TVW launches iPhone application

TVW added to its coverage of public affairs in Washington yesterday when it launched an iPhone application.

If you have an iPhone or web-capable iPod Touch, check out TVW’s web site now. It’s optimized for mobile devices and allows you to instantly access thousands of hours of programming — including hearings back to 1997, live webcasts and any of our produced shows — instantly.

The announcement by TVW also claims that its website has been optimized for mobile devices. But that's not exactly true. My BlackBerry Curve 8300 is no smartphone dinosaur, yet TVW's website isn't what I'd call optimized. Nor was it ideal for a co-worker's Samsung device.

If TVW really wanted to make a splash with this announcement, it would have tested its website with several of the leading wireless devices to make sure its website was optimized, and releasing a BlackBerry application at the same time it released the iPhone app would have been a very savvy move.

Instead, it looks like a halfhearted attempt to serve mobile users.

Kudos to TVW for making its content more accessible on Apple's glitzy platform, but could you please include all of us and not just iPhone users?