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British Open OKs Mobile Device Use at Royal Lytham

April 23, 2012 by

Bloody good, we say! According to this post at the PGA’s site the R&A will allow mobile device use at this year’s British Open, aka the Open Championship. According to the PGA post the decision was made “to improve the spectacle and tap into a younger market.”

There’s no need for us to quote the full post but we do like the money quote:

“There is no denying the attachment people feel to their mobile phones both in terms of gathering information and staying in touch with family and friends,” said R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson.

Indeed. The British Open takes place July 19-22, at the Royal Lytham & St Annes course. If you’re going, check your international data rate plan first.

Filed Under: Golf, Wi-Fi Tagged With: ,

ExteNet Systems Scores Miami DAS Deal, Becoming a Player in Stadium Network Market

April 23, 2012 by

When it comes to in-stadium wireless networks, it turns out that teams and wireless providers aren’t the only players in the game. ExteNet Systems, a Lisle, Ill. startup, is rapidly scoring points by playing the “middleman” role, building out stadium networks at no cost to teams and making money by renting network access to the carriers.

Last week ExteNet announced it was the builder of the new Distributed Antenna System (DAS) installation at the new Marlins Park in Miami, with Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA already signed up as customers. And it turns out that ExteNet was also behind Verizon’s DAS deployment in and around Lucas Oil Stadium for the recent Super Bowl XLVI. Those deployments are just part of a new stadium-business push from ExteNet, which also put in a DAS system at the “Big House,” the huge bowl stadium at the University of Michigan, last fall.

Though ExteNet also provides in-building networks to some more traditional markets — like health care and hospitality, where large groups of people are seeking network access inside a confined space — it’s looking to add more stadium customers in the near future. According to CEO Ross Manire, a veteran of the networking industry, the boom in powerful handheld devices has created a “perfect storm” of capacity consumption that can’t be addressed by the historical cellular antenna architectures.

“You used to just worry about voice coverage,” said Manire in a phone interview last week. “But phones are really data terminals now, and the question becomes how do you manage strain on networks [at stadiums]. “In the past you may have been able to get a voice signal from a cell tower several blocks away. That doesn’t work now.”

The privately held ExteNet, which received a $128.4 million funding round at the start of 2010, thinks it can help both carriers and venue owners by providing “middleman” network services. The basic business model, Manire said, has ExteNet building and owning the stadium network, which it deploys at no cost to the team or building owners. It then charges carriers a “node activation fee,” a sort of monthly rent to let their services ride on the network.

If you’re not familar with how a DAS works, it’s essentialy a bunch of small cellular antennas that are mounted on ceilings and walls inside buildings, instead of on huge towers like traditional cellular antennas. A DAS network administrator provides normal cellular connectivity to users, and then connects those signals to the appropriate cellular vendor on the network’s back end. DAS deployments can also add Wi-Fi antennas to their infrastructure mix. ExteNet, like many DAS operators, can connect its back end to any number of cellular networks, meaning that fans don’t have to be a customer of a certain provider to get better in-stadium service.

The openness of ExteNet’s design may make it a better choice for stadium operators than an internal network designed and owned by a single carrier, since fans wouldn’t have to be customers of a specific carrier to get better service. ExteNet runs a network operations center 24/7 to provide support to all its networks, and signs a service level agreement (SLA) with both the stadium owner and its cellular partners to give both parties what they really want — happier customers.

“We’re seeing an incredible amount of attention from stadium and team owners, who need to provide a good [wireless] experience,” Manire said. “Fans believe they should be able to connect wherever they go. Of course that’s easier said than done.”

But now ExteNet may be part of making that connectivity a reality for more fans, going forward.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Cisco, DAS, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , ,

London Olympics Creates Online Social Hub for Athletes and Fans to Mingle

April 23, 2012 by

If you are looking to follow your favorite athletes at this year’s Summer Olympics, the governing body has just set up a system that will enable you to do just that with both famous and those that hope to soon to be famous.

The International Olympics Committee has set up a site called the Olympics Athlete Hub, an effort that hopes to enable fans to make connections with the athletes that are participating in this year’s games as well as past performers.

What the hub does is simply aggregate the Twitter and Facebook feeds of the athletes and provide a single unified spot that brings them all together. A quick look over at the page shows that currently three of the five players are American NBA players.

Once you sign up you can search the athlete directory by athlete name, country, sport, discipline or event. There already 1,000 athletes in the hub and this will grow as qualifying for events is ongoing and as athletes qualify they will be added. There are also former Olympiads such as Mark Spitz, Nadia Comaneci, Edwin Moses, Yelena Isinbaeva, and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who pass along tips on training.

Users of the service can post photos and also win prizes for liking athletes on Facebook and following them on Twitter, and the site is expected to roll out a number of additional award programs leading up to the games, including one that can send the winner to the games.. During the games the site will feature a section that will feature real-time chats with athletes that will take place from within the Athletes’ Village.

It really seems that the Olympics as an organization truly understand the advantages of social media as well as the reach and power that a major on-line presence brings. With its broadcast partners making all events online and highlights that can be followed on YouTube it is certainly much easier to follow the contests easier than possibly any other sporting event in the world.

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, BBC, Contests, Facebook, NBC Sports, Olympics, Social Media, Sports Social Media, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Does Your Computer Have Malware?

April 23, 2012 by

FBI helping to block malware
An international hacker has apparently infected and taken control of a host of computers around the globe using an advertising scam to lure people into going to a site that downloaded the malware. When the hackers were arrested the infected systems still operated thanks to the use of government servers that replaced the crooks systems.

That program will be shut down in July and when it does and your system is infected you will find a ‘page not found’ alert when you try to access the internet. You can go here to have your system tested.

Amazon’s Kindle touch 3G is here
Apparently a week earlier than expected the Amazon touch 3G has started shipping out to customers around the world. The $149 e-reader stands apart from other offerings from Amazon and others in that it provides free 3G connectivity on a global basis. Users do not need to sign up for a plan with a carrier or add service on an existing plan to get the wireless capability.

Verizon to introduce multi-device plan this summer
Verizon dropped some good news to owners of multiple devices that can access the Internet wirelessly- it is developing a plan that will allow customers to bundle all of the devices under one roof rather than be forced to have a plan for each device.

This will appeal to people that own both a tablets and a smartphones and can now have all of the data on a single plan. Verizon now joins T-Mobile and Sprint in offering this capability. I suspect that this will be a boon for tablet makers as it removes a barrier to acceptance of these devices.

Smartphone compatible watch draws big interest from investors
The Pebble, a watch that can wirelessly connect to an iPhone has been getting tremendous play from backers via Kickstarter. If you are not familiar with Kickstarter it is a place to raise funding by setting a level that you need and then hoping that enough individuals or larger investment groups promise funding. If you do not reach your goal you get nothing.

Anyway Pebble was seeking $100,000 and so far has raised $1.5 million and growing. Early investors, for a set sum, get a slight discount on one of the watches. The Pebble can support multiple apps and operating systems and communicates with the smartphone via Bluetooth. A similar technology is used in rival products such as the Garmin S3 Golf Watch, among others.

A Crab Computer?
Author Sir. Terry Pratchett has developed computer that runs on ants in several of his Discworld novels, and now it appears that Japanese scientists have taken it one better and developed one that runs on crabs.

Maybe runs on crabs is a bit too inexact, let’s say that live crabs are used as logic gates in the system developed by scientists at Kobe University. I wonder how you go to get a project like this funded? Hey I think crabs are better then microcircuits and they have less gate leakage? Anyway drop over to Gizmag and see if you can figure out what they did.

Research-in-Motion hires firm for restructuring help
RIM, the company that makes the BlackBerry has hired the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy LLP to develop a restructuring plan for the company according to Yahoo! News. RIM is looking at a variety of options including the possibility that it might sell off some of its assets, developing joint ventures or engage in the very popular patent sell off.


Gemini Devices delivers inexpensive tablets-in UK market
While there is a growing wave of high end tablets, and two more are expected this week, there are alternatives for users that have simpler needs or a constrained pocketbook, and Gemini Devices is looking to meet your needs.

The company offers a series of JoyTAB tablets that include two 10-inch models, a 7-inch and an 8-inch JoyTAB. They have last generation technology for the most part, with single core CPUs and lower resolution screens than what are coming out now. The do have the latest version of the Android operating system, v 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

With a starting price of around $200 for the 7-inch color model they might make a good solution for users that have simpler needs than the users that want/need all the bells and whistles associated with the iPads and others of that ilk.

Xtex has an even less expensive Tablet-and lackluster reviews
The $200 JoyTAB too rich for your blood? Well there is the $150 Xtex My Tablet 7, a 7-inch color tablet that also uses older technology to hit a low price point. The tablet includes a single core processor and has an 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Chris Burns at Slashgear has taken one for a test ride and warns that you will get what you pay for.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apps, Garmin, iPhone, Kickstarter, Kindle, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Startup, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , ,

Niners CEO Jed York Tweets: Networking Vendor Brocade is New Stadium ‘Networking Partner’

April 20, 2012 by

No more details than what we know on Twitter, but according to Niners CEO Jed York, networking vendor Brocade is the first “networking sponsor” of the new Niners stadium. The team broke ground for the new facility on Thursday, digging those ceremonial shovelfuls in the shadow of Great America in the Silicon Valley city of Santa Clara.

Here’s York’s tweet:

No word yet whether or not Brocade will be the title sponsor of the stadium but it is a huge loss for networking vendor competitor Cisco Systems, whose main campus is right down the street from the new stadium site. Brocade’s main Silicon Valley office is also close to the new Niners stadium. But this is a potentially big loss for Cisco, which has been trying to find a place at the forefront of Bay Area sports (you may remember Cisco’s failed efforts to help build a new stadium for the Oakland A’s in the East Bay city of Fremont) and has a special business group dedicated to building out in-stadium networks.

More as we hear more. Anyone inside Brocade (or Cisco), please let us know what you are hearing.

UPDATE: We replyed to Jed’s tweet, asking for more details… not much yet apparently. But it sure sounds network-based to us:

Filed Under: Cisco, NFL, Wi-Fi

Recon and Partners Show off Heads Up Display Technology at TELUS

April 20, 2012 by

If you are lucky enough to be at the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival 2012 being held this weekend in Whistler, B.C. you can get a first look at goggles that do now most of what Google is seeking to do with its Project Glass effort, courtesy of Recon Instruments.

We have written about Recon before, and even mentioned them yesterday in a piece on Oakley creating projection glasses, and the company appears to have a lap on the competition in the area of developing sports glasses that have display and interconnect capabilities.

Now the company is giving a sneak preview of some unreleased products that will not be available to the general public until next ski season, but if you have the chance we recommend taking a look, either at the festival if you are one of the lucky few, or at a local ski shop for current versions of the technology.

The reason for the enthusiasm is that it increasingly appears that this type of technology may be heading towards the mainstream, and as often is the case, it is niche markets that will lead the way. Do you want to find out if glasses that provide a range of features from music to navigation will affect your concentration? Well here is your chance to find out. It is one thing to have a connected item such as a watch but another world when the item is glasses, or in this case goggles.

Back to Recon; they will be showing the unreleased Recon ready Scott NAV-R 2 Goggle that is designed to fit the Recon GPS Micro Optics Display, the MOD and MOD Live. The MOD products incorporate Recon’s Heads Up Display (HUD) technology. MOD Live can provide a variety of sets of feedback data such as jump analytics and speed as well as connect to a smartphone for calls and music playlists.

So head on over and take a gander, or you can always wander over to the company’s site and examine the technology there instead, you could be ahead of the wave of the future.

Filed Under: Contests, Google, Recon Instruments, Skiing Tagged With: ,
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