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Apr242010

MLB.TV and MLB At Bat 2010

Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 10:08PM

I really like baseball. I try to watch as many games as I can, but I like to follow some out-of-market teams/players that don't get broadcast on my local cable network. So when the 2010 Major League Baseball season started, I decided to subscribe to their MLB.TV service. I haven't regretted it.

For $100 or $120 (depending on the package you choose) you get access to the entire season of baseball. That's 2,430 featuring all 30 teams in all 30 ballparks. Unfortunately, games are still subject to rights-holder blackout restrictions based on your location. That basically means that if a game is being broadcast on television in the area in which you're located, then you will be restricted to listening to the audio-only (e.g. radio) broadcast of the game, even if that channel is one that you don't receive. Obviously, this can make it difficult to follow your home team, but it's a great way to follow out-of-market teams and players.

Despite the blackout restrictions, all games eventually get archived and compressed. Archived games are basically full-length affairs complete with commercial breaks but not the commercials themselves. Fortunately, you can skip directly to either half of a particular inning. Compressed games are just that--the "good parts only" of a game that contain notable offensive or defensive developments. A typical game with a full-length of three hours can be compressed into a 15-20 minute affair. The archived games are usually up within 12 hours of the end of a game with compressed games coming within a day.

If this were all there were to MLB.TV, it would still be years ahead of the offerings from other professional sports leagues, but the mobile offerings may be even more impressive. Using the MLB At Bat 2010 app for the iPhone/iPod or the iPad (two separate versions, $14.99 each) you can keep up with games in progress down to a pitch-by-pitch tracking of each at bat. You can pull up previous games' box scores, see the schedule for any team, or get up-to-date stats for any player. You can listen to the live radio broadcast for either team, and if you are an MLB.TV subscriber, you can even watch live games over a Wi-Fi or 3G network! Each day the MLB will offer one or two complimentary games that can be watched live without a subscription. Naturally blackout rules still apply to all televised broadcasts. Though I have never used the iPad version of the app, it makes use of the bigger screen to show more information, and I have first-hand reports that indicate that it is every bit as impressive as its iPhone/iPod counterpart.

The latest jewel in the crown of MLB Advanced Media is the PlayStation 3 app that allows streaming of live and archived television games to Sony's gaming console. This new app arrived like a response to a wish for the ability to bring the wealth of MLB.TV to the best screen in the house. Interestingly, unlike the apps for Apple devices, the PS3 app is a free download from the PlayStation Store. To be fair, other than a calendar with each team's schedule, the PS3 app does only one thing--streaming TV broadcasts--and it does it very well. Broadcasts are in HD and look just shy of what I get from my cable provider. Scene transitions tend to show compression as do large patches of similar color like the grass or an outfield wall, but other than that, it's perfectly watchable HD. The PS3 app does not contain the standings, player stats, or any of the other information that you can find in the iPhone app, nor does it allow the split-screen or picture-in-picture viewing that's possible using a computer running Adobe Flash, but it does allow you to kick back comfortably on your sofa and watch games without running down your batteries.

If you are a hardcore baseball fan, I wholeheartedly recommend a subscription to MLB.TV. If you're a moderate baseball fan with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, then I recommend the MLB At Bat 2010 app. And the combination of those two has represented the best way for me to get my baseball fix. Now if only there were an app to improve my teams' situational hitting...

Chip Morton |

Google Voice Web App for iPhone

Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 7:49PM

After the dustup between AT&T, Apple, and Google over the rejection of an official Google Voice app for the iPhone, there was little reason to hope that such an app would ever appear on the iPhone. Even an investigation by the FCC didn't change Apple's position, and it even led them to remove all the unofficial Google Voice apps from the app store. So what did an undeterred Google do? They wrote a web app.

Ironically, before Apple created an SDK an officially allowed applications to run on their iPhone and iPod, they tried to convince developers that the way to get their content on the iPhone was through the web browser. Needless to say, back in 2007 that idea flew about as high as a lead balloon, but Google returned to that approach to create their Google Voice client for the iPhone. As a result, there was no submission needed and nothing for Apple or AT&T to reject.

The "app" in this case is accessed by directing the Safari mobile web browser to the appropriate web site. At this point, Google's HTML 5 code takes over and presents a screen that is virtually indistinguishable from an app running natively on the system. It is intuitive and responsive, and save for the Safari toolbar at the bottom, it occupies the whole screen. If you pull down on the screen, you will see the browser URL bar at the top, but other than that, the illusion is nigh flawless.

Google Voice has all the features you've come to know and love with sections for your Inbox, your contact list, your text messages, and your calls. Interestingly, the calls are handled differently from the way they are when using GV on a computer. Instead of having GV ring a designated phone number and then connect you to the party you requested, you will receive a prompt asking for permission to have your phone dial a Google designated number. Say yes, and your phone will dial and from there you will be connected to the requested party. Some people have complained about having Google's numbers appearing in their call log or on their phone bills, but it isn't a problem from my perspective. In fact, some people may even appreciate the added privacy.

Google's solution to this problem works so well that it begs the question of whether Apple wasn't right to suggest that web apps were the way to go. And for those companies who have had apps rejected, is HTML 5 the solution? I suspect that while there may be some apps that could find improved life as web apps, that approach presents its own hurdles. First, it requires the expertise to write such an app using web techniques. After an investment in learning Objective-C, this might be prohibitive. Then it needs to be hosted somewhere, meaning bandwidth will be a cost. Finally, it will probably be harder to monetize. Sure you can present advertisements, but you probably won't be able to collect an up-front payment as easily as selling through the App Store. These obstacles might be easy enough for a behemoth like Google to overcome, but they could be prohibitive for a smaller developer. And I doubt that apps like games would translate very well to a web format, but a proficient coder could prove me wrong there.

In the meantime, I have not only bookmarked the Google Voice web page, but I have added an icon for the bookmark to my home screen. So now not only does the web app feel like a native app, but it gets executed like one too. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

Chip Morton |

The Cellular Phone Outlook

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 9:32PM

I have been in the market for a cellular phone for a while now, and even though I'm not yet ready to pull the trigger on the mobile device that I'll be stuck with for the next two years, I have made a few observations about the different types of phones available from the Big Four now.

Smartphones--phones that incorporate some PDA functionality in excess of what's required a normal phone--are increasing in popularity these days, and are thus the phones that the cellular companies push most heavily in their advertising. Right now there are four major smartphone operating systems being sold today. They each have their own benefits and drawbacks, and they each have a different outlook for the future.

iPhone. This is still the one to beat. Even though it doesn't have the largest market share, it's growing at such an impressive rate that its more mature rivals in the smartphone market have stood up and taken notice. The iPhone is very accessible to newbies, handles media very easily, and adding new apps is a breeze. It's not a perfect phone due to some arcane restrictions on the types of apps/mods that Apple approves, and it's rather light on PDA features, something that may keep the business crowd from embracing the phone wholeheartedly. But for mainstream consumers, there's a lot to like. It's a competent, easy-to-use phone with enough entertainment features to make it your go-to device.

There will be continued growth for the iPhone platform in the near future regardless of whether it moves to other carriers or what its competitors do.

Blackberry. The stronghold for RIM has always been in business thanks to good integration with corporate email. Despite a few assaults on their territory, the Blackberry is still the device that businesses trust most. But RIM has seen opportunities to broaden their base by going after casual users with more "fun" multimedia features, the same kind that has catapulted the iPhone to cell phone stardom. Not only has it introduced a touch screen device, but it launched an ad campaign targeted squarely at young hipsters who want to use their phones to record videos, listen to music, and fall in love. Their expansion into this market has been modest, but it's not uncommon now to see people with Blackberry phones that are not being used for business purposes.

Blackberry may make slow inroads into the consumer market, but the business crowd is still its bread and butter, and it will continue to defend that territory through the coming onslaught from competitors.

Palm. Palm has seen better days. Once the number one maker of smartphones, Palm has watched market share erode as its PalmOS stagnated and got overtaken by younger competitors. Palm reemerged this year with the Pre and Pixie running its new WebOS. But despite critical acclaim from reviewers, the new devices haven't grabbed enough traction to change analyst predictions about Palm's dismal future. Some point to the lack of apps as a hindrance. Others say that being tied to Sprint is the problem. Whatever the case, Palm's fortunes are not as good as it's competitors. It needs a hit to stay in the fight.

Palm will look to broaden the base for its WebOS phones, either with new handsets or agreements with other carriers. If it doesn't strike oil in the next year or so, look for the vultures to start circling.

Windows. Where did they go? Microsoft, one of the pioneers or modern mobile computing, has failed to innovate or update it's aging Windows Mobile OS. Granted, it has been rebranded many times, and thanks to manufacturers like HTC, we continue to see attractive phones running Windows Mobile. But the core OS looks eerily similar to what it looked like back in 2000. That made it easy for new entrants to the market to leapfrog it with more modern interfaces. The core WinMo OS is still solid, but it is in tremendous need of a facelift and updates to its core/included applications to stay competitive.

Look for Windows Mobile to try to recreate itself with version 7 due out next year. If that should fall short, Windows Phones will continue to lose market share until Microsoft rights the ship.

Android. Google's new open source OS is currently the hottest thing in mobile outside the iPhone. Despite a sluggish start last year, lots of manufacturers are throwing their weight behind the new OS in the hopes of taking on Apple. Though no iPhone killer has emerged from the Android camp so far (sorry, Droid) the phones have shown tremendous improvement with each new release, quickly closing the gap with the iPhone. And manufacturers love that the OS has no license fees and source code that allows them to tweak it perfectly for their devices.

Android should continue to see improved market share as newer, hotter devices hit the market. But the iPhone isn't standing still, so whether it can catch up to the iPhone remains to be seen.

Symbian. Symbian isn't doing bad worldwide, but they haven't had a buzz-worthy phone in the US for a couple years now. And that doesn't look set to change soon. I haven't heard of anything noteworthy from that camp in a while.

I expect to see Symbian's market share continue to decline.

So that's the market as I see it right now. Which phone will I get? I don't know yet. I have a long history with Windows Mobile and lots of applications for it, but Microsoft hasn't done much to keep me excited about their smartphones lately. Still, I would hate to jump off the bandwagon just before something amazing (Windows Mobile 7) hits.

Chip Morton |