Get Your Dose Of Jon Stewart No Matter Where You Are With The Official The Daily Show App
December 7, 2010
As mentioned in today's AppFresh Daily, Jon Stewart got his 'mug' officially plastered in the App Store -- on an app icon anyway.
The Daily Show app contains much of what's already available on the official site, but comes in a much easier to navigate and prettier package, even better than the mobile version of the web site.
The first section you'll be introduced to includes random and Quote of the Day picks from previous episodes. It can be funny enough to be reminded of some priceless statements of past criticism, but this is content from a television show, right? In which case, it seems very appropriate that the app includes an accompanying video clip.
Moving onto the Topics section, you can find episode clips about keywords, guests, popular discussions, and more using a category list or a nifty interactive cloud of floating words and phrases. You can pan around this seemingly weightless environment by swiping your finger on an open portion of the screen. Use your finger to fling words around, and even drag words atop each other to combine them in a search. To initiate the search, simply tap on the word(s) (highlighted red if combined). There's a little bit of sluggishness in this section due to the required time of searching the archives and 3D rendering, but the cool factor makes up for it, I think.
Under Schedule you'll find a list of confirmed upcoming guests, and times these episodes will re-air. Tapping on the air time will bring up a photo of the guest, a very brief synopsis, and a link to any relevant web site. Supposedly, there is a reminders feature but I'm guessing it isn't via the app. Why? The Daily Show app doesn't use Apple's push notification system, so the app would need to be open for it to work. However, there is an SMS (text) sign-up that should do the trick nicely.
The last section contains Twitter feeds on anything The Daily Show related. Not only can you quickly sift through these usually humorous tweets but you can get involved in the fun, all without ever needing to follow their Twitter account.
As a couple final notes, The Daily Show app is free but with Capital One footing the bill through plenty of advertising -- which still seems much less annoying than TV commercials -- and I didn't find any full episodes. The full web site does offer a full episode, which you could use an app like the Skyfire Web Browser to view it on your iDevice, but I don't find the lack overly devastating as this isn't meant to replace your full The Daily Show with Jon Stewart experience.
The Daily Show is available as a free app through the App Store now, compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 3.1 or later. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart airs Monday through Thursday at 11 PM EST on Comedy Central.
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