NHL GameCenter
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Be prepared for the new NHL season with NHL GameCenter
The 2014-2015 National Hockey League season begins in less than a week. One of the best ways to stay up to date with all the news and scores is with NHL GameCenter. This free universal app requires iOS 5.0 or later to run. NHL Game Center is really a multi-level app. The app itself is free and offers just about all the essential information a user will need to follow his or her favorite team and the NHL in general. You will find schedules, scores, stats, news, standings, league leaders, and even a place to buy merchandise to support your favorite team. Additionally you can get live audio feeds of every NHL game plus live video of those same games but each of those require an annual subscription. More on those in a minute. Users will find a team page for each of the NHL clubs. On this page you can get info on schedules, where to buy tickets, the current roster, latest team stats, plus access to the team fan gear. The roster page shows all of the current players and allows users to go into detail on each player with another individual page listing background information, how the player did in his last five games plus season and career statistics. The league leaders page breaks out eight stats, four for offensive players and four for goaltenders. You will see who has the most points, goal, assists, and the highest plus/minus ratings. The goaltenders stats include wins, goals against average, shutouts, and save percentage. In each stat area, head shots of the top two leaders are shown. Plus a simple tap in any of the eight sections brings up a list with the Top-30 players in that specific area. Users will find loads of useful information in NHL-Game Center. You can also access a video archive full of league videos broken into a number of areas including Glorious Goals, Super Saves, A Day with the Stanley Cup, Classic Bloopers, Funny Fans and more. All of these videos are free but are preceded by a 15-second commercial announcement. However, if you want live coverage of games you need to buy an annual subscription. The NHL sells a live video subscription for US$159 that gives users access to live game coverage from both the home and away teams, DVR functions, and game replays. Users of NHL GameCenter won't receive all of the games. Any national broadcast or game shown on TV locally will be blacked out. You can also purchase NHL GameCenter Premium for US$9.99 and gain access to live radio broadcasts of the games plus in-game highlights. Similar blackout rules are in effect. Verizon customers with smart phone LTE service can get the Premium content free of charge. I believe the NHL GameCenter app is worth downloading just to access the free information and videos available to users. If you are really a fan and want access to all the out of market games on your phone or iPad, then buy one of the paid subscriptions.
PSA: NHL GameCenter app arrives on Xbox 360
The faint sound you hear from your monitor isn't the cancerous hum of its inner workings, it's the sweet sob of hockey fans finally donning their best sweaters in preparation of the lockout-shorted NHL season.Tomorrow, henceforth known as "irrefutable proof of the existence of generous and mysterious beings beyond our mortal comprehension," hockey returns and the subscription-based NHL GameCenter app is now available for Xbox 360 users to download.Already available on PlayStation 3 and mobile devices, NHL GameCenter allows subscribers to watch up to forty out-of-market games per week. The Xbox 360 app, announced during E3 2012, features the standard bells and whistles of all Xbox apps: namely the ability to control via gesticulating and shouting at your console (specifically with the Kinect peripheral connected).NHL GameCenter is available for $49.99 for the shortened 2012/2013 season. Xbox 360 users must also have an Xbox Live 'Gold' subscription to access the content. Yeah, that's still a thing they do.
NHL GameCenter streaming coming to Roku, PS3
In addition to an updated app for Boxee, the NHL just announced its GameCenter streaming app is coming to the PlayStation 3 and Roku players. Free to PlayStation Plus members ($9.99 for all others, free on Roku) gamers get access to the app with its highlights, stats and information, while subscribers to the $169 GameCenter Live service get the full package including streaming out-of-market games and some playoff matchups. It's pretty similar to the MLB app that's also available on PS3, but similarly the lack of locally blacked out games makes it more of an alternate way to catch more sports than a cord-cutters best friend. Additional details are in the press release after the break, or check for the app under the video section of the PlayStation Network store.
New Boxee beta pulls in video from Facebook, Twitter links, adds NHL GameCenter and more
Sure the Boxee Box isn't here yet, but that doesn't mean you have to wait to enjoy some of the features we saw first during CES 2010. The most recent beta version include the Facebook / Twitter integration that automatically pulls in videos linked by your friend on either service and displays them right on your homepage. There's also a new option for NHL GameCenter LIVE subscribers to pull live and archived games in over the internet, plus improved RSS feed support and a ton of other fixes. Check forum mod GregMS' blog for more breakdowns on all the new tweaks or just hit the download page directly to get the latest & greatest.
