You can now get live baseball on your Pre, including live audio, video highlights, and an expanded scoreboard. MLB.com put out a press release announcing MLB.com Mobile Premium Service for the Palm Pre. Rather than create a native app (or perhaps rather than wait for SDK access from Palm), the league has released a web app you can access at the decidedly retro http://wap.mlb.com.
For either a once-per-season fee of $14.99 or a monthly charge of $2.99, here's what you'll get:
- MLB.com Mobile Gameday Audio - Listen to live audio broadcasts of every Major League Baseball game through the final out of the 2009 World Series. Each game will offer the choice of listening to the home or away broadcasts without any blackout restrictions.
- MLB.com Gameday - Follow every pitch of every game with a detailed graphic presentation and live statistics.
- In-Game Video Highlights - Get real-time, high quality video highlights delivered directly to the smartphone quickly after the play happens on the field.
- Expanded scoreboard - View live statistical data from every MLB game, including linescores, current runners on base and other game details.
Forum Member leez posted a quick review of the app (along with the above screenshot):
The video looks great [...] and the gameday audio loads quick. The pitch by pitch system is far better than it was on the old Gameday Mobile.
The audio streams are very clear, and sound good when connected to my stereo via the headphone jack! A great way to listen to games out of market!
Why Palm Pre owners are paying $14.99 instead of the iPhone's $9.99 is an open question (one we haven't heard back from the MLB about just yet). Anyhow, the good news here is that Palm Pre owners now have a viable option for following their favorite team(s) and players. The timing is perfect too with the All-Star break upon us.
Comments
this would be cool if the batteries can last as long as a game.
um, at this point why would anyone pay for the full season...pay by month is more cost efficient.
Since there's only 3 months left, just get pay the monthly rate and pay $9 instead of $15.
Counting the postseason it's more than three months. Still, it's $12 vs $15.
What bothers me about this is the MLB app for the iphone is not only cheaper... but they also give the users 2 live games to WATCH... not just listen. My brother has the app and it is great... I don't mind that it isn't as good as the iphone app yet, but I do mind that I am going to get less for more? Screw that.
I agree and it isnt an app! its a web page. we want a true native apps. i for one would like to see an influx of apps as soon as 1.1 is released. i bet the upgrade will send the app store out of beta
What are they using to stream the audio, since Flash isn't supported yet on the Pre? (Don't care enough about baseball to subscribe and find out for myself.)
It's probably 3gp or something like that. That's what BBs currenltly use. On that platform the media player just opens up and plays the stream.
For $14.99 a month, it better let me make fart sounds.
For 14.99 for the rest of the season, it better let you play first base for the Indians AND upload your own personal fart sounds.
I have very mixed feelings about this announcement. On one hand, it's great to see them acknowledge the Pre (and other WebKit-based devices), but the pricing does seem like an insult to those of us who already pay $20 a month for MLB TV Premium access.
I could have purchased a lower-end version of MLB TV, but no, I bought the high-end MLB Premium package for online viewing...and now they are telling me that package does not include mobile viewing? Fine, I am still getting what I paid for, but I reserve the right to still be extremely disappointed in their treatment of current Premium subscribers. Heck, we are also halfway through the season. Would it have killed them to throw it in as part of the standard Premium package for the rest of the season?
Frankly, the whole thing makes me question if I should continue to subscribe to the $20 per month package. I don't watch enough games to justify it. If they threw in mobile, I'd be happy and most likely keep the subscription. Instead, I will most likely cancel my existing membership.
I already pay for MLB premium for full screen stuff and
I get a lot of blackouts for that. I can't see paying even more. I don't use it a lot...plus, my deal comes with gameday audio and since this is webos stuff I should theoretically be able to use it for the Pre already...but I don't think it'll work... I think I might be with scubs_steve here...
This is the best news since getting my launch day Pre.
I'm a baseball fanatic and already pay for DirecTV Extra innings Plus, MLB.com premium, etc. I watch every single Red Sox game.
WHY must I hear about this now at the all-star break. I can't even test this out with a regular season Sox game until Friday!
SanFranSoxFan04,
I know what you are saying - it's huge that us Sox fans in SF can use our Pres for game audio. It will be huge on my commute home with all the games at 4PM out here.
By the way, I hope you are with the Meetup.com group - we seem to have a lot in common.
Is there an NBA equivalent on the horizon? Does the iphone or any other phone have an app for watching NBA games?
RE Greg: The Indians could probably use you on first...
I pretty much loathe baseball and find it godawfully slow and boring. This is Quite possibly the least interesting app that could possibly be made. Great for those that like it but man it's bad enough there are no apps but to have this be one of the first sucks. Nascar apps and baseball. disappointing.
This isn't an app. It's a webpage. So please stop complaining. Thanks!
Just to clarify a couple of things here, access to Gameday Audio on a Blackberry is the same price ($14.99/2.99). I actually think this is fairly reasonable considering I used to pay for $12.95/ month for XM primarily for baseball.
This is actually pretty big for me. This is a must have on any phone I get. I agree that it would be nicer if it was the same price as iphone, but I really think that's all they can charge due to the economics of the app store (people freak out if an app is more tha .99).
Does anyone know if you pay monthly whether they just charge per month during the season or whether they charge per month all year long. (It would be a pain to have to cancel and resubscribe, but I'd probably do that for baseball if it came to that.)
BTW: I sent them an email asking this question yesterday, but they haven't responded to it yet.
thanks,
--
Bob
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