Going to the cinema can be a costly experience, even if you're the sneaky type who hides a popcorn maker and soda stream machine under your coat. Even just finding the nearest screening of Avatar can be a challenge, but it doesn't need to be with these handy apps. As an added bonus, unlike the 700% markup on Jaffas, they're all free apps. Yes, you can spend money on cinema iPhone apps - but why would you?
Pocket Cinema
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| Right after this splash screen, Pocket Cinema often crashes. Is that a "feature"? |
Pocket Cinema only list Greater Union cinemas, which might reasonably make you think that it's a bit on the useless side. Not so, however, as the one key hook this gives the App is the ability to book and pay for tickets straight from the iPhone. The interface is pretty simple, searching via cinema or state, but we did notice it's not smart enough to not list dates already passed. Trying to buy a ticket for last Wednesday's showing of Sherlock Holmes doesn't work that well for obvious reasons, and the app is also rather crash-prone.
Now Playing
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| Ratings, trailers and cinema times in a slick App make Now Playing well worth it. |
Now Playing is the swiss army knife of cinema apps. Sure, you can't book tickets as you can with Pocket Cinema, but it lists movies by your location with review scores from the movie site of your choice, trailers, upcoming feature lists and even DVD/Blu-Ray releases, with an interface that combines detail and simplicity very well indeed.
Showtimes/OneTap Movies
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| This is Showtimes... |
Now this is how to confuse a market. Showtimes/OneTap are visually rich applications, with embedded trailers, embedded ads and movie posters that run down the side of the app and an ability to purchase tickets that doesn't seem to work anywhere in Australia. So what's the difference between the two Apps? As far as we can tell, absolutely nothing. Both work well enough, but the inclusion of mobile ads makes Now Playing a better choice in our estimation.
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| And this is OneTap. Spot the difference - if you can. |
Conclusion
OK, so they're all free. That makes picking a "best" App a little tougher, as you could run all of them if the mood struck you. While we like the slick presentation of Showtimes/One Tap Movies, the forced ads detract from the experience, especially as some of the ads are often unrelated to movies. Pocket Cinema's a great idea, but it needs stability tweaks rather badly. That leaves the excellent Now Playing as our Oscar winning movie app of choice, but it's not just by force of attrition. If you're a devotee of the silver screen, it's an excellent movie companion.
Also in this series, Amazing apps for your phone:
Part 16: Make Panorama Photos
Part 15: Shopping lists
Part 14: Find Food Fast
Part 13: PC Games
Part 12: Christmas Apps
Part 11: Religious Texts
Part 10: Let the music play!
Part 9: 6 of the best augmented reality apps
Part 8: Tick Tock, Tick Tock - Ten Time Telling Apps
Part 7: Score a shopping bargain
Part 6: Photography apps
Part 5: Get from A to B on public transport
Part 4: What's the weather like out there?
Part 3: Top 3 twitter clients for iPhone
Part 2: Here's how to get cheap iPhone apps
Part 1: How to make the most out of your iPhone's GPS
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