Shut Up! The Footy's On The Phone
This season there are more ways than ever to follow the footy on your phone. Adam Turner checks the state of play.
Remember the days when a Saturday arvo wedding during the footy season saw at least one groomsman with a transistor radio tucked away in his jacket pocket - listening to the big game as his mate said his vows?
It's a sight you don't see that often these days, because the tranny has been replaced by the mobile phone as the sports fan's gadget of choice in an emergency.
You don't need a fancy phone to keep track of the footy, as there are a few SMS alert services from the likes of the AFL, Foxsports and TextMeFootyScores.
If your phone has a browser there are a few more comprehensive sites on offer such as from the AFL, Yahoo! and Foxsports. Some standard websites utiltise a very basic layout that's relatively easy to read on a phone, such as The Score. You can also get live footy scores via Twitter at twitter.com/aflscores.
Of course your phone provider probably offers a basic sports news site as well through its mobile content portal, such as Bigpond, Optus Zoo, Vodafone Live! and Planet 3.
The most comprehensive AFL mobile coverage is on Telstra's Next G network due to Telstra's deal with the AFL. Some content is free, if you follow the links to Sport and then AFL you're taken to the AFL WAP site, which is unmetered for Telstra Mobile customers.
Extra content such as quarter-by-quarter video highlights and replays of entire games are only available to Telstra Mobile customers with an AFL Action Pack subscription. Be warned, most of the content isn't available on the iPhone.
The Telstra WAP site can be a confusing because wap.telstra.com/wap diverts to different pages depending on which device and plan you're using. You can find a Bigpond Sports site with live AFL scores at t.sportsflash.com.au/wap2/, but I couldn't find any way to navigate to this page from Telstra's WAP site, either on my Telstra-issued iPhone 3G or my Telstra-issued JasJam. I could get to it if I opened Telstra's WAP site in Firefox on my MacBook.
The AFL is also coming to smartphone apps, with two impressive apps for the iPhone in Footy 2009 and Aussie Rules Live, both selling for $3.99.
Both are impressive apps with lots of polish yet both seem incomplete. Aussie Rules Live seems aimed at the die-hard fan who wants to quickly access information about their team, whereas Footy 2009 seems aimed more at the general fan who wants a snapshot of what's happening around the grounds.
These are just the tip of the iceberg and there will surely be more to come for Android and other mobile platforms.
As long as your phone's in your pocket, there's no reason to miss a minute of the action this season.
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