Tech Review: Apps for baseball aficionados

While the World Baseball Classic was a treat for hard-core baseball fans, the real deal is just around the corner. With Opening Day comes a flurry of updated and new apps to complement the day-to-day grind of the 162-game Major League Baseball season. Whether you want to watch games on the fly, track stats for your fantasy team or play a few games yourself, we've got the bases covered.

MLB PrePlay

(iOS, coming soon to Android; free)

If you love to predict the result of an at-bat or inning, check out this app. PrePlay lets players compete against friends (or alone) to see whether you can make the correct calls. Will the next batter strike out, or hit a home run? Will the home team retire the side in order or run into trouble? With PrePlay, your guess is as good as anyone else's.

MLB.com At Bat

(iOS, Android; free)

At Bat's 2013 edition is loaded with new bells and whistles. For the uninitiated, this app lets you watch virtually every MLB game with a subscription. At Bat now features live audio for all platforms and devices. The app's team pages have been redesigned, and the news section has a revamped interface. It also includes a classic games library and more push notifications. Whether you want to follow live-updating box scores, listen to radio broadcasts of games or even stream video of games, At Bat is the only app you'll need.

iScore Baseball/

Softball Scorekeeper

(iOS, Android; $9.99)

Whether you're keeping score of an MLB game or just your kid's T-ball contest, Scorekeeper lets you track every bit of the game, with more than 350 stats tracked on every play, just like you would with a real scorecard. In addition to standard scorekeeping features, this app also lets users track pitches, including location, type and speed, and batting spray charts that track hit location and strength and type of hit. Users can also share data with friends across multiple devices.

Baseball Pocket Schedules

(iOS, Android; $0.99)

For baseball fans who just want to know whether their team won or lost, and who they'll play next, Pocket Schedules delivers the goods. The no-frills app features traditional pocket schedule views for all 30 MLB teams alongside a host of other features. Users can see an updated scores page, a standings page, info on every team's home stadium and spring training stadium, and even a news page with stories pulled from 10 different sources.

MLB: Full Deck

(iOS, Android; free)

Full Deck brings the fun, nerdy bits of action-card games to the MLB arena. Players create a team culled from 650 real players, then compete against their friends or real teams. Players can even "train" their team to boost their stats as well as make crucial managerial decisions during games. It's a long way from simple card collecting, but fans of competitive card games might find a new favorite hobby with Full Deck.

-- Appolicious.com,

Tribune Media Services

EBay tests donation service

EBay is testing a charitable program where users mail in "gently used" fashion items to be sold by Goodwill Industries. Sellers and Goodwill each receive 50 percent of the proceeds on items that are bought. Items not bought will be considered a tax-deductible donation. While the "Sell It Forward" service is currently available only in California, eBay expects to expand it to additional areas. -- PETER KING

Interest in new pope attracts scammers

Emails that appear to be "CNN Breaking News" alerts about Pope Francis could contain links to malicious websites. Internet security firm Commtouch says it has seen a rise in scammers using interest in the new pope and other news stories to foist malware attacks. Commtouch says also beware of emails that appear to come from the BBC with subjects concerning Cyprus. -- PETER KING

Shutterfly sues Kodak

Photo service Shutterfly has sued to shut down the "My Kodak Moments" app that lets users purchase photo albums made from pictures stored on Facebook. Shutterfly, which bought the Kodak Gallery online photo business for $23.8 million last year, alleges the app violates the sale agreement because as part of the deal Kodak agreed not to set up a duplicate business. -- Reuters