Archives for 2011

Hewlett-Packard Seeks Results from Palm Purchase with TouchPad Tablet

Hewlett-Packard is on the verge of releasing the TouchPad tablet as it seeks to stake out a section of the increasingly competitive tablet market and show that its costly purchase of Palm will pay solid dividends.

HP will be following the Apple roadmap in supplying both the hardware and operating system for its tablet, something that the Android and Windows-based systems are not able to do, but the question will be if it can copy Apple’s success or is it too little too late?

Right now there are five operating systems that come to mind in this market, Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows, HP’s webOS and Blackberry’s Tablet OS. That is probably too many for all to profit and just like the PC operating system system wars of a few decades ago several will most likely not make it long term. Most app developers have limited resources and will select the platforms that they believe will deliver the fastest an best return on investment, and this will hurt HP, at least in the near term.

The HP pad device has very similar specifications to Apple’s iPad, but they seem just a little off – a little heavier with a battery that is a little larger, and right now very little in the way of applications although the technology it is using is familiar to many since it came to the company as part of its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm last year.

The TouchPad will be available in a $499 16GB and a $599 32GB version. The device features a 9.7-inch XGA, multitouch screen with 1024×768 resolution display, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel webcam, and has Wi-Fi support. It is 7.48 inches wide and 9.45 inches tall is .54-inches thick and weights 1.6 lbs. It is powered by Qualcomm’s 1.2GHz dual core Snapdragon processor. The TouchPad is designed to be used in conjunction with other Touchstone devices such as the Pre and so a user can transfer websites between devices, among other features.

While the interoperability between the tablet and phone is nice, there does not seem to be that much that really differentiates the TouchPad from the host of Android devices or the iPad family. Both of its better established rivals have tens of thousands of apps ready while the TouchPad has a few hundred. Having control of both hardware and OS development can lead to greater overall system integration, it also means that there is no shared development cost, all is carried by HP, a model that has hurt many companies in the past. HP is going to face a huge uphill battle to establish itself as a major player in this market and its first offerings does not appear to break any new ground, something that should be worrisome for the company.

2011 Tour de France Features All Access, GPS

 

Cycling legend Bernard Hinault. (Photo courtesy letour.fr)

All cycling, all the time, for a price. NBC Sports plans expanded mobile sports coverage of the 2011 Tour de France, with $14.99 Android, iPhone and iPad applications that provide unlimited live video streaming and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking of every rider in every race.

According to an AllThingsD report, NBC recognizes that sports coverage must expand every year to meet the sophisticated demands of the mobile sports consumer. NBCSports.com coordinating producer Tom Seeley told AllThingsD that it is “not acceptable” for sports programmers to offer the same services as the previous year. 

In 2010, NBC Sports’ cable channel Versus offered some GPS tracking of riders, but this year’s broadcasting will provide detailed tracking of every rider of every race. For those paying the freight for the Android, iPad and iPhone apps, there will be up to 14 hours of live video daily. For app-less sports consumers, NBC will provide maps, standings, rider profiles and video highlights.      

From now until July 11, NBC will charge $14.99 for the Android, iPad and iPhone apps. The price will drop $5 to $9.99 for week No. 2 coverage (July 12-16) and final week coverage (July 17-25) will cost $6.99.

Subscriptions for live video over the Internet will be $4.95 daily and $29.95 for the entire event.

How to Watch 2011 Wimbledon on Mobile Devices

Venus Williams wore this gold-zippered romper on day No. 1 of 2011 Wimbledon

U.S. mobile sports consumers looking for ways to follow the 2011 Wimbledon Championships quarterfinal, semifinal and Ladies’ and Gentlemans’ Finals between June 28-July 3 have plenty of options.

And sports fans have already used mobile devices to create buzz. When Venus Williams wore an out-of-regulation, gold-zippered romper, pictures of the tennis star were among the most circulated images for the day under the Twitter hashmark #Wimbledon.

WatchESPN gets you to Wimbledon on smartphones, iPad, iPhone

So what are the best ways to watch all the upcoming tennis coverage on smartphones and iPads? If you are a subscriber to Verizon FiOS, Brighthouse Networks or Time Warner Cable, WatchESPN for iPad, iPhone and Android will get you live streaming of the event beginning at 7:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.

For tennis fans in need of technical support, Apple, Windows and Web news service Hi-Tech Analogy posted June 23 tutorials and technical resources aimed at Wimbledon viewers.

Desktop, Wi-Fi access to Wimbledon live streaming

The technology news service GigaOM provided an excellent description about how to get access to Wimbledon on desktop computers or the Wi-Fi capabilities of your smart phone or iPad, as well as a handful of great links. GigaOM said “ESPN3 will be live streaming the event online as well as to Xbox Live users” so long as the consumer’s Internet service provider has an agreement with ESPN to provide ESPN3 to its subscribers.  

In fact, ESPN publishes a list of Internet Service Providers that provide its subscribers with ESPN3 access, and if yours doesn’t Mobile Sports Report recommends you consider a switch.

If you don’t have a mobile sports app or online access to ESPN3, NBC Sports will offer replays, highlights and interviews on its website. The official Wimbledon Twitter feed is scheduled June 27 to resume regular posts, which will continue through the finals. Another must-see venue for mobile sports viewers interested in Wimbledon is IBM’s tennis-related programming tied to the event.

Sprint’s HTC EVO ED Brings 3D to Handsets – Boon for Sports Fans?

Will 3D take hold in the mobile market before it takes sail in the television space? It could be a boon for sports fans that have already dropped a small fortune on a 60-inch plasma and are not willing to move to 3D and buy a new system.

If it will be the next big thing is unclear and honestly your guess is as good as mine but at this point mobile developers of both hardware and software are increasingly focusing on the 3D space and with its lower entry price for users could take off faster. The latest to hit the market is HTC’s EVO 3D.

Designed to run on the emerging high speed 4G network being deployed by Sprint the handset is the latest member on HTC’s EVO lineup and bears a strong resemblance to the EVO 4G phone. The display is a 4.3-inch qHD screen with 960 by 540 pixel resolution. The EVO 3D does not require 3D glasses, however it does appear to get blurry if the display is moved or is looked at from an angle in my brief examination.

In some ways it reminded me of the 3D cards you could send people, from one angle they looked great and the rest you kind of scratched your head and wondered what all of the noise was about. The image does not leap out but rather is inset like in a shadow box. This could be annoying over a long period, say the length of a baseball game, but not so much in the short ter such as highlights from an event.

Still the phone has a lot of nice features that match up well with rival 2D phones including a 1.2 GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, support for the 4G network that is currently being rolled out nationwide with unlimited 4G data with Sprint’s Everything Data Plan, available for $79.99/mo. The phone will come preloaded with select free demo versions of 3D titles including Spider-man: Total Mayhem 3D.

The phone has dual cameras and enables users to capture both 2D and 3D video and images. It features a new service called HTC Watch that enables a user to start watching a show as it is downloading and monitors the Internet connection to create an uninterrupted viewing experience. It has the latest version of HTC’s Sense user interface, version 3.0, which allows an increased degree of customization and runs the Android 2.3 operating system, also called Gingerbread.

The HTC EVO 3D has a $199.99 price tag from Sprint when purchased with a new two year activation or eligible upgrade on a Sprint Business Advantage Messaging and Data plan or the Everything Plan with data, a Premium Data add-on and a two year agreement. The phone started shipping this week.

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out and we find out if 3D is the wave of the future, or just a 1950’s fad reemerging in another format. It looks really good in short snippets on a phone for video and the game apps I have seen are for the most part enhanced by the technology. For me the test will be when I start watching sporting events and seeing it in 3D on a phone.

[Editor’s note: More gratuitous EVO 3D photo to follow, taken by our dual-core editor whose other business follows things like wireless trade shows where these things are first shown off.)

Reds’ 2B Surges on Twitter, Asks for Extension

Picture of Brandon Phillips from his Twitter account

Brandon Phillips' photo from his @DatDudeBP Twitter account

He’s arrogant, famously calling the St. Louis Cardinals a bunch of “little bitches,” but Brandon Phillips is quickly establishing himself as Major League Baseball’s must-follow athlete on Twitter. Is it a tactic to get the Cincinnati Reds to grant him a rich extension, or trade him to a major market team that can pay him big coin?  

Phillips’ Twitter followers surging

Phillips’ followers surged from just over 50,000 to 65,000 in the three days ending June 19, after an ESPN.com story about the Cincinnati Reds second baseman’s use of Twitter to improve his image. Phillips tweets as @DatDudeBP, and is a Mobile Sports Report recommended athlete to follow.

Twitter as negotiating tactic? 

Favorable accounts of Phillips’ Twitter use comes at an auspicious time for the all-star second baseman. Days after the ESPN.com story broke, Phillips asked the Reds to negotiate a contract extension, according to an NBC Sports report.

Phillips told ESPN he will keep clubhouse talk off his Twitter account, but the timing of the ESPN story closely followed by a demand for a contract extension proves that he knows a large and favorable fan base will improve his chances of becoming one of baseball’s highest-paid athletes. Phillips has a $12 million team option for 2012, which ESPN said the Reds may not be able to pick up. Major League Baseball’s trading deadline is July 31.

Even if Phillips doesn’t start sending pay-me-or-trade-me tweets, the day is soon approaching when high-stakes contract negotiations become a part of an athlete’s online repertoire, and something fans will want to follow on smartphones and iPads.   

“The Ochocinco of baseball”

According to Phillips, Twitter is part of a more benign strategy. Twitter gives fans a chance to get to know him better, he told ESPN.

Phillips tweets occasional contests, which in the past have awarded fans spring training visits, dinner, and trips to San Francisco. According to ESPN, Phillips’ use of Twitter may have contributed to improved clubhouse maturity and leadership in 2011.

In addition to famously slurring the St. Louis Cardinals, which caused bench-clearing brawls the next time the two teams met, Phillips has been a controversial player in his seven-year major league career for failing to run out balls to first, laughing and joking when his team has trailed and other on-field lapses.

Phillips acknowledged that he’s after the celebrity athletes can get by being wired to their fans, including another famous Cincinnati pro.

“I want to be the Ochocinco of baseball,” Phillips told ESPN. Of course, Phillips was referring to the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver who once threatened to be the first player to produce in-game tweets and has attracted greater than 2.13 million followers to his @ochocinco account.

In beta, Fox sets Aug. 13 date for soccer upgrade

FoxSoccer.tv will get a new look Aug. 13, and soccer will also have new iPad and iPhone applications, according to Fox Sports.

The move underscores the continued push by major American sports broadcasters to improve the smartphone and iPad viewer experience. As we’ve previously reported, Turner Sports has enjoyed runaway success in 2011 with NCAA March Madness and NBA Basketball on mobile devices.

 

Beta Underway

Fox is already making soccer coverage available on two cable networks, iPad, smartphones and on the Internet at FoxSoccer.tv

With its formal launch date set, Fox will attempt to establish itself as the dominant broadcaster of soccer to televisions, iPads and smart phones. Although soccer is a niche sport, it has great demographics, which is attractive to advertisers and marketers.

The Aug. 13 launch date ties in with the start of the Barclays Premier League season. Fox says it will have new shows and better graphics on all of its soccer broadcasting platforms by that date. 

Nathanson a mobile sports exec to watch 

The executive leading the Fox charge is David Nathanson, Fox Soccer general manager. Fox Soccer will also begin offering bundled content, allowing cable and satellite subscribers the option of watching the games on computer and tablet devices, Nathanson said in a statement.

“We want people to see the best soccer games in the world wherever and whenever it is the most convenient,” said Nathanson. “Our audience is smart, they want new technologies, they want the best coverage. With our mobile app and the coming iPad app, we’re delivering.”