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JByro1 · Nov 9, 2005, 07:56 PM

When Tiger and dashboard first came out, one of the greatest producer of widgets was Monkey Business Labs. One of my favorite widgets of all time was their TV Tracker. Monkey Business Labs has listed their TV Tracker as broken for over 3 months now. I have waited, not knowing what is on TV, for a fix to come out. After about two months, I sent an email to the lead developer, inquiring the status of the fix. Still a month later, I haven't gotten a response.

Does anyone know what the deal with Monkey Business Labs is? Especially TV Tracker.

If not, has anyone found a suitable alternative to TV Tracker?

rickey939 · Nov 9, 2005, 08:32 PM

I've e-mailed the developers quite a few times myself with no response, very disappointing. They claim on the site that they "Are working on a fix"...yet nothing, no word, nothing in 3+ months.

I personally haven't found another replacement.

mdc · Nov 9, 2005, 08:49 PM

i've gone back to tv.yahoo.com.

rickey939 · Nov 9, 2005, 08:55 PM

JByro1 · Nov 9, 2005, 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by mdc

i've gone back to tv.yahoo.com.

Don't get me wrong, I've gone and found other "non-widget" options for my TV viewing needs. But I was looking for the ease and convenience of a widget.

Who knows, maybe nothing exhists to replace TV Tracker!

rickey939 · Nov 10, 2005, 06:30 AM

I stumbled across this tonight (very ironic timing with this thread and everything, eh?)...

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta/

v1.6 of TV Tracker appears to be in beta form, and is working flawlessly thus far for me. Give it a shot!

mdc · Nov 10, 2005, 07:21 AM

much thanks

Adam Betts · Nov 10, 2005, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta/

Nice find!

I have my widget modified to look like this

If anyone want a copy of modified graphics, I could post em.

Stradlater · Nov 10, 2005, 02:53 PM

Adam: post 'em!

rickey939 · Nov 10, 2005, 03:21 PM

Adam, please post'em indeed! You rock.

Thanks!

rickey939 · Nov 10, 2005, 03:32 PM

Adam, does your modified skin have the channel # like the default one below has?

What else do you have in your bag of graphics Adam?

Adam Betts · Nov 10, 2005, 04:23 PM

Fixed them for version 1.6:

http://homepage.mac.com/adambetts/fi...ackerFiles.zip

CharlesS · Nov 10, 2005, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

I stumbled across this tonight (very ironic timing with this thread and everything, eh?)...

That's not irony.

Still, thanks!

Adam Betts · Nov 10, 2005, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

http://homepage.mac.com/adambetts/gr...Tracker-AB.png

Adam, does your modified skin have the channel # like the default one below has?

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/images...er/tv_shot.png

What else do you have in your bag of graphics Adam?

Nope I'm disappointed by this change but I'm clueless at how to fix it.

I have tons of other graphics that was never released. Not gonna release them anytime soon though.

JByro1 · Nov 10, 2005, 05:18 PM

It is so nice to have TV Tracker back in its place on my dashboard. Ever since TV Tracker bit the big one I had the pointless My Name Is Widget taking its place.

I am really disapointed that the channel numbers aren't next to the names anymore. Since I am at school, I really used the TV Tracker mainly for channel numbers. Oh Well!

Just glad to see it back in action. Great find rickey!

rickey939 · Nov 10, 2005, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by Adam Betts

Fixed them for version 1.6:

http://homepage.mac.com/adambetts/fi...ackerFiles.zip

Awesome stuff, thanks again! Much appreciated.

mdc · Nov 10, 2005, 06:14 PM

Thanks very much Adam.
I've never been too impressed with the widget's looks

Thinine · Nov 10, 2005, 06:23 PM

Adam, any way you could modify the graphics to display more than an hour at a time? And eliminate the TV border and just have a borderless smooth looking widget, like Yellow Pages?

rickey939 · Nov 10, 2005, 07:41 PM

Well, that was fun! It's already not working for me...

Anybody else?

tikki · Nov 11, 2005, 01:29 AM

Does this beta include a waving dollar?

wataru · Nov 11, 2005, 03:31 AM

This widget has always been ridiculously slow for me, and it's still not working for my zip code.

tooki · Nov 11, 2005, 05:48 PM

www.titantv.com

Though it's primarily intended to be used with computer-based DVRs like eyeTV, it works beautifully on its own, with fast response time and nice rollover info.

tooki

Kevin · Nov 11, 2005, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

I stumbled across this tonight (very ironic timing with this thread and everything, eh?)...

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta/

v1.6 of TV Tracker appears to be in beta form, and is working flawlessly thus far for me. Give it a shot!

Thanks.

wataru · Nov 11, 2005, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

www.titantv.com

Though it's primarily intended to be used with computer-based DVRs like eyeTV, it works beautifully on its own, with fast response time and nice rollover info.

tooki

I had been using Yahoo! TV listings, but they changed something so it started rendering weird. I like this new site. Thanks.

gururafiki · Nov 13, 2005, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

I stumbled across this tonight (very ironic timing with this thread and everything, eh?)...

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta/

v1.6 of TV Tracker appears to be in beta form, and is working flawlessly thus far for me. Give it a shot!

Odd, it doesn't work for me. I guess there is a reason it is still in beta...

rickey939 · Nov 13, 2005, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by gururafiki

Odd, it doesn't work for me. I guess there is a reason it is still in beta...

Yeah, it only worked for a few hours before it broke again.

danman · Nov 13, 2005, 05:48 PM

TV Tracker sucks. It has only worked for a few weeks for me. I removed it after their support is terrible and no updates are produced.

And what's up with the 1 hour view? I want to see at least 3 hours, not just 1.

rickey939 · Nov 13, 2005, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by danman

And what's up with the 1 hour view? I want to see at least 3 hours, not just 1.

That is going to be in TV Tracker 2 supposedly...there again, TV Tracker 1.x doesn't even work.

rickey939 · Dec 3, 2005, 07:22 AM

I just got this updated news on the status of TV Tracker 2 development...

I have good news for you! TV Tracker 2 is well into development and
should be shipping before the New Year. It features detailed-show
information along with a wider screen so you can see an hour and a
half of programming.

I'd like to apologize for the time it has taken us to develop this
new version. We've had to find a new data source which generates
clean listings, no small feat. The good news is that TV Tracker 2
should be completely robust and not have any of the issues which
version 1 had (caused by interruptions from the data supplier.)

Thanks for taking the time to express your interest- it's clear that
TV Tracker is immensely popular. Would you be interested in being a
beta tester? The betas should be appearing at
www.MonkeyBusinessLabs.com/beta/ as soon as next week.

-Josh

Monkey Business Labs

rickey939 · Jan 15, 2006, 11:31 AM

A v2.0 beta will be released within the coming week supposedly...

Stradlater · Jan 15, 2006, 11:34 AM

rickey939 · Jan 23, 2006, 10:08 PM

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta

Give v2 of TV Tracker a try...

Stecchino · Jan 24, 2006, 12:55 PM

Thanks for the links, rickey. Glad to see TV Tracker's up and running again. Gotta love MBL and their work.

Does anyone know of any similar widgets or even apps that track high def shows?

I always go to HDTV Galaxy but was wondering if there's a quicker, smoother, more elegant, wicked widget that does it.

If not, perhaps MBL could implement a little "HD" logo next to show listings to indicate their high defness. Now that I see that in writing, that seems like the next logical step for this little widget.

Thinine · Jan 24, 2006, 02:25 PM

Sweet. Still wish I could get rid of the TV border graphic and display as many hours as I want, but much better than the old version.

rickey939 · Jan 24, 2006, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by Stecchino

Does anyone know of any similar widgets or even apps that track high def shows?

I always go to HDTV Galaxy but was wondering if there's a quicker, smoother, more elegant, wicked widget that does it.

If not, perhaps MBL could implement a little "HD" logo next to show listings to indicate their high defness. Now that I see that in writing, that seems like the next logical step for this little widget.

Please report that feedback/suggestion to the following e-mail address:

beta@monkeybusinesslabs.com

If the Zap2it XML data contains that HDTV information, I see no reason why TV Tracker could not get that implemented; however, I don't think Zap2it does.

Stecchino · Jan 24, 2006, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

Please report that feedback/suggestion to the following e-mail address:

beta@monkeybusinesslabs.com

If the Zap2it XML data contains that HDTV information, I see no reason why TV Tracker could not get that implemented; however, I don't think Zap2it does.

Right after I made the above post I submitted it to the developers and got the following prompt response:

This is Dave, the developer for TV Tracker.

Great Idea! Thanks! I just looked into it, and I'll be able to mark shows as HDTV. I'll shoot an email to the interface man to find out how he wants that to look, and then Ill drop that into my version.

When we've uploaded a new beta, your copy will tell you.

Thanks again,

Dave

Monkey Business Labs

What cool dudes.

rickey939 · Jan 24, 2006, 04:30 PM

Wow, very cool!

danman · Jan 24, 2006, 04:53 PM

Titantv.com works way better. I can customize it to only show the HD stations and it integrates with my EyeTV 500.

Thinine · Jan 25, 2006, 12:40 AM

I'm very impressed with this so far. With the Zap2It integration I can use the widget on multiple machines without having to redo my channel listings every time. And the interface is much more refined than the previous version.

Stecchino · Jan 25, 2006, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by danman

Titantv.com works way better. I can customize it to only show the HD stations and it integrates with my EyeTV 500.

TitanTV DOES look cool. Someone should make a widget!

Thinine · Jan 26, 2006, 05:32 PM

I've sent in a suggestion to label episodes as new or repeat if possible. That would be great.

rickey939 · Feb 6, 2006, 10:02 PM

Version 2 Beta 2 is now available...

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta

TV Tracker Beta 2 - New Features
- Improved the data downloader, solving the blank screen problem
- Improved time adjuster so that it should be better at displaying "Now"
- Nudging the time left or right will keep the grid scrolled to the same area
- New fonts galore, much easier to read!
- Added notation of programming that is broadcast in HD.
- Shiny new scrollbar
- Zillions of little things that are too boring to talk about!

rickey939 · Apr 6, 2006, 08:05 PM

The final release of TV Tracker 2 can be downloaded in the following location:

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta/freshest/

rickey939 · Jun 17, 2006, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

The final release of TV Tracker 2 can be downloaded in the following location:

http://monkeybusinesslabs.com/beta/freshest/

They've made some final tweaks/improvements of TV Tracker 2 and it can be downloaded from:

http://www.monkeybusinesslabs.com

rickey939 · Apr 24, 2007, 07:09 PM

TV Tracker 3 is now available...

Monkey Business Labs

And it's finally resizable! w00t!

selowitch · Oct 20, 2007, 05:32 PM

It requires a Schedules Direct account for $5/month?
Forget it! I'll just use something else that's free.

rickey939 · Oct 20, 2007, 09:48 PM

Originally Posted by selowitch

It requires a Schedules Direct account for $5/month?
Forget it! I'll just use something else that's free.

Indeed.

moonmonkey · Oct 20, 2007, 10:03 PM

Fyi them web clipping function in Leopard may be a long term replacement for this.

rickey939 · Oct 20, 2007, 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by moonmonkey

Fyi them web clipping function in Leopard may be a long term replacement for this.

From what site though?

Kevin · Oct 21, 2007, 05:49 AM

TV Listings, Local TV Shows and Schedules - Yahoo! TV