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Watching Golf this Week: The U.S. Open, Philly Style

June 12, 2013 by

US Open MerionAre you ready for 2013 Major No. 2? The big daddy of them all? I truly can’t wait for this one to start, because I feel like we all sorta got cheated at the Masters. I mean — lost in the hubbub of the Tiger Drop Crisis was the fact that the dude was just about ready to take the lead and start stomping everyone.

And then the ball hit the pole. And went into the drink. And then the wheels came off.

As play starts today outside Philadelphia at the quirky old Merion East course (Anyone else think the logo featuring the pole-baskets looks like a freaking bloody Q-tip?) all eyes rightfully will be on Tiger Woods, and his quest for Major No. 15. Nobody else really matters right now, and nobody this year is truly playing at his level. But one thing is for sure, the “new” Tiger isn’t anything like the old — over the last year or so he has shown a tendancy to choke on the weekends at majors, something he never did before. And the rest of the guys playing? They’ve gotten better.

What does that mean for Tiger? It means his margin of error is much slimmer than it was when he was the only guy on the tour who looked like an athlete. Now there’s lots of them. He used to be by far the farthest hitter, now he’s about top average. There are new foreign foes like Graeme McDowell, who aren’t going to be intimidated by Tiger the way the U.S. Tour guys used to be. With its tight layout and wet conditions Merion is probably going to be a birdie fest, so no more rope-a-dope par fests like last year at Olympic. There’s going to be room to make shots here, so let’s get it on. Having just watched the Blackhawks beat the Bruins in triple overtime in the Stanley Cup opener, I’m ready for more drama and lore. Don’t let us down, Tiger. Or whoever wants to keep Tiger’s majorless streak going.

ESPN has your live TV Thursday and Friday, our suggestion is mute when Berman starts talking, unmute when Van Pelt has the mike. NBC gets the weekend, with lots of online viewing available at USOpen.com or via the U.S. Open app, which beats pants off the PGA Tour app (which still doesn’t really work on all Android phones). WatchESPN and ESPNRadio also available online.

THE U.S. OPEN

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, June 13 — ESPN, 9 a.m. — 3 p.m.; 5 p.m. — 7 p.m.; NBC, 3 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Friday, June 14 — ESPN, 9 a.m. — 3 p.m.; 5 p.m. — 7 p.m.; NBC, 3 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Saturday, June 15 — NBC, 1 p.m. — 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 16 — NBC, 1 p.m. — 7:30 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 4 p.m., Thursday; 12 p.m. — 5 p.m, Friday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

ESPN RADIO
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m. — 8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

NEW! PGA TOUR RADIO!
This a better deal for those not living in the U.S., because it’s free internationally. Inside the U.S. you will pay (due to rights fees) $1.99 per event or $9.99 for the whole year. Gives you the CBS feed, audio version. Click here for more info and payment plans for your area.

ONLINE
The U.S. Open site at USOpen.com has live online coverage with featured groups.
Thursday groups:
7:11 a.m. – Marquee Group 1 (Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Keegan Bradley)
1:14 p.m. – Marquee Group 2 (Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott)
Friday groups:
7:44 a.m. – Marquee Group 1 (Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott)
12:41 p.m. – Marquee Group 2 (Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Keegan Bradley)

Featured groups on the weekend, TBD.

There are also mobile apps for iOS and Android.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Here’s the USGA Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The U.S. Open 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. Now leading the Wei (hah!) with Google+ Hangouts during most tourneys.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.
Matt Ginella is a former Golf Digest writer now at Golf Channel. Your guide to the best golf course reviews, evar. Plus great columnist-type commentary on a regular basis.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
If you haven’t heard about good old Merion and the baskets on the flagpoles you’ve been under a rock the past week. Here’s a great lengthy takeout on Merion’s East Course from the folks at SBNation.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
The Birdman! Excuse me, it was Webb Simpson, with an assist from Jim Furyk.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, ESPN Radio, Golf, PGA, Tiger Woods, US Open, WatchESPN, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Tablet Ownership Soars according to Pew Research

June 12, 2013 by

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If it seems like an ever increasing number of your friends are using tablets, and possible multiple ones, your impressions are accurate according to a report from research company Pew Reserch Center’s Pew Internet effort.

The report has a great deal of interesting data but one piece that really leaps out is the owner demographics, which are much different from other emerging technologies such as smartphones, which are traditionally adopted first by a younger age group, in smartphones case the 18-34 year segment.

Tablet ownership trend to an older demographic with adults in the 35-44 age group being very strongly represented with an almost 50% ownership level. While the report does not mention it I suspect that a leading reason is that while tablet popularity is new, there have been numerous attempts over the last two decades to introduce them as a mainstream product and so people in this group are both familiar with the idea, and now see it as an extension of both PCs and smartphones.

According to the study the three groups that are most likely to own a tablet are those living in households that make at least $75,000 a year (56%) compared to lower income; Adults age 35-44 (49%) compared with older and younger adults and college graduates (49%).

The report goes on to break down the demographics in a great deal more detail including parental status, gender, and race/ethnicity. One of the interesting outtakes is that according to the report there are no statistically significant differences in tablet ownership between men and women, or between members of different racial or ethnic groups.

I suspect that tablets will continue to see a huge adoption rate, in part because they are replacing notebooks but more so because the quality is increasing at the low end. There are now $100 offerings that would serve quite well as a device to use as a second screen, so that you can track what is happening at another sports event and then switch over to catch key moments.

As they continue to drop in price I believe that users will start having multiple tablets with a high end model replacing a computer and a low cost, entry level model dedicated for a single purpose, such as next to the TV or for trips where you fear it may be lost or damaged.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Tablets Tagged With: ,

NCAA.Com Provides 2013 College World Series App

June 11, 2013 by

cws

If you are fan of college baseball, baseball in general or a school that made the College World Series then the NCAA has an app for you that will help you stay abreast of what is going on, what has happened and when things will be happening.

The 2013 NCAA Men’s College World Series will run from June 15 through either the 25th or 26th depending on results and will take place in Omaha. SO chances are that you might not have factored that into your summer vacation plans, but if you did not, or if you are attending the app has plenty for all.

The NCAA Men’s College World Series app is free and there are versions for iPhone, iPod touch as well as select Android devices. While the app provides a host of information on the tournament as well as an interactive map of the tournament site and a visitors guide to the city of Omaha.

Among the features the app includes are a daily event schedule with times, locations, directions/maps and lists of all the tournament’s festivities, live scores of all games and general information about the tournament and site.

Other features include real-time game highlights, post game post-game photo galleries, press conferences and editorial content about the tournament.

It seems that the NCAA is moving more into the mobile world every year. Earlier this year it featured an app for March Madness and had huge numbers in terms of viewership. It is unlikely that the baseball one will reach that level for a variety of reasons but increasingly the league is developing alternatives for fans that are on the go. As with the March Madness app the NCAA.com worked with Turner Sports on the program.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA.com, Smartphone, Tablets, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , ,

Apple Shows iOS7, OSX and iTunes Radio at WWDC

June 10, 2013 by

wwdc

Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference opened today at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the company’s CEO Tim Cook took center stage to talk about what the company’s near term plans are and to drop hints about what it might do in the long run.

There had already been a host of hints about what the company would discuss, focused primarily on the software side with a new iOS and a new OS for computers online. The questions people had were about a possible music service and if there was going to be any solid news about hardware such as next generation iPads and iPhones.

The issue that Apple increasingly faces at this event, and for that matter at any event at which it makes an announcement is that there is a sense of over anticipation among the company’s fans and it is increasingly hard to have blockbuster after blockbuster announcements

Apple opened the show with its usual retail update and one set of numbers really stands out of you are an app developer looking at this platform. Apple has 575 million online accounts and it has paid app developers $10 billion over the last five years, reportedly that is 3X more than all of the other platforms combined. The company’s game center has 240 million users. 600 million iOS devices sold.

Mac sales are up 100% in the last year, compared to only 18% for PCs. The company introduced its latest upgrade to its computer operating system, OSX Mavericks. It has, as expected a host of new features including CPU optimization, compressed memory that enables apps to start much faster, iBooks, Maps, and the ability to merge multiple windows.

The operating system is available now for developers and for the general public this fall. There is also a new line of MacBook Airs with a huge increase in batter life due to using the Haswell processor, all available now while a sneak peak at forthcoming Mac Pro desktops was also provided.

The company showed iWorks for iCloud that enables users to create and format documents in your browser, and it supports drag and drop. It is in beta now and should be available by the end of the year.

The latest mobile operating system, iOS 7 was also introduced at the show. It starts out with a basic new look with redesigned icons and what is referred to as a flatter look. That is just on top, it has been redesigned to have distinct layers of functionality that help with order and establish a hierarchy.

An interesting twist is that in the future you will be able to get iOS in your future car as at least 12 automakers have agreed to integrated the OS by the end of next year. It can get maps, make calls and play music, just as you would expect.

A few of the new features include multitasking supported by all apps, folders now support multiple pages so they can store more apps. New access to Control Center, you just simply swipe up from the bottom of the device as well as faster access to Wi-Fi. It has the ability to judge apps that you use more, or use at specific times of day to enable them faster.

New organization and added filters for photos and it can now share video with iCloud. New updated version of Siri of course including a male voice, information from Twitter, Bing and Wikipedia has been integrated.

iTunes radio was introduced and is built into the music app, with features such as one tap purchase of songs and the ability to share music with friends and create your own stations. Another new iTunes feature is that it will no longer notify you when apps need updating, it will just do it automatically.

Other software news was that the new iOS 7 will be supported by iPhones 4 and later and iPad 2 and later. There are 1,500 new APIs for developers and the final release of the operating system will be this fall.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, iOS 7, iPad, iPhone, OSX, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Watch NBA Finals on Select Mobile Devices: New Rival to Google Glass

June 7, 2013 by

Just a reminder that with the NBA Finals now being fought out on the court you can still watch the games if you are not in front of your television on ABC. Well on most but not all mobile devices. For users of Apple’s iPhone and iPad there is an app at the iTunes store.

There is also an app for users of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Viewers using laptops as well as desktop computers can log into ABC.com. Looks like Android users are out in the cold on this for some reason. This is all part of a free access preview running through the end of June.

Asus fights for tablet share with low cost Memo Pad HD7
Asustek’s latest offering is a 7-inch tablet that could create demand for lower cost offerings in the tablet space. The $129 Asus Memo Pad HD7 has a 7-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution and it includes a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and a 5 MP rear facing camera. Depending on market it will be available with either 8GB or 16GB (at $149) of storage.

The company also delivered a 10-inch tablet this week, the 10-inch Transformer Pad Infinity that has the Android 4.2 operating system and is powered by a quad-core Tegra processor. It also features a 2048 x 1600 resolution display. Pricing is not yet available according to Arnnet.com.

Intel invests in gesture control technology developer Thalmic Lab
There has been a great deal of talk about the advent of wearable computing devices, from smartwatches to Google Glass and Intel does not want to miss out on the fun. It has joined an investment round to provide $14.5 million in Series A funding to Thalmic Labs.

Thalmic Labs has developed a wearable gesture control device called MYO and said that it will use the funding, which came from a round that was led by Intel Capital and Spark Capital and included Formation 8, First Round Capital and FundersClub, along with the following individual investors: Paul Graham, Marc Benioff, Geoff Ralston, Sam Altman, Garry Tan, Fritz Lanman, Hank Vigil, Tom Wagner, Alex Bard, Michael Litt and Daniel Debow.

Intel will provide access to manufacturing and technology to Thalmic to help it both scale production of its existing devices as well as develop future generations.

Rivals to Google Glass starting to emerge
At the annual Computex trade show a developer called Oculon Optoelectronics surface, that has a rival product to Google Glass that Oculon calls Oculon Smart Glasses. It claims that they will have better battery life, a better display and will cost less, around $500. Well that is settled.

Google Glass is not the first time a developer has created a wearable computer in the form of glasses, although Google’s effort is by far the largest and best financed effort. I wonder if developers that once sneered at the idea of a tablet now want to try and be in front of the acceptance curve rather than behind it and so are working to have products out simultaneously with Google so as to not initially surrender the market?

Filed Under: ABC, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Google, Intel, Intel Capital, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

New iPhone App Designed to Help Golfers’ Short Game

June 5, 2013 by

strack

All golfers have a part (or parts) of their game that vexes them continually. Short off the tee, poor game in the rough or in the sand, you name an area and someone has trouble with it, but it often seems that putting is where many are found to throw their clubs.

The problems can be from just having a case of the yips to misreading the green. Now StrackaLine has developed an app for iPhones, iPods and iPads that it believes will help with at least on part of the problem, reading the green.

The StrackaLine app features the topography of hundreds of course and used 3D laser technology to collect the data from every green on those courses. It has the ability to calculate the users’ position and proper putting line in real time.

It provides a 2D and 3D view of each putting green that features Fall Line arrows that will tell you the shape of the green so that you can figure the proper line. The app features a demo mode that users can play with to see how it works. The demo mode features holes from a number of famous courses including Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, and Torrey Pines.

The company is just getting started and so there is obviously a huge number of courses that have not yet been scanned, so remember this when you are purchasing the $19.99 app. It currently includes 30 courses that are on the PGA Pro tour. While only available for the Apple iOS platform the company said that it will have an Android version available, but not until next year.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golf, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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