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RotoWire Readies Fantasy Apps ahead of MLB Season Opener

February 23, 2012 by

RotoWire ready for Major League Baseball to start.
With one of the most important days of the New Year to baseball fans already passed earlier this week with pitchers and catchers reporting one of the next important milestones for fans is preparing for their fantasy baseball draft.

To help fans prepare and follow their teams RotoWire has released four apps that can help a fan do everything from prepare for the draft to manage their team post draft during the season. There is also now offerings that support CBS’ fantasy platform.

The company sees itself in the sweet spot in the market as fans have been strongly moving to on-line platforms for their information but also looking to manage their teams and even watch sports on mobile devices and so RotoWire has developed to leverage this trend.

“Consumers are increasingly shifting time away from TVs and PCS to consume more content on tablets and smartphones, and fantasy sports is at the forefront of this trend,” said Peter Schoenke, president of RotoWire in a prepared statement.

Overall the company has a total of 17 mobile sports apps and they are available represented on all of the major platforms so that fans do not have to pick a specific platform to get their sports data.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit: this is designed to help a manager organize and rank players in preparation for the draft, with a wealth of data available on each player including past performances and injuries. It also has the ability to have a user eliminate drafted players and get real time recommendations on the remaining field of players.

There is now also a Fantasy Baseball Guide for the iPad. Experienced RotoWire users are familiar with this magazine that features players existing and projected stats, profiles, analysis, as well as listing top rookies and more.

The apps do not stop once the season starts. The third app is the Fantasy Baseball Assistant that is designed to help manage a team in-season. It features the expected in season stats and baseball news but a nice key feature is its ability to enable a manager to create and manage a watch list.

The last of the newly introduced apps is one that is for an all around fantasy enthusiast as it does not just relate to baseball. The Fantasy News Center includes fantasy sports news for not only baseball but also NFL, NBA, NHL, golf, racing, college football, college basketball, and soccer.

RotoWire also now offers Fantasy Player News and Player Outlooks on CBS’ new open fantasy platform CBSSports.com App Central, with information including player news and profiles.

If you are like I am you are, or have friends that also compete in multiple leagues across a range of sports. The amount of information needed to stay competitive is vast and growing, and while it is great to win the bragging rights and more when winning a league, in one I know of the loser has to treat to steak dinners, just to keep fans everybody’s head in the league all season.

The amount of information available as well as the tools to stay organized the RotoWire offers are a great start for fans both experience with the ins and outs of fantasy sports but also to help newbies get a firm foundation when they start out.

There will be plenty more apps released to help scout, draft, and manage teams for the upcoming MLB season. This is one of the first that has come to our attention and I am sure we will be listing few more in the next few weeks prior to the first pitch of the season. If you have a favorite app drop us a line.

Filed Under: Apps, Fantasy Sports, iPad, Major League Baseball, RotoWire Tagged With: ,

World Golf Match Play, Live Online

February 22, 2012 by

It’s somewhat under the radar — did you hear any promos on TV? — but the PGA does have a pretty good online option for a short list of tournaments, including the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships currently underway. The Live@ tour coverage is available for mobile platforms as well as online.

Tourneys like the match play are perfect for online watching — this thing stretches with multiple head-to-head competitions all day today and tomorrow, during times when a lot of golf fans in the U.S. are at work. We just fired up the online window and appreciate the major-league production values.

Filed Under: PGA Tagged With:

Battle of the E-Reader Tablets: Nook vs Kindle Round II

February 22, 2012 by

Barnes & Noble has unveiled its next generation Nook tablet

Barnes & Noble, seeking to provide a much more cost effective product to the market, has released its next generation Nook e-reader that will feature 8GB of memory in a 7-inch format with a $199 price tag, significantly lower than its $249 previous offering.

The tablet will feature a 1020 by 600 pixel display, has 1GB of RAM and a 1GHz processor. It includes a microSD card slot that permits the user to add as much as 32GB of additional storage. It has a longer battery life than the earlier version, now running for 11.5 hours reading time or 9 hours viewing videos.

The specs are almost identical to that offered by rival Amazon in some of its Kindle models, which is obviously the player that the Nook is targeted at, but could also erode sales of the company’s Nook Color, which is also very similar. That could be why at the same time as the rollout Barnes & Noble cut the price of its Nook Color, which had been priced at $199, down to $169.

Amazon’s Kindle, driven by the Kindle Fire has been a runaway best seller for the company and has propelled that platform into the second spot in the overall tablet space. Barnes & Noble is generally viewed as the 4th place device manufacturer, but had very strong sales during the holidays, so much so that the company has talked about possibly spinning off the tablet group as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Others not idle

At the same time Research-in-Motion, struggling to make inroads in the tablet space after the poor reception of its initial offering has released the BlackBerry OS 2.0 for its PlayBook tablet. The updated OS includes a greater degree of integration with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

More importantly it also addresses some of the major deficits that the original version contains including a native calendar, contact and messaging apps. The company also said that there is a growing number of apps in its BlackBerry App World site for the PlayBook.

Tablet market leader Apple is expected to revamp its lineup with the iPad 3 on March 7th, as you may have read, well everywhere. Since it is the market leader it almost inevitably it gets compared to every other offering in the tablet space I believe that the Kindles and Nooks of the world serve a slightly different market.

There is of course overlap, but most users that I know with an e-reader use it for only that, and that is all they want. 10-inch tablet users are often looking for a great deal more in terms of function and applications, a reason that probably helped lead to the poor reception of the initial PlayBook, for instance.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Facebook, iPad, Kindle, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

The Viva! Vision: Former NFL Players Create ‘App Enablement’ Firm for Athletes, Celebs

February 21, 2012 by

Joe Tafoya (left) and Kerry Carter of Viva! Vision, at the AT&T Developer Summit. (Screen shot courtesy AT&T)

Anytime you go to a “developer’s conference” hosted by some large firm, you can pretty much count on at least several instances where groups of geeks are shepherded to the stage for their 15 seconds of fame. Look! The big-company execs will say. Developers who believe in us!

At the recent AT&T Developers Summit ahead of CES, however, there was a twist: During the meet-the-developers segment the audience saw 6-foot-4 Joe Tafoya take the stage and tell a quick tale about how he and some other ex-NFL players were getting into the development game, previewing a cool forthcoming “locker room” app featuring their friend, NBA star Jason Terry.

After shaking hands with some AT&T execs and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Tafoya was gone, but not after causing no small amount of buzz among the thousands in the audience. Ex-NFL guys? Doing sports apps? Cool! And then everyone went back to checking their email.

Tafoya, however, stuck around the summit, wandering the exhibit-hall booths with one of his partners, Kerry Carter, an ex-NFL running back who is still playing in Canada. Towering over most of the real geeks present, Tafoya and Carter were happy to stop and talk about Viva! Vision, a company formed in a unique manner and with a unique purpose. Over several phone and email interviews and some research we have a fuller picture of Viva! and what we think its purpose is: Though Tafoya and co. may not exactly agree with this definition, we see Viva! Vision as not a true app development company but instead an “app enabler.”

What do we mean by that? In Viva! Vision’s case it means that Tafoya and his partners aren’t doing any of the actual coding of apps but instead are bringing to the table their ability to bring people to the table — on one hand, corralling talented technology outsourcing firms to help develop cool, custom apps, and on the other hand bringing in athletes, entertainers and other celebrities who want to maximize their personal brand via online channels. How did this all get started and where might it end up? We’ll need more than a short blog post to tell you.

Next: From the NFL cut line to the command line

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Filed Under: Apps, AT&T, Athlete to Follow, NFL, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , ,

CEA Working to Smoothly Combine Apps, Content and Devices

February 21, 2012 by

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has formed a new working group called the Device, Apps and Content working group (DAC) that will serve as a form of open air forum for members interested in working together and solving joint issues.

The move is a first by the organization in this area, it has seen a tremendous upsurge in interest in how apps are developed, distributed, collected and viewed among its member companies. To be clear this will not be a standards setting body, although the CEA does have a technology and standards groups.

The development of the DAC is a natural outgrowth of what is happening in the industry exemplified by the recent Consumer Electronics Show last month in Las Vegas where the more than 20,000 new product introductions were designed to unite CE and content.

The CEA sees this convergence, where consumer electronics devices are increasingly moving from stand alone products to ones that fill multiple roles including receiving and displaying digital technology as a growing opportunity for its members.

Jason Oxman, CEA’s senior vice president, industry affairs said. “Our aim is to transform content convergence so that consumers have better access to what they want directly from their electronic devices.”

There is no limit to the amount of members that are permitted in a workgroup and a number of prominent companies are already signing up, sowing the broad appeal this approach has to its membership.

Among those involved are Fox, IBM, Netflix, Tivo, Sharp, Kenwood, Pandora and Nintendo. by Bryan Burns, ESPN’s vice president of strategic business planning, will chair the DAC and its focus will be toward companies an interest in content distribution and app development.

Filed Under: Apps, Consumer Electronics Association, ESPN, Fox Sports Tagged With: , ,

Daytona 500 features Huge Mobile and Social Media Push

February 21, 2012 by

The Daytona International Speedway (DIS), home of this week’s 54th Daytona 500 has been working to expand the sports appeal to the users of social media and has launched a series of programs that will enable fans both at the track and at home to follow the race.

The effort actual started last Saturday night with the first event of the NASCAR season, the Budweiser Shootout, which kicks off its annual Speedweek push. In case you missed the race it was won in spectacular style by Kyle Busch.

Speedweek has something for just about any racing fan and a quick look at its web site shows a comprehensive wealth of information for the fans including overall schedules, FANZONE schedule, track activity and appearances by drivers to list just a few of the events.

However the outreach to directly interact with fans is on Twitter, where fans can join into conversations with drivers, teams, DIS and the media that track this sport. Look to add these onto your Twitter feed – with @DISupdates, #DAYTONA500, #BudweiserShootout, #GatoradeDuel, @NextEra_Energy Resources 250, #DRIVE4COPD300, #Speedweeks. For fans at the track on race day there is also contact @DIS_help and #DIShelp for customer service questions.

The track has been working to enhance its online and social media presence for some time and this push is a continuation of that effort. NASCAR’s Facebook page has over 2.5 million likes while Daytona’s has over 400,000.

“There’s a reason why Daytona International Speedway boasts the largest social media following of any racetrack in NASCAR,” said Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III said in a release. “During Speedweeks, we’ll continue our efforts to make it easy and enjoyable for fans to get closer to the sport, while also reaching out to our younger, more technologically savvy race fans.”

DIS said on Monday that they plan to make the 54th Daytona 500 and Speedweeks a memorable event in many ways, starting with the largest and most expansive social media effort in NASCAR to further engage fans at the “World Center of Racing” and at home.

“There’s a reason why Daytona International Speedway boasts the largest social media following of any racetrack in NASCAR,” said Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III. “During Speedweeks, we’ll continue our efforts to make it easy and enjoyable for fans to get closer to the sport, while also reaching out to our younger, more technologically savvy race fans.”

Join the conversation with DIS, media, teams and drivers on Twitter with @DISupdates, #DAYTONA500, #BudweiserShootout, #GatoradeDuel, @NextEra_Energy Resources 250, #DRIVE4COPD300, #Speedweeks, and contact @DIS_help and #DIShelp for customer service questions on race days. Don’t forget to also follow @NASCAR, and #NASCAR.

There is a free DIS app for both Android and Apple iOS smartphone users that will enable fans at the race as well as the less fortunate than could not make the journey track a wide range of events including receiving new articles.

For fans at the race the app includes a great deal of basic information of the type that can be invaluable including daily schedules, gate policies, directions, and interactive GPS facility and parking maps with search capabilities. There is even a feature called ‘friend finder’ to help locate friends at the various events. There will be QR codes located prominently all around the track that connect to the DIS app.

In addition there will be special QR that fans can use to enter a sweepstakes with NASCAR.COM to win tickets to the 2013 DAYTONA 500. Texting has not been forgotten as well as fans at the race can text DISINFO to 69050 for updates during events as well as information relating to gate opening times, parking and more. For information on specific questions fans can text DISFAN to 69050 and a live attendant will be on hand to respond.

I really like this proactive outreaching to fans by the DIS. For first time fans at the race the mobile app can be a life saver rather her than walking around lost and constantly asking for help. The range of information and content will likely augment fans enjoyment of the race regardless of if they are in attendance or not. I just hope that the tracks network is up to handling the increased traffic this push is likely to generate. I am sure we will hear the complaints if it does not.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Daytona 500, Facebook, iPhone, NASCAR, Smartphone, Twitter Tagged With: ,
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