DStv schedule on the Pod
It’s the applications that make a mobile device super useful and absolutely indispensable. Today, an application appeared in the iTunes app store that I was hoping for but never imagined would make an appearance: it’s rather simple, as it provides access only to a listing of TV schedules.
But as a company that is very tight and careful regarding distribution of its program listings, Multichoice for once needs to be congratulated. The iPhone DStv Guide is exactly that: a program guide to all DStv channels on the iPhone. The application is a free download and installs rather quickly – all information is gathered over-the-air.
All channels in the various bouquets are accessible. To save on data transfer times and bandwidth costs, the application displays a listing from which the user may select favourite channels to monitor.
Once ticked and selected, the channel overview screen displays the relevant scheduling information for the current time. Click on a specific channel to view a daily schedule up to seven days in advance.
It’s a really useful application and means I’ll no longer have to struggle trying to navigate the actual DStv website on the iPhone to try and view the schedule information.
Now, MultiChoice: how about opening up your schedule even more by providing media PC users with access to your online program guide?
Or else, I call on an enterprising individual who has the time and patience to use this iPhone app, a protocol analyzer and some coding skills to create a similar application to pull the OPG information directly to a media PC. Just a thought…
In the meantime, you may download the iPhone app from the iTunes app store.
Man I love my Windows Mobile, but MS definitely dropped the ball. I can’t run any nice web 2.0 apps e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc. on it, yet Apple has apps for all those.
I really hope Apple makes a qwerty version soon, this application shortage on Win Mobile is getting to me.
You. Must. Switch. To. The. Dark. Side.
I plan on doing exactly what you’re after! I’m running Mythbuntu and want to get the DSTV guide on it, so I’ve been researching how to breakdown the iPhone app to find out how it gets its data. Once I’ve done that I’d like to release a Java app that will work on any J2ME phone and supply the info as RSS as well. I’m not sure yet what format Mythbuntu uses to grab the TV schedules, but surely RSS will work.
If there’s anyone who can assist me in any way, especially someone from DSTV, I would be very grateful. I plan on keeping it free by the way…
I wish you a lot of luck! Don’t expect any help from DSTV. In fact, they may decide to shut you efforts down once you’ve reverse-engineered their intellectual property. Let me know how it goes!
I wish someone will bring this app to Android phones!!
I’m working on building an Android App which replicates the IPhone apps functionality. I’ve found an easier way of extracting TV Schedule data. The method requires almost no reverse engineering.
Will post more closer to completion.
Great news – let me know how you progress
I’ll be releasing a beta version of the DSTV guide for android within a week or so… Im hoping to finish ironing out some bugs and and add a search facility by next Friday. Will post link when ready.
Hi,
Check out http://www.slideme.org/application/dstv-guide for the first Beta release of the DSTV Guide for Android.
It’s still in testing so any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Tyrone