Tiger Geist

I wrote up an extensive review (with an update) on the 2009 MLB at-bat iphone application.  One word:  Awesome.  2010 brings a new season and a new version of the application.  They released this one earlier in the season (early spring training), and I’ve spent the last week evaluating it.  As of now, I can only report on the audio portion of the app.  I imagine I’ll probably drop the $100 for mlb.tv, which will/should provide full game integration into the application.  All of the pros of the application from last year still apply, so I won’t relist all of them.  Also, I didn’t do as much testing between Wifi, 3G, and edge networking;  its the same audio quality as 2009, so the connections shouldn’t be any different from last year’s review.  NOTE:  Tested on an iphone 3G.  Also, if you’re completely new to the app, please read the 2009 review first which goes over the full details of the application.  This review covers what’s new.

The new application cost is $15, up $5 from 2009.  There have been substantial improvements, and they touted this application during Apple’s ipad launch presentation.  I imagine part of what users are paying is an ipad writing and testing tax. As mentioned here, its not official if this will be the same program as the one available on the ipad. 2009 also gave a free yet substantial upgrade mid-season to the application, with more video integration.

Pros:

• Vs 2009, the application is faster.  Improvements have been made all around on efficiency;  app loads faster (note — when it loads), driving down into your game of choice is faster… clicking between the box scores of the teams is faster.  My favorite speedup is the new ‘listen’ button that appears on the main scoreboard — highlight your chosen game and listen right away.  The 2009 version required a few more steps to get to the audio portion; this is a welcome advancement.
• Streaming audio now works correctly!  This… is… big.  As noted here and here, this app isn’t the first to do so, but its a giant step forward for the at-bat application.  By utilizing a quicktime stream through safari, the application can launch your audio broadcast which will run in the background of your phone.  Listening to a game and need to send or reply to a text message?  No problem; audio continues to stream.  Checking your email?  No problem.  Get a phone call?  Phone will automatically silence the audio stream for your call… and the audio will pick right back up when you end the call.  This was my biggest issue with the 2009 version — previously, if you exited the application for any reason, you have to relaunch and find your gamefeed again.  Video isn’t working yet so I’m not sure how that will be affected, but I imagine this was an audio-only (radio broadcast) fix.
• Push notifications for games.  Pick your favorite team, and the application lets you know when the game starts (similar to receiving a txt message), and also sends a notification for when the game is over, with some basic info (final score, winning and losing pitchers).  This can be turned off.
• Little item, but you get the commercials for the feed you’re listening too.  Sometimes its the little things, but when you grew up in the Detroit area, its fun to listen to the local commercials… and I always get a kick out of Ernie Harwell doing his Blue Cross / Blue Shield commercial.

Cons:

• If there are connection issues, the app will ‘spin’ during loading and the app will eventually die.  Good news is this doesn’t affect the phone stability.  Sometimes a phone reboot fixes the problem.  This is the only major issue, and I’ll detail more because its frustrating.
• The push notification would be annoying if you left it on but didn’t want to know the score of the game.  I also imagine there will be a few thrown phones due to it.. you turn the game off when you’re team is down 9 runs in the sixth, only to get a notification/reminder that your team lost 15-2 an hour later.

The loading issue bothers me, because it is apparent that it is the development team not spending enough time dealing with the robustness of the network connection.  While its possible that I had limited network coverage during testing (the phone showed full 3G service, but it is AT&T after all), the app should be able to handle it.  While I was in Union Square / downtown San Francisco, I went to do a quick score check.  App kept dying.  As a spot check, I noticed my twitter app also gave connection time-outs.  However, I could still check email and I didn’t have any problems pulling up espn’s mobile site to check the box score at the same location.  So while other apps haven’t quite put enough time into their network robustness / performance, Safari and Mail.app didn’t have any problems.  Sometimes, after a reboot, the problem went away.  I will say that there were a few times that my twitter client could not connect but MLB at-bat 2010 could.

With that note above, who is this application for? Its not for anyone who just wants to get a quick score check;  the app is faster in 2010 but still not as fast as espn.com or other mobile sports site.  Given the caveat on network performance when you’re not on wifi, I probably wouldn’t even load the app if I’m just checking the score — Safari is faster and more robust.  I would also say, if you live in the radio jurisdiction of the team(s) that you want to listen to, I don’t know what value this would add.  I also probably wouldn’t buy this if I was in the same time zone as my favorite team — games start when I’m at work, and continue while I’m commuting home from work.

Great… who would buy it then? I have, and I love it.  I can listen to any game, but mainly the Tigers while I’m at work.  Wifi is great, but if you have 3G you can listen while at work and not get in trouble if you have a heavy-handed firewall in your way.  (When they are available), video highlights are great to catch up on the big plays, and the consolidated games (when available) are fantastic and excellent quality.  The video integration changes (if any) will be interesting to follow up on once the regular season kicks off.  Now that MLB found a way to stream audio in the background of the phone, it fixes the biggest issue/annoyance of the 2009 app.  If you have (or are thinking about) MLB.tv, the 2009 integration was fantastic.  2010 shouldn’t disappoint.

A lot of people are complaining about the cost, and it is justified if you live in your local market of the team you want to listen to.  I live in San Francisco, so I would probably hesitate to pony up money to listen to A’s or Giant’s games.   The real value is out of market games.  As Detroit Tiger fan & blogger, its either satellite radio (no thanks) or $15 for this app, for the entire season.  I think its money well spent.