Archives for 2012

Guest Blog: Pickmoto Tracks the ESPN NFL Pickers

November 16, 2012 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: This blog is a series from Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.

WEEK 10

Wickersham and Mortensen keep on climbing. Wickersham has gained points in 9!!! of 10 weeks and Mort has in 8 of 10. As the leaderboard illustrates, they are in a tier of their own – the Experts of the “Experts”. They didn’t take any big upsets in Week 10. Just smart, sound picking. Mort was one of only (surprisingly) two ESPNers who took the Vikings over the Lions. That’s the sort of pick that really impresses us: two fairly evenly-matched teams and Mort correctly picked the less popular, less sexy Vikings.

Merrill Hoge was the week’s big winner as he was the lone man to correctly take the Bengals over the Giants. That was quite a pick: the Bengals, who hadn’t really beaten anyone of note this year, took down the defending Super Bowl Champs. And it wasn’t even close.

On the other end of the spectrum, again, was Eric Allen. He managed to go 6-8 even though he basically just took favorites. The only underdog he took – the Chargers – was the typical misguided pick of someone not paying attention. Despite big names at QB, TE and a “genius” offensive head coach, the Chargers are much worse than their reputation. And the Bucs have quietly been very good since their bye week. We like Eric Allen as a commentator. But as a prognosticator? If he dips below 0 in our scoring, we’ll be calling for relegation from the Experts picks page.

ESPN Experts Leaderboard – Week 10
-Everyone starts with 300 points.

+Seth Wickersham – 673
+Chris Mortensen – 594
+Adam Schefter – 325
+Merrill Hoge – 320
Keyshawn Johnson – 302
Ron Jaworski – 276
Mike Golic – 229
+Mark Schlereth – 215
Cris Carter – 203
+Mike Ditka – 171
+Tom Jackson – 130
Eric Allen – 83

Pickmoto is fun, quick, easy competition. It recreates the fantasy sports experience on mobile. Its first game for the 2012 NFL season is free for iPhone and iPad. Its second game for the NBA season just hit the AppStore.

Pickmoto asks the most basic question in sports – which teams will win. It’s pick’em with a twist: there’s a crowdsourced scoring system that rewards correct picks based on their popularity – the less popular, the more points.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, NFL Tagged With: ESPN, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Pickmoto

Watching NASCAR: Fight to the Finish in Miami

November 16, 2012 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

A change at the top with a week to go means good news for somebody, in this case Brad Keselowski, and bad news for someone, obviously Jimmie Johnson. Johnson’s drive for a sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup title hit a wall last weekend.

Wrecks abounded, some accidental and some intentional, and the result was that Johnson had a blown tire on the track forcing him into the pits at a moment when his top rival, Keselowski had just moved to the front of the pack. Keselowski could not maintain the top position, Kevin Harvick won the race in nice fashion after a pair of late restarts, but the sixth place finish was good enough for a move to the top spot and a 20 point lead. If he manages to finish 15th or above this week the title is his.

Following Harvick across the finish line was Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, then Kasey Kahne in forth followed by Ryan Newman. Johnson finished 32. There was some bad driving, questionable decisions on NASCARs part and the settling of past grievances all of which made for a day of interesting, if ugly racing.

You knew that tempers would be on edge last week but the fight between Jeff Gordon and Clint Boyer was amazing. Or rather between their pit crews. This came after Gordon intentionally hit Clint Boyer’s car late in the race last week, a move that cost Gordon 25 points and $100,000 and a rest of season probation (really?). It also eliminated any chance that Boyer could contend for the title. Not really clear how Gordon avoided a suspension, but he did.

With Boyer saying that he might retaliate this week, I am sure NASCAR will be keeping a close eye on him and this could turn out to be like hitting someone in the NFL, the second guy always seems to get the big fine. As an oddity to the race Keselowski was fined $25,000 for having an on-board computer in his car. You know, a cell phone.

This Week: Ford EcoBoost 400
All of the chickens will come home to roost this week at the Ford EcoBoost 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Drivers are still looking for bragging rights, enhance standing with existing or future teams and let’s not forget prize money. Also I would not be surprised if a few grudges are settled early in the race. Or late for that matter.

Broadcast: Nov. 18 at 2 pm ET on ESPN

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Sprint Cup Standings
1) Brad Keselowski
2) Jimmie Jonson -20
3) Kasey Kahne -50
4) Clint Boyer -52
5) Denny Hamlin -62
6) Matt Kenseth -74
7) Greg Biffle -78
8 ) Kevin Harvick -86
9) Tony Stewart -87
10) Martin Truex Jr. -111
11) Jeff Gordon -115
12) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -160

Nationwide
Joey Logano once again proved that he is the man in Nationwide racing, winning last week to give him nine wins this season, Points leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is probably burning a candle in thanks that Logano did not get a full season in.

Stenhouse moved from a tie for the lead with Elliott Sadler to a commanding 20 point lead after a strong finish in the race and only needs a 16th place or better finish to repeat as the Nationwide champ. He finish third in the race with Brian Vickers finishing just in front of him and was followed by Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne.

Sadler continued his run of misfortunes late in Nationwide races, this time causing a three car accident very late in the race that greatly harmed his chance to win the title this week. The accident sent him to the pits, from which he never returned.

This Week: ForEcoBoost 300
Broadcast: Nov. 17 4 pm ESPN 2

Nationwide Standings
1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2) Elliott Sadler -20
3) Austin Dillon -25
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -107
5) Michael Annett -162

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, ESPN, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Rickey Stenhouse Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart Tagged With: ESPN, NASCAR, Nationwide, Sprint Cup

Wednesday Wi-Fi Whispers: Lots of Networking at F1 Race in Austin

November 14, 2012 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

If you are a fan of F1 racing you might be headed down to Austin, Texas this weekend for the Austin Grand Prix at the new Circuit of The Americas course. From what we can deduce, it should be a good place to connect with your mobile device, since we have seen two press releases over the past weeks talking about wireless deployments at the track. But will there be free fan Wi-Fi? Probably, but we’re not sure yet.

We’re not sure because the main press release — from our friends at AT&T — talks mainly about how Ma Bell wired this place for high capacity data transfers, which we are guessing means lots of fiber for set video camera positions and the whole boatload of car-performance stats that regularly fly around the ether at any big-time motorsports event. From the sounds of it the new AT&T network should support fan Wi-Fi — but unfortunately neither AT&T nor the course/race website makes any mention of whether or not there will be free Wi-Fi for fans.

In case you’re wondering, we think such information omissions are a big mistake. But we are checking with AT&T and the race folks to see what’s up.

In the meantime, if you are a Verizon customer your cell phone should also work better at the track, thanks to an independent Distributed Antenna System (DAS) infrastructure put in place by our friends at ExteNet, a company that has built similar deployments at other sporting stadiums, like the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn. According to ExteNet its DAS will improve cellular reception around the track, mainly for Verizon customers this year since Verizon is the only cellular provider using the ExteNet solution right now. Since ExteNet builds independent networks — which means any provider can sign up and pay ExteNet to carry signals from their customers — other providers like Sprint or T-Mobile may join up for future events. Our guess is that AT&T won’t have to. The cool thing is, fans should be able to share photos and videos of the F1 racers as quickly as possible. And that is a good thing.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: AT&T, DAS, ExteNet, F1, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Verizon, Wi-Fi

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Apple Patent News

November 12, 2012 by Greg Quick 1 Comment

Google Ventures, the investment arm of Google has received an additional $100 million in funds to invest in startups. The group had been budgeted to invest $200 million in past years but that number has been bumped up to $300 million according to Tom’s Hardware.

Apple loses latest round in patent fight with Google/Motorola
Apple has lost an important ruling last week when a Federal Judge threw out its lawsuit against Motorola Mobility over patent licensing practices. The suit claimed that using 2.25% of the selling price of the item was too high, but the judge dismissed it without comment.

However, according to Wired, the Federal Trade Commission has recommended that the U.S. Justice Department pursue an antitrust investigation into Motorola Mobility in order to determine if it reasonably offered licensing of its industry-standard technology or used that licensing to block rival hardware from competitors Apple and Microsoft.

Speaking of Microsoft and Motorola
The two have also been fighting over the 2.25% per device issue and Microsoft wants to look at the FRAND pricing based on previous pricing. According to Microsoft it should pay somewhere in the vicinity of around $1.2 million a year for rights to use the patents that are in dispute, while of course Motorola thinks that its number, which would result in a significantly higher return, is just fine.

A look at Huawei’s MediaPad 10 FHD tablet
Huawei, as has already been reported, is entering the 10-inch Android driven tablet space with its MediaPad 10 FHD offering. The tablet features a display with 1920 x 1200 resolution, a Huawei-built quad core 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 processor and will be available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB versions. For more details head over to Slash Gear.

Apple and HTC bury the patent hatchet
In one of the rare the resolutions in the patent wars that looks like it will be final, Apple and rival smartphone maker HTC have settled all of their outstanding patent disputes globally. The resolution includes a ten year cross patent licensing agreement. Any other terms of the arraignment were not disclosed. They originally tussled in court on the patent issue in 2010 when Apple filed a patent infringement case against HTC with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

iPad Mini component costs pegged at $188
Ever wonder how much it costs to make something? Well lucky for you, and the rest of us, a number of companies take the time to break down devices and analyze them, and the latest results are from IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Services.

It found that the iPad Mini, which starts at retail at $329 costs $188 for the bill of materials and an additional $10 to actually build for a model that features just Wi-Fi and 16GB of storage. The single most expensive component is the tablet’s 7.1-inch display at $80.

Apple to drop Intel chips?
Stop me if you have heard this one before but the rumor that is again making the rounds is that Apple will jettison the Intel processors that it now uses in its Macintosh computers in favor of its own developed chips that it currently uses in its iPads. However the reports, apparently started by Bloomberg but picked up elsewhere, are very hazy as to when such a change might occur.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apple, FTC, Google, HTC, Intel, iPad, iPhone, Lawsuit, Mashable, Microsoft, Motorola

Guest Blog: Pickmoto Rates the ESPN NFL Experts, Week 9

November 9, 2012 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: This blog is a series from Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.

Week 9 featured four games that the ESPNers split evenly on: Dolphins-Colts, Bucs-Raiders, Steelers-Giants, and Eagles-Saints. It’s these close calls, these coin tosses that should offer the best opportunity for prognosticators to demonstrate superior insight.

And by that measure, Ron Jaworski was the top Expert Week 9. Actually, by any metric he was. He went 12-2 total, 4-0 in the close calls, and gained 43 points on our Pickmoto scoring system. Jaworski’s only misses were the Cowboys and RGIII over Cam, which all dozen had backwards.

Of course, The Colts and Steelers baaaaaaaarely won. But we’re not talking knuckles scraping the endzone or replacement ref fiascos. Jaws went a legitimate 4-0. He’s now closing in on the magic 300, the number a beagle should get if he made picks every week.
Elsewhere, the top 2 and bottom 2 put some distance between themselves and 300. Wickersham usually picks a big upset, but smartly passed this week. Mort went out a ledge with the Browns and Jaguars, but was strong enough with his other picks to still take home a positive number.

At the other end of things, Allen and Jackson both went 10-4, but their wins came in low point value games, so they fell even further behind. Allen, we like because of his work in the Bay Area. Jackson, we’ve been tuning out for years and now we have empirical proof why we should continue.

ESPN Experts Leaderboard – Week 9
-Everyone starts with 300 points.

+Seth Wickersham – 668
+Chris Mortensen – 576
Keyshawn Johnson – 333
Adam Schefter – 320
+Ron Jaworski – 279
Merrill Hoge – 277
+Mike Golic – 229
+Cris Carter – 226
+Mark Schlereth – 208
+Mike Ditka – 166
Eric Allen – 142
Tom Jackson – 125

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, Fantasy Sports, NFL Tagged With: ESPN, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Pickmoto

Watching NASCAR: Johnson, Keselowski to Duel in Phoenix

November 9, 2012 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago Jimmie Johnson passed Brad Keselowski to move into the top position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship and last week he passed him in a two lap shootout to remain the top dog in the Chase.

In what I am sure Johnson hopes is a portent for the last two races and Keselowski hopes does not, the two were side by side on a restart on lap 334 in the 335 lap race, and Johnson outsprinted Keselowski and then held on to win the race. The third restart in the last laps ensured that it would go one extra lap, but after the first half lap Johnson was in control and stayed there.

The two were very close the entire race, as witnessed by the side by side banging that occurred late in the race but others played a major role in the race, including the drives that continually caused all of the late restarts. Third place finisher Kyle Busch led for 80 laps and was followed by Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart taking fifth.

This week: AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway

The second to last race of the season and the point differential is only 7, but that can be a lot to make up. However a number of drivers such as Busch have been shining of late and I am sure that they would relish a spoiler role.

Broadcast: Nov. 11 at 2 pm ET on ESPN

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Sprint Cup Standings
1) Jimmie Johnson
2) Brad Keselowski -7
3) Clint Boyer -36
4) Kasey Kahne -58
5) Matt Kenseth -72
6) Jeff Gordon -72
7) Denny Hamlin -73
8 ) Tony Stewart -80
9) Martin Truex Jr. -80
10) Greg Biffle -83
11) Kevin Harvick -101
Dale Earnhardt Jr. -151

Nationwide
The chase to win the Nationwide title got a great deal tighter as Elliott Sadler has company in the top spot as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has tied him for the lead by managing a fourth place finish last week in what appeared to be a very badly handling car.

First let’s not forget that Kevin Harvick had a dominating performance at the track, leading 127 of the 200 laps to win the race. With just a few laps to go Sadler started to fade from his sixth position after a restart and ended up finishing 11th. The top five was filled out with Ryan Blaney in second, Kyle Busch in third and Denny Hamlin taking fifth.

Good news for Danica Patrick fans. She has signed to do two ads for GoDaddy that will run during the upcoming Superbowl. There had been some question if the company’s new advertising agency would retain her services.
This week: Great Clips 200 at the Phoenix International Raceway
Broadcast: Nov. 10 at 3:30 pm ET on ESPN

Nationwide Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3) Austin Dillon -21
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -95
5) Michael Annett -157