Tech Land: ConnecTV social companion beta launches for iPad, PC and Mac (hands-on)

Friday, 3 February 2012

ConnecTV social companion beta launches for iPad, PC and Mac (hands-on)

The old guard's attempt at a social TV companion just got real with the launch of ConnecTV in open beta for iPad, PC and Mac -- smartphones and Android tablet versions are coming soon. The idea is you'll load up this app while watching TV and find a whole new way to discover details of your favorite content while at the same time share with your friends. The app uses a mic to detect what you're watching just like IntoNow and links up with both Facebook or Twitter (it'll also work on its own). Overall we were underwhelmed and quickly realizing that the other startups are way ahead in both release date and functionality. For starters, there are plenty of channels missing and not a single channel number. You can't even search for your favorite shows or channels. But even when it did manage to figure out what we were watching, we felt like we were being forced fed useless data like trivia and ads rather than having useful information like actors or players names at our finger tips. There's no doubt in our mind that the app was designed more to make us discover certain content rather than discover shows based on our actual tastes. Then again, this is the first version out of the gate, but somehow we think ConnecTV's business model will get in the way of ever making anything truly useful.

Gallery: ConnecTV social companion launches for iPad, PC and Mac (hands-on)