What a Country: A Review of Watching Live Baseball on the iPhone

I was in love with my iPhone 3G long before the new OS 3.0 software came out on Wednesday, but one of the new applications made possible by the new software has me even more fond of what I like to call The Best Piece of Technology I've Ever Owned.

It's the MLB.com At-Bat 2009 App, which sells for $9.99. It's been around for most of the season. At first it just provided you pitch-by-pitch updates, not unlike those you could find on a lot of websites or other apps. Then they added live streaming radio broadcasts of every game, including either team's broadcast. Then they added condensed video replays of games (you see the payoff pitch to every hitter).

Starting with the update released on Wednesday, they are now broadcasting live streaming video of a couple games a day. There is no charge for the upgrade if you already purchased the app.

MLB became the first professional league to offer live streaming broadcasts of its games on mobile devices. (CBSSports.com showed NCAA tournament games this year, but only if you had a WiFi connection, so even that wasn't truly "mobile.")

So I gave it a little test drive on Thursday.

For starters, I only watched a few innings of the Cubs-White Sox game, so I can't tell you what would happen, either with the broadcast or your phone's battery life, if you attempted to watch a whole game. (The battery life is supposedly better on the soon-to-be-released 3GS anyway.)

The picture was really very good when I was connected to my home WiFi network. It wasn't quite television-quality, but it was darn close. When I tried it on the 3G network, however, the picture deteriorated noticeably. It was watchable. I could tell what was going on in the game, but couldn't really make out faces or read the small graphics. I couldn't always see the ball, so I'd rely on watching the players to know where the ball was going. It was very pixelated, as if all the players were in the Witness Protection Program and were not to be identified. I wouldn't want to watch that way for a long period.

Since I'm guessing that most times you are going to be away from other broadcast technology (computer or TV) when you chose to watch a game on your iPhone, you'll probably also be away from a WiFi signal and forced to rely on the 3G network. If so, that's something you'll have to consider.

Also, the same blackout policy applies to the iPhone as to MLB.tv or the cable Extra Innings package. That means you can't watch a team in the market where you are currently located. (The app uses the iPhone's GPS to know where you are, which you may feel is sort of Big Brother-ish, but it's no different than MLB.tv using your IP address to know where you are.) It also means no postseason games, and no regular season Saturday afternoon or Sunday night games either.

For now, they are only broadcasting one or two games a day. They plan to have a full schedule eventually, but there's no word on when that will be.

Given all that, I'd still recommend it. It's only 10 bucks for the whole season, the price of a beer and a pretzel at a ballgame (or just a beer, depending on the ballpark). I envision most people will use it to catch bits and pieces of games while waiting in line at airports, getting their oil changed, watching their kids at the playground, etc. It is not going to replace a TV or MLB.tv.

Not yet anyway.