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Wahoo Fitness Expands Cycling Offerings with RFLKT Bike Computer

September 21, 2012 by

The market for smartphone-based cycling computers is a crowded one but with enhancements in phones constantly coming along, developers continually have room to differentiate their products from rivals, and that is what Wahoo Fitness is looking to do with its latest offering.

Wahoo has long been a developer in this space using the iPhone as a core piece of its offering and its latest is no different. The company’s RFLKT Bike Computer is designed to be used with an iPhone 4S and the recently released iPhone 5..

There are several components to the product. A user mounts the RFLKT unit on the handlebars of the bike and it displays the information that a cyclist needs to evaluate their ride. Among the data that it allows users to monitor are power, speed, cadence, heart rate, pace, distance, location, and course.

However the data is gathered using the iPhone, which the owner can keep in a pocket or another safer place than the handlebars, and its various built-in features as well as third party apps as needed. The phones GPS helps plot out your path and its Bluetooth capabilities transmit the data to the RFLKT unit.

A user can use a favorite cycling app with the device and switch between screens. The iPhone enables a user to customize the look and feel of the appearance on the RFLKT’s display.

Also available for use are a host of technologies and apps from Wahoo including its speed and cadence sensor for iPhone, heart rate monitor and its Power Trainer. A user can also check in with their favorite social networking site or run playlists via the device as well as monitor their riding stats.

Wahoo Fitness’ RFLKT Bike Computer is currently being demonstrated at the Interbike 2012 trade show in Las Vegas and is expected to ship in December with pricing to be determined.

Filed Under: Cycling Tagged With: ,

Watching NASCAR: The Chase Week 2-The Sylvania 300

September 21, 2012 by

What a difference a week makes, I imagine that once the drivers are behind the wheel a race is a race, aside from the various differences in the track that they will be running on that day. However in the last week before the Chase, Jeff Gordon needed a very good finish to make it and Kyle Busch needed a solid race to keep Gordon out and stay in the Chase himself. It did not work out for Busch.

A week later Gordon hits the wall and Busch is a top five finisher. I guess all sports have their “what could have been” moment and this is certainly one of them. However in a week when the standings were shaken up quite a bit this was only one of the story lines for the first race, but considering how close everyone was at the start, points wise, that is not too surprising.

Brad Keselowski emerged as the winner in Chicagoland in a great race that had him duel for the lead and manage to outrace Jimmie Johnson for the checkered flag, with Johnson complaining that Keselowski violated pit road rules however no penalty was called. Johnson finished second. The rest of the top five was filled out by Kasey Kahne, Busch in fourth and Ryan Newman in fifth.

In other news it looks like AJ Allmendinger has completed NASCAR’s Road to Recovery program and has been reinstated by NASCAR. Good luck.

This week: The Sylvania 300
It’s back to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway and its 1.058 mile oval for the second of the ten races to the Sprint Cup Championship with the Sylvania 300

Broadcast: September 23 at 1 pm ET ESPN

Twitter

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Brad Keselowski
2) Jimmie Johnson -3
3) Tony Stewart -8
4) Denny Hamlin -15
5) Kasey Kahne -15
6) Clint Boyer -15
7) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -17
8 ) Greg Biffle -19
9) Martin Truex Jr. -21
10) Kevin Harvick -24
11) Matt Kenseth -26
12) Jeff Gordon -47

Nationwide Series

Rickey Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler traded places at the top of the Nationwide leaderboard last week as Stenhouse managed his fifth win of the season, pushing him nine points ahead of Sadler in the standings.
http://youtu.be/1n-dzoISQkk

After some early dueling with a few drivers, most notably Kyle Busch, Stenhouse had the dominate car and cruised to the win and the lead. He last led the series back in early June but is the current champion, and is looking tough to beat at this point with two wins and two seconds in the last four races.

Busch came in second and the rest of the filled was filled out by Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard in the fifth spot.

This Week: Kentucky 300
The Nationwide drivers are once again going their own way this week and will be racing in the Kentucky 300 at the 1.5 mile tri-oval Kentucky Speedway.

Broadcast: Sept. 22 at 3:30 pm ET ESPN

1) Rickey Stenhouse Jr.
2) Elliott Sadler -9
3) Austin Dillion -34
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -57
5) Justin Allgaier -107

Filed Under: Chicagoland Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Kentucky Speedway, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Rickey Stenhouse Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Samsung News, New World Cup Mascot, Windows 8 Tablet Tidbits

September 21, 2012 by

World Cup 2014

Oddly I never think of an armadillo when I think of Brazil, yet in just a few years fans will be flocking to the country to watch the 2014 World Cup and no doubt will be inundated with images of the new World Cup mascot, an armadillo.

FIFA unveiled the mascot, which it has not yet completely ruined by giving it some cute name, Monday with the assistance of Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo. Don’t worry, they are unveiling its official name in November.

Twitch gets a $15 million investment for eSports broadcasting
Twitch.tv has received a $15 million investment that is intended to help the company expand its eSports live streaming capabilities. The money, which came from venture capital investment firm Bessemer Venture Partners, will be used to expand its engineering team.

This is the company’s third round of funding, bringing its total to $23 million, with the last being a $8 million round in 2007 when the company was known as justin.tv. It received a small seed funding in 2007.

Samsung strikes back at the iPhone
Samsung has said that it plans to add Apple’s just released iPhone 5 to its existing patent lawsuit that it has with its rival. The move has been expected as the company said that if Apple included LTE Samsung believed that the technology would likely violate its extensive patent holdings in that area.

Hopefully this will go better than Samsung’s Facebook campaign, where it asked which smartphone a user would like to have if stranded on a desert island. The Apple faithful flooded the site and voted for the iPhone.

However on a brighter note the company has landed a major deal with American Airlines that calls for the airline to equip 17,000 flight attendants with the Samsung Galaxy Note, according to CIO.

StubHub out Ticketmaster in for MLB?
A report from the New York Post is claiming that Ticketmaster is seeking to replace StubHub as the office site to resell your MLB tickets. According to the piece the deal between MLB and StubHub has expired and there is pressure from several teams to switch.

The reason for the switch is pretty obvious; you can get discounted tickets for top teams at StubHub, while Ticketmaster has a reputation of piling on charges and raising the price. Teams like the Yankees want their seats sold at a higher price.

Intel gets first marquee Atom smartphone user in Motorola
Motorola Mobility has unveiled its Razr I smartphone, its first that is powered by Intel’s 2GHz Atom Z2460 processor. The phone features a 4.3 inch display that can use its entire area, displaying images from border to border.

Among its other features are an 8 MP camera, the ability to start up in one second, NFC and the screen has a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. No pricing was announced at the rollout.

Anti-Japan protests lead to Intel Extreme Masters tournament cancellation in China
The latest round of the Intel Extreme Masters tournament was scheduled to take place in a few days in Guangzhou, China at the Anime Comics and Game Show has been canceled due to anti-Japanese protests, organizers have said.

The protests, sparked over a fight between Japan and China over a set of islands has led to the cancelation of a large number of Japanese vendors at the show.

More details on Surface Tablet from Microsoft
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer told the Seattle Times that company would be pricing the device in the same price range as Apple’s iPad rather than in the area that Amazon and Google are seeking to carve out at the low end.

This is not really a surprise since Amazon and Google are positioning their tablets as front end devices that will be used to purchase additional goods and services from the company, and are selling the tablets at cost. The range that Microsoft is looking at is from $300 to between $700-$800.

Leaked pricing on the pending Asus tablet, according to a report from ZDNet, is that it will be even pricier, coming in at $599, $799 and $1,299 depending on model and features. The most expensive is expected to have an 11.6 HD display.

Google asks ITC to ban wide array of Apple products
The International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate alleged patent violations by Apple based on charges brought by Google. Google is claiming that Apple is violated a number of patents that came to the company via its Motorola Mobility purchase. It is also asking the ITC to ban all Mac OS X computers, all iPads and most iPhones.

Microsoft wins a round in patent battles
Microsoft has earned a victory in its patent battle with Motorola in a lower regional German court that ruled that Motorola has infringed on a Microsoft patent that relates to text input. Motorola is expected to appeal in the case.

The ruling could result in both the banning of select Motorola smartphones as well as unspecified damages if the appeal is unsuccessful.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Asus, Baseball, Electronics Sports League, eSports, Facebook, FIFA, Galaxy Note, Intel, Intel Extreme Masters, iOS, Lawsuit, Major League Gaming, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone, Soccer, Tablets, Venture Capital, Video Games Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Major League Baseball jumps on Apple’s Passbook Ticket Technology

September 20, 2012 by

Major League Baseball has long been a fan of Apple and its technologies, rolling out its very popular sports apps on the iOS platform first and so it is no surprise that it has quickly adopted Passbook, the mobile ticket option available as part of its iOS 6 operating system.

With the operating system just being released this week MLB already has four clubs set up to support the technology, the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals, all of which will offer the option at their home games for the remainder of the season.

Passbook is a technology that enables a ticket to be transmitted, stored and displayed on an iPhone. Apple is seeking to have it adopted as an accepted technology at a wide range of establishments that use tickets including movie theaters, boarding passes as well as used for coupons and loyalty cards, to just name a few. A nice feature is that the ticket can appear on the lock screen so that users don’t slow down a line activating and logging into their phone.

For baseball fans they have multiple avenues to purchase the digital tickets including via MLB.com or the official Club websites, including the mobile web, or through the MLB.com At Bat or At The Ballpark mobile apps. MLBAM also will automatically display the digital ticket from Passbook on the device’s lock screen as a day-of-game reminder.

The tickets will be like a normal ticket and will show the information that you would expect including game date, opponent, time, section, row and seat. StubHub, the official secondary reselling site for MLB will also adopt the technology.

Filed Under: Apple, Baseball, iOS, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, Passbook, San Francisco Giants Tagged With: , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: TOUR Championship, aka the $10 Million Tourney

September 20, 2012 by

If you decided to watch golf instead of football two weekends ago, you may have caught the star-studded leaderboard (Tiger! Rory! Phil!) at the BMW Championship, which ended with POY top candidate Rory McIlroy winning his second straight tourney, and third of the last four. Going into this week’s TOUR Championship in Atlanta, Rory the lad is the favorite to walk away with the big playoff prize, $10 million to the FedEx Cup champ.

Please don’t ask us to explain the convoluted points system, which “reset” after the last event so that theoretically any of the 30 players in the field this weekend could win the final prize. That is supposed to introduce drama but I think it’s a waste. There are several theories floating around about how to change the “playoffs” to make them exciting or original — why not do playoffs like all other sports, make it head to head (aka match play), and the losers go home? Instead of 30 guys and weirdo mathematical combinations (like last year when Bill Haas didn’t even know he’d won the big enchilada after winning the weekend), why not a “final four” weekend where there are singles match play on Friday and then again on Sunday?

Really, no charge for my ideas. You’re welcome PGA. And FedEx. Though we are going to need to ramp up that online coverage while we’re at it. The last three tourneys of the playoffs have been great since the PGA’s Live@ coverage has been around, but it’s been severely limited — usually only showing a couple holes, still not up to the multiple cam/group choices offered by the Masters online. Ah well, there’s always next year. Just be sure to tune in to the last 15 minutes on Sunday, when the great tension of the playoffs comes to an end and one of the millionaire golfers gets to add another 10-spot to his career earnings. A construct, but $10 million makes you watch.

Bonus TV coverage this week on Golf Channel, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday, and then at 12 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 a.m. Sunday before the NBC broadcasts; also on ESPN3 for those who follow at work; ESPN3 will mimic the Live@ coverage times, 1-6 p.m. each day.

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP / FEDEX CUP PLAYOFFS

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Sept. 20 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, Sept, 21 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 22 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 2 p.m.; NBC, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 23 — Golf Channel, 11:30 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. NBC, 1:30 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m. every day

ONLINE
Live@ video is back this week —
Live@ coverage — 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., every day

ESPN3 will offer live action from 1-6 p.m. each day with unique views of the Par 4 No. 1 hole and the Par 3 No. 11, plus the Par 3 No. 18 each day when play finishes on No. 1.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
If all you want is shots and distances (which can be addicting) get your fix via Shot Tracker, which will definitely be in action at the Barclays.

FACEBOOK PAGE
We don’t know why it’s an all-caps TOUR Championship but here is their FACEBOOK PAGE.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The TOUR Championship Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on East Lake GC in Atlanta.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Bill Haas, with his amazing chip from the waves. Then he had to be told that he won the overall playoffs too. So don’t feel bad, the players are as confused as you are. But they’re also a lot richer.

FEDEX CUP PLAYOFF LEADERS
1. Rory McIlroy, 7,299 points
2. Tiger Woods, 4,067
3. Nick Watney, 3,586
4. Phil Mickelson, 3.420
5. Brandt Snedeker, 3,357

RESET POINTS (used to calculate final FedEx payoff)
1. McIlroy, 2,500 points; 2. Woods, 2,250; 3. Watney, 2,000; 4. Mickelson, 1,800; 5. Snedeker, 1,600.

See the playoff full standings at the PGA site.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Rory McIlroy; 2. Tiger Woods; 3. Luke Donald; 4. Lee Westwood; 5. Adam Scott.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, NBC Sports, PGA, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

ESPN Intros SportsCenter Feed, a Twitter and Team Stream Competitor

September 19, 2012 by

Here at MSR we have praised Bleacher Report’s Team Stream app for doing a great job of aggregating content we care about, namely that about the teams we like. What we like a lot about Team Stream is its embrace of content from all sources, not just Bleacher Report, to give as full a range of news and opinions as possible.

Now from the other side of the coin we have the Worldwide Leader, which today introduced a beta version of something it is calling SportsCenter Feed, which does exactly what you think it might do — brings all of ESPN’s breadth of content into one Twitter-like stream, with a kind of cool big viewing window to the side.

Though nobody doubts ESPN’s ability to give you more sports content than you could actually consume, the question we have is whether or not sports fans really want to stay inside the ESPN bubble, or whether they might prefer creating their own “feed” on say, something like Twitter itself, which as we said earlier is already the default AP wire for all of sports. For many fans ESPN might be more than enough, while others might prefer to have opinions and takes that originate somewhere other than Bristol.

Where you might see SportsCenter Feed getting some love is outside ESPN itself, as (we think) the strategy is to license the APIs so that other content aggregators or sites — like say, a team or league’s home page — could license the ESPN content which it could then show in some kind of a streaming window. Some mobile sports apps like PlayUp are already experimenting with similar sports news feeds, so that users of those apps don’t need to log on to another app or site to get scores and other info.

What is clear is that ESPN is making good on its pledge to do things digitally first, even if that means sabotaging some of its current cash cows (if you sift through SportsCenter Feed, for instance, you may not need to turn on your TV to sit through the commercials on the regular SportsCenter broadcasts). So even as Twitter and other new options look for a sporting edge, the Worldwide Leader is going to be the Yankees in this arena as well. Not that the Yankees can’t lose, but you will need a good game plan to beat their killer lineup.

Filed Under: Apps, bleacherreport, ESPN, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
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