FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
Story image
iOS App Review: TVNZ On Demand
Fri, 14th Jun 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Sometimes searching the internet for TV shows or certain episodes you want to watch can be frustrating and near impossible.

And it’s only worse if you’re trying to do it on your phone.

That’s why the TVNZ On Demand app is a handy little tool to help you catch up on episodes you’ve missed.

Covering TV One, TV2, TVNZ U, Heartland and Kidzone24 – there won’t be any Home and Away episodes on here, sorry.

Download your favourite show from those channels and you’re ready to go; Shorty Street right at your fingertips, for free, as many times as you like.

It’s easy to search for the shows you want; use their Catch Up Guide, or search by genre or channel. Just make sure you’ve got good Wifi or 3G, and iOS 5.0 or above.

While watching TV shows on your phone doesn’t sound ideal, and you may think you’d only ever use this app on your iPad, think again.

If you’re stuck in traffic (passenger, of course), what a great way to kill 20 minutes

If you’ve got annoying (I mean lovely) kids, keep them quiet (I mean entertained) by letting them watch a couple of TV shows while you’re trying to curb your road rage.

If you’re on the bus or you’re getting 20 minutes in on the exercise bike, you could catch up on a show instead of listening to that playlist you’re starting to hate. How helpful. The app itself runs quite smoothly.

I’ve read some user reviews and a few people seem to have trouble with their Wifi crashing, so that maybe something to look out for (you don’t want to use up all your monthly data just for an episode of Jeremy Kyle).

But it is easy to search for shows and the video player runs well. How would I improve it? I’d like to be able to save shows, as in a Favourites tab, so you don’t have to search each time.

A place where new episodes go, ready and waiting for you.

But really I’m just being picky. With Shorty Street on the go whenever and wherever I like, my life if now complete.