Enhance Your Movie Viewing Experience with your Smartphone
You’re heading out to the movies to see “Pacific Rim.” You look up your show times on your smartphone, snagging your tickets online through the app for a last-minute friend who took all day to decide to go. While you’re waiting in line at the theatre, you watch preview trailers for the movie, and read through the actors’ IMDB entries. At the counter, you load up your e-tickets on your phone, and the cashier scans them in. And once you’re inside the theatre, you put your smartphone away, and don’t touch it until the movie is over (hopefully). The $11.4 billion film industry has found greater customer engagement through the use of smartphone apps, which give viewers anytime, anywhere access to film information and social sharing of information on current cell phones and smart devices. Here are a few of the apps to shape your film experience.
IMDB smartphone app image by Anuj Biyani via Flickr.
IMDB
The Internet Movie Data Base has long been a favourite website destination for movie goers. Having it in your pocket whenever you need it makes it that much better. It gives you a one-stop destination for the top quotes from a movie, full filmographies of your favorite actors, film trailers and reviews.
BlackBerry World
With ever-increasing mobile data speeds and upgrades in smartphone technology, app markets such as BlackBerry World sell movies and other media to consumers directly from the marketplace. BlackBerry World gives you access to a selection of the latest movies and television shows to buy or rent on your device, so you can immediately start watching original versions of movie remakes, earlier movies in a series, or something new.
Location Scout
Location Scout lets you confirm what you’re seeing when you walk to a location and think, “I’ve seen this in a movie before.” This app tells you if you’re in a location that’s been used for a movie before, and what movies happened to be filmed there.
Movies by Flickster
Enjoy sharing your film love across social networks, but your Facebook friends are going to strangle you if you use anymore movie quotes in your statuses? Movies by Flickster is for you. This film-specific social network allows you to share what you’re watching, rate movies and wax poetic about your current movie obsession. It’s available on iOS, Android and BlackBerry platforms.
RunPee
Want a smartphone app that really transforms your movie watching experience? RunPee tells you exactly when the action slows down, and you can safely run to the bathroom during the middle of the movie. Sure, you don’t really want to get up and miss anything that’s going on, but occasionally you drink one too many monster-sized sodas, and you just have to go.
MovieFone
MovieFone is a BlackBerry app that allows you to check nearby theatres for show times and movie listings, and purchase tickets directly if the theater supports the app. This saves you the trouble of calling up theatres, or hoping you can find that last-minute showing of “The Wolverine.”
What’s your favourite app for the movies? Tell us in the comments.
