The Daily Show app for iPhone and iPad now available

December 8, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke

Yesterday, the app many fans of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have long hoped for finally hit the iTunes Store yesterday. Yes, aptly name “The Daily Show”, the app is currently advertised on the show’s official website and it’s Facebook feed as being free for one more day.

Does this mean it’s going to be a paid app tomorrow? Well, it’s not really clear, but downloading it today (if you’re a fan, that is) is a good idea. What does it do? What does it have? Will it make you a comedic genius or witty political satirist? The first two questions are ones we can help you with. As far as the third one goes…well, you’re on you’re own there.

The Daily Show App: Features and Stuff

The app’s layout is fairly simple. There are four screens through which one can browse. The tabs at the bottom allow for easy navigation to find the information that interests you. The home screen provides Quotes of the Day, which can be browsed by swiping right to left (and vice-versa). If the quote piques your interest, you can watch the related video or share it with your friends on Twitter or Facebook.

As mentioned above, the Share option gives you the choice to post a link to the content via your Twitter or Facebook account. It’s a simple process that requires no further explanation.

If you’re one of those people who just can’t stay up until 11:00 PM at night to get your Daily Show fix, you’re in luck. The “Watch Video” option shown in the first screencap, above, opens the video. In some cases, the video is an interview with a guest or the opening sequence of the show that includes the day’s headlines. On AT&T 3G connection, the video buffered quickly and played without any annoying hangups.

One cool feature that the app boasts is the floating cloud that’s generated when you navigate to the “Topics” tab. You’ll see a list of tags. If it passes by before you get a chance to tap your topic of choice, don’t worry. You can use the magical iPhone swipe technique to move the content left/right and up/down.

Of course, as fate would have it, I tapped the “Star Wars” tag in the floating cloud. It quickly presented me with a list of all clips relating to Star Wars. It’s that easy.

Tapping the “Schedule” tab will bring up a list of upcoming episodes and the guest scheduled to appear. It’s also nice enough to let you know when the episode will air again, in case you want to set up TiVo, eyeTV tuner, or ancient VCR to record the entire thing. Alternatively, just wait for a day or two, and you’re likely to see the clip within the app.

The “Tweets” tab should be pretty self-explanatory. It displays several columns, from which to choose. You can browse tweets from The Daily Show’s official Twitter account or see tweets from around the universe that have been hash-tagged with “TheDailyShow” or “JonStewart”. Though it’s doubtful it will come to fruition, the only recommendation I might add is to include a column that shows tweets with the #Bacon hashtag.

The Daily Show App: Good? Bad? Emotionally exhausting?

No one is going to argue that there is any inherent value to The Daily Show app. It’s entertainment and, truthfully, a thousand times better than the infamously horrible Lindsey Lohan app (which brings back traumatic memories of precious time wasted). That said, what are the pros and cons?

Pros:

• Good design with easy navigation options
• Provides actual content from the show. (After all, it’s the video clips that we’re really interested in.)
• In-app options for sharing content via social media
• Its free (for today anyway)

Cons:

• Capital One banner aesthetically unpleasing (read: annoying)
• Might not be free in the future
• Lack of a search box for specific queries

The Daily Show app is, again, free for today. If it were to cost $0.99 or $1.99 tomorrow, it might be understandable, assuming the majority of clips (or the whole show) is available for streaming. Associating a cost with the app would also merit removing the Capital One banner. Simply leaving the announcement at the app’s startup is enough to get the point across.

That’s it. If you’re a fan, install it and have a good laugh. If you’re not, you probably should be. If you don’t laugh at politics, you’re likely to cry. The former option is always better…especially if you’re wearing makeup.

Sources:

Official website – The Daily Show

iTunes Store Link – The Daily Show App