MLB.TV. What's Up With That?

Anyone who is a fan of Major League Baseball has at least one team they love and/or hate. And for many fans, the ability to watch their team is reliant on their location and TV provider. For over a decade, MLB.TV has offered an alternative to watching Red Sox games when your a Yankees fan living in Boston.  I am a huge proponent of the service, and while the $120-$130 price tag is substantial and blackout restrictions apply, there are numerous benefits and luxuries that can't be ignored.

First, there are two different versions to consider.

The basic MLB.TV service, at $110 for the year or $20 a month, offers full HD games, Live Game DVR controls, Audio overlay, Full Game Archives, a Fantasy Tracker and a Mosaic view to watch up to 4 games on the same screen.  The ability to go back and watch an exciting game if you missed it the first time is an underrated bonus to this service. It's also ridiculously cool to watch 4 games at the same freakin' time!

MLB.TV Premium, at $130 for the year or $25 a month, offers 3 huge upgrades over the basic service.

Most importantly, you can only use MLB.TV on connected devices with the Premium membership.  This means if you plan on watching games on your smartphone, tablet, Playstation 3, XBox 360, Roku, Apple TV or other devices, you must have Premium. Otherwise, you can only watch the games on your computer. That alone is enough to pay an extra $20 for the season.  The supreme flexibility of watching games almost anywhere is a huge reason for the popularity of the service.

But there are two other perks to spend a little more moola. You get MLB At Bat for free with a Premium subscription and access to Home and Away broadcasts. MLB At Bat is really cool.  By itself, for $20, you can listen to every baseball game through home, away, or Spanish broadcasts. To be able to watch any game on your phone over wifi or cellular data, you need the Premium subscription. Using data, you're not going to get the crystal clear picture quality on your iPhone, but if something exciting is about to happen, you'll be glad to have a video feed.

But here's the rub (quoting Mad Eye Moody). If your TV provider has your favorite team available in your area, MLB.TV is not worth the price because of blackouts.  But no matter what, MLB At Bat is a MUST have for all baseball fans, simply because it is the only (non-jailbreak) method to listen to baseball games on your phone.

Let's say your team is on CBS radio and you listen to other programs from the station on your smartphone. When it's game time, the app will cycle back to another program.  There's no way around it.  It's $20 for the entire season of listening to any game for any team on your phone, along with NO BLACKOUT restrictions. And the At Bat app has a very polished interface which provides line scores, news articles, video highlights and complete roster breakdowns.

I'll resist MLB.TV because I already get the TV station for my favorite team. But I'll probably buy it later in the season when it's discounted or in September during the final race to the finish line. But MLB At Bat is essential and you're not American if you don't buy it....unless you really don't care for baseball....hot dogs....apple pie....or Chevrolet.

Apple Adding Touch Screens to Macbooks?

Microsoft has, in my opinion, successfully re-introduced touch screens into the laptop market with the advent of Windows 8.  I am very tempted to purchase the Acer Aspire S7, but I'm willing to wait until Apple introduces the updated Macbooks in June (as they have traditionally).  If Apple adds a touch screen to the Macbook Air, I would pay anything they ask. The problem is, Apple is too proud to follow the crowd.

John Ive, who now oversees the design of all Apple products, made it clear that touching a screen in front of you was unnatural, so they introduced a large multi-touch track pad. Now that Ive is wielding more power, there is even less hope for touchscreen Macbooks.

I assume Apple's concerns are three-fold. First, they don't want to loose the lion's share of the tablet market with customers who purchase a laptop instead of an iPad.  Secondly, Apple prides itself in being unique and pushing boundaries. Touch screen laptops are already a "thing" thanks to Microsoft. Apple would be following the leader and it would leave a sour taste in Tim Cook's mouth.

But the biggest concern with touch screen laptops might be something else entirely.  Apple would need a completely new operating system. They can't make touch screens and upload OS X because the software is designed for a small cursor closing web pages and navigating the screen.  Microsoft specifically designed Windows 8 for touchscreen use, with large icons and mutli-touch gestures.

I believe Apple will eventually introduce touch screens to their Macbooks, but not until they can perfect an operating system that uses touch to its full capacity. And not until they realize that they can't blindly protect the iPad.