Discovery Channel

Two 'Discovery Channel' stories August 2012 - April 2013

Discovery Channel and TLC iOS apps updated with “Plus” interactive second-screen experience

Discovery Communications updated two of its iOS apps today with a brand new second screen experience dubbed “Plus”. Available for the Discovery Channel HD app and the TLC app for iPhone and iPad, “TLC Plus” and “Discovery Plus” brings interactive “second-screen” content that syncs to some of the network’s most popular shows. According to iTunes, the synced experience includes “exclusive factoids, photos, and more” and will also allow you to sync up with previously aired Plus-enabled shows that you may have recorded on your DVR.

The Plus experience isn’t available for all shows yet and is currently only available on iPad, although iPhone support and more content is on the way. The updated apps also include a new schedule guide allowing users to “quickly see when a series is currently airing new episodes, and what new shows are about to premiere.”

Update, April 24: Discovery has now updated its Animal Planet iOS app with a new experience that offers views from 12 live HD cameras:

What’s New in Version 2.5

Now on your iPad: Introducing Animal Planet L!VE, featuring unfiltered, round-the-clock access to the compelling worlds of the beautiful, cute and misunderstood. With this update, users can immerse themselves in 12 live HD cameras.

Apps & updates: vjay, Instapaper, Discovery Channel HD, more

Our usual list of apps and updates is below kicking off with a couple notable updates from over the weekend to the Instapaper and vjay apps:

vjay version 1.0.1: One of the biggest updates today goes to algoriddim’s video-mixing vjay app that we introduced you to a couple of months ago. Included in version 1.0.1 is support for 1080p videos up to 30 FPS, new settings like Auto Repeat and Play Automatically, and improved MIDI support for both the ION iDJ 2 Go MIDI controller and Numark Mixdeck Quad.

Instapaper version 4.2.4: The iPhone and iPad Instapaper app received an update that includes improvements to dark-mode and link colors, pagination performance, and support for Chrome, Buffer, and iCab Reading List in the Share panel. A full list of what’s new is below:

– Improved pagination performance.
– Improved dark-mode colors and link colors. (More on that front soon.)
– Removed instapaper.com/z short URLs from all remaining Twitter sharing methods. Now that t.co URLs are supported by nearly all apps, custom short URLs are unnecessary and they only inconvenience Twitter readers, so they’re gone. Your links are yours and should have as few intermediaries as possible.
– Removed rarely-used “Print” feature.
– Added Buffer, Chrome, and the upcoming iCab Reading List to the Share panel.
– Added “Report a text problem” to article footers so customers can help improve Instapaper’s parsing of certain pages.
– Improved Pinboard login security to use their new token system instead of storing passwords.
– Made syncing even faster.
– Fixed bugs from the future.

Discovery Channel HD version 1.9: In anticipation of the 25th anniversary of Shark Week, the Discovery Channel app was just updated with an “interactive second screen experience, synchronized to select shows from Shark Week.”

Using ACR (automatic content recognition) technology, this deeper dive into Shark Week features exclusive photos, behind-the-scenes information, revealing production shots, interactive infographics, shark trivia and much more!

Discovery Channel is offering Shark Week Plus exclusivity to iPad users each night of Shark Week from 9 to 10PM e/p, and Shark Week Bingo from 10-11PM e/p. Shark Week’s 25th anniversary begins Sunday, August 12.

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