Saints Fans: The iPhone WhoDatApp Review
POSTED BY Christopher Boudy, Sr. IN Tech Resources

Saints fans both young and old have never had a season like this one.  The Saints have a perfect record, they are number one in the NFL, and blazing a path to the playoffs and potentially a Superbowl.  On game day, poor Saints fans like myself can't even contain themselves and must wait agonizing hours until kickoff time.

With a winning season, an unbeatable team, and some of the most gifted players to ever wear the black and gold uniform comes one more plus for Saints fans that have iPhones or iPod Touches:  The WhoDatApp.  Developed by a local New Orleans tech start up, Calliope Digital the premise is simple, build an app that caters to Saints fans and hopefully the wave of wins will turn into a wave of sales.

Schedule

WhoDat Schedule Breakdown

WhoDat Schedule Breakdown

After every Saints game the schedule tab not only gives you the final score, but outputs more highlights at your fingertips with a game recap, game summary, stats, a twitter like style discussion, and team comparisons.  I've found this to be one of the most helpful features within the app when your in a heated argument with a fellow co-worker that does not believe in the Black & Gold Nation.

Roster & Twitter

The roster gives you a quick glance at the active players on the Saints squad with their number, ages, position, and college.  The twitter area pulls in local sports writers such as Jeff Duncan and Doug Tatum mixed with Saints players that are on twitter so you can follow their tweets or sports talk.  While the initial roster gives you a quick overview, selecting the individual players routes you to the Saints website which causes the user to wait until the full site downloads for more information.  Also while having access to local media and player Twitter accounts is great, there is no way to add new Twitter accounts to the list.

WhoDatZone

WhoDatZone

WhoDatZone

The WhoDatZone runs off an online forum at http://whodatzone.com but the app fails in this area by only allowing you to read forum comments and not giving you the option to create or sign in to a WhoDatZone account.  Hitting the read more button brings you to the full website where you'd be better off just getting on your computer and throwing down the Who Dat's with other fans.

More Area

The more area has some tidbits that spruce up the app and while the Audio feature lets you listen to the WWL 870 show with Bobby and Deke, the other features leave you wanting more.

Final Thoughts

While there are some high flying plays in this app, toward the end we felt like the other team just got an interception right before Drew Brees was about to throw a touchdown.  But not to fret, developers are always tweaking their apps to make them more user friendly and just as the Saints work hard every week to perfect their playbook we're sure the developer will be doing the same.

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  • http://www.calliopedigital.com/ Chris Van Buskirk

    As the lead developer, I feel the need to respond to the revie.

    1.2 will be out in a few days which adds several enhancements, more twitter stuff and team transactions. The app is evolving, and 1.3 will add even more, and is currently in development.

    I would love for people to be able to post to whodatzone, but I don't own the source code/website, and only have access to their RSS. When you drill down to the site, you can log in and post. However, that is painful on the iphone. It's more meant to be a read only kind of thing, and it works in that regard.

    As for Twitter, sorry power users, buy tweetie. It's meant to aggregate saints content only, and not be a twitter client. I am adding accounts to it in the next release. Also, there should be a way to get more tweets than the top 20. Yep, it fails in that regard. Also, I may allow to send tweets to the listed accounts. Targeted for 1.4 release.

    Finally, yes it would be useful to not drill down all the time to website, and have some immediacy of the bios. The Saints aren't playing in that regard. They own the data, and that's the fastest way I can get it to you without them flipping out.

    Yes, there is a bunch of stuff I could add. However, there are a ton of legal issues regarding who owns what. This is the best way I can aggregate data for the saints on the iphone.

    I want to thank everyone for buying whodatapp, and I am working to make sure the app is better and better, cause we take pride in our work as well as the saints.

    Who Dat!

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  • http://www.calliopedigital.com/ Chris Van Buskirk

    One more thing. The crashes should be fixed in 1.2. I know all about it.

  • http://tribecon.com Chris Schultz

    I know I'm enjoying it. I've told a number of Saints fans about it, and they love the twitter feed. For twitter newbies, it showcases the intimacy of following people on twitter. Great app, now its time to talk on all the NFL.

    Got anything brewing for the Hornets?

  • http://www.barousse.com John Barousse

    I LOVE the app! And everyone I show it to is blown away. The up-to-date roster and the Twitter feeds alone are great to have. I think that the developers have done a terrific job integrating Saints mania into the iPhone experience. Bravo!