14 DAY TRIAL // First of all, I must say that I am not a huge sports fan at all. If I miss a game of my national team on TV, there's no big problem. I don't care about sport bets either. But what about people who are not like me? There are people who dream and talk about their favorite sport all the time. They would even eat it, if possible. Also, the sport bets industry is gaining more and more addicts, offline but especially online.
For all these people being unable to find out an event on time or having to wait long hours before finding out the result of their favorite team's last game could be unbearable... and there's one big event knocking at the door right now.
Soon the Soccer World Cup 2006 will take off like never before. Advertising on TV during the matches reaches astronomical prices, people's hearts are pounding for their favorites (or their bet money... maybe both, for many), everybody has to gain from this event. Wouldn't be nice to be able and check all the results in real time while finishing your work at the office or while cruising in your yacht, from your laptop?
Microsoft people asked themselves the same question recently and came up with a solution: the Soccer Scoreboard software, built especially for this event.
Since the program comes from a producer like Microsoft, you have to read the software license terms carefully, because some of you may not agree to it. The trouble may be the fact that using some features of the program operates as your consent to the transmission of certain computer information for Internet-based services.
I wasn't able to find out what kind of information is sent and where, but I am sure that if a company like Microsoft wants to get into somebody's computer, it will do it anyway, so I think it's nice to find out about this from the software license first. Even more, it seems that you can switch off this feature if you like, so things look OK for me.
The program interface is nicely done and pleasant to look at. It has a main window around 300 pixels in height and width with all the info that you will need. Some of you may be bothered by the bar with scrolling text at the bottom, but I am sure that will change in the future. No, it won't have advertising messages running! That's what I thought at first sight too, but Microsoft saved a pleasant surprise for us.
You can add a RSS channel to be displayed in this ticker window. If you don't know what RSS is, don't worry! I didn't care too much about this so far either... The idea is that the program receives news headlines from the sites and displays them here - it's just as easy as that!
Even better than just adding RSS Channels to be displayed on your screen, you can add different channels for each team! Just think about switching between your favorite teams in the program and getting last news for each one as you watch their schedule, standings and results!
You can access a team's schedule, standings and current results and also the complete schedule and standings of the World Cup.
A few words about the program settings now... The program's menu will appear as soon as you hover your pointing device's cursor over the upper area of the interface, and it has five icons. You can close the scoreboard, access the online Help page or access the Preferences window from here.
When changing the Data Refresh Setting from Automatic to Manual inside the Preferences window, a sixth icon will appear. This new icon enables you to manually refresh the scoreboard data. The interface has four transparency settings ranging from None to High and the Always on top mode can be disabled if needed. The last things to be done using the Preferences window are selecting a home team and adding a RSS Channel for that team, as I was saying earlier.
Before getting to the end, there's just one thing that I must add. It's not something that you see, but it's extremely useful. How many times did you miss a match because you didn't get the hour right? The Soccer Scoreboard from Microsoft automatically adjusts all dates and times according to your Windows XP time zone setting, so be careful to have that set right, and the program will take care of the rest for you!
I think that reviewing this little program comes to an end. For now its interface is like an empty cinema, it has everything it needs, but misses the movie and the spectators.
In a week from now on, millions of users will enjoy the Soccer World Cup with Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard, I am sure of that!
The Good
This is a program that will spare you from having to watch entire Web sites or stop working to watch the games. It will keep you updated all the time without interacting with your work.
The Bad It may have been a thoughtful idea to have an SMS feature to keep you updated even when you are away from your computer, but I guess you can't have it all for free...
The Truth
For me this was a nice application to review that I know I won't use just because I don't need it, but for any soccer fan out there and not only them... Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard is "a must"!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
