Media Apps on the iPhone

Some thoughts from Michael Surtees on three iPhone media apps. I have all three installed on my iPhone and I have to agree, these are really well-done apps that create a great user experience.

3 iPhone Apps that Made Me Reconsider Media Consumption of Video, Sound and Text:

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve discovered three new iPhone apps that changed how I use my iPhone. I’m not talking about navigation per say like dragging or enlarging, but how traditional media files are consumed and interacted with. Those media types being video and sound files, along with simple text. While I haven’t had a ton of time to use the TED, Discovery Channel or NPR iPhone apps, they all made me go hmmm in a good way.

Each app packs a lot of info, but because of the limited screen real estate it’s actually quite easy to navigate and explore. When was the last time you went to a normal web site and had a great exploring experience? My favourite feature from TED iPhone app is that they’ve split the sound and video. Just because something is filmed doesn’t mean that the talk can’t be valuable as just a sound file. Plus the file size is a lot smaller. As for the Discover Channel app, I’ve never found myself in front of the TV checking out that channel as a destination. However I was able to quickly explore a lot of what the channel had to offer and watch some cool weather clips. The NPR app is something that all news outlets should study very closely. They’ve made the online experience of both reading and listening to news very easy and fast. They’ve managed to take some complicated issues like finding stations or topics manageable.