Taphive GmbH has recently released a major update to their movie management and discovery app, TodoMovies 3. TodoMovies 3 is a to-do app focused on movies. It has a gorgeous layout, and does a superb job managing a movie related to-do list with a robust set of features.
In this article, I will provide some examples of how the app could be used to aggregate a list of movies you want to watch, explore a vast amount of information about those movies, and discover movies you may not know about.
The app is location-aware and will prompt you to allow location services to use the app when you first open it. The main menu has four options – Discover, News, To Watch, and Watched. This is wonderfully simple considering the many directions the app can take you in.
The Discover menu is where you search for movies and find out about new ones. It opens to the Genres view, with tabs at the top for sorting films based on whether they are “In Theaters” and “Upcoming.” To search for a movie, tap the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the screen.
When you tap on a movie in a search result, the movie view has icons at the bottom that provide some great features. From left to right you can…
- Play a preview of the movie
- Display a gallery of photos from the movie
- Add the movie to your To Watch list
- Share the movie via email, Facebook, Message, and Twitter
- Purchase or rent the movie from iTunes
At the top right of the movie view there is a menu icon. Tapping that leads you to a wealth of information about the movie, including a description, the director, and a list of cast members. Tapping the director or a cast member gives you information about that individual, including a biography and a list of their movies.
Of course, tapping one of the movies brings you back to the movies view. This design makes the app an enjoyable way to discover new movies.
The News menu brings you to recent news clips from providers like Movies.com and FirstShowing.net. Tapping the Celebrity tab brings you to celebrity news from providers like People.com and TMZ. The General tab brings you to entertainment industry news.
The To Watch and Watched lists work pretty much as one would expect. When you are in the To Watch view of a movie, there is a blue checkmark icon at the bottom center of the screen. Tapping it adds the movie to the Watched list, and displays “Watched” in a green bar across the screen.
Adding a movie to the Watched list also results in the icons at the bottom changing color from blue to green, which I find helpful. It also brings you to the share menu automatically, which some people may find useful. Personally I consider the extra step to go back a bit unnecessary.
Using a swipe gesture from right to left brings up a menu to delete a movie from either the To Watch or Watched list.
I really like TodoMovies 3. I recommend recommend it to anyone looking for an easy way to track which movies you want to watch, and plan to continue using it. The design strikes a great balance between simplicity and capability. The ability to display in 15 languages and support for international movie details and release dates makes it just as useful for users outside the United States.
I would really like to see the app enhanced with a “notes” field for movies that are on the To Watch or Watched lists, so that you could save notes such as who you’d like to watch the movie with, or what you liked about it when you saw it.
