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BuddyTV Preps for MLB playoffs — Lets You Know When Games are On

October 3, 2012 by

BuddyTV MLB Quicklist

BuddyTV, an app that enables sports fans to quickly find out what games are available via local broadcast and cable carriers is launching a feature that will enable fans of Major League Baseball to track the playoff games that are slated to begin later this week.

The MLB Quicklist will be part of the company’s current app, BuddyTV Guide, and will provide the broadcast information of the games, listing them in either chronological order or if a user wants they can get specific team information. If all of the playoff series went their full set there would be 43 games played during the current post season.

The program allows users to set alerts to remind them of game times and the app has a number of filtering features that enable users to select just a single topic such as sports, comedies or reality tv shows.

The overall app is easy to use. It indexes all the major cable and pay TV providers’ schedules as well as major Internet Video providers and then presents that in a user defined format for them to peruse. Users can set up watchlists, and also filer out types of programming that they are not interested in. It also connects with Facebook and has the ability to integrate iTunes, NetFlix and Amazon programming as well as allow you to blacklist programs and channels. The program is free for iOS devices and is available at Apple’s iTunes App Store. So far the company has had approximately 400,000 downloads since the app was introduced.

There are a growing number of apps for tracking TV programming with ones available such as TV Guide Mobile and TV-Listings USA and TV Show tracker so the more customization an app can provide for a user the more appealing it will make itself.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Baseball, Facebook, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile

Wednesday Wi-Fi Whispers: Cal’s Memorial Stadium Gets Multi-Beamed

October 3, 2012 by

It’s not necessarily Wi-Fi but when it comes to bringing more wireless capacity to stadiums who are we to quibble? While at an event at the AT&T Foundry in Palo Alto last week where Ma Bell was showing off a bunch of innovative wireless stuff we saw in the flesh (well in the silicon and plastic, I guess) some of the new multi-beam antennas AT&T developed earlier this year.

Turns out those suckers are pretty big. See this picture with the helpful person standing next to it for perspective.

An AT&T multibeam cellular antenna. Shown next to real-life person. Credit: MSR.

In case you didn’t read through our earlier story the multi-beam antennas are great for stadium situations because they shoot their signals out on a very narrow beam, allowing for greater density in capacity. Basically what that means is with a multibeam antenna operators can direct the signals better, instead of just broadcasting out in a circle and hoping for the best. These whiteboard drawings below might help you understand how this all works.

We missed the presentation but I think you can figure out what this means.

Not as clear but the idea is, multibeam antennas serve a slice of the crowd.

If you are attending any football games at the University of California’s refurbished Memorial Stadium in Berkeley this fall you might be able to spot a few of these bad boys, since AT&T has installed them there to improve cell coverage, according to an AT&T rep we met at the event.

Best Wi-Fi at AT&T Park? Try Section 336

With his team having clinched the National League West, it made sense that San Francisco Giants CIO Bill Schlough was in a good mood at the AT&T event last week (where he was telling folks all about the wireless wonderland inside the stadium walls). We got a chance to ask Bill where the best reception was in the park, and he gave a surprising answer — Section 336, way up in the upper deck at the corner of the left-field line.


According to Schlough that part of the park is absolutely blanketed with Wi-Fi antennas because it is the area where the team puts overflow media members during the playoffs. To make sure the sportswriters have a great signal the team saturates the section, making it also a good place for fans with tablets and smartphones.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , ,

America’s Cup Sails Again this Week — Watch it on YouTube

October 2, 2012 by

Oracle Racing 4

I hope that you caught the last World Series of sailing on San Francisco Bay a few months ago — blustery conditions made for some exciting sailing. Well round two starts today on the Bay and while the weather looks to be tamer it is always hard to predict.

The races will occur starting this morning and running through the 7th, with Tuesday just consisting of practice rounds. Wednesday the match race qualifiers start at 4 p.m. PT, with match race quarterfinals on Thursday starting at 12:30, followed by a Blue Angels flyover. The cool thing is for online viewers the races can be watched live Thursday through Saturday on the America’s Cup YouTube channel; locally in the Bay Area the races will be on NBC. (Here’s the full schedule). On Sunday, the only live viewing is on NBC, but it will be broadcast nationwide, beginning at 1:30 p.m. (PDT).

Friday will see additional match race quarterfinals as well as the start of fleet racing, starting at 4 p.m. Saturday has the match race semifinals and then the finals as well as additional fleet racing. Sunday wraps up the event with an event called Super Sunday Fleet Race.

The races take place during San Francisco’s annual Fleet Week so that viewers will also be able to see, and in some cases visit, U.S. Naval ships. [editor’s note: It also means that downtown traffic and parking, never good, will be even worse.]

The America’s Cup races are part of the AC World Series, a set of races that use a boat that is specifically designed for these races, the AC45 catamaran, a much smaller ship that those used for the actual cup, which are in the AC72 class.

The events are match and fleet races and currently the Oracle Racing 4 team is ahead of Luna Rossa Piranha by a point, 86 to 85, after the first round held in August. After this week’s racing the event moves next year to Venice on April 16-21 before finishing in Naples the following month with the races being sailed from May 14-19.

Filed Under: America's Cup World Series, Oracle, Sailing Tagged With:

Hewlett-Packard takes wraps off Windows 8 Tablet

October 2, 2012 by

Last week we gave a very bare bones comment on the pending Windows 8 tablet that will be coming from Hewlett-Packard but this week the company provided a full outline of what the tablet will feature and when to expect it to arrive.

To answer the last point first don’t look for it this holiday season as its expected ship date will be in 2013. The reason for this is that it is a business-focused product, as the company had previously said about its reentry into the tablet space.

While normally business products are not of much interest here at Mobile Sports Report, a portable device such as a tablet is still a natural for sports viewing as well as using the growing number of fantasy and betting apps emerging. I mean whose NCAA basketball pool is not run out of their office?

The HP ElitePad 900 will be a 1.5 lb tablet that features a 10.1-inch display with 1280×800 resolution with an aluminum case and Gorilla Glass 2. The company is touting its durability and ability to withstand shock.

It will be powered by Intel’s Z2760 Atom processor, formerly known as Clover Trail and will run the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system. HP sees the use of this set of processor and operating system as enabling businesses to run their mainstream productivity applications. It is designed for Windows 8 and supports touch-, pen- or voice-based input.

It will come with 2GB RAM and 32GB of storage that is expandable to 64GB and there is a microSD slot. It has dual cameras with a front facing camera that is capable of 1080p video and an 8MP rear facing camera

It is designed to dock with a keyboard and HP is offering host of accessories for the tablet, most of them business focused including the ElitePad Expansion Jacket that features an integrated keyboard and connectivity ports.

HP expects to ship the tablet in January and will announce the price closer to the release dat. Expect a number of others including Dell and Lenovo to focus a good deal of attention to the business space for their upcoming tablets as well.

Filed Under: Dell, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pickmoto Moves NFL app to iPad, Preps for NBA Season

October 2, 2012 by

Pickmoto, a startup app developer seeking to firmly establish itself in the growing market for social betting has expanded its offerings by adding a version for the iPad. Currently the app runs on iPhones, with an Android version “coming soon.”

The latest move is a welcomed one because while the app works well on a smartphone, a tablet simply provides additional viewing space and so makes that app easier to view and simpler to use.

The game follows the same procedure as with a smartphone including picking winners with no spread, playing friends one on one, or random opponents. You can win trophies, climb a leaderboard and play in preseason, regular and post season as well.

The company is moving pretty fast for one that was just established earlier this year and it already has its sights set on expanding to additional sports. With hockey an obvious no-no due to the lockout it has targeted the National Basketball Association and said that it expects that it expects to have a sports betting app out for the NBA by the opening regular season tip-off.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, iOS, NBA, NFL, Pickmoto, Sports Betting, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , ,

The UFL Started Play Last Week-I Think

October 1, 2012 by

When news of tremendous import breaks often lesser stories are lost in the mix so you may be excused that amid your rejoicing about the return of the regular referees for National Football League games you missed that the United Football League has launched its latest season.

At least I missed it. Then again if you went by the leagues’ web site you would have thought that the season started a week earlier even though a press release on the site on a different topic does have the correct day.

Its Facebook page says that it is having Internet issues and that currently the only way to follow the teams and the league is via twitter. However a quick look around at newspapers based in cities that have teams shows it is having issues with the print media as well.

The league has a broadcast partner, having signed a deal with CBS Sports Network which promises to broadcast two games a week for the course of the leagues eight week season, one each every Wednesday and Friday. It will also broadcast the Championship game on December 1st.

I actually root for the UFL to succeed. I just see huge challenges facing an upstart league that has a tradition of money problems really getting heard above the noise of the NFL and NCAA. It seems now that one or the other plays almost every day from mid-week on, and with the huge following for the two it is hard to play third string.

I imagine that it has talked with the NFL about serving as a minor league of sorts, which seems to make sense on a number of levels. A pool of players ready for games that NFL teams can call on in case of injuries and the reflected glory of being associated with the NFL and possibly even attached to an individual team could be the ticket to longevity.

The minor league approach is what the rival USFL is trying, and it has not appeared to make any headway yet but with a spring schedule it still has time. The UFL might not.

Filed Under: CBS Sports, Facebook, NFL, UFL, USFL Tagged With: , , ,
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