iPhone Gets Streaming Content From TV.com

CBS Mobile introduced a free application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch that will stream a selection of its TV.com content onto those devices. The content comes from a variety of CBS properties including the Entertainment, Sports, and News divisions as well as CNET TV, GameSpot, and The CW. YouTube content is also available through this app. TV.com doesn’t include content from Hulu, which is to be expected since Hulu pulled out of TV.com earlier this month.

The new iPhone app, named Tv.com, can provide plenty of excuses to waste time. There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind, however. First and foremost, reviews of the TV.com application on the App Store complain that it doesn’t work outside of the US. Secondly, while you can stream over Wi-Fi, 3G, and EDGE connections, the latter two are likely to provide noticeably degraded video and audio quality.

The App Store’s marketing blurb promises full episodes of your favorite shows. While this sounds great, the reality is the full-length shows are few and far between, at least for now. Should you happen upon a full-length show you’re interested in watching, you’ll likely end up with eight-minute chunks of that show. Only after watching the first clip, waiting for the second clip to load, then watching the second clip, and so on will you be able to view the entire show. The majority of TV.com’s content on the iPhone and iPod Touch is comprised of clips of shows that vary in length from 20 seconds to a few minutes.

Some of the listed runtimes for clips make us think the app isn’t completely polished yet. For example, a CNET TV episode entitled “Behind the Scenes: Dancing with the Woz!” is said to run four hours and 56 minutes.

Despite a few small flaws, the new TV.com app should excite many users. After all, who wouldn’t welcome the ability to get streaming content on his favorite handheld device?