March 26th, 2009
Review: ViewTI Golf for the iPhone
Guest blog, by Ryan Kaplan.
I have to admit that I never thought that I’d buy a $25 iPhone application, but after reading the reviews and understanding the technology and information available through ViewTi Golf, I decided to bite the bullet.
Boy am I glad that I bought it, it really exemplifies the power of the iPhone. Competing comparable golf GPS products on the market are priced at around $125+ further accentuating the value of ViewTi.
The quantity of courses available is tremendous. Great job by the developers for making so many courses available near my home in Pennsylvania. There seem to be an awful lot of private courses (none of which I belong to, btw) in the app. Luckily there are many public courses mapped out as well.
There is no need to program your own courses like some of the other iPhone apps. The one public course that was not on the phone that I was going to play over the weekend was uploaded in about 24 hours after I emailed their support requesting the course. Great job to the ViewTi team for being on top of the email and getting the course online so quickly.
I’ve only used the app for three rounds so far and unfortunately, it hasn’t helped my scores (yet). However, I was able to measure a few monster drives with ease. In addition, ViewTi Golf helped me with many GIR shots*. (”Greens In Regulation” means making it onto the green within enough shots to have a birdie putt. Hitting the green in one on a par 3, in two shots on a par 4 and in 3 shots on a par 5 are all considered a GIR. -Ed)
The GPS is surprisingly accurate. I know the distance that I hit my irons, and being able to match that with my actual distance is a powerful feature. I had a blind lie behind several 50 foot trees. The GPS said that I was 128 yards away, so I grabbed my 8 iron which I hit an average of 125 yards, and hit the ball the perfect distance with the help of the yellow lie direction. Without the GPS, I would have had a hard time guessing as I couldn’t see the green from my lie.
The interface is simple and easy to use and the tracking information can quickly be emailed to my MacBook Pro for further analysis of how bad I am. I love this app and can’t wait to get back out to use it again.
ViewTI Golf is $25 but is listed as “50% off” its normal price of $50. If you use a golf app on your iPhone, tell us about it in the TalkBack.
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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