CBS Sports Mobile March Madness On-Demand – Review

In what is certainly one of the best examples of how the iPhone changes everything, the CBS Sports Mobile March Madness On-Demand application blows the doors off of other March madness apps while also opening up new used for the iPhone. Sure, it costs five dollars, but for five dollars you get the nicest, most polished interface I’ve seen and live access to all of the NCAA action over WiFi and audio over 3G. and Edge.

This is one of the few times recently when an app has truly made me excited!!!

When you first start the application you can take a look at those games which are currently in progress or all of the games being played. The "All Games" view lets you quickly see the final scores of games that have already been played and offers a "Playing Now" bar at the bottom of those that are in progress.

Before we get to the live action lets take a look at the rest of the data application.

Tapping the "Brackets" tab shows a nice graphic of entire march madness graphic. You can scroll around the entire chart with your finger and it’s as smooth as anything you’ve seen on iPhone. You can zoom in and out and really get a feel for the match-ups. In addition, if the game is in progress a small television icon can be seen to the left of that game.

Tapping it brings up the up-to-the-minute score, how many minutes are left in the half and the offer to be either watch live or see a stats matchup of the game. In a matter of seconds you literally have all of the information on the game that you need!

Tapping the "Scoreboard" icon at the bottom gives you top news and up-to-the-minute scoring on the games. Once again, the graphic is second to none. Moreover, tapping on any of the games brings up a summary of that upcoming game. For example tapping on tonight’s matchup between Duke and Binghamton brings up a brief AP summary that states,

"The reality of the moment finally hit Binghamton’s players just before Wednesday’s practice when they stepped out of the tunnel and gazed up at the ACC banners in the rafters… After that moment the Bearcats took the court, trying their hardest to look like they’ve been here before. They happened." (By the way, Duke has, many many times.)  🙂

Tapping the "Highlights" icon brings up highlights of recent games.

I should note that while writing this review the badge indicating the number of light games went from 3-4. I share that merely to point out that this application truly gives you the tournament in real time.

Back at the live games. Tapping any of the games that are currently being played and then tapping "Watch Live" brings up a stream of the game as it’s being played. When the full screen is being used the image is less than sharp but watchable.

Tapping the magnifying glass in the upper right reduces the size of the picture and increases the degree of sharpness.

In addition, during the game there are two badges that sit over the screen when the screen is tapped. "view stats" and "browse games" bring up information that sits over the screen of the game so that you can see the stats for the other games while still focusing on the game that you chose to watch.

In all, this is by far one of the most exciting developments With regard to the iPhone. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have moved past the smart phone designation for this device into a device that truly brings mobile computing to you. Best of all, for the first time in years I will have the option to follow my favorite team even when I’m away from the television that is worth the price of this application and a whole lot more. In addition, it opens up the door to many other similar applications of the iPhone and that is nothing short of exciting.

This app is amazing! If you like NCAA BasketBall get it HERE.