Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 -- 11:22 a.m. -- on my couch

Yes, i.TV is a piece of software. But if i.TV was human, you'd want to invite it to a candlelit dinner, look into its eyes and say "you are so sexy."

And then if you were lucky, you'd get invited back to its apartment to play with all of its features.

Yes, i.TV is beautiful inside and out. But it doesn't tease.

Available for free in the App Store (sorry -- U.S. and Canada only **Don't confuse i.TV with ITV, which is also in the App Store for $2.99 and offers TV listings from France**), i.TV's developers call it a comprehensive visual media guide that features user community features and the ability to stream movie trailers and television previews.

True. But it's so much more. i.TV uses location services to find your position via GPS. Once it does, it provides you with a list of just about every cable provider in your area so you can have that fancy type of DVR guide that you use on your TV. You can see what's on, what will be on, trailers and so much more.

And, if you sign up for an account, you get access to the community features like ratings and reviews.

Plus, same goes for movies -- it finds your local theaters based on GPS and allows you to see what's playing at a given time, plus watch trailers if you are having a hard time deciding.

“i.TV makes it easy to discover television and movie programming options, share entertainment information with friends, and access media anywhere you can take an iPhone or iPod touch, ” said Brad Pelo, i.TV’s founder and chief executive officer.

He's right. It's really easy and it's fun. Let's go back to sexy -- when a piece of software looks good, you want to use it longer. Ugly software can have all the functionality in the world, but if it doesn't look good, you aren't going to give it the time of day. Shallow, I know, but that's the way it is.

Here's some information from the folks at i.TV in terms of features -- I didn't want to forget anything.

-- Rich background information for most programs, including celebrity photos, biographies, show synopses, ratings, and reviews.

-- Organize TV listings according to categories such as channel, show, and genre.

-- Filter what you don't want: Exclude information from listings such as adult content.

-- Recommend shows through an email alert to friends.

-- Rate shows

-- Write reviews

-- Stream movie and TV trailers.

There are some things i.TV doesn't have right now and because this software is so amazing in version 1.0, I can only imagine what's to come. 2 important features come immediately to mind: 1. DVR programming from anywhere, 2. Movie ticket purchases.

And while it does work on EDGE, the best experience I've found is via Wi-Fi. When you go to a cable provider for the first time, the data is downloaded to the device. So if you have a higher-speed connection, well, you will always be better off when you are downloading data. But, like I said, it works fine either way.

Plus, there's a great FAQ section built into the app in case you have questions. And from what I've seen, the developers/staff are great about getting back to folks with questions.

Wow. First WunderRadio totally blows radio out of the water and now we have i.TV. Not bad for a few days.

i.TV gets the iPTIB gold star. Download it now. And remember to tell it how sexy it is.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for calling.

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It is a good program. My only annoyance is it being sluggish. I'm sure that will be fixed with the next update.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Diego, are you finding this on EDGE? Asking because when I used it on Wi-Fi it was really fast and not too bad on EDGE -- slower than Wi-Fi, but not sluggish.

Nice software, a bit clunky on Edge, but what isn't? My biggest problem is the fact that it is not showing the correct RCN channel guides for me. There are 3 RCN options available, none have the correct station numbers. I guess this isn't a huge deal for now, since I won't be programming my DVR.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Same here on RCN ... I notice some additional public access channels that I don't have, but the rest appears correct unless I'm missing something.

Scott - thanks for the great post! In response to Diego, please send us an e-mail at feedback@i.tv. Like Scott said, on WiFi and even 3G it should be pretty fast. We'd love to look at it though and see if we can figure out the problem.

SCOTT's REPLY: Thank you for the comment, Jesse. Callers, this is an example of the exemplary customer service I always talk about ... if you have questions/concerns, e-mail Jesse or post it here and I'll send them along.

BTW, my e-mail address is jesse@i.tv if anyone would prefer to talk with me personally.

SCOTT'S REPLY: That's really nice of you, Jesse. Thank you for posting it.

Ok, Scott, which member of your family works for i.TV? Come on now, own up. It's ok to tell us, after all, confession is good for the soul, right?
Seriously, though, is this App really that fantastic? Being in another part of the planet (other than the US or Canada) I won't be using it any time soon, but I'm impressed by how impressed you are with it!

SCOTT's REPLY: Nope. Not a drop of iPhone developers blood in my family tree. I'm just reacting to a great app. Yeah, I wish it was something you could appreciate in Ireland. Two apps this week have got me pretty much ga-ga and that's WunderRadio and i.TV.

ARRRGGG! Nearly, so very nearly, was excited about this when you said "Not to be confused with ITV", which, here in the UK is the channel 3 network... oh well, I still live in hope...

*sighs*

SCOTT's REPLY: Sorry, John. It's for the U.S. and Canada. I wish this was a worldwide app, because everyone should get to try it.

I really like this app as well; but have found a few pitfalls already.

I've selected DirecTV & my zip code; but some channels from the program guide that shows up is missing. iTV doesn't show Comcast SportsNet Chicago as channel 665 (CSNC doesn't even exist according to the guide); also, the listing for Food Network (channel 231) is missing as well.

When customizing my DirecTV program guide preferences, where you have to go and uncheck oodles of channels that I don't subscribe to or wish to see, the app froze on me in several places while unchecking & I had to hold the Home button for 10 seconds to Force-Quit. Also, it would be nice if we could uncheck or check all according to the groupings on the Preference pages, instead of the universal "uncheck all" or "check all."

Otherwise, finding my favorite shows/stars was nice & easy. Interface is great, is still a little sluggish even on wifi; but overall, I really like it.

SCOTT's REPLY: Re: The Food Network ... there's some preference that allows a channel to be left out when it's not on the air. So for me, I didn't see food network in the middle of the night but it appeared the next morning. Not sure if that's the same issue you are referring to or if it makes any difference for Comcast, but I thought I'd just throw it out there.

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