Best Windows Phone 7 Apps » Sports Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:50:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 MLS Matchday 2011: follow your soccer team on WP7 /2011/06/mls-matchday-2011-follow-your-soccer-team-on-wp7.html /2011/06/mls-matchday-2011-follow-your-soccer-team-on-wp7.html#comments Sat, 04 Jun 2011 03:18:44 +0000 bestwp7apps /?p=1845 Lower the volume of your Windows Phone 7 when you launch MLS Matchday 2011, or the fan’s chants will start filling in the air around you! MLS Matchday is your official guide through the 2011 MLS tournament. ]]>
MLS Matchday 2011 (Free) [New+Cool]
Lower the volume of your Windows Phone 7 when you launch MLS Matchday 2011, or the fan’s chants will start filling in the air around you! MLS Matchday is your official guide through the 2011 MLS tournament.

The app is personalized with the colors and live tile of your favorite team selected at the first run. At launch you access your team’s page with results from the latest match, the next game and top news. Panning to the right you can access matchday: all the games in the premium US football (with lowercase F) league. Each match has a summary, a write up of the plays and full video highlights: this is the best part of the app, you can view the video clips of a finished game on a 90 minute slide; follow the action as the match unfolds. The quality of the video is not always the best though, this is an area of improvement for the app.

Interesting take is the “find pubs” section: for every team in the MLS there is a selection of pubs in the club’s hometown that will air the game: you can see where the pub is on a map or call the pub to check if the beer is cool and the heat is up: cheer for your MLS team with a beer (and your WP7)!
Genre Sports Rank 889
Rating Avg. 5 Stars # Reviews 12
Price Free Version 1.0

]]> /2011/06/mls-matchday-2011-follow-your-soccer-team-on-wp7.html/feed 0 ESPN Score Center for Windows Phone 7 /2011/04/espn-score-center-for-windows-phone-7.html /2011/04/espn-score-center-for-windows-phone-7.html#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:17:03 +0000 bestwp7apps /2011/04/espn-score-center-for-windows-phone-7.html Just a few days ago, we reviewed ScoreMobile as one of the best mobile scoring apps on WP7; but the phone app world is awesome because there are always new apps coming out that match or top the existing ones. Well, this is an example: ESPN ScoreCenter for WP7 is awesome.]]>
ESPN ScoreCenter (Free)
Just a few days ago, we reviewed ScoreMobile as one of the best mobile scoring apps on WP7; but the phone app world is fantastic because there are always new apps coming out that match or top the existing ones. Well, this is an example: ESPN ScoreCenter for WP7 is awesome. For the most part, at least: it has some real great stuff and something that could be improved.
The best part is The Lead section. In a single view you have access to the latest news, videos and scores of the day across all popular sports, including today’s upcoming games and what TV channels they are on.

The MyTeams section is also great: news and scores, with upcoming games of your favorite teams, across multiple sports.

Then there is a section per sport for your favorite sports, that you can chose from a rich selection ranging from Football to Water Polo, going through Combat Sports and Lacrosse.
The part that needs some improvement is the UI: it is not intuitive how to select your favorite sports and team at the beginning and we ended up quitting the app for pressing the back button  too many times… but the bad comes when selecting a section.

Rather than a Metro style, lateral swipe to change between The Lead, MyTeams and the sports section there is a small hyperlink at the top (which is tough to tap) that takes you to the section list. This is so non-intuitive that the app tells you upfront that you need to use it. The problem is that you don’t understand the message the first time you see it because you don’t know what it is referring to, and then once you do know the message does not appear anymore – what was it saying again?
 
 
Verdict (version reviewed: 1.0.0.0)
Despite some UI improvements needed, ESPN ScoreCenter has some great content for you sports fans, it is free and definitely worth a pin to the start menu of your Windows Phone 7.
Get this app for Windows Phone 7
 
 
]]> /2011/04/espn-score-center-for-windows-phone-7.html/feed 0 Scoremobile: the best score app on WP7? /2011/03/scoremobile-the-best-score-app-on-wp7.html /2011/03/scoremobile-the-best-score-app-on-wp7.html#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 03:41:40 +0000 bestwp7apps /2011/03/scoremobile-the-best-score-app-on-wp7.html Want to know every score in every sport? With Scoremobile you can haz it on your Windows Phone - for free.]]>
Scoremobile (Free) [Growing.Apps]
Want to know every score in every sport? With Scoremobile you can haz it on your Windows Phone – for free.

Scoremobile is having a good success on WP7 these days: good reviews and multiple appearances in the featured apps section made it pop in the top 100 apps. And this is well deserved; this is the best apps on sports scores we have tried on WP7 so far.

You can select your favorite sports and teams, from a selection of 15 disciplines, including the obvious (NFL, MLB, NBA), the expected (NCAA Basket, NCAA Football, Golf, NHL, NASCAR,MLS) and the surprises (ATP/WTA Tennis, CFL Football, Formula 1).

For every league Scores, Standings, Stats, News and Video sections provide a complete coverage of your favorite sport.

Best of all is the Faves sections. Select your favorite teams and follow them all year long: when is their next match? Are they on TV – and which channel? How about a live score update? Scoremobile helps finding all this, thanks to the information coming from thescore.com.

The UI could be a little better without the boring grey and black backgrounds, and speed is not at the top, but we do care about scores and standings, and Scoremobile wins it.

This app is free on the Windows Phone 7 with non-intrusive ads, definitely worth a tap.
Genre Sports Rank 71
Rating Avg. 3.5 Stars # Reviews 239
Price Free Version 1.4

]]> /2011/03/scoremobile-the-best-score-app-on-wp7.html/feed 1 Follow March Madness on Windows Phone 7 /2011/03/follow-march-madness-on-windows-phone-7.html /2011/03/follow-march-madness-on-windows-phone-7.html#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:56:04 +0000 bestwp7apps /?p=916 March Madness is here, are you ready? Ready or not, you can now follow the NCAA Basketball Tournament finals on your Windows Phone 7. Bracketology has never been easier on your phone!]]>
March Madness is here, are you ready? Ready or not, you can now follow the NCAA Basketball Tournament finals on your Windows Phone 7. Bracketology has never been easier on your phone!

There are two main apps available on the Windows Phone 7 app marketplace today to follow the tournament: Brackets and MobileMadness. Both apps are free, but their purpose is slightly different.

Brackets collects your picks and tracks them during the tournament. The UI is split in the different rounds (Round 1, round 2, Sweet 16, Elite 8 and Final 4), and that is it. There are no dates for the games, so if you are looking to know when your team is playing, look somewhere else. If you like to make predictions, though, Brackets is for you, grab it for free on the WP7 App Marketplace.

MobileMadness shows a nice view of the brackets filled in with the current standings. The brackets are slow to load so, do not despair if they don’t show up and wait for a little: they will populate. Brackets include the indication of the day of the matches; you can pan them but, for some reason, you cannot zoom in to see the team names better. This app is more geared towards tracking the tournament rather than predicting it (and we like this), so you can see the daily matches with a swipe as well as the live results for the ongoing matches.

If you are a college hoops die-hard we would suggest to use both apps: follow the tournament with MobileMadness and make predictions with Brackets!

Sorry, we can’t resist: GO HUSKIES!!!! Whoooo-hoooo!
Brackets (Free)
Focused on predicting the results, basic but free.
MobileMadness (Free)
Best value, tracks the tournament and provides real time scores, needs some patience in loading the brackets.
MobileMadness for Windows Phone 7 (click to open with Zune) Best Windows Phone 7 Apps score 4 out of 5
]]> /2011/03/follow-march-madness-on-windows-phone-7.html/feed 0 NBA Scores Lite and WordBook Dictionary for WP7 /2010/12/nba-scores-lite-and-wordbook-dictionary.html /2010/12/nba-scores-lite-and-wordbook-dictionary.html#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:52:00 +0000 bestwp7apps http://aboutablog.net/2010/12/nba-scores-lite-and-wordbook-dictionary-for-wp7-growing-apps/ The Growing.Apps series highlights those Windows Phone 7 Apps that are well reviewed by users and getting up the ranks of the download charts. In every issue we review one free and one paid promising app – check our first issue for more. NBA Scores Lite (Free) Just like pointed out by the word Lite [...]]]>

The Growing.Apps series highlights those Windows Phone 7 Apps that are well reviewed by users and getting up the ranks of the download charts. In every issue we review one free and one paid promising app – check our first issue for more.
NBA Scores Lite (Free)
Just like pointed out by the word Lite in the title, this is an essential app. See the scores of NBA games on WP7: today’s and yesterday’s: that is it. Well, mostly: other features are high level game stats (Pts by quarter, Pts/Reb/Ast per player) and tomorrow’s games list with TV times. There is also live tile update, which would be super-cool if you could select a team (rather than a single game at a time).
This app delivers what it promises: NBA scores, no more, no less. It’s free (well it’s actually Ads Funded with small text ads) fast and effective. If you follow the hoops, this app is for you.
Best Windows Phone 7 Apps score 4 out of 5
NBA Scores Lite for Windows Phone 7 (click to open with Zune)
Genre Sports Rank 125
Rating Avg. 4.5 Stars # Reviews 72
Price Free Version 1.1
NBA Scores Lite for Windows Phone 7 (click to enlarge)
 
WordBook Dictionary ($2.99, Trial)
WordBook Dictionary for Windows Phone 7 (click to enlarge)
WordBook is a simple but complete dictionary for Windows Phone 7. You can search for an English word or select your recent or favorite words. A list of random words pops up at start up, making the dictionary also enjoyable as a past time (shake the phone to get new words: good idea to make this fun!)
WordBook offers a catalog of more than 200,000 definitions; when a word is selected, definition, links to synonym/antonym and thesaurus are displayed. The spelling is also available in form of an audio recording.
If you are looking for a dictionary WordBook, is a solid choice on WP7. The Free Trial shows only words starting with M, giving you a good idea of the final product – try and tap it.
Best Windows Phone 7 Apps score 4 out of 5
Genre Books/Ref. Rank 651
Rating Avg. 4.5 Stars # Reviews 18
Price $2.99, Trial Version 1.1
WordBook Dictionary for Windows Phone 7 (click to open with Zune)
 
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