Spb Software House has released yet another hot title for Symbian-powered smartphones,Spb TV. This app, which was released a few weeks ago for Windows Mobile-powered smartphones, brings a host of online, streaming TV channels into a single app for your phone. Youll also be excited to know that there will be both a free version and a paid version, with a few differences. Read on for our review, and to see what youll need to pay to get. Spb TV is available today for all current Symbian-powered smartphones. SPB TV was tested on the Nokia E63, N79, and 5800 XpressMusic, with no problems on any of the handsets. You can use either 3G or WiFi to tune in, as well. EDGE is supported, but notrecommended, as you might imagine.
There are two main views in Spb TV that allow you to easily browse through the available channels Browser mode and TV Guide mode. In Browser mode, seen below, you get a thumbnail preview of the station, as well as a scrollable list of the available channels. This thumbnail is not a live preview, but rather a snapshot of the current programming. This allows you to quickly scroll through the list of channels with as little loading time between each channel change, for a true channel surfing experience.In TV Guide mode, the thumbnail preview is replaced by two panels, the date and the guide. The channel lineup is still presentedalong the bottom edge of the display, and the guide panel either gives you a short description of the channel, or the hourly content guide, when available.
The date obviously coincides with the hourly content guide, allowing you to see whats coming up onyour favorite channels.If you find something that you like in the hourly content guide, you can simply click on it to instantly create a calendar entryof that show, stored in your phones local calendar! This way, you never miss your favorite shows because you forgot.You can also customize the channel list, so that only the channels you want are shown in the list. In addition, you can rearrange those channels, so that your favorite ones are listed at the beginning, so that you have less scrolling.
While youre watching a channel, if youd like to see what else is on, Spb have included a really cool picture-in-picture mode, so that you can continue watching your channel, even while you try to see what else is on. I found this to be really smooth, with only a few seconds delay over WiFi when switching channels.After playing with it for a few days, Im quite impressed with Spb TV myself. On the 5800 XpressMusic, its really smooth, even on that large display, and the floating touch controls are nicely implemented. While most of the foreign language channels are of little use to me, there are quite a few local stations, specifically if you live in the Los Angeles, CA area. The free versionof Spb TV offers limited channel access, and does not allow for the calendar reminder settings.
Spb TV is a highly usable IP-TV solution, optimized to run on mobile devices. Spb TV provides users with lots of channels in multiple languages with easy-to-use features and settings. No subscription fee!
SpbTV v1.1.195 S60v3 S60v5 SymbianOS9.x Signed
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