ABC happy with its iPad app. You?

[deckeda]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/04/13/a...-ipad-app/

Twelve in-house ABC software engineers built the app in the five weeks after the Jan. 27 announcement of the iPad. Though Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest shareholder, the network didn’t receive a prototype to work with in designing the app. Instead, the engineers relied on a software “emulator” provided by Apple.

5 weeks. See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?

What I found most interesting to learn was that shows on it still have 30-second commercials, whereas say, Hulu can't seem to attract advertisers like that.

My second thought was, are solutions that aggregate content (Hulu, Plex, Boxee … Netflix … AppleTV?) really necessary in order to have a convenient viewing experience, so long as the content providers themselves do it right? In other words, is it really a hardship to switch to a dedicated app in order to "switch channels?"

Just puttin' it out there.

[volcs0]

I've been very happy with the ABC app...been using it to watch Kimmel.

[OWC Jamie]

Anyone else notice they seem to have turned the quality down a bit since the initial day or two after release? Seemed like it was a lot blockier when I tried it just yesterday than I recalled.

[rgG]

On of the first things I did, after I got my iPad, was watch an episode of LOST with the ABC app. It worked great, but the next day it was wonky and would just quit after a minute or two. They had an update, which I applied, and it seems to work fine now. I like it a lot. I haven't noticed a degradation in quality, but I haven't watched anything yesterday or today.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....APPsolutely.....???

[Seacrest]

rgG wrote:
On of the first things I did, after I got my iPad, was watch an episode of LOST with the ABC app. It worked great, but the next day it was wonky and would just quit after a minute or two.

I would tell you what went wrong with it, BUT THERE'S NO TIME FOR THAT NOW!

[rgG]

I just watched V and the quality seemed great. I did notice that the commercials were sometimes not as high resolution and showed pixilation or were fuzzy. Sort of the opposite of regular broadcast TV.

[Dubya]

What I found most interesting to learn was that shows on it still have 30-second commercials, whereas say, Hulu can't seem to attract advertisers like that.

My second thought was, are solutions that aggregate content (Hulu, Plex, Boxee … Netflix … AppleTV?) really necessary in order to have a convenient viewing experience, so long as the content providers themselves do it right? In other words, is it really a hardship to switch to a dedicated app in order to "switch channels?"

ABC is probably giving away the commercials (as an added value, if you will) to those sponsors who purchased a regular broadcast schedule.

My opinion is to have a non commercialized playback. I call that convenient.
I also don't watch that much online to justify wanting convenience in "switching" content quickly.

Just my two cents...