Sky turbo-charges its iPhone app

This month, the Sky+ app on the iPhone has undergone a transformation – you can now use it to take control of your Sky box

Here’s what you can now do on an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch:

• Change channel
• Use two fingers to fast forward through the ads (30x speed)
• Pause and rewind live TV
• Manage your Sky planner (that’s the clever bit)
• Search upcoming and recorded programmes

Being able to use your Apple device to control your Sky box is a nice touch, but you’ll probably find changing channels and fast-forwarding is still quicker with your Sky remote. The real power comes in being able to see what shows you have recorded now, and what shows are scheduled for recording. This means you can manage your Sky box without having to be front of the telly, and also you can pick what to watch from a different room.

Current and future Sky+ recordings

Setting up a recording with Series Link

With the new Sky+ app, you can see what’s recorded and delete any old recordings. You can manage clashes, and start playback of a recording by pressing the ‘Watch’ button, and the show start to play on your telly.

If you’re not sure what you want to watch, you can check out the new ‘recommendations’ feature, which lets you know what Sky thinks you’d like to watch, and tell you when they’re on, so you can set a reminder or record them onto your box.

How to use the new Sky+ app

You can take control of your Sky+HD box from your device by connecting to the box using your home wi-fi network. Assuming your box has an Internet connection, this is a doddle. You’ll need the following:

• An Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch using iOS5 or iOS6 connected to your home wi-fi system
• To install the free Sky+ app from the iTunes App Store.
• A compatible Sky+HD box, with the updated version of the Sky Guide
• To have your Sky+HD box connected to your broadband network, either via Ethernet or wi-fi (Help: Connecting to the Internet)

Searching for shows and recordings

Programme Guide Grid View

Android user?

Not yet, apparently. The new Sky+ app is only available for the iOS platform. A version for Google’s Android OS is on the way, apparently…

Other Sky apps?

There are loads of the things now: including Sky Go, Sky Sports, Sky News, Sky Cloud WiFi, Sky Movies, Sky Bet, Now TV (Movies service) and even Sky Pro Cycling. Check them out in the iTunes App Store.

In Summary

The updated Sky+ is a nice little app, adding some great additional functionality. Sadly, as the moment, the iPhone app doesn’t seem to display the grid in landscape mode. We’ve also been checking out some of the iTunes reviews, and there’s a sizable number of people not happy with the improvements, or struggling to get things connected. For us, it’s all working, and a nice improvement.

Any comments, add your thoughts below…