Get more than the score: Sports on your mobile phone |
| Windows Mobile keeps sports junkie on top of his game | |
| The crack of the bat. The roar of the crowd. Hot cider and roasted peanuts. Yes, it’s fall, and sports are in the air.
OK, I admit it: I have a problem. As much as I’d like to come off as the intellectual type (“Yes, I’m in three book clubs and a writing class—I simply don’t have time for television”), I’m afraid I find myself glued to the TV when playoff baseball or college football is on. After years of denial, I’ve almost come to accept my sports fixation.
This fall, unfortunately, I’ve had a hard time keeping up with my passion. With my son playing two sports of his own—who knew that Ultimate Frisbee would become a real sport, replete with school teams and uniforms?—and some hardcore election-year volunteering, there’s not enough time to catch all the big games. I’ve been having withdrawal symptoms…
Enter the Motorola Moto Q™, one of the cool new phones running Windows Mobile 6. Since I’ve never owned a phone like this before—Internet access, full keyboard, and all the bells and whistles—I was anxious to see how it would help me keep my head in the game. Here’s the play by play.
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| Don’t be late to the game | My first move is to make sure I won’t forget about an upcoming sporting event. I’m intrigued by this year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the miracle Rays of Tampa Bay, so I need to make sure I don’t miss the opener. I go into my phone’s calendar feature and reserve a spot in my schedule for the game. |
| To create a calendar entry: | At the top of the Home screen, click the Calendar icon. On the Calendar screen, click Menu, and then select New Appointment. Give your appointment a name, and set the beginning and ending times. Under Reminder, specify how far in advance you want the phone to alert you about the upcoming event.
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| The appointment automatically appears on the Home screen, reminding you at a glance of your next can’t-miss event. |
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 Home screen displays appointment information. |
What’s the score? | I really like the fact that my phone has a link to my favorite news sites right on the Home screen, giving me one-click access to the latest news—sports and otherwise. |
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 Current events are one click away. |
It’s the night of game one, and I decide to watch it at my local brew pub. While I wait for the first pitch, I look up some info on Phillies starting pitcher Cole Hamels. With my phone’s BroadbandAccess Connect, I access the Fox Sports Mobile home page and quickly find Hamels’s player page.
Uh oh. Hamels is very good and my team, the underdog Rays, could be in trouble. It doesn’t help matters when Philadelphia jumps out to a two-run lead. My friend Beth, a rabid Phillies fan, immediately texts me. |
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 Windows Mobile boasts a sleek text message interface. |
Since Beth already knows I’m rooting for Tampa Bay, I have three options here: | |
| I opt for door number 3. There’s a handy little trick you can do with Windows Mobile that makes it really easy to make a call. Press the Select button in the Windows Mobile text screen when the sender’s name is highlighted. This opens the sender’s contact info and allows for one-touch calling. |
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 Windows Mobile enables one-touch calling from the Contacts page. |
After Beth answers the phone, she reminds me that I still owe her $25 from our playoffs bet the previous week. I quickly end the call. |
| Photo finishes | Oh well, there’s always football—my other favorite sporting rite of fall. While pro football has become practically a religion to many fans, I prefer the traditions of the college game—the students, the mascots, the pageantry. The Moto Q can bring you the full glory of the gridiron with its 2.4-inch color display, which can show images at sizes up to 320 x 240. |
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 View full-color football photos from MSN. |
This Saturday, however, I’ll have to rely on my phone to keep up with the gridiron action, because my son has a big soccer game. The Moto Q can also help me capture his game’s highlights for posterity with its built-in, 1.3-megapixel camera/video recorder. The Windows Mobile interface makes it easy to switch from camera mode to video mode and to access features, such as flash and zoom. |
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 Access a variety of camera options. |
After I take a bunch of great photos, I can put them into a slide show for easy viewing. |
| To make a slide show: | Click the Camera icon, click Menu, and then select Options. On the Options menu, click Slide Show. Set the Slide Show options. Run the slide show from the Thumbnails screen by selecting Play Slide Show on the menu.
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| I can also upload my photos to PIX Place (a Verizon Wireless picture messaging site), send them to family and friends via Bluetooth, or make my favorite shot into a custom Home screen. |
| Post-game show | After the game, I e-mail my sister Stephanie in Dallas with the details (a loss, unfortunately). Windows Mobile 6 includes Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, an easy-to-use e-mail program. One nice feature in Office Outlook Mobile is a built-in text prediction tool, which makes typing a message on the phone’s QWERTY keyboard simple and fast.
It’s been a tough year for sports in my hometown. In 2008, my NBA team, the Seattle Sonics, moved to Oklahoma City. The Mariners were just about the worst team in baseball. And my Washington Huskies are having a horrible season on the gridiron. I’m getting desperate. Am I going to have to turn to minor league hockey? Or NASCAR?
No, let’s not get crazy. Instead, I’ll console myself with the thought of the college basketball season, just around the corner—there will be big games every night! I’d better keep the Moto Q charged and ready.
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