How often do you find yourself watching TV with your iPhone either in your hand or within reach? If you’re like me, the answer is most of (if not all of) the time. And that’s exactly what the folks over at Viggle are counting on.
Introducing the new Viggle iPhone app. It allows you to earn points, which can be used to redeem prizes, by doing the same things that you’re probably already doing daily, like playing on your iPhone and watching television…
All of Viggle’s magic happens inside its iPhone app. Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, you’re required to sign up for a free Viggle account. But it doesn’t take long, and you can register from within the application.
After you’re logged in, the app presents you with a couple of options. You can view which TV shows are paying out the most points over the next few days, you can “check in” the current TV show you’re watching, or you can view what prizes are available. Right now you can get a $15 Best Buy eGift Card for 21,000 Viggle points. Cool.
Acquiring points is actually easier than you think. For example, watching the next episode of American Idol will earn you 400 points, and there are a number of ways to accrue points from within the app itself. I myself have managed to conjure up nearly 2,000 points in the last 30 minutes by watching advertisements and clips of TV shows.
But the app isn’t perfect. My main complaint is that the audio recognition is terrible. Viggle claims that it can confirm what TV show you are watching by “listening” to it for 10 seconds, but it hasn’t worked for me yet. On the other hand, every show I’ve typed in has matched up perfectly with Viggle’s database. So that’s a plus.
The bottom line is, I actually like the Viggle app and will probably continue to use it. Even though it could use a bit of polish, it’s both easy and fun to use and navigate. If you want to try it out for yourself (I’m assuming it’s for US users only), you can download Viggle for free from the App Store.
Have you tried Viggle yet? What do you think?