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Archives for 2012

Sponsor Post: Have You Tried PlayUp?

April 9, 2012 by

If you like talking about sports online with your friends — or with other fans, or even professional athletes — you should give the PlayUp fan interaction app a try. During the recent NCAA Final Four weekend PlayUp had some former NCAA stars on its site holding court, chatting back and forth with fans online.

If you like to Tweet or text message during a game, download PlayUp and give it a try the next time around. I found it more responsive and more direct than wading through Twitter traffic. You can click here to download the app for your iPhone.

(PlayUp is a sponsor of Mobile Sports Report.)

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, PlayUp

What’s a Picture Worth? To Facebook, $1 Billion as it Buys Instagram

April 9, 2012 by

Social media powerhouse Facebook has purchased Instagram in a combination cash and stock deal that is valued at $1 billion. Instagram is a photo sharing site that permits users to share photos with their friends.

While some have seen Instagram as a potential rival to Facebook and others just a flash in the pan the deal is the biggest in Facebook’s history by a large margin and will help expand its already enormous reach in the social media space.

Instagram had been only available on Apple’s iPhones until just last week when the platform moved to the Android platform where it was greeted with a tremendous rush of downloads and usage by an entire new group of users.

Facebook made it clear to customers wondering if it would just assimilate the company that the answer was no, but that it would use some of its technology in Facebook going forward. Instagram is expected to continue to operate, and develop, as an independent company.

I wonder if this will really add that much to the Facebook empire. When Yahoo was still a high flying company back in 1999 it purchased one of the most popular Internet portal sites, GeoCities, for $3.6 billion in a deal what looked like it would greatly enhance Yahoo’s position as a portal site. You may well as ask what is a portal site now.

A user can already post a photo pretty easily to Facebook, maybe not with the bells and whistles that come with Instagram but still pretty quickly. Now with some f those bells & whistles incorporated into Facebook, will there be a need for an independent Instagram in the long run? I bet no.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, Yahoo Tagged With: , , ,

Microsoft to buy $1 Billion in AOL Patents

April 9, 2012 by

Patent protection is apparently the name of the game these days in the high tech world, and if so Microsoft just bought itself a chuck of protection in a deal with AOL that will give Microsoft 800 patents for approximately $1 billion.

The patents were sold after an auction in which other major consumer electronics and social media players reportedly participated. The deal is expected to close by year end 2012 and AOL said that it intends to pass a large portion of the sales down to shareholders. As part of the deal Microsoft is buying a business unit of AOL.

Patents are increasingly being used as a weapon against competitors, either being used to ban their products such as what Apple, Samsung, Motorola and others are doing in various places around the globe or being leveraged for financial purposes, such as Motorola demanding $4 billion a year in royalties from Microsoft.

This growing use of patents has lead to a number of major players making big buys similar to what Microsoft has done here. The Google $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility for example; Facebook recently purchased 750 patents from IBM and Sony and Apple gained a huge number of new patents via their $4.5 billion purchase of Nortel Networks.

From reports this looks like the bulk of the patents that AOL currently holds. It said that the company retains approximately 300 patents including ones in advertising, search and mapping. Microsoft will grant the company a license to the purchased patents as well.

I wonder what companies will feel Microsoft’s wrath in the patent market space. I believe that they must have had talks with AOL about what patents will protect them from rivals and which ones AOL believes are currently being violated. Stay tuned because it has probably never been a better time to be a patent or intellectual property lawyer.

Filed Under: Apple, Google, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Yahoo Tagged With: , , ,

Want Golf Tips from Paul Azinger? Here You Go

April 9, 2012 by

Dropped into Starbucks for a refresher to keep my caffeine level stable and noticed that the free iTunes Pick of the Week was not a song but rather a sports app. To be specific it was “Golfplan with Paul Azinger” and its tagline was- Personalized tips from the Ryder Cup Captain.

Since my game needs all of the help it can get, even though in the wet, wintery area I live in its unlikely that I will be on the links anytime soon, I gave the app the quick one over to see if it looked like it should join the increasingly crowded area on my phone dedicated to sports apps.

The program can be used with or without a second app called Gameshot and has a number of training categories that enable a user to focus on the areas that matter the most to them and their game. They include Driving, greens in regulation, short game, bunkers and putting. Nothing about hitting from the rough, my specialty?

What really grabbed my interest was the large number of videos that are included in the app-63 in all if my count is correct. The program received a very solid rating from users that have already downloaded and used the program, 4 out of 5 overall and slightly higher with the latest version.

On iTunes the program has a listed price of $4.99 but is free with the little card that is available where you pick up your fancy drinks. It is available for both iPads and iPhones.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Golf, iPad, iPhone, Paul Azinger, PGA Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Padfone Tablet Near?

April 9, 2012 by

Microsoft obviously realizes two major hurdles exist in front of its push to get its Windows Phone to become an established, viable player in the smartphone space. It is way behind in the app space, and it needs apps to succeed.

So it is doing what you would expect from a company that has the vast resources of Microsoft, it is launching a variety of efforts to get developers to commit to creating apps for the platform, including paying them for the work, according to The New York Times.

The software company has a number of incentives that range from funding the development of apps, prime placement in its app store, free equipment and others. The company has also established a major app development effort with Nokia.

Problems pile up for Motorola- could this kill the merger?
First off it is investigating Motorola Mobility in two separate for using legal injunctions against Apple and Microsoft to gain an edge in the market. This investigation is rooted in complaints that both companies filed against Motorola.

Part of the question that the EU will look at is did Motorola break promises with standards setting organizations and if it offered unfair licensing conditions for its standard-essential patents. Fines for this violation can be substantial.

Then there is an apparent demand for $4 billion dollars annually as royalty payments made by Motorola to Microsoft to use its patents in the Xbox that is being heard in a US court. Microsoft is retaliating by asking a judge to block the importation of Motorola phones due to patent violations.

The net result of these and China’s delaying in giving regulatory approval to the deal is that Motorola investors are getting nervous, according to the Business Insider. Shares have been dropping in the past weeks due to the delays. However in a note on Google’s Investor Page, CEO Larry Page has a long note that mentions the Motorola deal in very positive terms and that he has great expectations for the deal.

Asus taking Padfone preorders
Asus is now taking orders for its hybrid table called the Padfone. The device has two main components. The first is smartphone that is powered by a a Snapdragon S4 dual core 1.5GHz processor running the latest version of the Android operating system, v. 4.0

Then there is a 10-inch tablet that has a docking bay for the phone, with the phones processor running the tablet. I will be very interested to see how this works because a user could then leverage their cell phone data plan on the tablet, and so not need two plans. Pricing and delivery date have not yet been announced although it is expected later this month.

Samsung’s Galaxy Notes hits 5 million in sales
When I saw the Galaxy Note at CES I was sure it would not be a winner. It was kind of a jackalope, neither a phone nor a tablet, and too big for one purpose and too small for the other IMHO. This wisdom is why I am not rich. The company, which had a record breaking quarter, sold 5 million of the devices.

Now some might point out that Apple sold 3 million of its new iPads in just three days, and that is all good and true. But this is not the only arrow in Samsung’s quiver, and the company has a range of tablets, and smartphones available. Its creative thinking looks to make it a true force to be dealt with in both market segments.

Tablet and smartphone owners multitask with TV
One of the latest news reports from Nielsen shows that globally 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners said that they used their device at least once in a 30 day period while watching television.

In the United States 26% said that they used their tablet multiple times a day when watching television and 27% said that they did so with their smartphones. Those numbers were roughly double that of those who said that they never did.

The top purpose was to view e-mail, both during the actual broadcasts and during the commercial breaks. A popular alternative was to check out information related to ether the program, or good news for advertisers, looking up information on products shown during commercial breaks.

Apple closing on facial recognition software?
A new patent that Apple as filed for shows that the company is developing features that will enable control of an iOS device via facial recognition. The patent lists a method to create an automatic user-switching system which can lock, unlock, as well as reconfigure a device for users based on face detection using a front-facing camera.

As discussed in Ars technica the patent, “Electronic Device Operation Adjustment Based On Face Detection” it has the ability to lock out unauthorized users as well as be set for specific preferences. There is already a facial unlock feature on the Android side in v. 4.0.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Google, iPad, iPhone, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Tablets, The New York Times, Uncategorized

Your Post-Masters Reads, Bubba Edition

April 8, 2012 by

Who’da thunk it? Not Bubba Watson, after pushing his drive into the pines on the second hole of sudden death. But one super-fade for a lefty and two putts later, Bubba Watson is your Masters champ. If you want some good recaps and opinions in words, we offer you these three takes:

One, the play by play. If you follow this blog you know we are big fans of Stephanie Wei, who writes for seemingly every publication out there but most directly for Sports Illustrated and the Wall Street Journal. She also has her own blog, Wei under Par, and her play by play take from Sunday’s final 90 minutes will bring all the thrills back:

Stephanie Wei: Ninety Minutes of Tension

My old friend Christine Brennan of USA Today has been all over the shameful stance the Masters has taken over whether or not it deems women acceptable as members. Her column on Bubba’s pink-hued win is a great deadline take. Take it away, Christine:

Christine Brennan, USA Today: Go-for-broke ways work for Bubba Watson

If you haven’t tuned in to the Augusta-vs.-women controversy, this column from Jason Gay at the Wall Street Journal puts it in great perspective. Here’s the money line from his essay about why we all shouldn’t just ignore this topic:

Beyond the fierce protectors, there’s a substantial, soft middle population of patrons and sponsors who may agree that women belong in Augusta, but are too enchanted by the Masters to push. This charming environment of white-painted cabins and $1.50 pimento cheese sandwiches makes it easy to turn down the common sense, and resist rocking the boat. That is how exclusion survives.

It’s long past time for us all to give this topic the same amount of attention we give Masters golf. Read on:

Jason Gay, Wall Street Journal: A Tradition That Needs to Change

And, if you need video highlights Geoff Schackelford has a roundup of all you need.

Filed Under: CBS Sports, The Masters Tagged With: , ,
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