What do your web professionals do in their off time?  Sure we read books, play video games, and surf the web, but we also watch a lot of TV and movies to unwind from a long day of work.  And believe it or not, now there’s an app for that.

The app is called IntoNow, and it listens to whatever TV show or film you’re watching and then gives you information about it like the title, episode and season number, and cast.  You’re probably thinking, “Why can’t I just hit the ‘Info’ button on my remote control to get information on what I’m watching?”  Well, IntoNow not only gives you information, it allows you to socialize within the app.  Just like Twitter and Facebook, you create a profile, follow others to see what they’re watching, and then you can discuss your favorite shows with other fans.

IntoNow also integrates with your Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix accounts to keep all of your social networks up to date.  To find out more information on what your friends are watching, select a title in your network, hit the Netflix button and IntoNow will tell you if your selection is available for instant streaming or only on DVD.  There’s even an IMDB link so you can find out even more information about your favorite films and TV shows.  So next time you’re standing around the water cooler, you might bea able to actually help explain what the heck happened in last night’s episode of Lost (okay, Lost is over, but you can still watch it via rerun, on DVD, or Netflix instant).

So how does IntoNow work?

In case you’re not familiar with IntoNow’s musical-predecessor Shazam, it’s an app designed to listen to songs being played anywhere (on the radio, jukebox, a TV commercial) and then report the name of the song, the artist, and album information.

According to Shazam’s CEO, Andrew Fishcer, Shazam creates a “fingerprint” (comprised of a numeric code) of each performance.  Shazam takes a song’s fingerprint and matches it against their huge database of saved codes to find your song.

Slate.com’s Farhad Manjoo spoke to Avery Wang, Shazam’s chief scientist and one of its co-founders.  Wang explained, “Shazam creates a spectrogram for each song in its database—a graph that plots three dimensions of music: frequency vs. amplitude vs. time.”  *You can get more information on how Shazam works in Wang’s academic paper “An Industrial-Strength Audio Search Algorithm” here.

Shazam is remarkably accurate and comes in really handy in those “who the heck sings this song?!” moments.

Like Shazam , IntoNow saves the soundbites being pumped through the speakers and into your mobile device and then matches them against a huge database of movies and television shows to find out what you’re watching.

IntoNow is a fun new way to socialize about your favorite shows, and I definitely recommend that you check it out.  Not everyone has an iPhone though, so we’re sharing what 360 PSG watches in our downtime the old school way: we’re blogging about it.

Do you watch more during the week or on the weekend?

Lee

Weekends, so busy during the week. Usually fall asleep during the week watching TV

Angie

I don’t discriminate.

Chris

on the weekend, no time during the week.

Ben

Week

Joel

Both I spend most nights writing code on my laptop with the DVR playing in the background. Weekends, I watch TV mostly with the kids.

Matt

I tend to watch more tv/movies over the weekend, there is just more free time then.

Kelli

During the week. Hands down.

Jena

I watch more TV during the week and tend to watch more movies on weekends.

Matt W.

About the same, I can usually get a good deal of work done with a TV show on in the background.

 

Favorite TV Show that you currently watch?

Lee

Rescue Me

Angie

Modern Family, Parks & Rec

Chris

The Office, Sons of Guns, Orange County Chopper, 30 Rock, Pawn Stars, American Pickers, An Idiot Abroad, Sabres games, Bills games, Tosh 2.0, The Graham Norton Show, I love PBS on Saturday morning for the cooking shows and home improvement shows.

Ben

Modern Family & The Office

Joel

Oh so many. House M.D. has been a favorite for years. My wife and I make it a point to watch Survivor together each week (on DVR of course so we can pick the time). I have a couple recent favorites… Chicago Hope (yes, another police drama), Fringe (which has filled my x-file void from years past), and Shameless (on Showtime) where William H. Macy is excellent (But definitely not a show for the kiddies).

Matt

I’m not really keeping up with current TV shows right now, but I’ve been watching a lot of the Cosby show on Netflix.  I wish they still made shows like that.

Kelli

Probably Dexter or Gossip Girl (don’t hate ); friday night lights, even though the final season just wrapped.

Jena

I mostly watch sitcoms and reality shows.  Currently, Modern Family is my favorite.

Matt W.

No real favorites, I’d rather be watching baseball or a Sabres game.

 

Favorite TV Show of all time?

Lee

Rosanne & Everybody Loves Raymond

Angie

Family Ties

Chris

Gilligan’s Island

Ben

Rocko’s Modern Life

Joel

Again… too tough a question. Favorite Drama : West Wing, Favorite Sci-Fi :Ties between Star Trek Next Generation and X-Files (except exclude x-files final season which sucked), Favorite comedy : Ties between Family Guy and The Office with a very close second of The Big Bang Theory.

Matt

Favorite TV show of all time, hands down is “Boy Meets World.”  I grew up with that show and was addicted.  Every Friday night and when I got home from school I would be watching that show.  The writing was just awesome, funny, wholesome, and relatable.

Kelli

I got really sucked into One Tree Hill a while back… and I still love the West Wing (Aaron Sorkin is genius).

Jena

That’s tough- it depends on my mood.  Probably Friends.

Matt W.

Easy … Lost!

 

Why do you watch the shows that you watch?

Lee

Usually Funny

Angie

They’re hilarious, a super interesting murder mystery (Dateline), or pop culture infused (20/20).

Chris

Escape

Ben

I watch very little TV, when I do, its only for a short period of time and I’m usually  looking to laugh

Joel

I have two DVR’s and record everything on the major networks. Sometimes 6+ shows a night. Then as I work on the recliner, they just play in the background. I do stop to working long enough watch the favorites mentioned though.

Matt

I watch shows for lots of different reasons:  humor, intrigue, even for reminiscing back to childhood.   I’m down with “Man vs. Wild” and “River Monsters” because they are just awesome to watch and manly, haha.  Netflix is awesome because I can watch things like “Ahh!!! Real Monsters” or “Fraggle Rock” and feel like a kid again.

Kelli

If I follow a show, it’s generally because I’m intrigued by the storyline… I need to know what happens next. That, or it’s just really funny.

Jena

They’re entertaining and different from things that happen in my own life.  It’s a nice way to relax at the end of the day.

Matt W.

Mind numbing breaks & a little bit of entertainment

 

Favorite movie of all time?

Lee

National Lampoons Xmas Vacation

Angie

Steel Magnolias

Chris

Saving Private Ryan

Ben

Roll Bounce…   (Just kidding, its probably a toss-up between The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, and Stand By Me)

Joel

Tie: Braveheart and Fight Club

Kelli

Empire Records

Jena

Again, it’s hard to choose just one.  A League of Their Own is a movie I have loved since I was little and can watch it over and over.

Matt W.

The Godfather (both 1 & 2)

 

Netflix, Redbox, or Blockbuster?

Lee

Neither, download instead so that way i can watch them any time i want

Angie

Redbox then Netflix

Chris

On Demand.

Ben

Netflix (although if Blockbuster offered FREE streaming I’d go back to them)

Joel

Netflix 5+ years now

Matt

Netflix is one of the best investments I’ve ever made!  There is so much stuff on there that is streaming and available to watch.  I can watch old shows and newer shows with no commercials and sort through tons of movies.  I’ve found a lot more stuff I like to watch and enjoy because its so easy to access.

Kelli

Currently, Redbox. But I’ve been leaning towards Netflix for a while.

Jena

Netflix.  Although I will miss browsing through the movies at Blockbuster when I’m not sure what to watch.

Matt W.

Redbox now for the sporadic weekend movie, Netflix after I get back from our honeymoon for the streaming video on the new TV’s built-in Netflix App.

 

Anything Else:

Joel

I used to write a blog and swear I will get back into it again someday! I only wrote for 3 or 4 months, and it hasn’t had a new post since 2007, but I thought my colorful commentary and quick show summary writing was kinda fun… http://www.tubetalker.com – My one post on CSI:NY drew links from hundreds of forums that picked it up either agreeing or blasting my take on the character backgrounds. Hope sometime I can get back into writing on the movies and TV that I love… and hate.

Kelli

I just downloaded IntoNow yesterday.  So far it seems like a pretty solid app.