Enhancing the Fan Experience: Shiny Cell Phones

Everyone has one these days, but I didn't have an awesome web enabled phone until this season. Sure it was alright for sending texts and getting phone calls, but it was no iPhone. I still don't have the latest and greatest but the Palm Pre I got over the summer is miles ahead of what I had. It's great how many things you can find out and follow on them now while you're watching the game at the arena, at home or most usefully, when you have to be somewhere else when you really want to be watching the hockey game. Just a few things that I use it for...

Keeping track of the game on the go. Ever since I moved and don't get to go to games at the arena anymore it seems like there are always things at the same time as the game. having applications and mobile websites that I can keep track of the play by play if I want on various websites. I can look up stats if I'm talking to someone about the game, I can even listen to the game via internet radio on the phone. Awesome stuff.

Depending on how quickly other people work you can get replays of things you missed from earlier in the game on the phone too. With YouTube if there was a fight at the other end of the arena, half an hour later it pops up and you can see what really happened. Same thing with nice goals at the other end. 

I also use my phone to stay plugged in to twitter and see what other fans are saying. With limited apps on my Pre I use a program called Spaz. It refreshes frequently and keeps me up to date with goals scored, boneheaded plays made and whatever LOLcats fans are tweeting about at the moment. 

Using the mobile version of this site actually works pretty well too. I can make sure everything posts right and that people are commenting on the site when I'm not here. It's not always the fastest, but it works and with a qwerty keyboard I can comment back in long form instead of some crappy " I lik that 2" crap that used to dominate cell phone usage.

I can also manage the site behind the scenes now that I reliably get properly formatted emails on the go. Communicating with other site editors as well as with Jordan and Carl makes it easy to get things done quickly rather than waiting until I'm back at the computer to forward 12 different things and can get things done in a more timely manner. It just makes it easier to deliver a better product to the fans her and keeps me hooked up as a fan myself.

What has your shiny fancy phone done to improve the game for you?