Major League Baseball’s MLB.com site has unveiled this year’s At Bat ’11 apps for a wide range of mobile devices, including the iOS and Android families of devices, plus Blackberry. Chief among the new features is a month-long free trial sponsored by Volvo that allows users to watch every out-of-market game via MLB.tv. Users of iPhones, iPod Touches and Android (2.2 or higher) devices can also see key plays with Live Look-Ins that are not blacked out, while iPad users get bonus features not available on the other platforms.
iPhone. iPod Touch
All versions of the apps (which cost $15 for the app itself; an MLB.tv subscription is an additional $120 per season) feature home and away radio broadcasts, in-progress video highlights, breaking news, standings, schedules, rosters and statistics. Beyond that, some features vary among platforms. The company warns that to access live video on Android, “the minimum OS is 2.2, supporting Flash with at least an ARMv7 processor. Note that not all 2.2 devices support Flash, and users may experience other unexpected device constraints.”
Android
The Android version sports three exclusive features: a Bat.tv Free Game of the Day to watch one live (out-of-market) game free, a favorite team icon launcher widget for one-click access to a team’s homepage, and an MLB.com widget for access to the live league-wide scoreboard. Also new this year is “At the Ballpark” with check-in, expanded video highlights, a personal profile, Facebook access and exclusive offers and rewards, along with a customizable home screen to feature a designated team. The MLB.tv subscription entitles users to watch all games on MLB.tv.
The iPhone/iPod Touch version is essentially identical, albeit with its own platform-exclusive features: archived games to watch every game from 2011 on-demand, and Condensed Games with video library archive, searchable by team and player. Also new for the platform is the “At the Ballpark” feature and the customizable home screen option. It also offers the MLB.tv subscription option.
BlackBerry
The Blackberry version is fairly sparse compared to the others, offering just the basic common features plus customizable push notifications for game start and end as well as video highlight availability, along with the Condensed Games option. It requires OS 5.0 or higher.
iPad
Finally, the iPad version takes advantage of the large screen to offer a substantially different experience to the smartphones, including an enhanced Gameday pitch-by-pitch feature which includes realistic ballpark renderings taken from the Playstation’s MLB 11: The Show. Along with all the features of the iPhone/iPod Touch version.
