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Archives for 2011

T-Mobile Targets NBA fans with Fast-Talking Mobile Video

May 1, 2011 by

Striving for the game-changing impact of a final minute Kevin Durant 3-pointer, T-Mobile is stepping up marketing efforts aimed at mobile sports watchers. 

In an awesome performance by a fast-talking rapper, T-Mobile just launched a campaign touting the new 4G Sidekick. The commercial depicts the merits of getting golf programming and NBA programming on the Sidekick, and is chock full of NBA name-dropping.

The campaign underscores the rise of sports programming as key to the success of new mobile devices. The new Android-powered T-Mobile Sidekick was released April 20 at a price point of $99 with a new 2-year service agreement.

In recent months, T-Mobile has also produced commercials feature Miami Heat superstar Dwayne Wade and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, among others.

Filed Under: Golf, NBA, T-Mobile, Top News Tagged With: ,

Review: ESPN’s NFL Draft Twitter Feed Found Lacking

April 29, 2011 by

I decided that I would break with tradition and do something different for the first day of this year’s NFL draft. I normally watch the draft, alternating between the NFL channel and ESPN, have a list of top picks and a phone so that I can text my friends and taunt thenm about how their team’s selections are inferior to mine.

I am still following that basic game plan but I decided to also add a Twitter feed to follow as well. Actually I ended up following more than one, but more on that later. I selected ESPN for the first night of the draft, although I passed on its three-plus hours of pre-draft broadcasting after I turned it on and saw someone I assumed to be Dr. Phil but did not stay around long enough to find out. I guess everybody is an expert these days.

It was an easy decision since “the Mother Ship” has two major draft experts, often at odds with each other (although not enough to my taste) and a huge staff of former players and other experts, many of whom often say head turning opinions and almost all of them have Twitter accounts.

With Mel Kiper Jr., Todd McShay, Merill Hoge and Andrew Brandt not to mention all of the regional ESPN beat reporters and on-air personalities it looked like it was a site that should be interesting, with a healthy dose on inanity as well.

I was wrong, after a bit of light banter about the fans at Radio City Music Hall booing the Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, such as Trey Wingo saying they were not booing, they’re saying. GOOOOOOOOODELLL! Andrew Brandt had a great observation in saying that “The more people in that picture after the player is picked, the more I worry about his future financial security.” But these type of wry observations were pretty rare.

A few rumors were floated and they successfully predicted the 49ers pick at #7, but overall I was left very unimpressed. Almost nothing on how the Atlanta Falcons mortgaged their future to get Julio Jones.

The tweets came at a rather slow pace and it seemed as if only two or three ESPN personalities were posting, most of them just dry statements of what was happening. Watching the broadcast was so much more informative. I guess that made sense since that is where ESPN generates its cash.

So I started to search for another feed and found one on Google that appeared to be picking up comments from across a range of boards and it is much more enjoyable and faster on the news than ESPN.

There was a great deal of repetition here, I saw that Cam Newton was drafted #1 about 40 times, but there was a lot of good natured snark, but it was lacking of the mean spirited chatter that often characterizes message boards and chat rooms during and after NFL games.

A few of my favorite comments were “Niners take Aldon Smith??? Blaine Gabbert tossed his blonde locks in support”, “Titans pick up Jake Locker. Someone put Vince Young on suicide watch” and “‎Dear ESPN, please make one of Blaine Gabbert’s “Areas of Concern” be that his name sounds like a major appliance” — that’s good.

My takeaway was that for live events such as the draft a TV outlet will focus its resources on its bread and butter broadcast and that it is best to look elsewhere for a good thread. I have read any number of interesting comments and alerts from ESPN’s Twitter feed, but this is obviously not the time or place that it decided to put resources into that outlet.

Filed Under: ESPN, NFL Draft, Top News, Twitter Tagged With:

Look to Twitter for Instant NFL Draft News

April 25, 2011 by

You are all set for the upcoming NFL draft later this week. You know your team’s shortcomings and have read mock draft after mock draft seeing who is available at each position and what the industry experts have to say. Of course all of the appropriate web sites have been plundered for any nugget of information that might enhance your understanding of the moves and picks that are occurring. You have the time blocked off on your schedule to watch the programming starting Thursday and plan to skip back and forth between ESPN and the NFL Network to see which analysts are closest and which miss badly.

Yet you could be missing one of the more informative updates on the draft if you don’t turn to Twitter. The popular microblogging platform provides a valuable information and opinion outlet for mobile sports fans who cannot take a seat in front of the TV. Rather than have a website loaded on your phone that might be slow to refresh you can instead get a steady stream of news, commentary and opinion on events such as the draft easily and instantaneously.

Now Twitter might not be the first resource you turn to for football news, but an online Twitter chat, or rather a Tweetup hosted by Fox’s Jay Glazer was scheduled for Tuesday night is a sign of where social media can help mobile fans stay in touch with interesting events related to their favorite sports, kind of like an online radio talk show.

The chat provided an opportunity to ask questions to Glazer and “hear” what he thinks on a variety of topics related to the draft. Inquiries could be submitted not only via Twitter, but also by using a Facebook plug-in. If you’re not familiar with his work, Glazer seems to always be on the leading edge on major football stories, often beating the huge mass of reporters that ESPN throws at issues that it deems sports fans want continual reporting on, such as Brett Favre going to the NY Jets.

Tweetups, however, are just the tip of the iceberg on what Twitter has to offer fans. ESPN has a full lineup of sites that will be doing live Twitter feeds, including ones that are team specific such as ESPNChiBears and division specific such as ESPN_NFCSouth. Then all of its on-air personalities will also have live feeds for the draft. The same goes true for the NFL Network and its lineup. Other NFL related sites such as ProFootballTalk, Football Outsiders and The National Football Post () among others offer feeds as well.

The growth of Twitter as a tool for instantaneous communication among masses of people makes it ideal for draftniks who want to hear opinions on events just witnessed as well as to express their approval and disapproval of those events. It can really enhance a fan’s enjoyment of the draft or of a team and provides an interaction that does not occur simply passively watching the draft broadcast.

Filed Under: NFL Draft

BlackBerry Sports Fans Finally Get a Pad: The PlayBook

April 19, 2011 by

Blackberry users hoping to get a tablet of their own have finally had their patience rewarded as Research-in-Motion (RIM) has debuted the PlayBook tablet, its offering in the increasingly competitive tablet space. The question facing the company and its users is if the PlayBook is too little, too late?

RIM used to be the king of the mobile-device hill with a market share that was the envy of the industry. But that is all past history, even if it is recent history, and its market share has been in freefall for the last year as first Apple’s iOS and then Android have seriously eroded its cache and more importantly its market share.

The company now seeks to roll back those market losses with the PlayBook tablet. It compares favorable in many ways not only with Apple’s offerings but also from the growing host of Android tablets. Powered by an operating system that was developed in-house for the device, it will come in three basic flavors, all with Wi-Fi, but no cellular at this point.

The PlayBook’s screen measures 7 inches diagonally and includes both front and back cameras. The entry-level model is priced at $499 and will come with 16GB of memory. The $599 model will ship with 32GB of memory and the $699 version will include 64 GB. Cellular access for the device is expected to be available this summer when Sprint starts offering connections.

For BlackBerry smartphone users, cellular can be at hand right now by using a Bluetooth connection between the tablet and the phone, providing access to all of the phone’s diverse capabilities and features including calendar, tasks and documents. For heavy BlackBerry users who want a pad interface the phone is a must since these features are not native on the tablet for some reason. There are reports that AT&T is blocking the tethering feature between AT&T Blackberry smartphones and the PlayBook, a major issue for users that seek a synchronized platform. However this could be only a short term issue.

A bigger issue is that there is currently a very limited number of apps available for the tablet, roughly 3,000. This pales in comparison to the Android and Apple app space which have hundreds of thousands of apps, although not all are optimized for their tablets. However it is expected that the PlayBook will be able to run Android apps later this year.

BlackBerry development has appeared to be almost an afterthought for many app developers, as highlighted by MLB At Bat 11 which offers the least features for a BlackBerry smartphone. The hope for sports fans is that by now having a bigger screen available, BlackBerry platforms will get more developer love.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, BlackBerry, iPad, Sprint, Top News Tagged With: , , ,

Review: Speed Channel’s Mobile Site a Winner

April 15, 2011 by

(By Speed Racer, MSR Motor Sports Correspondent)

More good news for the mobile racing fan! Speed Channel recently reworked not only their website but also added a mobile site to their quiver. Featuring news and videos covering all motor sports, as well as their auto culture programming, they cover the world of racing from green to checkered flag.

I have been checking out their offerings on a Samsung Galaxy Tab (a loaner from the fine folks at Sprint) using Sprint 3G services. All Speed Channel content is available but the video loading is slow and sketchy on the cellular connection. Like all mobile devices, a Wi-Fi Internet connection provides the highest functionality. Wireless possesses the required bandwidth to make HD video seamless, while 3G is a few car lengths behind.

The Speed Channel site is filled with great content. While I was on the site they were streaming F1 practice, videos of the Barrett-Jackson auction, as well as their regular programming. Video interviews and stories are available on many series and automotive culture. There are large collections of photos and access to podcasts through iTunes. News is broken down by each series and is nicely organized. There is a banner streaming across the bottom of the site giving breaking news in real time.

This is all good news for the mobile sports fan. If you need to stay up to date you can. The day is not too far off that bandwith will catch up to these devices and we can watch live racing anywhere we have phone service or the Internet. Exciting changes continue to come and that means we will see more exciting racing regardless of where we are!

Filed Under: NASCAR, Sprint, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Review: Sprint NASCAR App Zooms on the Samsung Galaxy Tab

April 14, 2011 by

(by Speed Racer, MSR motor sports correspondent)

Recently I had the chance to experience the NASCAR Sprint Cup mobile app on the Galaxy Tab by Samsung. As a lifelong NASCAR follower I will admit that I was skeptical about what this device and application could add to my race-fan experience. I wound up pleasantly surprised, and here is why: The combo of the Galaxy’s smallish size and the many features of the app allowed me to “be live” with race-day coverage in places other than my living room couch.

I rarely go to a race anymore so my fix comes from the TV coverage or sometimes the PRN radio broadcasts. With the Galaxy, I was able to listen to the PRN broadcast if I wanted to, and if you’ve never listened to NASCAR via audio only, they do a great job of bringing the race to life. That alone is a great thing to me as my phone or the Tab can keep me in on what is happening.

The Sprint app also delivers NASCAR text messages to keep you in tune with news as it happens. I like being able to glance at the Galaxy and see what has posted and then go read what I want, when I want to.

When I attend races live (historically at tracks up and down the East coast) I have grown used to listening on the headphones that you can rent or buy that are tuned in to the drivers’ radios. Getting that sheet on race day morning and then tuning into different drivers during the race was always fun and added to my appreciation of what they were doing. So I was really excited when I realized that the Sprint Cup mobile app allowed me to tune into all the drivers’ radios. As a Jimmie Johnson/ Chad Knaus fan I really enjoy their exchanges. I even use an ear bud to isolate the radio chatter to one ear while the broadcast is in the other for the full race-day info immersion.

I have to admit listening to my favorites and hearing the spotter’s info as the drivers hear it is like being a fly on the wall. You really get a feel for how much is going on as they race around a very crowded track fender to fender. One small problem with the Sprint app is that the radio transmission is time-delayed and thus behind the TV image if you are watching simultaneously. I suspect 4G network connections (not yet available for the Tab) will fix this but time will tell. Included in the audio options are the NASCAR officials so at times like when rain is coming or a crash has closed the track you can jump over there and hear the decisions being made.

One thing I was hoping the app would have had was video coverage. It seems like a great opportunity to bring driver cams to the fan (and even an advertising opportunity) in an exciting way. Maybe helmet cams that give the fan the driver’s view for the whole race. Seeing what the driver is seeing and watching what his hands are doing during a great save would be unbeatable. Maybe this is a bandwidth issue I can’t say but it would be very cool. If you’re reading Sprint, maybe this can be added in version 2.0!

Overall this product is a great addition to the NASCAR fan experience. I really enjoy the added data and the additional audio input. The 7-inch screen Galaxy is nicely sized and intuitively controlled with good sound from a very small package. For better or worse If I had to leave the TV, I could actually drop it into my back pocket and listen to PRN for a while. That’s a winning combination for any race fan who can’t stay on the couch for all 500 miles.

Filed Under: NASCAR, Sprint, Tablets
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