View in iTunes App: Showtimes Released: 7th July 2008 Developer: Avantar LLC Price: Free Rating:      | View in iTunes App: Movies Released: August 25th 2008 Developer: Flixster Price: Free Rating: | |
A first for our blog! a fist fight between the two best free movie apps for the iPhone. In the red corner we have Showtimes from Avantar (aka YellowPages) and in the blue corner Movies aquired by the film website Flixster. Both provide very similar functions, but there isn't room for both on one iPhone, so lets get started, ding ding round 1.  Features included with both apps:
  Onto round 2, which contender is the easiest to use. The purpose of these apps is for the user to access information on current films, at cinemas near them. Showtimes does this on the front screen by displaying a list of cinemas in your vicinity and the films they are showing. The nearest cinema is displayed at the top, others require a scroll and tap to bring up the film info. The information displayed includes film times, length, certificate and rating. For me this is all the information I'd require to go and book some tickets and I didn't even press a button, or touch the screen in this case. However if you do tap the film of choice you are given a short description of the film pulled from imdb. If you want to change the date you are interested in then simply tap the right or left arrows at the top of the screen to see up to a week in advance. The Movies front page displays a list of cinemas and their addresses in order of vicinity. Tapping on the cinema of choice opens a new screen which, after a short delay, contains the phone number of the cinema and a list of films, with show times. To check the certificate and film length you need to tap again to bring up another screen, which also reveals a short description, a link to a trailer and some movie websites. To select a different day you need to go into the separate settings menu. Once the date is changed you need to go back to the front screen to reselect the cinema, otherwise the setting doesn't take effect. This quickly becomes tiresome when checking film times over several days. This round definitely goes to Showtime!   Round 3 and both contenders come out fighting. It's one round each but which one will take the belt? I have already talked about the main features and the usability of both apps but only one has a place on my iPhone. So lets discuss what's left. Showtime has the ability to order the list of films by popularity, rating and newest and when using this mode tapping on a film reveals all the cinemas, showing this film and the times. This is particularly useful if like me you have a choice of 4 cinemas in close proximity, comparing the times of all them on one page makes choosing the right showing a doddle. In Movies favour it does link directly to Flixster, so if you have an account you can click on a film and it will take you to the relevant web page where you can review the film and give it a rating out of 5 stars. I imagine that if you are a regular member then Movies provides that extra integration and is probably the app for you. So that just leaves one thing.....the winner. Both are good apps but for my own personal use I have to give it to Showtime for it's simplicity. Summary: If you want an app to help you decide which cinema, which film and what time, then Showtime is slick and easy to use. If you want to dive in further and watch trailers and write reviews then maybe Movies is your app. | ||
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