TV.com

Best App for Watching TV Shows

Screenshots

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TV At Home: The home screen shows featured videos. Only a handful of current series, all from CBS, offer full episodes, including "NCIS," "Gossip Girl," "Harper's Island," "Late Night with David Letterman," "Rules of Engagement," "60 Minutes," and others. The substantial library of other programs offer only shorter clips. All programs are available over either WiFi or 3G.

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Snipped Clips: Browse programs from the Shows screen, and tap a series to see its latest videos, almost always a collection of brief clips. For that matter, even full episodes are composed of several "chapter" clips, but TV.com handles this reasonably well, automatically moving on to the next chapter of the episode as each clip finishes. Add clips to your personal feed, or mark them as favorites for future reference.

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Channel Surfing: Browse programs by channel, or add the entire channel to your custom feed. TV.com creates personalized viewing lists based on the specific channels, series, topics, or keywords you provide, as well as your past viewing history. Tap the dock's My Feed button to see what's recommended for you. Or leave it all to chance, and shake your iPhone or iPod Touch to watch a random video.

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Quick Search: TV.com offers search results as you type, showing matching series and artists at the top (swipe the black buttons to see more), and specific matching videos appearing below.

Free

Version reviewed: 1.2
CBS Interactive

Watch clips or, occasionally, full episodes of shows from CBS, Showtime, the CW, and others. The app taps into CBS-owned TV.com to offer the same videos found there, but don't get rid of your TV just yet: The app has video from lots of series, but full episodes for only a few, many of them plucked from the archives ("MacGyver," "Star Trek"). Still, it's a good start, with the best TV selection for iPhone outside of iTunes. Available in the US only.