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How to watch Major League Baseball games on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV
The 2014 Major League Baseball season kicked off this week, which means it is time to outfit all your devices with the right tools to catch every morale-crushing strikeout or game-winning homerun. To get the most complete coverage, you'll want to turn to Major League Baseball and its suite of apps and subscription services for your baseball-watching needs. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch Hands-down the best way to follow the action this season is with Major League Baseball's At Bat app for iOS. The app was updated to iOS 7 in the offseason and now includes several new and improved features like inline video, expanded instant replay and a league-wide scoreboard. Free users get just the basics, but you will want to pay for a subscription to get access to every out-of-market regular season game (blackout restrictions apply). Subscription options include $2.99 for a monthly plan or a one-time annual fee of $19.99 for the entire 2014 season from Spring Training all the way through the World Series. Mac Mac owners can watch the games on their desktop through MLB.TV. The desktop version of MLB.TV uses Flash to provide the UI for the linescores and video streams. User can choose between individual, picture-in-picture or split-screen options that support watching up to four games at the same time. Depending on your desktop hardware, the video stream may be of a high quality, but playback may not be as smooth as the compressed video sent to an iPad or iPhone. The MLB.TV subscription service is available as a $109/year standard plan for web-only access or a $129/year premium version. The Premium plan costs more, but it lets you watch almost every game on a wide variety of devices, including media set-top boxes like the Apple TV. The Premium subscription also bundles At Bat 2014, allowing you to download the iOS app and unlock all the features of the mobile app using your MLB.TV login. Apple TV Apple TV owners can dial in the MLB channel on their set-top box and either sign up for an MLB.TV Premium subscription through the device or key in the details from an existing plan. Premium subscription options are available for $129 per year or $24.99 per month.
Major League Baseball offering gift subscriptions for MLB At Bat 2014
Major League Baseball has added the ability for users to gift MLB At Bat premium subscriptions to owners of iOS and Android devices. Previously the only way to give someone an MLB At Bat premium subscription was to buy them a generic credit card gift card and then have them use that card to purchase a subscription. Now, however, users can simply buy an MLB At Bat premium gift subscription for US$19.99 for the user of their choice from MLB.com. Subscriptions to MLB.com At Bat, the 10th highest-grossing mobile app in App Store history, are now available as holiday gifts for the first time. Instead of waiting in bricks-and-mortar store lines or giving a generic gift card, anyone can gift At Bat for the 2014 MLB season, through a direct purchase of the $19.99 full-season subscription from MLB.com. With access to the complete set of premium features in 2014, including live audio of every game and the MLB.TV Free Game of the Day, At Bat 14 will be the perfect holiday gift for any baseball fan. At Bat currently offers full coverage of the Hot Stove and the upcoming Baseball Winter Meetings in December. MLB Advanced Media's mobile developers also are working on new features to be unveiled in the 2014 edition of At Bat. Complete details will be available at launch next year. It seems that MLB At Bat premium subscriptions have arrived just in time for the holidays, ensuring that they'll be a hot gift this year for iOS-loving baseball enthusiasts. MLB.com At Bat is a free download.
Major League Baseball fans still favor iOS over Android
Bob Bowman, the president and CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, sat down with Walt Mossberg at the D: Dive into Mobile conference on Tuesday. Among other things, the pair talked about Apple versus Android in the world of Major League Baseball apps. Bowman confirmed that iOS is still the king when it comes to Major League Baseball fans, but the platform has lost some of its users in the past few years. Approximately 70 percent of the current user base is running iOS, down from 80 percent two years ago. Android gained ground on iOS because of the success of Samsung's popular Galaxy phones. "The Samsung phone is quite a good Android phone," Bowman told Mossberg in the AllThingsD interview. User base isn't the only area in which iOS is leading. iOS owners are also outpacing their Android counterparts in revenue. Despite grabbing 30 percent of the user base, Android owners only contribute between 15 to 20 percent of MLB.com's revenue, while iOS owners contribute 80 to 85 percent. Bowman claims iOS owners are more likely to pay for content, including the US$20 subscription to a season's worth of Major League Baseball games. You can find out more about Bowman and MLB.com by watching the entire interview on AllThingsD's website.
Five apps to help you follow the 2013 baseball season
Major League Baseball kicked off its 2013 season last Sunday and we are entering our first full weekend of games. If you are ready to fill your iPhone or iPad with apps to follow every home run, then check out our list of some the best baseball apps available for iOS. MLB.com apps [iPhone or iPad; varies] You can't talk about baseball apps without mentioning MLB.com's suite of outstanding apps. The list includes At Bat 2013, At The Ballpark, Beat The Streak and Full Count. At Bat's most compelling features (game audio and video) require a $19.99 in-app subscription for the season or $2.99 a month, but MLB.TV Premium participants get the app's full suite of options for no additional cost. Team Stream [iPhone; Free] Team Stream is a sports news aggregator that lets you set up personalized streams about your favorite teams. It supports notifications so you will be alerted with breaking news of trades, injuries and the like. Baseball Outs [iOS Universal; Free] Baseball Outs is a a mini-fantasy baseball game that makes watching a baseball game with friends even more enjoyable. You can create a game, draft players and compete against your friends. Fantasy Baseball apps [iPhone or iPad; $4.99 or less] The baseball season gets more involving if you're competing in your fantasy leagues against your friends. You can manage fantasy teams using the official ESPN Fantasy Baseball app or the official Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball app. If you use both leagues, then you might want to check out Fantasy Baseball '13 for ESPN/Y from Bignoggins Productions. Bignoggins also makes Fantasy Monster Pro, which supports ESPN baseball, Yahoo baseball and several different sports. MiLB [iPhone; Free] MiLB is for the minor league baseball fans in our audience. You'll get complete stats, schedules, standings and the latest news for every Triple-A and Double-A team. Like At Bat 2013 and the other titles above, the MiLB app is sold by MLB.com.
MLB At Bat adds Ford Sync integration, more
Major League Baseball is entering its final month of regular season play and the playoffs are right around the corner. If you don't subscribe to MLB.com At Bat 2012, now might be a good time to grab the iOS app and sign up for the service. A price decrease lets you subscribe to the rest of the 2012 season for US$4.99, and an update adds several notable features to the iPhone and iPad versions of the app. The latest version of MLB.com At Bat adds support for Ford SYNC and lets Ford owners access scores, schedules and live audio broadcasts in their AppLink-equipped cars. There's also a new scoreboard overlay feature that lets you see live game stats while you browse through other parts of the app. The iPhone version of At Bat got a boost with new social sharing features and a re-designed UI that lets you tap the MLB logo to change your team selection for the news, highlights and favorite team views. The iPhone's news headline also sports a new look and feel. You can download the MLB.com At Bat 2012 app from the iOS App Store for free. A $4.99 in-app purchase lets you subscribe for the remainder of the 2012 season. This sale price is in effect through September 3.
Enjoy background audio with MLB's At Bat
As if I weren't excited enough to buy Major League Baseball's (MLB) iPhone app At Bat (here's an example of my previous gushing), they've added a new feature that makes it easy to listen to games while using other apps. While Apple doesn't allow 3rd party apps to run in the background on the iPhone or iPod touch,* Silicon Alley Insider notes that you can listen to audio in Mobile Safari while using other applications. It's this trick that MLB exploited with At Bat 2010. With the tap of a button, At Bat will push an audio stream to Mobile Safari. Note that MLB didn't come up with this trick, nor is their app the first to exploit it. ESPN Radio does it, as well as Scanner911 and FlyCast. Still, it's nice that MLB's devs acknowledged that some users might want to check email or hop onto Twitter while listening to game, and made it easy to do so. Now if only Pandora would follow suit. *Yes, you can enjoy the benefits of background apps with a jailbroken iPhone, but that's a different post entirely.
MLB.com At Bat 2010 out now
Baseball season is almost here (Spring training starts this week), and with it comes a brand new version of Major League Baseball's great iPhone app. MLB.com At Bat 2010 is out now on the App Store, and for $14.99, you get the same great app you bought last year: live scores, streaming audio of all the games around the league, and available video of games via an in-app purchase. There's no lite version yet, but last year MLB released a free version sans audio and video, so if you just want the scores, you can wait and see when that one shows up. Meanwhile, if you want official baseball info beamed straight to your phone all year long, this app is the way to go. While there are definitely lots of other apps that will hook you up with scores and alerts for a much cheaper price, the MLB app is a quality way to get information straight from the league. Especially if you're going to be following baseball closely all year, the $15, while steep for an iPhone app, is definitely worth it. Personally, I can't wait for this season to start. Play ball!
At Bat ramps it up for the playoffs
Major League Baseball's At Bat for the iPhone and iPod Touch is one of my all-time favorites. I've sung its praises before, so I'll spare you the details. Just know that At Bat brings real-time stats, streaming audio and video of pro baseball games to your iPhone and iPod touch. Last month they added in-app purchases that let you grab a live game for $0.99US. Now that the post season has begun, they've improved the app again. You can watch live post season games through the World Series with 7 camera angles to choose from. Or you can watch a split screen of four camera angles simultaneously. Admittedly, those four screens are tiny on an iPhone's screen but it's still fun. Switching from one angle to another is quick and simple. At Bat costs $9.99 per season and is completely worth it. I use it every day to watch games, get stats, read stories, check standings and more. There's a free "lite" version as well [iTunes link], which provides real-time scores and schedules.
MLB At Bat adds in-app purchases
It's no secret that one of my favorite iPhone apps is Major League Baseball's At Bat [iTunes link]. Last season it provided real-time statistics and video clips from games across the league. This season, it added live video streaming of full games as well as Game Day audio. At first the video streams were free, then MLB switched the model to feature one free game of the day, and the others were available to MLB.TV subscribers. Frankly I thought that was a bummer, as I don't want to pay a monthly fee for baseball. They must have read my mind, because version 1.4 was released this week with in-app purchasing. Users can buy any live video stream for $0.99US. Hooray! No more MLB.TV. I've gushed over this app before, so I'll keep it short this time. Not only is it a great experience for fans, the developers seem on top of what we want. Each update is significantly better than the last. Now if only the NFL and the PGA would create something as good.
MLB At Bat ready for 2009
My all-time favorite iPhone app, MLB's At Bat [App Store link], is all new for the 2009 baseball season. For the uninitiated, At Bat provides nearly real-time statistics for ongoing games, including scoring, current batter and pitcher, stats, the count at the plate ... even video clips from a game that's in progress. Late last year they added MLB Gameday for pitch-by-pitch updates, and the full '09 version (when it launches) will extend that with support for Gameday audio. You'll be able to listen to the home or away broadcast of any game. That's great.For now, you can download At Bat Lite, which includes scores from pre-season games as well as news from throughout the league before opening day. As a baseball fan, I love At Bat. It's worth the $5US price tag many times over.[Via Macworld]
New iPhone Ad: Game Changer
Apple released a new iPhone ad last night, and I know of at least one person that will like this one. They're continuing to show off the App Store, and just like last time, they are featuring an individual application. The MLB (At Bat) application is the lucky player for this edition. The narrator says, "It can be a score checker, a live pitch updater, or video highlight player. But any way you cut it, it's officially a game changer."The new commercial is called "Game Changer" and can be viewed from the iPhone ads website.Thanks to Jack and others for the tip!
The fantastic At Bat is on sale
When the App Store opened, I went nuts and downloaded a slew of apps. Two weeks later, I listed the 8 I decided to keep, including Major League Baseball's (MLB) At Bat [App Store link]. This week, At Bat has dropped in price from $4.99US to $2.99US.It's on sale because it will "expire" when the current season ends (Go, Sox!), meaning you'll have to purchase a new version for 2009. Still, if you're a fan and into the post-season, I encourage you to buy it. It's my hands-down favorite iPhone application. While using At Bat, I realized how an application's features and benefits affect its longevity. Specifically, the features attract your attention, while the benefits grab you for good. Here's an example. At Bat provides nearly real-time statistics for ongoing games, including scoring, current batter and pitcher, stats, the count at the plate ... even video clips from a game that's in progress. You can identify your favorite team to keep their score highlighted, and enjoy an integrated version of MLB Gameday, which provides pitch-by-pitch information and so much more. All of this is presented in an attractive, readable UI. Those are the features. The benefit is a feeling of connectedness, even participation, and that's why At Bat is a keeper. As a die-hard baseball fan, I want to watch every game. I know the stats, the players, the standings; who's playing well, who's on injured reserve and who's in a slump. It's tremendously fun to watch a baseball game on a summer evening and get lost in the drama of it all. However, life interferes (can you say "toddlers"?) and I sometimes miss a game. Yet, those live stats and video clips alleviate the feeling of missing the game, and that's worth a lot more than $2.99 to me. The same can be said of other applications. Twitterrific [App Store link] puts 1,000 friends in your pocket (leave your adolescent joke in the comments, please). At any time, I can share a funny picture, observation or idea with my buddies, and get a reply just as easily. Those are the features. The benefit is the comfort of friendship. The benefit of FileMagnet [App Store link] is peace of mind. Yes, I've got that PDF for the meeting. Yes, I've got the photo I have to show my boss. Phew. Others that I've eliminated went in the other direction - all feature. Cro-Mag Rally's [App Store link] accelerometer-based steering got boring after 10 minutes.
At Bat updated to version 1.2
One of my favorite iPhone/iPod touch applications, Major League Baseball's At Bat [App Store link] has been updated to version 1.2 with great new features. For the unfamiliar, At Bat provides up-to-the-minute statistics on ongoing baseball games, including the count at the plate, pitching and batter statistics ... even video clips of a game that's in progress. It's a little treasure for baseball fans (like me) who can't always watch the day's game.Version 1.2 adds cool "Gameday" features, including pitch-by-pitch updates (speed, call, even placement over the plate), full box scores (both teams), a player card for each member of the roster with oodles of information and a game summary that sorts the action into top plays and runs.At $4.99US, At Bat is a must-have for all fans of Major League Baseball, and sits easily among my top three applications. Go, Sox!
