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WCSoccer2010

Rich DeBell — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:21:20 +0000

WC Soccer 2010, developed by Web e Studios, is the perfect app for keeping up on the news and information on the upcoming 2010 World Cup in South Africa. If you are a fan of soccer like I am then you’re probably eagerly anticipating the World Cup this summer. Even if you’re not a huge soccer fan it’s still exciting to be able to root on your country while competing on the worlds largest stage in the worlds most popular sport.

WCSoccer2010 is a wonderfully designed app that is easy to use for tracking and learning about all things World Cup related. The application allows you to view live match scores with game timers, get the latest news, view information about the venues, watch the game highlights on the application directly from YouTube, and see the group stages along with the scores for each team.

WC Soccer 2010 app features:

The Events tab shows the current and up-coming matches, the teams, time and scores of the matches are displayed.
The News tab shows the latest breaking news about the World Cup via an RSS feed.
The Venues tab shows the different stadiums which will be hosting the World Cup.
Google maps to view the different stadiums and directions.
Complete list of all the matches played at each stadium
Schedule displays all the matches, time, venue
The Teams for each country can be viewed with the groups they belong to.
List of players their positions corresponding to each team.
The Groups tab shows all the teams in each group, with their matches played,won,draw,lost and the points received for each team.
The Knockout screen shows all the teams from start to finish, includes the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals.
Exchange converter feature shows the different currencies to the South Africa Rand.
Customize the home screen with the tabs you love by simply editing them with our editing function.
Countdown to show days, hours, minutes, seconds remaining in commence of Soccer World cup.
Score Archive keeps scores and description of all the completed matches.
View video highlights of completed matches.
Live match timer will let you know about the status of any Live match whether it is in the first, second or elapsed time of any half.
Live score of any match on Home screen with details.
Schedule of current days matches and details on Home screen.
On schedule, score, teams screens user has option to view them either list or group wise.
How To screen will give details of other screen and their functionalities

Get ready for the World Cup and get WCSoccer2010 on your iPhone now. I’m excited to put it to use once the action gets live, and I’ll be sure to provide an update then.

ESPN Tournament Challenge

Steve — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:25:12 +0000

Here’s the app every March Madness college basketball fanatic needs! ESPN Tournament Challenge by ESPN Inc is a great resource on the go for accessing instant data on your bracket picks, plus watch LIVE updates of each game as they happen using the ESPN Mobile Gamecast.

If you have ever joined a tournament pool at work or with your friends then you know how hooked you can become once the games begin. With most games going down to the final second, the only way you will really know where you stand in the competitive pool is to be glued to the TV set for the entire tournament, but most people can’t do that or course SO the next best thing is to download this FREE app.

ESPN has it all pretty much covered. You can create up to 10 brackets within you ESPN account, follow the leader boards, watch the live updates to get the latest on each game as they happen, and track your progress within the private or public groups. The app menu is really easy to figure it out. Just starting it up for the first time before the tournament began, I was easily able to make all my picks on the bracket within the app. The bracket interface is really well done. I especially liked the smaller map graphic in the upper right corner of the screen that showed you exactly where you were in relation to the entire bracket. The developers made this feature possible by creating a small yellow box that would highlight each division as you moved to that point with your finger.

The only minus was it was a bit unclear that you could actually tap on a game “in progress” within the bracket. Then once I found out this was a functionality, tapping the current games to get updates was a bit cumbersome and didn’t seem to work at first touch. After 2 or 3 taps though it seemed to work out and take me to the update page (a fix for this issue would be including a small button or text link that changes color, providing more interaction). Once in the update page, it shows you the current score and the amount of time left on the clock. Just hit the live button to refresh. This page also has a recent plays list, summary and stats.

In the past I’ve always had to print out my bracket picks and carry them with me. This print-out never seemed to make it through the entire tournament. Whether it was lost, stolen, destroyed or left behind, this is one thing I don’t have to worry about any longer. Quite the primitive method now that I have this app…and an iPhone of course, March Madness will never be the same again.

NBC Olympics on AT&T

Rich DeBell — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:21:50 +0000

Well….we’re full flux into the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia now. And of course, there’s got to be an app for that right? Of course! There’s actually a few apps for that, but the one that stood out to me is NBC Olympics on AT&T. I have found this little app to be very useful for me over the last week. Personally I don’t have as much time as I’d like to sit down and watch all of the Olympic events. There’s just not enough time in day…as they say. But with NBC Olympics on At&t, I can easily keep track of all of the latest new, events, scores, medals and more right on my iPhone or iPod Touch! Did I mention it’s free? Of course as is the case with pretty much all free apps there are some ads to deal with, taking up some of the valuable iPhone screen real estate. But seriously, what do you expect? Everyone’s gotta put food on the table and it’s a small price to pay isn’t it?

Here’s some of the great features that come with the NBC Olympics on AT&T iPhone app:

The latest breaking Olympic News
A schedule of the Olympic Events
Ability to view the scores of past and ongoing events
Tons of info on sports, athletes and Olympic facts
Videos of Olympic sporting events and news
Social media sharing and bookmarking

The 2010 Winter Olympics are flying by, and if you’re like me and don’t have time to catch all the action then I suggest downloading NBC Olympics on AT&T and getting in on the action.

Historic Olympic Medal Table

Ryan Johnson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:53:08 +0000

With the 2010 Winter Olympics just two weeks away it’s time to start getting into the Winter Olympic Games spirit. I for one love the Olympics and will be glued to the luge and downhill skiing! Unfortunately, even though I love it, I don’t remember jack about who won what medals and when. Luckily this year I’ll be a medal winner genius thanks to the Historic Olympic Medal Table sports app. Compatible with both iPhone and iPod touch, this app lists out everyone who’s ever won an Olympic Winter Games medal, including all of the supporting information like the event and time!

Historic Olympic Medal Table is a comprehensive directory for all medals awarded ever since the first Winter Olympics way back in 1924. You can browse medals by location/city, nations, and athletes. It also includes tons of other interesting factoids like the date of the opening ceremony, the number of nations and athletes that participated, the number of events, etc., it even links to Wikipedia for easy access to even more info! Want to know which country has won the most gold medals? Locked in a debate with a family member about who won what medals in the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid? No problem! With the Historic Olympic Medal Table sports app you can find out in just seconds!

Historic Olympic Medal Table Features:

Information for all 2,300 Winter Olympic medals awarded since 1924
Lists supporting information for medal (winner, location, date, event, time, points)
View medals by country, city, location, date, and athlete

If you and your family love the Winter Olympics and would like to have the keys to the kingdom with respect to who’s won what medals and when/where they won them, then it’s definitely worth downloading Historic Olympic Medal Table. It’s comprehensive, really easy to navigate, and is way faster and more convenient than scouring the web for the same info.

THE iNSTA-PRO

Ryan Johnson — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:30:36 +0000

Avid golfers take heed! The iNSTA-PRO could be you’re ticket to a glassy smooth swing that stays on plane from takeaway all the way through impact and follow through! Part of the problem with golfing is that you can’t see your own swing, and to get professional help costs you and arm and a leg. The iNSTA-PRO iPhone app turns an iPhone 3G S into a virtual golf teaching machine. It comes with slick features and an assortment of tools that’ll help you video tape, analyze, document, and improve your swing, all directly from your iPhone.

The iNSTA-PRO app allows you to record and analyze your swing from multiple angles so you’re able to get a good visual on your overall swing technique. The app comes with drawing tools that help you analyze and improve on key swing fundamentals such as setup, head and ball position, takeaway, swing plane, width, and arch, weight transfer, release, and follow through. There are circles that you can use to measure angles and to highlight areas that you need to keep still during your swing such as your head and back knee. There are lines that you can insert at any angle that help you analyze things such as knee and head position, shaft and shoulder angles, and swing plane. On top of these tools The iNSTA-PRO also gives you hands on control to play, pause, and scroll forward or back so you can analyze each and every position throughout your swing. You can even turn your iPhone 3G S sideways to view and compare two different swings at the same time.

In addition to its handy swing analysis tools, The iNSTA-PRO also serves as a swing log. For each swing recorded you can document the date, golfer’s name, course, club, strength, and result of the swing. So basically, you can crank out a swing, record that you sliced the crap out of it, and then can use the swing analysis tools to identify all parts of your swing that went wrong. Likewise, if you cranked out a solid swing with a nice subtle draw, you can log the result, go back and review the tape, and identify everything that you did right.

Key Features of The iNSTA-PRO:

Ability to capture and trim 30fps video directly from the app
Play/Review video frame by frame or in normal, fast, and slow motion
Pan & Zoom in on your video at any point of a swing
Analyze video with drawing tools, including multiple adjustable shapes and colors
Website membership to The iNSTA-PRO & The iNSTA-Club online user community
Ability to save and store your videos on the app or online to your iNSTA-PRO user account

Alright, let’s get down to business. I’ve been playing golf for most of my life. I worked as a cart boy for 5 years, played for my high school golf team, am a member of a country club, and have been known to wager a couple of greenbacks on a round from time-to-time. Although I’m not a pro, I’m very familiar with golf techniques, fundamentals, and teaching principles. Lucky for me, three of my good friends are certified PGA teaching professionals one of which played on the Senior PGA Tour for a brief stint. Because of this I get VIP access to the video equipment at my country club. The iNSTA-PRO app literally has all of the same tools that equipment does. Now don’t get me wrong. The difference in camera quality is night and day, but it should be for how much my country club paid for the setup. In all honesty, you really don’t need HD quality video to adequately perform swing analysis. Just having the ability to capture and analyze your swing on any kind of video is a major help. Throw in the extra tools to mark, measure, compare, and critique your swing and it becomes a really helpful practice tool.

Unfortunately for me, a major snow storm hit the Washington, D.C. area last weekend so I wasn’t able to take The iNSTA-PRO out to the range for a full test. The best that I could do was to solicit the help of a friend, grab a club out of my bag, and let loose a couple of practice swings inside. The biggest weakness I found with the app was that without the help of a stabilization device like a table or a tripod, it was kind of difficult to keep the iPhone perfectly steady. Having a perfectly still video doesn’t hamper you from getting good feedback on your swing, but it does somewhat limit the benefit of some of the drawing tools. For example, if you’ve circled your head and your knee because you want to see if you’re keeping them still and in place throughout your swing, it’s a little harder to tell if you’re successfully doing it when your iPhone is shaking while recording. So, for best results I recommend you have something with you that you can rest the iPhone on to keep it steady while filming.

If there were something else I’d like to see added to this app it’d be a section with golf swing instructional videos. It’d be great if users could view swing fundamentals videos and then compare them side-by-side with their own swing videos. All in all, I found the The iNSTA-PRO app to be fairly comprehensive, easy to use, and thought it worked pretty well. To be able to enjoy all of the apps features you’ll need to have an iPhone 3G S. If used properly I can see this app being a nice tool to have with you the next time you practice your golf swing.

My Sports Picks – Football 09

Ryan Johnson — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:46:40 +0000

If the only thing you focus on during football season is picking winners for your office pool then it’s time for you to check out My Sports Picks – Football 09. This handy little sports app is jam packed with everything you need to quickly and conveniently make your weekly NCAA and NFL football picks. It’s organized and intuitive interface makes it easy to view live odds and lines, to make, organize, and email your picks, and to manage your money, pending wagers, and daily and season profits, all without ever leaving the app! Total domination of you office pool and pick-em league awaits you!

Getting started, with My Sports Picks – Football 09 is easy. When the app first opens you’ll be prompted to create an account. Don’t sweat it though. It’s super easy. All you have to do is enter an email address, create a password, and BAM your ready to rock. Each time you open the app it automatically updates with the latest content. The first thing you see when the app opens is a list of all of the current weeks games, match ups, favorites, the line, the over/under, and the money line. To make your picks simply touch the game/match up and the screen intuitively slides over and displays in list form the line, money line, and total over and total under. Make your pick, enter the amount of your wager and save it. You’re pick is saved to your history, is flagged as a winner or loser depending on the games outcome, and is automatically accounted for over time. With as little as one touch you can view your entire season history and determine if you’re a money making, football picking stud, or a big fat LOOOSER!

In addition to its rather comprehensive list of features, My Sports Picks – Football 09also provides you with up-to-date football scores, including a possession indicator so you always know which team has the ball. Aside from actually making the picks for you, this app has just about everything any football pool enthusiast or sports betting aficionado would require. Think about it…an app on your phone that provides you with everything you need to make pics, monitor your progress day-by-day and over the course of the entire season, full history for all of you wagers, auto flagging of wins and losses and money earned/owed, and the ability to email your picks to friends. It’s football picking heaven in the palm of your hand!

iBetFootball

Ryan Johnson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:41:39 +0000

Are you sick of scouring the web, sifting through piles of sports betting magazines, and relying on sports radio and television broadcasts for picking pro football winners each week? Well then stop with the nonsense and cut your workload in half with the iBetFootball iPhone app! With iBetFootball you can input readily available team information and stats to generate clear recommendations on which bets to take and which ones to avoid. iBetFootball is truly ideal for any type of pro football betting including parlay and over/under betting!

iBetFootball takes the guesswork out of picking winners. The app leverages readily available team stats and proven pro football handicapping logic to predict game scores for upcoming games. To get results you simply input the games played, points scored, points allowed, yards gained, yards allowed, win streak, winning percentage, and number of turnovers for the home and away teams; the process takes just a couple minutes. From there the app provides you with clear cut recommendations on what bet has the greatest chance of paying out. It’s that simple! In addition to pro football handicapping, iBetFootball also provides you with informative articles related to betting strategies, football theary, and money management. Essentially iBetFootball is ideal for both beginner level and expert sports betters.

I don’t know about you but I’m eager to put iBetFootball to the test this coming football season. I’ve typically relied on traditional amateur methods for betting on football (AKA – religiously picking my home team and relying on my gut instinct). Unfortunately for me this method doesn’t always work out. One thing’s for certain, the logic that iBetFootball uses to pick it’s winners is a trusted method that’s been used for years to generate winners > 60% of the time. You can learn more about the handicapping logic used and its track record at www.footballbet.net.

As far as the app itself goes, I found it to function well. Overall it’s very simplistic graphically and from a user interface perspective. But honestly, how sophisticated does it need to be? I did find the data input process easy to follow. The data required is easy to find, as advertised. You certainly don’t need to be a pro football expert or sports betting expert to be able to use the app. If there were anything that would make this app the best of the best it’d be for it to automatically import the required team information so users weren’t required to input it. Additionally, if the app were to auto-import data, it’d be exceptionally useful if it imported statistically relevant historical data for each team. For example, lifetime winning percentages between two teams. Any enhancement along those lines would get iBetFootball a top rating from us.

With training camp in full swing, the preaseason just a few weeks away, and the season just around the corner, it only makes sense that you arm yourself with the best possible tools for picking winners. This year you won’t need to chain yourself to your computer to make your weekly team selections. Simply arm yourself with iBetFootball and you’ve got anytime, anywhere access to top notch sports betting recommendations. If you’re into pro football betting and are ready to up your winning percentage this year, don’t hesitate for one more minute, go download iBetFootball from the App Store today!

Watch the video to see iBetFootball in action!

Ali Jabs

Ryan Johnson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:00:23 +0000

Ali Jabs by MGX Lab, LLC is a blast from the past sports app that takes famous quotes straight from the mouth of the “Greatest of All Time” (G.O.A.T.), the one and only Muhammad Ali, and injects them directly into your iPhone. Ali Jabs combines famous images of Muhammad Ali with 3D visual effects, unforgettable quotes, and a little bit of history behind each of the quotes. There are 10 quotes to choose from. Each paired with a matching image that appears 3D if you turn and twist your iPhone while viewing. Additional features include the ability to “jab your friends” by sending a text email that contains a quote and the ability to learn more about official Mohammad Ali merchandise you can purchase directly from Shop.Ali.Com.

Ali Jabs does a good job of presenting Muhammad Ali’s famous quotes. The images are clean and crisp and the 3D like background gives it a nice touch. We also like that it includes a back-story for each quote and image so all users can understand the situation in which each statement was made by the G.O.A.T.

One thing that’s important to point out is that Ali Jabs is not in any way a game app. This a marketing app that’s primary objective is to promote Muhammad Ali’s unprecedented career, unmistakable charismatic quotes, and his legendary brand. From a marketing perspective Ali Jabs does a decent job of that, which is why it garnered a decent SlapApp.com rating. Some additional things we’d like to see added to this app would be more quotes to choose from and possibly some video clips. We also think it might be most effective positioned as a free app as opposed to paid.

If you’re a die hard Muhammad Ali fan, and would like to have the ability to play some of his famous quotes over and over again, you should check out Ali Jabs in the iTunes App Store today.

iGolfWiz

Ryan Johnson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:38:51 +0000

Four!!! iGolfWiz by 1stWorks Corp is a handy little golf tool that’ll help you determine your distance from the pin, make club selections, and take the guesswork out of reading greens. That’s right, iGolfWiz is three handy golf tools in one that’ll help the serious golfer or caddie perform better course management. For those that aren’t familiar with the term course management, it refers to a golfers ability to make smart decisions during golf. As any golfer can attest, judgement mistakes pertaining to distance and reading greens can make the difference between a good and bad round of golf.

iGolfWiz can help all levels of golfers improve their course management skills. Using your iPhone’s camera iGolfWiz can determine your distance from the pin. After snapping a pic, use it’s built in distance sliders to mark the top and bottom of the pin. From there iGolfWiz automatically calculates the distance in either yards or meters. Once you’ve got your distance, getting a recommendation on what club to select is just the press of a button away.

Using iGolfWiz to help you read greens is extremely easy. Simply lay your iPhone flat down on the service of the green with the arrow lined up directly at the hole, and press the GO button. In seconds iGolfWiz determines the slope and provides you with a recommended putting line. It’s that easy!

iGolfWiz requires a little homework and tuning before you’re ready to take it out on the course. In order for it to accurately read slopes it requires calibration. iGolfWiz provides a calibration template on their website. We definitely recommend you print it out instead of attempting to create your own. Calibration is a critical step so you want to make sure it’s as accurate as possible. It took us approximetely 5 minutes to complete calibration.

To put iGolfWiz to the test we took it to a local practice facility (aka – driving range). We snapped pics of pins from various distances and took it for a spin on the putting green. Overall we were very impressed with the accuracy of the distance finder portion of the app. Compared to the posted distances at the practice facility iGolfWiz was within a couple yards each time.

If there are any downsides to the distance feature it’s that it requires a steady hand to take a clean picture and depending on your distance from the pin and/or the time of day you may not be able to take a good enough picture to get an accurate measurement. I’d like to say that using the iPhone’s GPS feature would’ve been a better way to go, but since the iPhone leverages cell towers to determine location the feature would be both intermittent and highly inacurate. When we tested the app it was 1:30 PM, 83 and sunny, and nothing but blue sky. In that scenario it worked very well. We didn’t see too much value in the club selection feature within the app because those that play golf on a regular basis already know how far they hit each of their clubs. Nonetheless it’s a feature that doesn’t hurt to have in there.

The feature we found most helpful was the BreakReader. We found that in most cases we were under reading the break and iGolfWiz helped us feel more confident in playing a wider line. We didn’t find BreakReader to be particularly helpful for long puts though, because to truly trace out the line you need to measure the putt out in sections which we found to be pretty difficult. However, for those tricky 3-15 footers iGolfWiz can be a big help.

Overall we could tell that a lot of time and thought had been put into iGolfWiz. We were pleasently suprised in it’s accuracy and can definitely see how the weekend golfer could compliment their practice routine with it. Where we think iGolfWiz can help you the most is in situations where you’re 150 yards or less from the pin, and slightly off the beaten path (i.e. in trees, in the rough, in a bunker), and on putts that are 15 feet or less. If you’re in the market for a helfpul golf tool for your iPhone then it’s worth your time to check out iGolfWiz.