I don’t know if I’m going to get an iPad. I’m an iPhone power user — it’s with me constantly, and it’s turned into my go to reading device for Google Reader, books, and just about everything else. So I don’t really know where the iPad would fit into my life. (I’ll probably get one for my parents eventually, since they’re going to need a way to read the New York Times when there’s no more print version in a few years.)
But the one thing that really got me excited today was MLBAM’s demo of their new app (video is below). The MLB At Bat iPhone app has a baby version of MLB.tv, and is still something that’s cooler to show your friends than to actually use. The screen is too small, the phone gets too hot, and the quality on 3G isn’t great.
But what MLB showed off today could be the best version of Gameday and MLB.tv that BAM has developed so far — even better than the desktop experience.
For one thing, this is a pretty full-featured version of both. Some of the features we saw in the demo, and/or listed on MLB’s official release:
- Real-time highlights and stats. The highlight viewer we saw in the demo looks awesome.
- Game archives on demand, which the iPhone app only has going back a day or two.
- Easily accessible player cards. Although I’ll add that the player cards on the iPhone app are pretty terrible, so hopefully they’ll be better on this app.
- Condensed games and Gameday Audio — no surprise there.
- DVR, like on the desktop and iPhone apps.
- The real killer app, which was lacking on the iPhone: multi-game view. I use this obsessively on the desktop version, so if I do ever get an iPad, this would be a big reason.
The biggest problem with the desktop version is that it’s a lean-forward experience. This is a lean-back experience, with multi-touch, on a fairly big screen. The next step is MLB.tv on your television, with the iPhone serving as a remote.
Tough to call it a big winner without actually using it, but I’m betting that this app will be awesome.
Feedback? Write a comment, or e-mail the author at shawn(AT)squawkingbaseball.com
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