Peel will adjust your viewing recommendations. According to the Peel website:

As you enjoy TV programming, let Peel know by pressing the star. Peel’s recommended shows will quickly match your tastes more and more precisely. Some call it an advanced predictive algorithm. We call it magic.

If I have one criticism about Peel it is this: why couldn't they release this for the iPad? While the app looks amazing on the iPhone screen, it looks better suited for Apple's larger device. The free Peel app is available today in the App Store.

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