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NFL Launches ‘Thursday Night Xtra’ App, Still a Work in Progress

September 28, 2012 by

In what has to qualify as one of the most low-key introductions of a major sports app, the NFL has quietly launched something called Thursday Night Football Xtra, an app meant to be a “second screen” feature for your mobile device while you watch the Thursday night games on the NFL Network channel. The new app is sponsored by State Farm; you find it by clicking on the small “Xtra” chevron in the middle of this page.

Just so there’s no confusion, the app does NOT allow for live mobile viewing of Thursday night games — for that you need a Verizon cell phone and the $5 per month premium version of the NFL Mobile app. The Xtra app, which went live last week and which we checked out this Thursday night, promises to provide live sideline reports, game info and trivia, and predict-the-play contests where registered users can win points, for what we are guessing is some prize-redemption package.

There’s a little bit of a trek to find the app, since if you are on an iOS platform you will find it inside the NFL ’12 app; Android users and Verizon users need to find a separate TNF Xtra app, but it was easy to find in the Play Store. Since there’s no official press release out yet we don’t have all the details, but it seems pretty straightforward, and is an attempt by the league to bring its own smack talk/fan games interactivity app to the table. However, the league’s app follows a whole bunch of independent entities that are already up and running, though to the NFL’s credit there is already a version for both Android and iOS. Many of the new apps from smaller operations are still iPhone-only, a problem for roughly half the world’s smartphone users.

In our limited test run — right now let me say some of the problems may be due to my personal device, a Verizon 4G LTE Samsung Stratosphere, which has been acting hinky lately, requiring Tier-2 service calls to Verizon if you know what I mean. When you open the app the main screen says something about “Stay Tuned” which if you only saw that screen you might think the thing isn’t connected; instead what it means is that you are between actions, which may be a predictive contest, a bit of trivia or info, or a sideline report from the game. From our limited interaction it seems like these things just pop up at random, which I guess is OK if you are simultaneously watching the game.

A swipe to the right pulls up a Facebook-powered comments page, which we could read, but weren’t able to log in to. A swipe to the left from the main screen brought up what looked like a Twitter login page, but after we entered our Twitter account info all we got was a white screen of death (see picture). The middle-screen interactive stuff looked like the best bet anyway, though it might help to know what we are winning points for. Also, when the app launched it asked which team I was a fan of, with no “neither” option for this Chicago Bears follower on the night that Baltimore played Cleveland.

We’ll give this one another run next Thursday — if you get a chance to check it out (apparently the tablet version has even more bells and whistles) let us know what you think. I am not sure how independent app developers feel about the league getting into the apps business — seems like it’s a little bit of a poach into the territory of folks who might help promote the league — but I guess it is also a signal that the NFL isn’t going to miss a chance to engage its audience. (Some screen pix below)

A picture of the Thursday Night Football Xtra app, showing a game info tidbit. Credit: MSR

The Xtra app showing a pretty standard Facebook comment stream. We couldn't log in.

A tweet from the field! "It's raining." Not great sideline reportage but hey. It's early.

What we got when we tried to log in via Twitter. The white screen of death! May be a problem with our phone and not the app. We need... wait for it... a REPLACEMENT PHONE

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, iOS, NFL, NFL Network, Twitter

MLB Sets One-Day ‘Beat the Streak’ Contest With $5.6 Million Prize

September 27, 2012 by

Fantasy baseball game alert — Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media department is staging a one-day contest on Friday, Sept. 28, with a potential $5.6 million prize for the person who can correctly pick 57 major league baseball players who will get a hit in a game on Friday. If you go 57-for-57, MLBAM will award you $5.6 million. Sign up here.

Why is this contest being staged? Mainly because nobody has been able to win the big “Beat the Streak” prize in the contest’s 12 years of existence. As the MLBAM said in a press release:

We tried to give millions of dollars away. We have really tried. Again. However, it is with a sense of anguish that today we announce for the 12th consecutive season no fan will achieve fantasy baseball immortality by surpassing the legendary consecutive games hitting streak record of 56 and claiming a $5.6 million grand prize in the process. Maybe it is harder than originally envisioned when we debuted Beat The Streak in 2001 with a $10,000 grand prize.

Filed Under: Baseball, Betting, Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Sports, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , ,

Barnes & Noble Unveil High Definition Nook Tablet

September 27, 2012 by

Barnes & Noble has expanded its tablet offerings with a pair of new offerings including the first high definition models as the company is once again going head to head with rival Amazon and its tablet offerings.

The latest from Barnes & Noble is the Nook HD and the Nook HD+, with the Nook HD seeking to stake out the low cost leader in the 7-inch high definition space and the 9-inch Nook HD+ seeking to do the same in the larger screen space.

The Nook HD features a 1440 x 900 display that is capable of 720p HD video playback, with a standard 8GB of storage that is expandable to 16GB, running a version of Android 4.0 operating system and powered by a dual core 1.3GHz OMAP 4470 processor. It does not feature a front facing camera or NFC capabilities.

The Nook HD+ features a nine inch display that has a 1920 x 1280 pixel resolution and comes with 16GB storage as standard that can be upgraded with a microSD card to 32GB. It is also powered by the TI OMAP 4470 processor, this one running at 1.5GHz.

The arrival of these tablets was not that big of a surprise for two reasons. The first was the simple need to keep up with the Jones, or in this case Amazon and the second was that the company had announced its streaming video service and that almost certainly meant having a HD device to view the video. Both tablets are due in late October and the Nook HD will start at $199 and the Nook HD+ will be available at $269.

Barnes & Noble is touting the wide array of content for the devices including its large catalog of digital books. The Nook Store has been revamped and features 3 million books including nearly 3,500 children’s interactive picture books as well as a growing collection of comic books and graphic novels.

The streaming video service will be called Nook Video and will launch in late October. The service will feature TV shows as well as HD movies that can be downloaded and viewed. Among the studios that they have licensed content from are HBO, STARZ, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers Entertainment.

The latest generation of Nook devices can also be connected to a television so that a user can view the videos in full 1080p. The content can also be viewed on tablets and smartphones via the Nook video app.

Other areas that it has either added new features or support are in its UltraViolet support enabling the integration of physical DVDs and Blu-ray discs that have the UltraViolet logo from Barnes & Noble with the Nook.

The Newsstand has been revised with a new look and allow you to select only specific sections of a paper if so desired. The Magazine 2.0 allows readers to cut out pictures and just read text if they want and has a feature called Nook Scrapbook for clipping pages and saving them. The Nook Apps offers a range of apps for the tablets, with currently around 6,000 available.

The move comes both in time to help maintain its position as a top provider of tablets at a time when the competition, now from Amazon but soon from others as well, is increasing. It still trails rival Amazon in apps available, as well as Amazon having a huge set of additional services that are well established and familiar with its customers, something that will help propel Kindle HD sales.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Nook, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Wedge Buster Closes Series A Funding as it Launches a set of Social Media Games

September 26, 2012 by

Wedge Busters

While looking into RocketPlay, a company that has started developing gaming apps for social media I also started looking around for others in this field since it is relatively new and seems to offer a great deal of opportunity.

Enter Wedge Buster, a startup formed last year and based in Los Angeles that has just closed its first round of funding which will give it a $2.2 million cash infusion and which already has its site up and running.

Wedge Buster is focusing on two different but related areas, sports gaming and fantasy sports, and will be presenting its offerings on two related but different platforms, social media and mobile platforms.

The Series A funding round has some interesting investors including NFL quarterback Drew Brees, pro skater Rob Dyrdek, 37 Venture Technologies as well as some angel investors that the company said include players in the gaming and media industry. The company said that it will use the funding to speed game development, support marketing strategies and expand the distribution gaming network with media companies.

It already has a stable of games at or near a stage where they can be played by users. It has ether developed or acquired 100 games and since its launch earlier this week has a number of games already available.

Among the games is Soccer Trouble, Around the World Darts, WB Striker, WB Footy and a number of others that span everything from baseball to sharpshooting. Currently in the fantasy space it has four offerings including one where it offers a Fantasy Football Commissioner with SI and Turner. The company is now launching on Facebook and expects to soon be launching on Android and Apple phones as well in the near future.

The potential of this space appears to be huge. Earlier this year Juniper Research said that overall, games and infotainment in the mobile space is expected to become a $65 billion market by 2016 due to the growing move to mobile devices.

Wedge Buster claims that others are missing the value that social media offers, but are they? Also are the barriers to entry that high that established Internet players cannot quickly enter? I think the answer to both of these is no.

In the area of Fantasy sports look at RotoWire, which has a presence on Facebook as well as on the Internet and mobile apps as well. Its rivals also have followed suit. Then players like Zynga have entered this type of social games with its first partnership.

Others are sure to follow since this is obviously a growth area and so established players in the gaming field such as EA Sports see opportunity here. That said with its broad based approach, having so many games that can appeal to a wide, diverse audience will certainly place Wedge Buster in a good position right from the start.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, EA Sports, Fantasy Sports, Market Research, RocketPlay, RotoWire, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Startup, Venture Capital, Video Games, Wedge Buster, Zynga

World Baseball Classic sets International Venues

September 26, 2012 by

Inbox Cash Blueprint

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As the Major League Baseball season starts to head toward the playoffs, another sort of baseball playoff schedule is starting to emerge as the World Baseball Classic has finished its first round of qualifiers and has set its international sites.

While little of the action will be this year, it is obvious that competitive baseball will be starting earlier than usual next season. That is not to discount the last two qualifiers still to be played this year to fill the last two spots open for teams.

Two World Baseball Classic teams advance
Canada and Spain advanced to the tournament with wins in their qualifier series last week, and did so in very different fashion. Canada crushed the home team Germans 11-1 in a laugher to advance to the WBC next year. Meanwhile down in Florida Spain edged out Israel 9-7 in a five hour marathon that saw the game winner scored in the 10th inning. Next round of qualifiers is next month.

The next two sets of qualifiers are slated for play in November. One will take place in Panama City, Panama and will feature Brazil, Columbia, Nicaragua and Panama while the other will take place in Taipei, Taiwan and will include Taipei, New Zealand, Philippines and Thailand.


First Round (Pool Play)
Pool A (Fukuoka, Japan): Japan, China, Cuba, Qualifier Winner. March 2-6
Pool B (Taichung, Taiwan): Korea, Netherlands, Australia, Qualifier Winner March 2-6
Pool C (San Juan): Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Qualifier Winner. March 7-10
Pool D (Phoenix): USA, Mexico, Italy, Qualifier Winnerr. March 7-10.

Second Round (Modified Double Elimination):
Pool A (Tokyo): Guessing this will be the winners of Pool A and B, March 7-10
Pool B (Miami): Guessing this will be the winners of Pool C and D, March 12-16

Semi-Finals and Finals: AT&T Park, San Francisco, March 17-19

Filed Under: Baseball, Major League Baseball, World Baseball Classic Tagged With: ,

Wednesday Wi-Fi Whispers: Cisco Scores Big Wi-Fi (and Video!) Win at Nets’ Barclays Center

September 26, 2012 by

The biggest vendor in the stadium Wi-Fi space scored a big win last week when Cisco announced it would supply the Wi-Fi network and the digital video services to the new Brooklyn Nets stadium, aka the Barclays Center.

Just after the announcement last week we caught up via phone with David Holland, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Entertainment Solutions Group, and Stuart Hamilton, Cisco senior director for sports and entertainment, to get the skinny on the Barclays deal as well as their thoughts on how fast the stadium Wi-Fi movement was picking up. According to Hamilton, the pace of stadium Wi-Fi installs has picked up significantly since late last year, when Cisco seemed to be preaching to a sort-of interested choir.

Now, pretty much all stadium operators are singing the Wi-Fi tune. “They [stadium owners] have gone from ‘should we do it’ to ‘when are we going to do it,’ ” Hamilton said. “They all know they have to do it. And budgets are being moved up.”

After talking big about the stadium business earlier this year, Cisco has been somewhat quiet, without any real big wins — and even smaller victories, like getting the Wi-Fi network bid for the Super Bowl — were curiously understated, perhaps just part of the business since sometimes stadium owners or their telecom provider partners don’t want to talk too much about gear suppliers since giving praise means less leverage at the negotiating table.

Though the space is attracting a lot of innovative gear makers — Xirrus, Ruckus and Meru all come to mind — Holland thinks Cisco’s might gives it an edge, especially when it comes to scalability. “The me-too people out there, the question is, can they scale,” Holland asked. “We have a high density platform. It’s easy to look good when there’s only one person on your network, but how does it act when it’s heavily loaded?”

The Barclays Center is a big win for Cisco because it includes the StadiumVision feature, Cisco’s sports-specific implementation of networked digital signage. From the press release, here’s just part of what will be deployed:

700 HDTV’s and approximately 100 concession menu boards throughout the venue will provide content ranging from action on the court, to concession specials (all boards update simultaneously and are integrated with point of sale), to out-of-town games and scores, to traffic updates, and much more.

We’ve seen a live demonstration of this stuff (Cisco’s entertainment group has a building on Cisco campus that is set up like a stadium/sports bar, with HDTVs and concession menus to show the capability of the system) and it’s a big leap for the fan experience. And perhaps most importantly for Cisco the Barclays deal also includes a contract for the infrastructure network, the routers, switches and other gear that will power a network that will run not just the fan Wi-Fi service, but also help with wireless connectivity for ticketing, security, internal communications and more. That’s where Cisco makes its big dollars, so that combo makes the Barclays deal more than just a Wi-Fi install.

The bonus kicker from our conversation was a claim by the Cisco folks that they might not be out of the running for the new San Francisco 49ers Stadium, currently being built in Santa Clara. Though Niners CEO Jed York has tweeted about a pending technology deal with wireless provider Brocade, there might be several such contracts before all is said and done. First of all, the Brocade folks told us earlier in the summer that an official announcement was pending… but it hasn’t happened. And just this week the Niners announced a sponsorship deal with software vendor SAP, so it looks like there might be a bigger pie to divvy up when it comes to tech and the new Niners stadium.

Will Cisco get a slice? Stay tuned.

Filed Under: Cisco, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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