TiVo for BlackBerry smartphones available today.

Ever find yourself in a situation when you're chatting with a few friends at a bar and someone recommends a new show to check out on TV? You make a mental note to either catch the next telecast or schedule it on your DVR. Unfortunately, life gets in the way and that mental note evaporates into thin air, along with what you wanted to see. Situations like this can now have a happy ending thanks to TiVo® for BlackBerry® smartphones.

The TiVo for BlackBerry smartphones app allows users to browse, search and schedule recordings of their favorite TV programs to their TiVo DVR directly from their BlackBerry smartphone. Click the 'continue reading' link to learn more about my hands-on experience with TiVo for BlackBerry smartphones.

First things first: downloading the app and getting started. First, I downloaded the TiVo application from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. Then, I created an account on the TiVo.com website and registered my DVR. These credentials are used to login to the application.

Once I was all set up, I liked the fact that the TiVo app has a similar look and feel to the TiVo DVR interface on my TV, so I didn't have to learn to use another interface. This makes finding and scheduling recordings a breeze, and the search feature is also pretty handy when looking for programs by title, keyword or actor.

Generally, I pretty much know what program I want to record. But there are times when I like to try something different - so I use the "Daily Picks" or the "Most Popular Shows" features to get recommendations for shows.

Users can choose to either record a single episode or the entire season using the "Season Pass®" feature. I typically record using "Season Pass" and since I have my "1-Click Record" options enabled, I have it all done in a flash.

The TiVo application turned out to be a lifesaver for me a couple of weeks ago. Some of you might remember that there was a rain delay at the US Open tennis tournament, which caused TV programming on those networks to be completely off schedule. I was in Columbus, OH at a football game and thus pretty far away from my TiVo and nowhere near a computer. I pulled out my BlackBerry smartphone at the game, made the necessary updates to my recording lineup and had it all set to record the tennis matches.  

I highly recommend trying out this application if you have a TiVo DVR and BlackBerry smartphone.  You can download this free application from your BlackBerry smarphone via BlackBerry App World or from blackberry.com/tivo via your desktop browser.

- Via Blackberry Blog