Comcast iPhone Mobile App

I am usually an early adopter of new technology but one area I have always lagged a bit behind was with a cell phone. I have had a cell phone for almost ten years but I only use it to make calls. I had a very basic plan with the minimum amount of minutes you can get. I was an early customer of the short lived Comcast Pivot/Sprint Cell phone plan which kind of made me hate cell phones in general for a while

With the recent popularity of the iPhone and other Smartphone devices we recently started researching upgrading our current plan to a data plan so we could surf the Internet and check email. We decided to stick with our current provider (Sprint) and picked up two Blackberry Curve Smartphones this weekend.

I have to say I love the phone. I can check my email, get news updates and listen to music. I have been really missing out on some great technology. One of the great features of these Smartphones is all of the apps that you can download. I noticed a few weeks ago that Comcast was offering an iPhone app that allows you to check Comcast email, check Comcast voicemail and check TV and OnDemand listings. The app looks pretty slick and it is free, click the link below to check it out:

http://www.comcast.net/iphone/

Unfortunately Comcast has only built the app to work on the iPhone. I realize that the iPhone is the new hip thing to have but it would be nice to have the Comcast app that works on other platforms as well. Blackberry has been around for much longer than the iPhone and they must have a much larger user base. I would think it would be worthwhile to build an app for the Blackberry users out there as well. If anyone at ComcastCares is out there is listening I for one would love to see the Comcast app for my Blackberry.....and while you are at it include some functionality so I can schedule recordings on my Comcast TIVO DVR from the app.

Comcast Tivo Online Scheduler

Back in June I got a postcard from Comcast advertising some new features for the Tivo on Comcast. One of the features that I was really excited about was the online scheduler. This feature will allow you to schedule tivo recordings from any computer. A very nice feature if you are not at home and realize that you have forgotten to record something. The postcard just said the feature was coming soon and pointed to this page: http://comcast.net/tivo to check for availability. At the time the feature was not available for me and I kind of forgot about it.

Earlier this week I decided to check the website again and was presented with a page allowing me to activate the TIVO online scheduler. You click on the button it verifies your TIVO box and you are good to go. In order for the feature to work I think you need to be logged into http://www.comcast.net/ using your Comcast ID. Then you need to access the TV listings for your area. The TV listing Guide with the TIVO Online scheduler is below.

It is pretty simple to use, just click on the show you want to record and a little box pops up on the right allowing you to schedule the recording or set up a season pass.

If you click on the little Tivo Online Scheduler Button on the upper right another box pops up (above) that allows you to view or cancel your upcoming recordings and season passes.

There is also a DVR selector page that will appear if you have multiple DVR's. I assume this page did not appear because I have only one DVR.

First Impressions:

The interface was easy enough to use and I think is a great new feature. This is a feature that is included if you buy a real TIVO box so it is time that Comcast added it.

Issues:

The TV Listing page can take a while to load. Not all of the time but a couple times when I went into it I thought my screen had locked up.

The Online Scheduler screen seems a little buggy. When I cancelled a recording the list of programs got all crunched together and I could no longer read them. See below:

Not really an issue but something to keep in mind. You need to give the DVR some time to sync up with the online changes. So if you need to record something that starts in 5 minutes you probably will miss it.

I wish Comcast would notify their customers where these features are available. I got the initial postcard in June but it was not available at the time. Some time over the past couple months they turned this on and did not notify me. I have a friend who also has the TIVO box and he was not even aware of the Online Scheduling functionality

Overall:

Despite the few issues I have I am very happy that Comcast continues to add features to its products. The online scheduler is not something that I will use that frequently but will be nice to have when needed.