Yeshiva Menahelim On Alert as AT&T App Offers TV on iPhone, New BlackBerry

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att-appUsers of the iPhone can now download and watch TV shows on the device, AT&T announced Monday. Subscribers to U-verse, the communications company’s digital television package, will be able to browse the service’s TV guide, download shows via Wi-Fi and watch them anywhere, said David Christopher, chief marketing officer for AT&T Mobility.

“We think this idea of TV everywhere is very compelling and important,” Christopher said. “This lets us be the first one to marry what we think is the best TV product in the industry with the best smartphone in the industry.”

The app also will be available for the new BlackBerry Torch, which goes on sale Thursday, he said.

AT&T U-verse Mobile expands subscribers’ current ability to set DVR recordings and other settings remotely through their phones.

The company, the exclusive mobile provider for the iPhone, says it’s the first to offer remote controls and the ability to watch TV shows on a phone in one app.

Shows won’t be available live, Christopher said, but users will be able to download them as soon as it’s cleared by the networks — usually a couple of days afterward.

Smartphone users can, of course, currently use their web browsers to stream select television shows from sites like Hulu.

But Christopher said U-verse Mobile offers a much wider variety of programs and, by downloading instead of streaming, lets users watch the shows regardless of Wi-Fi and mobile access — on an airplane, for example.

“This is your own TV service,” he said. “If you’re a U-verse subscriber, you get very close to the same user experience.”

The app will be available for 3G and 3GS iPhones and the iPhone 4, and to users with the mid-range and upper-tier U-verse packages. According to AT&T’s U-verse website, those packages start at $82 a month.

U-verse is a 100 percent Internet protocol-based television service.

{CNN.com/Matzav.com Newscenter}


19 COMMENTS

  1. what are they afraid of? once a kid’s got one of these phones, then TV is kosher compared to what else they can get on the phone – ?’ ??????

  2. Really, anyone who has an iPhone is already exposed to content which is at least as bad (actually, much worse) that anything on TV. So what is the big fuss about this new app?

  3. Where is the story here? The Taliban strikes again! Stupid has no cure and will be with us just as sure that there will be another Toyota recall.

  4. now that you can have TV on your iphone, NOW the menahalim are worried?! Matzav, i think you should explain to these ‘menahalim’ what internet is all about! what can be seen on the internet absolutely dwarfs anything on tv!

  5. That was very smart to tell every one where they can watch for free. Now will all be able to get it at that site. I think you should remove it.

  6. Hey chevrah stop the criticizm. you all enjoyed this article piece. and you wana know why the rabbonim are on alert?

  7. i have no reason to defend the headline of the story bec. i think matzav often has poor headlines. BUT i do think the fact that you can have tv is more of a reason for alert.

    of course internet is MUCH WORSE than anything on tv, but it’s not ‘lichatchila’. parent will say “yes, go watch shmutz on the internet”. but they are more likely to allow tv which in this case also enables internet . . .

  8. Menahalim in NY and Lakewood have been after internet-enabled devices (PSP, Xbox, Ipod Touch etc.) for years, educating parents to their dangers. TV is is just something else to be concerned about on an already dangerous platform.

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