The Mac Space Blog

Tempo is an extremely important part of a good golf swing. MyGolfSwing is a $1.99 iPhone application which helps golfers establish and groove their swing tempo.

The app breaks the swing down into three sections and times each one: back swing, pause at top of swing and downswing.  Drills show video and play sounds so the player can see and hear the desired tempo while practicing.

References

There’s a fun feature in MGS which shows the tempos of great golfers like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Lorena Ochoa and others.  Players can use those as templates in working on their own tempos.  It is interesting how similar the pro tempos are.  I’d like to see a few more in there like Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer.

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SHOTmaster is a 99 cent iPhone/iPod/iPad golf application which provides some good basic instruction and golf tips.  The application provides textual as well as video golf instruction for nearly every type of shot a player may encounter on the golf course.

From the main menu the user can access the shot category, video list and golf tips list. Some of the data overlaps between the selections.

When sleeting a shot from the main menu, like a 50 yard bunker shot, the next page displays text pointers and a supporting image, or may contain a link to view a video.

Critiques

The videos are YouTube based.  The drawback is if there isn’t an available web connection or the device doesn’t have web access you won’t be able to view the videos.

Conclusion

From plugged lies to stinger shots, SHOTmaster is a useful mobile golf application.  I don’t think the rules of golf allow use of these tips during stipulated or tournament play however.

Related Links

SHOTmaster images

SHOTmaster in iTunes

Two of my favorite companies are Apple and PING.  If I could have a PING laptop I’m sure it would be easy to hit and the longest laptop on the market.

PING and Apple are working together on a new feature in Apple’s iTunes called “social music discovery.”

I’m not sure what PING and Apple have to do with discovering social music so stand by while I try to figure out just what they’re doing.

Clarification

Now that I’ve read deeper, it appears that Apple and PING are not working from a physical product standpoint.  It appears that PING owns the rights to any social network using the name PING so Apple must have reached out to them.  Apple’s new Ping is simply a new music social network where you can follow artists and the artists your friends follow.

Ping test drive = FAIL

Okay, after another hour I must say I’m not terribly impressed with Apple’s Ping.  After setting up a profile, in which attempting to upload two different JPG’s for my profile image failed, I selected the following genres of music which I like: Rock, jazz and blues.  There was no METAL or even just heavy rock selection, which is lame.  That’s my main genre.

After setting up rock-jazz-blues, Ping’s first suggestion for me was Lady Gaga.  Um, that is not rock, jazz or blues.  Selection #2 for me, based on my rock-jazz-blues selection was Yo-Yo Ma, a classical cellist.  Last time I checked, classical cello music isn’t in the rock-jazz-blues genre.  Selection #3 (stop me any time) was Katy Perry, bubble gum pop.  If I listened to that for more than 9 seconds I think my head would explode.

I’m sorry Apple (and/or PING), but Ping in it’s current state is a definite FAIL.  NONE of the artists the engine selected for me were anywhere near the style I’m looking for, and once again METAL was not listed as a category I could select.  FAIL.

Ping’s press release below

September 1, 2010; Phoenix, Arizona: PING and its parent company, Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Apple under which Apple will use the PING trademark in connection with Apple’s innovative new social music discovery feature in iTunes. Apple introduced the iTunes PING feature today.

Founded in 1959, PING is a famous premium brand that holds more than 1000 trademark registrations around the world, many related to golf equipment. The company also owns trademark rights in PING for social networking and other online services.

This announcement involves two companies that were founded by visionaries who created products that greatly impacted their industries. Karsten Solheim invented the PING® putter in his Redwood City, California garage and went on to revolutionize the golf equipment industry. The groundbreaking first Apple® computer was developed in nearby Palo Alto in 1976.

“We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Apple,” said John Solheim, Chairman and CEO of Karsten Manufacturing Corporation and PING. “Like PING, Apple carries a reputation for innovation and quality. I have always had great respect for companies that have changed and improved the ways things are done and I continue to model PING along those lines. Apple is a truly great example of this kind of enterprise.”

I’m an iPhone user. I got the thing so I could be more productive. I have the tools to do that now and I’m slowly but surely working toward utilizing my time better. I have many golf apps for the iPhone, some of which I’ve covered or will cover here. The newest iPhone golf application is the PGATOUR.com app.

I loaded the PGA Tour iPhone application tonight. For being released within the last day or so, the app is very robust and nicely done.

Within the app you can access leaderboards, player profiles, videos (though I had a window pop up saying the video format wasn’t supported) and lots of other neat PGA Tour nuggets.  It is nice to be able to check Tiger Woods’ putting stats while in line at the grocery store.

Oh, the app is sponsored by Nike Golf, who has ads all over in there. I guess you have to pay the bills somehow.

For just being released the PGA Tour app is pretty awesome.