Software Review: TELUS CFL Mobile for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

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It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!

TELUS CFL Mobile for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

TELUS CFL Mobile (iTunes Canada)

Well, continuing on with the football theme from last week, covering the NFL, I’ve decided to jump over and cover the football league to the north of the USA, the Canadian Football League this week. And no, I won’t be covering any Rugby next week. So, today, I will be reviewing the TELUS CFL Mobile for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

For many of us up in the north, aside from watching the NFL, we also have our own football league to watch as well, called the Canadian Football League. The game is very similar to the US counterpart, and a lot of CFL players are actually from the NFL, or at least played a few seasons in the NFL. And some try to get into the NFL after some success in the CFL. Such players who played in the CFL and found success in the NFL include: Doug Flutie, Warren Moon, Rocket Ismail, Jeff Garcia and a few others. Aside from some differences in rules including 3 downs instead of 4, a slightly bigger footbal with side stripes and a bigger field, the game is very similar. Oh, and of course, there is only eight teams in the entire league compared to thirty two in the NFL, which offers each team a better chance at making the playoffs for Grey Cup (our Canadian equivalent to the NFL’s Superbowl). It certainly can’t compare to the football to the south, but we definitely can hold our own up north.

So now that I’ve given some of you an idea of the Canadian football league, I will start to talk about the app itself.

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For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

The TELUS CFL Mobile offers the football experience for the CFL football fan. Not only does it offer the schedule of upcoming games, a schedule of previously played games, news articles, opinion and analysis, there’s also stats, standings and most of all, video highlights and clips.

More details of TELUS CFL Mobile for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (taken from Apple iTunes store)

TELUS CFL Mobile is the premier app available for Canadian Football. All CFL fans can keep up to date with the latest news and scores. Download the fastest and most responsive iPhone app and track every touchdown all the way to Grey Cup.

TELUS CFL Mobile is powered by Polar Mobile.

© Copyright 2010 by Polar Mobile. All rights reserved.

What’s New In Version 1.4.2.888

Fix for video content not appearing.

Slideshow of TELUS CFL Mobile for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Video of TELUS CFL Mobile for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Video review of Pocket Casts for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

I Liked:

easy to use
CFL news and articles
box scores and game summary
video clips and highlights
game alerts for start, quarter score, final score
team schedules and past scores and stats
team, game stats
Twitter integration
free

I Didn’t Like:

some video aspect ratio off
landscape mode only for video playback
no bug submit feature
no ticket purchase capability
no CFL shop capability
no set refresh option
no historical stats of players
no game photo gallery
no fantasy football feature
no graphical field display of play-by-play action
no Facebook integration

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

easy to use

Much like most iPhone apps, this app is very easy to figure out and use. Just tap and it works.

CFL news and articles

Obviously, this app offers news and articles on CFL as well as any related player and team news.

box scores and game summary

Another important feature is the display of box scores whether it be current, or past as well as providing a game summary with the play-by-play.

video clips and highlights

What sets this apart from the NFL app is that this app offers a lot more video highlights and clips than NFL. Watch the big plays of the game on your device without needing to watch it on TV.

game alerts for start, quarter score, final score

The app offers alerts for notifying you via a pop up window, for pre-game, game start, quarter and final score so you’d be kept updated on the latest score.

team schedules and past scores and stats

You can also view the individual team’s schedule past, present and future and view past scores and stats.

team, game stats

There’s also team and game stats offering more details of how each team and individual players are doing.

Twitter integration

The app offers a way to link to your Twitter account with its own Twitter sign in and tweet page, allowing you to compose and tweet right from within the app. Nice!

free

Again, this app is free. Right now, there are no ad bars or anything in the app that some other apps have which can be quite annoying. However, I am certain that there will be ads coming soon.

I Didn’t Like:

some video aspect ratio off

My biggest complaint about the app is that some (not all) videos are not rendering in the correct video aspect. What we see on the screen are obviously distorted images that are unnaturally wider and shorter than they should be. Some videos are fine while others are not.

landscape mode only for video playback

I am always going to mention apps that don’t support landscape mode. This app doesn’t support landscape mode except when it’s playing a video. The video will play in portrait mode but it obviously looks much better in landscape mode. So why doesn’t the app support landscape mode for the rest of its interface?

no bug submit feature

Again, any app that doesn’t offer a bug submit feature is obviously in this dislike column. I hope I won’t need to explain this again.

no ticket purchase capability

This is somewhat unfair as I am comparing this app with NFL, which offers the capability to purchase tickets right in the app itself. This app doesn’t offer such a feature.

no CFL shop capability

Again, there is no link or CFL shop in the app like the NFL app does.

no set refresh option

When you are trying to stay updated on the score and plays, this app requires you to tap on the Refresh button to refresh the screen. Why doesn’t it offer an auto set refresh option like NFL? That is something that I think is important. Who wants to keep tapping on the Refresh button every few seconds?

no historical stats of players

Similar to the NFL app, this app also doesn’t offer a historical stat of individual player, something similar to a player card.

no game photo gallery

Again, comparing to NFL, this app doesn’t offer photos taken at the games for viewing within the app. That’s too bad.

no fantasy football feature

For those who enjoy fantasy football, unfortunately, there is no link to a fantasy football in the app.

no graphical field display of play-by-play action

This is something that I would like to see when a game is in progress and I wish to stay updated. I would propose that the there be a screen for play-by-play action where a graphic of the field would be displayed and a dot or something similar that will display and show the location of the player or where the snap occurs or where the ball becomes dead. And there will be a brief explanation of what happened. And of course, in combination with the set auto refresh rate, this could really be an excellent app to keep you updated on the score.

no Facebook integration

Although there is Twitter integration, I am a bit surprised that there is no “share by Facebook” option

Review Summary

TELUS CFL Mobile for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad offers game schedules both past and future, stats, news, alerts, rankings, and video game highlights and clips. You can view the big plays of the game in both portrait and landscape mode. Plus, you can stay updated on the latest by hitting the refresh button. I am very happy with this app, especially for the video clips as I think they make the app worthwhile.

TELUS CFL Mobile (iTunes Canada)

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