Locker Pulse Product Blog

We’ve been a bit quiet lately with our feature releases, but with good reason. We’re gearing up for a massive relaunch of LockerPulse!

Since we initially conceived of LockerPulse in 2009 and subsequently launched in May of 2010 a lot has changed with how we as consumers use the web. For sites like LockerPulse, touch interfaces on phones and tablets are rapidly approaching the usage of traditional computers. Very few people saw this coming – heck the iPad had only been released a few weeks before that first version of LockerPulse came out!

We’ve spent a lot of time since May of 2010 studying our analytics, talking to our users, and paying close attention to how the web has evolved.

So what can you expect? Better coverage of more teams and more sports. An easier-to-use experience, starting with a better initial sign-up. Quicker access to the other things that are important to you in addition to the news: schedules, standings, scores, and videos. A more consistent experience across all devices – from your work PC to your laptop to your iPad to your Android phone – it will always “feel” like the same LockerPulse. And many more improvements that we hope show you that we’re committed to making this the very best platform for consuming sports news.

When can you expect the new LockerPulse? We’re shooting for releasing this in Q1 of 2012, most likely towards the end of March. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, please leave a comment below or shoot us an email. We’re always excited to hear from our users!

Today we released one of our most anticipated new features: fantasy sports player tracking. Simply visit the new Fantasy tab, enter in your fantasy team, and we’ll provide you with updates as news happens. You can filter news by league or player on the left nav, just as you can filter by team or source in My News. We’re scanning over 25 of the best fantasy news sites on the web for the absolute latest information.

Here are a few screenshots (click to enlarge):

Add a Fantasy Player

My Fantasy News

Fantasy player tracking also works on mobile LockerPulse. After logging in you’ll see the My Players heading.

You may notice some other improvements throughout the site. We’ve worked hard on improving the speed of the most common actions on the site. We’ve completed a a full javascript overhaul – our new library is smaller and lighter, meaning faster load times for you. We’ve also made other speed improvements across the site. For instance, stories from external sites load much faster in the frame. After logging in, you’ll also notice a new navigation and slicker interface. In addition to fantasy coverage we’ve made it easy to access full schedules, standings, and rosters available for all NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL teams.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, leave a comment below or drop us an email. Good luck with your fantasy teams!

We’ve worked closely with SnappCloud and Toshiba to make LockerPulse available in the Toshiba App Place. If you’re using a Toshiba device, the App Place is a great way to integrate web apps like LockerPulse in to your computer. You can “install” LockerPulse from the App Place by visiting this link. You’ll be able to sign up and launch LockerPulse right from the App Place!

Today we’ve added a bunch of new sports to our coverage. For each sport we scoured the web and found the very best sites, blogs, and newspapers to give you a mix of news on par with the level of coverage that we provide for each individual team.

We’ve added twelve sports to our “Headlines” section. You can access them anywhere on the site by clicking on “Headlines” in the upper left hand corner:

If you’re a registered user, you can now subscribe to your favorite sports just like you subscribe to your favorite teams. Simply head on over to the “Settings” “Manage Sources” tab when logged in and you’ll now see all of the new sports listed under the “Add a Team” dropdown:

And of course, if you haven’t signed up, you should head on over to our registration page to get started. We’ve also released a simpler signup process to make it even easier to pick your favorites and get started quickly and simply.

Two of the more frequent requests we receive from people are “I’m an NBA fan in general and I don’t follow any one team, I just want a lot of good NBA coverage” and “why don’t you have coverage for Soccer/Golf/MMA/NASCAR”. Hopefully this will help people in both camps, as well as other fans looking to supplement their team coverage with some more in depth coverage of their favorite sports.

If we’ve missed any good news sources, or there’s a sport you’d like covered that we didn’t get, please leave us a comment below or drop us an email.

Earlier this week Google announced a College Basketball Tournament 2011 page. The page allows you to view scores, schedules, fill out a bracket on Google Docs, use Google Earth to explore the tournament cities and venues, and of course install Chrome Web Apps like LockerPulse to keep up with the latest team news.

We’re excited to announce that we’ve added college sports to LockerPulse. You can now browse and read NCAA news from our homepage just like you can with any pro team. As a registered user you can add your favorite college teams to your account so that they appear in your news stream, scoreboard, and in your daily newsletter. Over the coming weeks we’ll be expanding coverage by adding more fan blogs, local newspapers, school newspapers, and other sources that capture the passion of college athletics. If you have a favorite news source for your team, we encourage you to let us know by leaving a comment below or by sending us an email.

We’re excited to announce that effective immediately the entire LockerPulse service is now available for free. If you haven’t signed up previously, head on over to our registration page and give it a try.

If you already have an account, your account has been adjusted to reflect these changes. If you had a premium account, we have refunded your most recent payment and canceled your subscription. If you are currently in your 30-day free trial period, you will be able to continue using your account for free after the date the trial was set to expire. If your trial had previously expired, your account has been re-activated and should now be fully functional.

We remain extremely passionate about providing you with the best sports news service on the web. In the coming months we will be adding many new features, including fantasy player tracking, college sports, an improved mobile experience, and much more.

If you have any questions or feedback leave us a comment or drop us an email.

Just a quick follow-up to our last post about LockerPulse in the Google Chrome Web App Store. We’re now being featured in the News and weather category. Thank you to all who have installed, rated and reviewed!

Today Google officially unveiled the Chrome Web Store as a part of their Chrome Event. LockerPulse is proud to be one of the many great apps available upon launch. You can “install” LockerPulse by visiting the LockerPulse app page in the Google Chrome web browser.

As of now, the only additional “feature” that will be available to you will be the option to link your Google account to your LockerPulse account so that you’ll be automatically logged in to LockerPulse any time that you’re logged in to Google. In the future, installed apps will be able to better utilize HTML5 and other modern features that are just now becoming available in the web browser.

Thank you to everyone who has already installed and reviewed LockerPulse. Early on, we’re listed under the “Popular” section in the “News” category!

It’s been a busy week. A few days ago we unveiled our new design. Today, after months of research by our team and many suggestions from our users, we’ve completed our news source project.

We’ve added 566 new news sources from some of the very best newspapers, beat-writers, blog networks, and individual sports bloggers. While there’s always room for improvement, we feel very confident that fans of all teams will enjoy both the simplicity of LockerPulse and the depth of coverage that we provide.

One word of caution: you will be automatically subscribed to all new news sources for your teams. We do this to expose users to new and potentially interesting content, however when we’re adding several sources per team it can be overwhelming. Remember, you can always control exactly which sources you see in your news feed and in your newsletter by logging in and clicking on the “Settings” tab.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to write in with a suggestion. Of course, we’re looking forward to continuously adding the best sports news sources on the net, so if you have a suggestion for us, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can click the “Feedback” link under the “More” tab on any page, leave a comment below, or email us at

Have a great Holiday weekend everyone!