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Many in North America are still reeling from this weekend’s Daylight Savings Time change, and as I understand it, folks in Europe and Asia will enjoy a similar experience in the near future. There’s no experience like that of March Madness here in the U.S. though. Every year at this time, we participate in an exciting and wild nationwide college basketball tournament. The top 65 teams battle between the baskets in a bracketed elimination competition — win and you move on; lose and you go home. The three week event gathers fans all across the country, mainly due to the popularity of “NCAA pools” where would-be fortune tellers attempt to predict the winners. All in all, it’s a hectic event — possibly more for the observers than the players. Since we’re always on the go, here’s a number of ways to follow March Madness on a mobile.
1. CBS Sports March Madness on Demand (iPhone, iPod Touch = $9.99) — Ten dollars for an app with a limited shelf life sounds steep, but those suffering from a full case of March Madness will probably get their money’s worth. Live streams from all 63 games are available in the app from an EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi connection. Brackets are constantly updated with scores and results, plus you can pause or rewind 30 seconds for another look at the big play. You don’t have to keep game info to yourself either — the app includes hooks into Facebook and Twitter for virtual cheering. And for the times you can’t watch the live stream, the configurable notifications and live radio broadcasts function as a sixth man.
2. CBS Sports March Madness on Demand Lite (iPhone, iPod Touch = Free) — A lighter sibling of the paid app above is this free version. You won’t get any live streams for free, but on-demand video highlights are available from every game as is news coverage and updates galore. The Facebook and Twitter connections of the pay version are also included, so nobody needs to know that you saved the ten bucks.
3. Live Scores (Android = Free) — Just looking for the basic scores and updates? Live Scores lives up to its name and is one of the few Android apps I could find. The software isn’t specific to March Madness, so after the install, tap the Menu and switch to NCAABB to follow along. After the tourney is over, you can use the app to follow scores for baseball, football, hockey and professional basketball.
4. College Basketball Live (Android = Free) — Like the Live Scores app, this title is simply good for keeping track of the live scoring. You can configure favorite teams though — handy to keep track of your top picks in the tournament. It’s great for the basics if you don’t want to use a web page to track scores and standings.
5. ESPN Tournament Challenge (iPhone, iPod Touch = Free) — This freebie offers nothing more than a way to manage brackets in either a private or public pool. ESPN is even offering $10,000 to whoever gains the most points using the app — each win gains you points, but the point values increase as the tournament progresses. Watch out for those upsets and don’t forget the Cinderella picks!
6. ESPN Mobile TV (various platforms on Sprint’s network, Included with Everything Data plans) — Just in time for March Madness, Sprint worked a deal with ESPN for live mobile sports coverage on various handsets like the Palm Pre, HTC Hero, Samsung Moment, Samsung Instinct, Blackberry Curve. As part of the Sprint TV package, the service is included with the Sprint Everything Data plan. Expect to see 23 live games from the men’s tourney — some are from the conference championships — and 19 women’s matches.
7. SlingPlayer Mobile (Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian S60, iPhone, iPod Touch, PalmOS – $29.99) — The price is a bit misleading here because the software is only part of the equation. You’ll also need Slingbox hardware connected to your home television set, but once you do, you’re in control. CBS offers regional coverage of all games, so you can simply stream them yourself. Better yet — if you can’t watch a game but have a DVR, SlingPlayer Mobile can control and playback the recorded game. And of course, you can keep streaming content long after the madness is over.
8. March Madness on Demand (PC or Mac with Silverlight installed = Free) — CBS knows that not everyone has an iPhone, but they still want to get the games — and those ads — in front of as many eyeballs as possible. NewTeeVee says that with Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin, you can tune in via the web from a netbook or notebook and watch all the action live in your browser. Just watch out for those 5 GB bandwidth caps if you decide to stream on the run over 3G, ‘k?
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How do you plan to fight the madness while mobile? At this point, I’m wishing that Apple’s iPad was shipping prior to the NCAA tournament so I could watch on the “big” 9.7-inch display. Instead, I think I’ll be tuning in on a full-featured computer. Perhaps I can dig out that ol’ Samsung Q1UP with Intel 1.3 GHz Core Solo UMPC and set up a dedicated 7″ device to the web streams.
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