Vans Triple Crown iPhone App Review

Jonny's Note: So first up this is our official review of the iPhone app not to be confused with our heads up note from a last week. Hoon was going to dig into this one but life got a little busy for him. while Hoon knows surfing and has his little claws all up in Apple tech the decision was made to nerd out with a new contributor to SOTN: TCB.

First up TCB works in the mobile industry (no he doesn't sell phones at a mall kiosk) he's actually all sorts of digital nerdy mobile strategery and what not. I should also point out that nepotism gets you far here at SOTN as TCB is my brother. Yeah, we're funny like that. Now TCB isn't the best surfer/shredder in the world but after living with me forever he's gotten his fair share of board underneath the feet time. So, you're getting the review from a mobile pro and of course you may find some similarity's in how we talk, er write. He's better with grammar, spelling and has been know to crush a plate of Turkey bacon if left unattended. So, without further delay - I give you the TCB take on the Vans Triple crown iPhone app.

Vans Triple Crown iPhone App Review

First off make sure you have a good Wi-Fi connection because without it this app is dead to you. However…if you have a solid Wi Fi connection and think the Triple Crown is the shit then you are in the money. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the hell was going on with this app. There were the normal login, corporate sponsors, app maker credentials and then I was dumped into a cool screen with posters for the three competitions. The posters, which are really buttons taking you to coverage of each one of the Competitions that make up the Triple Crown (Reef Hawaiian Pro, O’Neill World Cup, Billabong Pipeline Masters.) In my opinion the posters are the best part of the app…but onward.

The most confusing piece of this whole app is the next screen once you enter one of the competition sections. The first thing you see is the event schedule, which assuming you know enough about the competitions, after picking the one you want on the entry screen, that had the dates it was running, which strikes me as useless. Overall this application is best used while the competition is active. There are a slew of features that make it useful for following the competition while hiding in your cubicle or sneaking in a check during meetings. A news feed, live webcast, results, are available for the hard core fans while video, photos and surf reports are available for those checking in off hours during their commute on the LIE (Long Island Expressway). There are Live Score and Watch Now buttons at the top of the application to get your quickly to your destination.

Essentially, this is a purely a live webcast application with some added features. I think the extras like the video, and photos are not very necessary but the results and surf report are a nice touch for keeping tabs on the competition. The $.99 price take was worth it considering I didn’t have to try and type in the whole webcast URL into the stupid iPhone Safari browser.