One of my favourite little applications is DigiGuide. By application I actually mean an old style .exe. DigiGuide was a piece of software I downloaded years ago, pay for and use every day. It’s an electronic TV listings guide for the UK.
Sure, it lets me sort channels and show them in a display format I like but it also reminds me when programs I like are about to come on and it tries to work out what I might like. I suspect I use it a little less these days, using V+ to record things as I’m out so often, but I can’t imagine making education TV decisions without it.
The good news is that DigiGuide isn’t going away. GispyMedia, the people who make it, have been bought by EBS New Media Limited. They say they specialise in producing TV schedules.
In an email to customers, the new boss, Keith Bedford, is promising change for the better. They are developing and iPhone/iPad App already and are looking into the Android and Windows Phone 7 options. I really hope they make it too Android at least.
One question they must face, but didn’t discuss, was whether DigiGuide remains an exe or whether we get a Silverlight or Adobe AIR alternative. In fact, could HTML5 be used to do everything DigiGuide currently does? Bedford says he’s an Apple fan… but surely a Chrome Webstore App for DigiGuide makes a whole host of sense. I also hope they move to a license system that recognises that many users have more than one machine. I’d love my travelling laptop to also have DigiGuide on it so I can work out what to watch when I get to the hotel room at 10pm and want to chill for a few hours before hitting the sack.
