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When Major League Baseball starts its 2025 season on March 27, you can enhance your big-screen game-watching experience by enlisting the aid of your small screen; i.e., your smartphone or tablet laptop. A second screen adds context to the game by delivering everything from analysis, player stats, and interactive features, to tools for communicating with other fans. We’ve rounded up the six best second-screen apps that belong on your smartphone or tablet this baseball season. Download and install one or more of them to make sure you’re game ready when the ump yells “play ball!” MLB At Bat If you don’t use anything else this season, be sure to install at least the MLB app. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry As second-screen apps go, the MLB App remains the ace of the rotation. It personalizes the viewing experience by curating news, highlights, and live updates based on users’ favorite teams and players. On iPhones, live scores and updates appear directly on the lock screen and within the Dynamic Island, allowing fans to track games without opening the app. MLB.TV subscribers can stream up to four games simultaneously on supported mobile devices. Condensed game replays and key highlights are available shortly after each game ends, making it easier to catch up on the action. Audio access has expanded to include home and away radio broadcasts for every game, even in areas subject to blackout restrictions. The Gameday 3D feature provides real-time pitch tracking in an interactive environment, offering a deeper look at each play. For fans attending games in person, the app integrates ticketing and in-venue experiences, including seat upgrades and exclusive content. iScore Baseball Scoring a game by hand is a tradition that goes back to the earliest days of baseball; but in our digital age, this pen-and-paper activity could easily go the way of flannel uniforms and Pullman cars. Thankfully, there’s iScore Baseball. This app turns your device into a digital scorebook, but you don’t need to know any of the arcana of scorekeeping to use it. iScore employs interview prompts to help you track the on-field action. Say the batter grounds out to first base: To record that play, tap the Out button and iScore will ask what kind of out was made. Select Ground Out and the app will ask you to tap on the diamond where the ball was hit and the position that made the out. As you record each play in this manner, iScore translates it all into scorebook speak. After the game, you can generate and email a completed scoresheet, box score, or team stats. iScore Baseball, available for Android and iOS devices, can create a traditional scoresheet without requiring you to know the details of scorekeeping. And if the idea of scoring a game for posterity seems quaint now that the web can serve up play-by-play stats for just about any matchup in history, consider that its greater purpose might be keeping you focused on the game amid the distractions of home. ESPN If you prefer your baseball coverage from a third-party source, it’s tough to beat ESPN’s free flagship app. In addition to scores and standings, it will keep you supplied with a steady stream of injury reports, contract signings, and other breaking news from around the league. You’ll also get live streaming access to national and regional ESPN Radio stations and more than 100 ESPN Podcasts. Designate your favorite team and you can receive alerts before games and get the latest news and videos about your club sent directly to your ESPN inbox. Best of all, you can use the app as a second screen for other sports after the Fall Classic. Bleacher Report: Sports News Bleacher Report: Sports News lets you curate your own news feed to receive breaking news on your favorite MLB teams, players, and fantasy investments. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Like most fans, it’s your own rooting interests rather than the league at large that keeps you glued to the screen. Bleacher Report understands this and lets you customize your second-screen experience with Bleacher Report: Sports News. Though not exclusively a baseball app, Bleacher Report: Sports News lets you curate your own news feed to receive breaking news on your favorite MLB teams, players, and fantasy investments. Just add your favorite clubs, and all the latest rumors, news, hot plays, and injury reports from those organizations will appear in a real-time stream on its home screen. The app also makes it easy to email, text, or social-share the juiciest stories with your baseball-loving buddies. A separate Scores tab keeps you up today on your team’s schedule and game results. ESPN Fantasy Sports The ESPN Fantasy app provides everything you need to manage your lineup from opening day to, hopefully, the postseason. You get full access to your ESPN fantasy team, letting you start, bench, add, drop, trade, and waive players, so you’re fielding the best nine possible on game day. It also provides a steady stream of player news and enough stats and analysis to satisfy the most hardcore sabermetrician. During games, the app keeps you updated with real-time scoring by all your fantasy players, while push notifications alert you to injuries, trades, and other player news. MiLB app There’s always important action in the minor leagues, too. The MiLB app helps you keep track of it all. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry A companion to the MLB app, the MiLB app provides similar coverage of 120 minor-league clubs with scores, stats, news, video highlights, and push-notification game alerts. As with the big-league app, the basics are free, but you must buy into video streams of games—both live and on-demand—and other premium offerings. But it’s the best way to scout tomorrow’s stars while following their parent clubs on TV. Pair it with At Bat for complete coverage of your favorite team’s entire organization. Batter up! Okay, those are our picks for the best second-screen apps for baseball. What do you think, did we hit a grand slam or fly out to left field? What are your favorite second-screen baseball apps? Let us know in the comments section on our Facebook page. And don’t miss our in-depth cord-cutter’s guide to streaming Major League Baseball without a cable subscription. Read...

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Baseball fans have more ways than ever to stream Major League Baseball games, but keeping track of where to watch can be a challenge. National broadcasts remain spread across multiple networks and streaming services, while local games are increasingly shifting away from traditional regional sports networks. Add in exclusive streaming deals and blackout restrictions, and figuring out how to watch your favorite team can feel feel as challenging as deciphering Tarik Skubal’s pitch arsenal. The 2025 MLB season is set to begin with the Tokyo Series on March 18 and 19, featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome. Following this international opener, Opening Day for the remaining teams is scheduled for March 27. Major networks such as Fox, ESPN, TBS, and Apple TV+ will continue their coverage, with ESPN set to air a doubleheader on Opening Day and TBS maintaining its Tuesday-night broadcasts. The Roku Channel has taken over MLB Sunday Leadoff, and Apple TV+ continues to offer Friday Night Baseball. Meanwhile, MLB.tv remains the go-to service for out-of-market games, and local media rights are changing as MLB takes over broadcasts for teams including the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cleveland Guardians. The postseason lineup remains largely the same, with ESPN networks airing the Wild Card Series, TBS handling the National League playoffs, and Fox carrying the American League playoffs and the World Series. And with the upcoming end of ESPN’s MLB contract after 2025, this season could mark a turning point for baseball’s media landscape. To help you navigate all the options, we’ve broken down the best ways to watch Major League Baseball in 2025. This story has been updated for the 2025 season. Sling TV includes ESPN in its channel lineup as well as NBC Sports regional content in select markets, allowing some fans to watch their hometown teams. Over the air a great amplified indoor Tv antenna Televes Bexia Read our review Since broadcast baseball has largely gone the way of the Sunday doubleheader, there are few options for watching any game without a subscription of one kind or another. The Fox network, however, can still be had for free with a good TV antenna. That will give you access to a bunch of nationally broadcast Saturday-afternoon games. If you’re purchasing an antenna for the first time, remember to first check to see which stations you can receive in your area and which type of antenna you’ll need to pull in your local Fox affiliate. You should also check our recommendations for the best TV antennas. Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+ the only source for friday night baseball Apple TV+ Read our review Best Prices Today: $6.99 at Apple Apart from buying a TV antenna, your least-expensive option—and the only way to get Friday-night games—is to sign up for a subscription to Apple TV+. That costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, but it gets you a wide array of other streaming entertainment, including hit shows such as the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks-produced Masters of the Air, a series about WWII bomber pilots in Europe, and the mind-bending Severance. Apple TV+ is probably an option only for fans who need to see every single game, but at least it doesn’t cost a lot, and there’s lots of other entertainment to be had. T-Mobile customers on a Go5G Next plan, meanwhile, should take advantage of the opportunity to get both Apple TV+ (available now) and MLB.TV (starting March 25) for free. MLB Sunday Leadoff on The Roku Channel For fans looking for more free ways to watch some live baseball, The Roku Channel has taken over MLB Sunday Leadoff, offering one exclusive Sunday-afternoon game each week from May through August. Unlike other streaming-exclusive games, these matchups are available to watch without a subscription on The Roku Channel app, which is accessible on Roku devices, web browsers, smart TVs, and mobile devices. DirecTV Stream most sports channels of any service DirecTV Stream Read our review Best Prices Today: $101.98 at DirecTV Stream If you have Fox broadcast covered via an antenna, DirecTV’s MySports package is an excellent option for accessing the rest of the MLB action. Launched earlier this year, MySports offers a comprehensive selection of sports channels, including ESPN, FS1, TBS, MLB Network, and regional sports networks like Bally Sports and NBC Sports regional networks. Priced at $69.99 per month, this package ensures coverage of both national and local MLB games without the need for larger, more expensive TV bundles. Fubo a sports-centric streaming service Fubo Read our review Best Prices Today: $79.99 at Fubo The once soccer-centric streaming service offers a fair amount of baseball-broadcasting channels including ESPN, Fox, FS1, and the MLB Network. It also includes a selection of RSNs including the NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California networks and Marquee Sports Network. To get them all. you’ll need the Pro package for $84.99 a month (there’s a 7-day free trial for new customers) and the Sports Plus channel add-on for an additional $10.99 a month. Hulu + Live TV includes some regional sports networks Hulu + Live TV Read our review Best Prices Today: $82.99 at Hulu.com Hulu offers a single, flat-fee package that includes more than 90 live and on demand channels—including the ESPN, Fox, FS1, and TBS—plus regional sports networks in select areas. You get them all, in addition to Hulu’s original content and its streaming library, for $82.99 a month with ads or $95.99 a month without. Sling TV least-expensive streaming service Sling TV Read our review Best Prices Today: $40 at Sling TV Sling TV offers ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, Fox, and FS1, as well as NBC Sports for local-team broadcasts. If you want them all in one package, though, you’ll need to step up to the top-tier Sling Orange + Blue option (basically Sling’s two individual packages combined and offered at a discount) for $65.99 a month, with half off of your first month. Major League Baseball is making it a little easier for cord cutters to catch their favorite team’s games. YouTube TV our favorite tv streaming service YouTube TV Read our review Best Prices Today: $82.99 at YouTube TV Like Hulu, YouTube offers a flat-fee package of more than 100 channels for $82.99 per month ($69.99 per month for your first six months). The channel lineup includes Fox, FS1, ESPN, and TBS, but not the MLB network. MLB.TV the official source, but for out-of-market games only MLB.TV Best Prices Today: $29.99 at MLB.TV An MLB.tv subscription can get you a lot of baseball, but blackout rules still apply. The league’s official streaming service offers live streams of every regular season out-of-market game, with perks like multi-game viewing (up to four games at once), in-game highlights, and a free subscription to the At Bat Premium app. Note the phrase “out-of-market:” MLB.TV is not a true cord-cutting resource. It was really designed as way for transplants—a Red Sox fan living in Seattle, for example—to watch their former home teams. Local broadcasts remain subject to blackout rules, so you won’t be able to watch your hometown ball club live on TV this way. That said, MLB.TV remains a valuable option for dyed-in-the-wool seamheads to catch virtually every out-of-market game broadcast—home or away—throughout the regular season. And if you’re not particular about real-time viewing and can avoid social media and other potential spoiler sources, you can watch replays of your local team’s games on demand 90 minutes after the game’s conclusion. A full MLB.TV subscription, which gives you access to all 30 teams’ games—minus those of your local club’s—is $29.99 per month or $149.99 for the year. (We can show you how to score a $50 discount.) There’s also a single-team option that lets you follow a non-local squad of your choice for $129.99 per year. And once again, many T-Mobile subscribers can get MLB.TV for free. Play ball! Major League Baseball is finally stepping up the plate and giving cord-cutters more options to watch the Grand Old Game. We’d still like to see it offer more free streaming options of marquee matchups; until it does, you can take advantage of these cable alternatives, along with our guide to second-screen baseball apps, to make sure you catch all the action on the diamond. Read...

In August 2024, National Public Data (NPD), a background check company, experienced a massive data breach that impacted around 2.9 billion records with sensitive information. Millions of people’s full names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and addresses were all up for grabs on the dark web. Faced with the overwhelming financial strain from numerous lawsuits and the costs associated with the breach, NPD filed for bankruptcy just a few months later. This breach, one of the largest in recent history, highlighted the growing risks businesses face in protecting sensitive data. With cybercriminals constantly evolving their tactics, companies can no longer afford to rely on reactive security measures alone. The bittersweet truth is that a breach like that could have been avoided — or at least minimized — with the right security measures in place. Threat exposure management platforms like NordStellar help with data breach prevention by catching vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. Prevent breaches with NordStellar 716 million user contacts leaked on the dark web in 2024 According to research conducted by NordStellar, 716 million user contacts were leaked on the dark web in 2024. This included 554 million email addresses and 162 million phone numbers, leaving a vast number of people vulnerable to cyber threats. Most of the leaked data came from companies in the technology, media, financial services, commerce, and healthcare industries. Once data is stolen in a breach, it often appears on dark web marketplaces within days or weeks — sometimes selling for pocket change. A credit card might go for just $15, a full identity package with your Social Security number for $20. But it doesn’t just sit there — it gets put to use fast. Cybercriminals, from small-time scammers to organized crime groups, exploit sensitive personal data in many ways, including identity theft, phishing, financial fraud, and account takeovers. Cybercriminals use stolen data to scam, hack, and exploit victims, often combining breaches for more targeted attacks. Average data breach costs reached $4.88M in 2024 According to IBM’s 2024 report, the global average cost of a data breach reached an all-time high of about $4.88 million. These costs usually include a range of expenses such as incident investigation, regulatory fines, legal fees, customer notification, credit monitoring services, system recovery, and lost business due to reputational damage. However, the damaging consequences of a data breach don’t just end here. Beyond the immediate financial hit, businesses face long-term challenges that can be even more devastating. Reputational damage can erode customer trust, driving people to competitors and amplifying negative publicity. Once trust is broken, it takes years to rebuild, affecting customer retention, brand perception, and even future business opportunities. Operational disruptions also take a heavy toll. Recovering from a breach requires shutting down systems, investigating the incident, and implementing new security measures — all of which divert resources from growth and innovation. Then come the legal and compliance issues. Data protection laws like GDPR and CCPA impose strict penalties, with fines reaching 4% of annual revenue or millions of dollars in penalties. High-profile cases like Meta’s €1.2 billion fine and Marriott’s $23.8 million penalty highlight how failing to protect user data can have severe consequences. NordStellar: Proactive threat exposure management for businesses Reactive security measures aren’t enough to protect your business from the avalanche of consequences that follow a data breach. IBM highlights that it can take around six months to even become aware that a data breach has happened, preventing companies from acting before it’s too late. NordStellar, a threat exposure management platform created by the company behind NordVPN, detects threats early, minimizes damage, and ensures businesses can respond before a breach escalates. NordStellar Get a NordStellar demo Data breach monitoring NordStellar keeps an eye on data breaches, malware infections, and leaked credentials to spot compromised employee or client information. It sends real-time alerts so security teams can act fast and limit damage. By assessing risk levels and prioritizing incidents, it helps businesses handle breaches more efficiently. With data from both public and private sources, NordStellar makes sure teams stay informed and ready to respond. Account takeover prevention For instance, if hackers obtained the login details of a high-level employee like a CFO, they could approve fake wire transfers to drain company accounts. Or they could unlock payroll systems to redirect employee salaries. All of this could happen within hours of gaining access. The account takeover prevention scans the deep and dark web for leaked credentials and checks them against employee, customer, and partner accounts. It blocks stolen passwords from being used during login, registration, and password changes. Its password fuzzing feature analyzes breached passwords and generates variations based on common hacking techniques, preventing users from creating similar weak passwords that attackers could easily guess. Session hijacking prevention It monitors the dark web 24/7 for stolen session cookies and compromised credentials and alerts users when their data is found and detects malware-infected accounts. Session cookies are small bits of data that websites use to keep you logged in, like a digital key proving it’s really you. If hackers steal them, they can slip into your account without needing your password, bypassing two-factor authentication (2FA) entirely. If a session is stolen, NordStellar automatically invalidates it to block attackers from gaining access. This prevents hackers from using stolen cookies to log in, transfer money, or take other unauthorized actions. Other tips for avoiding data breaches Besides using a data breach monitoring system like NordStellar, businesses should take additional steps to protect their data and minimize security risks. Here are some key measures to strengthen your defenses: Use strong access controls. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) and limit access to sensitive data based on user roles. Encrypt important data. Protect stored and transmitted data with end-to-end encryption and secure password hashing. Keep software updated. Install security updates regularly to fix weak spots hackers could exploit. Train employees on cybersecurity. Teach staff to spot phishing scams, weak passwords, and social engineering tricks. Enforce strong passwords. Require unique, complex passwords and encourage password managers. Use a business VPN. Secure remote connections and protect company data from cyber threats, especially when accessing sensitive systems from outside the office. Back up data regularly. Store secure backups and test recovery plans to avoid losing data in an attack. Conclusion: don’t wait for a data breach A data breach can have devastating consequences, from financial losses and legal troubles to reputational damage and business disruptions. Being proactive is the only way to stay ahead of cyber threats. Businesses must identify vulnerabilities, monitor for leaked data, and respond quickly to prevent stolen information from being exploited. NordStellar helps businesses do exactly that. Its threat exposure management solutions detect compromised credentials, block unauthorized access, and provide real-time alerts to stop cyberattacks before they escalate. Instead of waiting for a breach to happen, companies can take control of their security and protect their most valuable assets before it’s too late. Get a NordStellar Demo Read...