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Minnesota Twins Seek to Engage Fans with ‘Twins At The Plate’ App

July 16, 2012 by

The Minnesota Twins along with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) have launched an in-stadium gaming app that is designed to engage fans by allowing them predict what is going to happen when the Twins are at bat.

The “Twins At The Plate” is a predictive game that has the fans predicting each batter’s results in the bottom of the inning. While there are a number of predictive apps, this one is the first that I have seen that is not specifically designed for an individual.

Instead Target Field, the Twins’ stadium, is divided into sections and the one that gets the most points for correct predictions is eligible to win prizes. The game will be played at the bottom of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th innings and all picks for a specific inning must be made prior to the end of the top of that inning. Results can be followed by an in-app leaderboard.

All a fan has to do to collect the prize is to show their ticket stub prior to leaving the stadium that evening to pick up the award. If you have lost your stub you are out of luck. The app can be accessed only while fans are at Target Field through MLB.com’s At the Ballpark application.

MLB and its MLBAM are have been very aggressive in their delivery of apps to engage fans, with ones that will enable you to order food in select stadiums to one that provide cash awards if you can select enough batters in a row that get hits in real games to break DiMaggio’s record hitting streak.

This is another one that is in that vein. I suspect that it will take a while for it to catch on as word of mouth spreads about the app. I certainly hope that the stadium can support the wireless data load because fans would not like to find out that they did not win because their selections did not get registered due to network overload.

MLB has been working to enhance the networking capabilities of all of its ballparks to avoid this issue and I suspect that once that is accomplished, it will roll this app out to additional stadiums.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, Twins At The Plate Tagged With: ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Nexus 7 Sells Out

July 16, 2012 by

Demand for the Google Nexus 7 tablet that went on sale last week has been very strong, with reports of online retailers selling out of the devices in the first few days that it was available, according to Reuters.

On sale since last Friday in most areas, the Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet that starts at $199 has sold out at a number of locations including Sam’s Club, GameStop and Staples. The popularity is particularly good for the company because while rival Amazon set records selling its Kindle Fire during the Christmas holiday season, this time of year is usually the doldrums for electronic sales.

There are a lot of rumors of a new iPad in the 7-inch format as well as new products from Amazon that will seek to steal Google’s thunder in this space but it looks like Google has established itself as a major player in the tablet space with the Nexus 7.

A nice piece in Wired breaks down the Nexus 7 and its leading rival, Amazon’s Kindle and shows where the primary differences are between the two. According to the article it costs $19 more to build a Nexus 7 than a Kindle, but the money looks to be well spent.

Apple aggressive about Samsung ban
Apple has been contacting US carriers and retailers and demanding that they follow the court order that bans select Samsung products. According to Foss Patents this news came to light via a Samsung filing that claims that the letters that Apple is sending to these parties over reaches and and contain incorrect information.

It has only been slightly more than a week since US Courts ruled that Samsung would ot be allowed to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. The Koss newsletter is siding with Apple on its interpretation of the order.

FujiFilm joins the fun — Sues Motorola over patents
Motorola Mobility now finds itself in the sights of FujiFilm as that company has filed a suit claiming that Motorola is infringing on four patents, according to PC World. The filing comes after a number of face to face meetings between the two companies.

The patents in question cover some interesting areas including the ability to capture color pictures with a cell phone and converting them into monochrome and a manner in which data is transmitted using wireless methods such as Bluetooth.

Apple returns to EPEAT
Apple, after making waves by having its products delisted from the EPEAT list of environmentally approved products the company has made an about face and now will continue to return to EPEAT after strong feedback from its customers.

Sony has new tablet in the works
Sony has admitted that it will be ready during the fall holiday season with a new tablet as the manufacturer continues to try and gain traction in that space. The company currently has several offerings in this space including the Tablet P.

It currently only sells devices that run the Android operating system and it will be interesting if it moves onto the Windows 8 platform when that is delivered later this year.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Asus, Kindle, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, PCWorld, Sony Tagged With: , , ,

ESPN’s John Kruk Shilling for Nokia — ‘The Phone for Sports Fans’

July 14, 2012 by

Not sure that just having an ESPN app pre-loaded makes something a phone for sports fans — I mean, c’mon, who can’t download an app — but for your weekend entertainment, here’s ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk shilling for Nokia. OK, I do like the bit at the end. No word on whether the stadium he’s at has Wi-Fi, though. Or whether Kruk was chillin’ at the ESPYs Nokia preparty. Anyway.

Filed Under: Apps, AT&T, Baseball, ESPN, Nokia, Wi-Fi, Windows Phone Tagged With: , , ,

Watching NASCAR this week: Lenox Industrial Tools 301

July 13, 2012 by

There was a great finish last week at Daytona, with Tony Stewart making a last lap pass and then holding off a trailing gang of rivals to win his 18th race at the fabled track. Only Dale Earnhardt has more wins at Daytona. The win moved Stewart up 4 places in the driver standings.

The victory must have been even sweeter for Stewart since he was forced to start at the back of the pack due to a failed inspection, and it took him some time to fight his way to the front. He passed Matt Kenesth and then led to the finish. Jeff Burton managed to roar by Kenesth at the end for second followed by Joey Logano and then Ryan Newman.

There was some last minute prerace activity as NASCAR suspended driver AJ Allmendinger just prior to the race for failing a random drug test that he took on June 29, with NASCAR reporting that he had an illegal stimulant in his system. He has claimed that he does not take drugs and that there is an error in the test. Team Penske flew in Sam Hornish Jr in from Charlotte at the last minute, barely a half hour before the race started, to replace Allmendinger.

Since then Allmendinger has elected to bring in his own experts to test his “B” sample, something that is expected to happen next week at the earliest. If he fails he will face an indefinite suspension and need to take a program to get reinstated.

ESPN put up some interesting tidbits about the first half of the season and one that really jumped out at me was this one that points out how unimportant winning is compared to simply finishing. Brad Keselowski has three victories, five top-5s and eight top-10s this season, which is good for 9th currently. Kevin Harvick has zero wins, three top-5s and eight top-10s, but Harvick is 6th in the standings.

Lenox Industrial Tools 301
Next up is a trip to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 on a 1.05 mile, oval track. It is interestingly the largest sporting facility in New England and can seat 105,000 spectators. There is also a 1.6 mile road course on the site.

Twitter– Instead of pointing to a number of Twitter addresses as we have in the past it seems to make much more sense just to send you to a site that appears to have consolidated a who’s who of racing twitter addresses instead. So head over here for a list.

Broadcast
July 15 at 12 noon ET TNT

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Matt Kenseth
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -25
3) Greg Biffle -44
4) Jimmie Johnson -58
5) Tony Stewart -90
6) Kevin Harvick -90
7) Denny Hamlin -92
8) Martin Truex Jr. -92
9) Brad Keselowski -103
10) Clint Bowyer -104

Nationwide

Kurt Busch won last week in Daytona with a tremendous finish in a race that had 42 lead changes, more than its fair share of crashes and must have delighted any fan that watched. His car looked like it was about to blow at any second over the last few laps and he managed to reach the front of a greatly diminished field with a lap to go and then held on for dear life. The top five was filled out by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael Ammett, Austin Dillon and Joey Logano.

Broadcast
July 14, 2:30 pm ET ESPN

F.W. Webb 200
This week Nationwide will be featured in a shorter race in New Hampshire, the F.W. Webb 200. This may be old hand and I have just missed it but Nationwide is providing a nice behinds the scene view of teams activities with garagecam Head over here to take a look.

Nationwide Series Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Austin Dillon -8
3) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -18
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -35
5) Justin Allgaier -72

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., ESPN, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sam Hornish Jr., Tony Stewart Tagged With: ,

Friday Grab Bag: Bannister returns, Big Ten embraces Android

July 13, 2012 by

A sip of soda cost Ronaldinho $1.57m?
Apparently drinking the wrong soda can be costly as Brazilian soccer superstar Ronaldinho found out. He appeared at a press conference for his new team, Atletico Mineiro sipping a Pepsi, which happens to be one of the teams’ sponsors.

However Coca-Cola happens to be one of Ronaldinho’s sponsors, with a deal valued at $1.57 million. Apparently the powers that be at Coke’s headquarters were less than pleased and canceled his contract.


Big Ten moves to Android
The Big Ten Network has expanded its mobile reach with the release of BTN2Go for Android. The app, which enables subscribers to the Big Ten Network via their cable supplier, to view a huge range of sports on smartphones, tablets and via the web.

They will be able to watch live feed of all of the networks programming that includes more than 40 football games and 100 men’s basketball games among the hundreds of programs. The app is available at Google Play.

2/3 of new mobile buyers opt for smartphones, Nielsen says
The latest newsletter from Nielsen Wire shows that the in the second quarter of 2012 smartphone growth has continued unabated. Currently 54.9% of all US mobile phone subscribes now use a smartphone as of its June 2012 study.

Two out of every three new phone purchases were a smartphone during the last three months. According to the survey Android is the operating system of choice with 51.8% of all users adopting that platform while 34.3% use an iPhone from Apple.

Despite past results RIM Exec takes upbeat view
Research in Motion has seen things go from bad to worse as it reports losses, declining customer base and delays in its next generation smartphone, a product that it is hoping will bring it out of the doldrums that surround the company.

However there is a light cutting through the clouds according to Frank Boulben, RIM’s chief marketing officer said that the late delivery of its BlackBerry 10, after the important Holiday shopping season, will actually benefit the company as it will allow carriers to prepare and allow it to have the spotlight to itself.


Microsoft/Motorola Patent tiff on hold
Microsoft and Motorola have decided to wait until the hearing over Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations is heard later this year before continuing their patent lawsuits against each other.

While this will slow the lawsuit issue to a degree it does not affect any potential ruling by the International Trade Commission on two complaints involving the two companies, according to a piece in Electronista.


Microsoft is also aiming at Apple- Shock
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has said that it is a new day at Microsoft and that its Surface tablet will be taking on all comers, including Apple, vowing not to leave any market segments uncontested to its rival.

According to an exclusive in CRN Ballmer said that the company and its partners had ceded some areas in the high tech space to Apple and its innovative ways. Areas that Microsoft plans to now more fiercely compete include the consumer cloud and in the area of hardware/software innovation, he said.

It is interesting that one of the reasons Apple is still around as a company is because Microsoft invested $150 million in 1997, a deal that eventually netted Microsoft almost 19 million shares of Apple stock for an average cost of about $9 per share. Microsoft has since sold the stock.

NBC has an Olympic app-if you are a subscriber
NBC Olympics has developed the NBC Olympics Live Extra app that will enable users to watch every event live, which will run to an estimated 3,500 hours of coverage, according to a report from Michael Hiestand in USA Today.

The app will be available for Apple’s iPad and iPhone platforms as well as some Android devices. However NBC will only allow access to viewers who get NBC’s MSNBC and CNBC channels — that’s about 100 million households out of the 114 million total U.S. TV households.

London Olympics salutes Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister, now Sir Robert Bannister, the first man to break the sub-4 minute mile barrier carried the Olympic torch on the track where he broke the record 58 years ago. As part of the relay for the torch as it arrived in London he walked on the track and then handed it off. There is speculation that he will be selected to light the cauldron to start the Olympics.

Tablets continue to erode PC sales
Market research firm Gartner has reported that for the seventh consecutive quarter sales of PCs have continued a trend of anemic growth as demand lessens in favor of tablets. However it notes that economic weakness in both the US and Europe are also contributing to the poor demand.

According to the company sales in the second quarter were 87.5 million units with Hewlett-Packard the market leader followed by Lenovo and Dell.

Social news site Digg sold
Once high flyer Digg, a social news site, was a top destination on the Internet and it saw its valuation numbers soar with its popularity, but as with many popular sites, its appeal waned and viewership fell off as other newer technologies took its place.

The drop appears to now be complete as the site has been sold for $500,000 to Betaworks, which gains the site and its technology, which will be incorporated into a new unit that Betaworks will announce in the future, according to the New York Times.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Big Ten Network, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Microsoft, Motorola, NBC Sports, Nielsen Ratings, Olympics, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Tablets, The New York Times Tagged With: , , , , ,

Watching Motocross- Lucas Oil Motocross heads to Spring Creek

July 13, 2012 by

I was flipping through the channels last night and came across a guy soaring in the air on his dirt bike doing an acrobatic jump that I cannot do in my imagination. The tag line was this weekend is the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships.

This caught my interest. I knew there was a championship(s) in this sports but it got be to wondering how many divisions there were along with a few other questions, so I went and looked. The first thing I learned is that the championships are not this weekend; it is now just past the halfway point of the season.

I knew that there are several different bodies supporting different motocross or derivative events but the Lucas Oil one is sanctioned by the AMA Pro Racing and that is what I am looking at here. There is a 12 race season that started in Hangtown in early May and the final is in Lake Elsinore in September.

Two heats or motos for each event and three categories, the first two broken down by engine type and the third for women. These are the 450 Motocross, the 250 Motocross and the WMV Motocross. The AMA has been holding sanctioned races since 1972.

On top of the leaderboard for the 450 Motocross is Ryan Dungey with a total of 286 points followed by Mike Alessi at 214, Jacob Weimer at 202, Andrew Short at 178 and Broc Tickle in the number five post with 162 points.

In the 250 Motocross class Blake Baggett is the leader at 273 points closely followed by Justin Barcia at 253 and then Eli Tomac at 236 and Ken Roczen at 235 with Marvin Musquin filling out the top five at 189 points. In the WMX Motocross Jessica Patterson is the current leader with 201 points then Tarah Gieger at 192, Ashley Fiolek at 175, Mariana Balbi at 155 and finally Jacqueline Strong at 144.



Broadcasts

This week the racers will compete at Spring Creek MX Park near Rochester, Minn. The course has 250 feet of elevation. There are several broadcast options for viewers including live streaming of the events. The first motos will be run at each track between 1 pm and 3 pm local time and are live on Fuel TV as well as streamed at allisports.com. The second WMX motos will also be live streamed.

The second motos will be broadcast on either NBC or NBC Sports Network and there is also a highlights program as well on NBC Sports Network.

Spring Creek
Sat 7/14 FUELTV 2:00-4:00pm 1st Motos
Sat 7/14 NBC Sports Network 4:00-6:00pm 2nd Motos
Mon 7/23 NBC Sports Network 2:00-4:00pm 2nd Moto Re-Air
Sat 7/21 NBC Sports Network 4:30-5:30pm Highlight Series

If you attend one of these events or have YouTube video of one we would be happy to look at it and possibly share it in a future piece on the sport. This is a new area for us and we are certainly not proclaiming any expertise, but have a growing interest and would be happy to hear from fans.

Filed Under: Live Sports Video Consumption, Motocross, NBC Sports, Outdoor Activities Tagged With:
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