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CBSSports.com Delivers Updated Mobile App in time for March Madness

March 14, 2013 by

cbs

CBSSports.com has updated its mobile app with enhanced features that enables avid fans of the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, and even just casual observers, to follow the tournament, get insight into games and map out their bracket strategy.

This is not its first shot at delivering an app for the tournament but the company has completely redesigned the program to provide an enhanced experience for people that follow the event on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as via a web site.

At the most basic level the redesigned CBS Sports mobile app provides instant access to brackets and access to insight from experts on which teams to pick, which as even the most casual fan knows is of all importance during the tournament, for bragging rights if nothing else.

However the app, available for both Android and Apple iOS device users is not just a static data program but provides a host of other features including featuring live access to all CBSSports.com bracket games (iOS users only), tweets from other game that are currently ongoing as well as updates and final scores as they are warranted.

It provides fans with several options in the area of brackets including allowing a user to enter the Bracket Challenge where a user can have as many as three brackets and competes with others who enter the event. There is also a tool called Bracket Manager that is designed to help create and manage bracket groups that you might want to form with friends or coworkers. For Users whose picking skills are similar to mine there is also something called Round by Round that permits fans to pick each of the six rounds, eliminating “busted” brackets.

For those who cannot wait for the tournament the app also provides coverage of this weekend’s Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament Semifinals and Championship on Saturday and Sunday.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Basketball, CBS Sports, Contests, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com Tagged With: , , , , ,

Android Tablets See Growth at iPad’s Expense

March 13, 2013 by
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

The market for tablets is changing as both Android-powered devices gather additional market share and the smaller form factor tablets, sub-8 inches, are seeing extremely strong growth, according to the most recent study from market research from International Data Corp.

Overall the tablet market is strong and growing, and IDC has upgraded its forecast to reflect this trend, now estimating that there will be 190.9 million, up from its previous forecast of 172.4 million units sold in 2013. It is also expecting the market to grow at an average increase of 11% a year between 2013 and 2016, with estimated shipments in 2017 to reach 350 million units according to the company’s most recent Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

Smaller form factor tablets, those smaller than 8 inches, now account for half of all tablet sales and it expects that this trend will continue as consumers have found that smaller tablets often work better for daily usage compared to their larger brethren.

Tablets powered by the Android operating system grew its market share to 48.8% of the market, at the expense of Apple’s iPad family which witnessed a 5% market share drop to 46% of the market. However both are expected to see continual share erosion going forward as Windows, which combined RT and Pro, will gain an estimated 4.7% of the market this year but should grow to 10.1% by 2017, according to the report.

Another loser is ereaders, which are expected to lose market share due to the growing presence of low cost tablets that can both serve as an ereader and for a wide variety of additional uses as well. IDC has reduced its forecast by an average of 14% a year between 2013 and 2016. It estimates that there was 26.4 million sold in 2011 and that number represents the platform’s peak, declining to 18.2 million the following year. IDC expects modest gains this year and next before a permanent decline sets in.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Google, iOS, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

BuddyTV Seeks To Ease March Madness Viewing

March 11, 2013 by

MarchMadness (3)

BuddyTV, a developer that creates apps that help provide television viewers with up to date guides of what is and will be on has updated its app to help viewers looking to chart out their March Madness viewing agenda.

With conferences just finishing their tournaments the NCAA selection committee will announce its selections on March 17 and then the chaos begins, along with the grousing about how tough your teams bracket is and how weak your arch rivals’ bracket looks.

To help fans sort through the various channels and times that the games will be played BuddyTV has developed the March Madness Quick List as a tool to help fans find their way and not miss games that they want to see.
The feature, part of an upgrade to its mobile app that is available for Android and iOS devices, will list all the upcoming game air times, channels and stations in chronological order as well as the few remaining regular season games as well.

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The app will update the schedule the day after games are finished to keep it up to date for users. It also has the ability to be customized so that fans can track the teams or conferences that interest them in the tournament including adding reminders in case you forget an important starting time.

The feature is part of the latest release of the free app that now has an updated user interface, a few bug fixes and support for Apple’s iPhone 5, as well as performance enhancements that has made it a speedier app to use.

The app lists not only broadcast television but also cable such as Comcast and Time Warner as well as Dish, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and Amazon. There is also a web site that features information on the tournament as well as television news, program spoilers and other listings.

Filed Under: NCAA Hoops Tagged With: , , , , ,

NL West Leads MLB Stadium Wi-Fi Scorecard, with 4 out of 5 Teams Offering Network Service to Fans

March 11, 2013 by

The Giants' Bill Schlough in front of some hard-working wireless network hardware. Credit: John Britton, AT&T.

The Giants’ Bill Schlough in front of some hard-working wireless network hardware. Credit: John Britton, AT&T.

Welcome to the spring training version of Mobile Sports Report’s annual roundup of Major League Baseball stadium Wi-Fi networks, where we tabulate which teams have networks for fan use. By our count, the National League West division is the sport’s network-savviest, as four out of the five teams — San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Arizona — will have free in-stadium Wi-Fi service for fans this season. For the entire major leagues, our research found 10 11 12 stadiums that definitely have Wi-Fi, two that are “maybes,” and 16 that don’t have public Wi-Fi service available. But just like baseball, which hasn’t started its regular season yet, we’re expecting our lineup to change before the games that count start.

FIRST UPDATE: Thanks to Jeff Baumgartner over at Light Reading, we have proof that Philadelphia and Citizens Bank Park can be added to the “has Wi-Fi” list, thanks to some work by hometown provider Comcast and equipment partner Cisco. Check out the great slideshow Jeff put together.

SECOND UPDATE: Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, has Wi-Fi. More on this soon, but we have it from the horse’s mouth so we are moving the Friendly Confines to the “yes” list.

THIRD UPDATE: Maybe we shouldn’t count Dodgers Stadium yet, since the Wi-Fi service has yet to be launched according to this report from the LA Daily News. Will the lack of Wi-Fi keep the Dodgers from getting All-Star votes?

For the record, here are the 12 teams with networks that we can verify, some of which (like the Dodgers) are coming online for the first time in the 2013 season: San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox. The two “maybes” are the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets, which are supposed to have networks but as of this writing we can’t confirm services are available.

Why do we have “maybes,” you ask? Since this research was done completely online and on the weekend, we haven’t had a chance to contact teams directly for confirmation of services. And it’s pretty apparent to us that MLB and the teams do a good job of obfuscating whether or not there is Wi-Fi at the park — some of the teams that have networks don’t list the service anywhere on their MLB-approved team home page. In the weeks between now and the start of the season, we’ll try to figure out our maybes, and maybe add a few more teams in case deals get done before Opening Day. Anyone with definitive knowledge that differs from our totals, please feel free to contribute with a comment or a tweet to me, @paulkaps, with a verifiable link. Any fixes or adds, we’ll salute with a retweet and a hearty well done.

WHY WI-FI DEALS AREN’T PUBLICIZED

As an outlet that humbly boasts having stadium Wi-Fi news and analysis that is the equal of anyone else’s out there, we’re not that surprised that even some teams with networks are keeping things under wraps a bit. Some of that has to do with the secrecy that sometimes surrounds the contracts behind the deals; cellular service providers, for example, might not want to overly publicize the fact that they are subsidizing Wi-Fi at one stadium, since then others will want the same sweet deal. The Dodgers’ planned network, for example, is touted as being built by the Dodgers and MLB’s Advanced Media division — hiding from view whoever the service provider and equipment partners are (we suspect Time-Warner Cable and Cisco, but can’t verify).

The other reason why teams might not want to shout out loud about their Wi-Fi? In case they are worried about performance is one reason. Since these networks are notoriously hard to deploy and operate, if you are new to the Wi-Fi game you might not want to advertise it too heavily. But we expect that will change in the near future as more fans demand connectivity, and as Major League Baseball pushes its teams to all install networks so that MLBAM can sell more of its single, league-approved mobile app.

But on to the stats! Among the gems we uncovered was that among service providers backing networks AT&T had the most with four (San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago Cubs and Arizona) while Verizon has one (San Diego), along with Time-Warner Cable (Houston), Boingo (Chicago) and CenturyLink (Minnesota). Among equipment providers with announced deals we have Cisco at two and Meru Networks at two (Washington and Boston), though we suspect Cisco is behind more deals (like LA’s) as a silent partner. Interestingly, Cisco also has already partnered with AT&T to do StadiumVision video deals in Yankee Stadium and Kansas City, so don’t be surprised to see Wi-Fi networks from the same partners in those facilities sometime soon.

Below is our list of stadiums with yes/no on Wi-Fi fan networks, and some news links we’ve scoured. Again, this is a working post so please — especially if you are with a team, provider or vendor — send us a message if you see an error. Remember, errors are part of baseball! And enjoy your Wi-Fi at the game this season.

MOBILE SPORTS REPORT MLB STADIUM WI-FI ROSTER, 2013 SEASON

NL WEST

YES:
San Franisco Giants, AT&T Park
The Giants, namesake sponsor AT&T and team tech wizard Bill Schlough are recognized widely as the Wi-Fi and in-stadium network leaders not just in baseball, but probably in all of sports and stadiums. Here’s our profile of the Giants from last year.

Los Angeles Dodgers, Dodger Stadium
As part of the team’s $100 million stadium renovation, Dodgers fans get Wi-Fi this season.

UPDATE: According to the Long Beach Press-Telegraph, the Wi-Fi and cell improvements won’t be live on opening day. Too bad.

San Diego Padres, Petco Park
This one was news to us — but it looks like fans in San Diego will finally get Wi-Fi in their park, thanks to Verizon’s first baseball play.

Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field
Another AT&T network, Chase Field has had Wi-Fi for some time now. They even have one of the better apps pages.

NO:

Colorado Rockies, Coors Field

NL CENTRAL

YES

Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field
AT&T has helped the Cubs build Wi-Fi in Wrigley. More on the details soon.
NO:

St. Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium

Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park

Pittsburgh Pirates, PNC Park

Cincinnati Reds, Great American Ball Park

NL EAST

YES:

Atlanta Braves, Turner Field
Another AT&T network.

Washington Nationals, Nationals Park
Reportedly, this was one of the first 802.11n networks, thanks to gear from startup Meru Networks. However, we can’t find an official link on the Nationals home page, making us wonder if this service still exists. Natitude fans, what say you?

UPDATE 2: Nats are getting a Wi-Fi upgrade, thanks to Comcast. No word if Meru is still the AP vendor.

Philadelphia Phillies, Citizens Bank Park
See Light Reading’s excellent slide show cataloging Comcast’s Wi-Fi plans at its hometown park.

MAYBE:

New York Mets, Citi Field
Does it or doesn’t it? No answer on the Mets’ website, but the new place was supposed to have a Wi-Fi network… of course that was before its supplier, Nortel Networks, went out of business.

NO:
Miami Marlins, Marlins Park
No Wi-Fi, though Marlins Park does have a new DAS install which helps cellular reception.

AL WEST

YES:
Houston Astros, Minute Maid Park
The refugees from the NL are the only park that we can tell has tried to charge for services — wondering if this info about a $3.95 cost for four hours airtime still exists. Houstonites? Yea or nay? This is a Time-Warner Cable/Cisco deal.

MAYBE:

Seattle Mariners, Safeco Field
All we could find were some references to Seattle’s Nintendo having sponsored a Wi-Fi network for gaming. No sign that it still exists or has been replaced. Hello Microsoft? No network for the home of Windows Phones? For shame.

NO:

Oakland A’s, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Texas Rangers, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Angel Stadium

AL CENTRAL

YES:

Minnesota Twins, Target Field
Good writeup from our friends at SportTechie.

Chicago White Sox, U.S. Cellular Field
This one courtesy of the folks from Boingo.

NO:

Detroit Tigers, Comerica Park
No fan network, though we like this picture showing SSIDs and passwords for the media networks. Hope those settings have been changed.

Cleveland Indians, Progressive Field
No stadium-wide network, but the Indians at least have a social media suite with Wi-Fi. What, only a few people in Cleveland use social media?

AL EAST

YES:

Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park
Here’s our profile of the Meru win at historic Fenway.

NO:

New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium
Do they still ban iPads?

Toronto Blue Jays, Rogers Centre
A bit embarrassing, since Rogers is Canada’s AT&T-like telco

Tampa Bay Rays, Tropicana Field

Baltimore Orioles, Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cisco, Cleveland Indians, Los ANgeles Angeles of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Here Comes Fox Sports 1, Huge ASUS Tablet Hybrid

March 8, 2013 by

Fox Sports is seeking to rebound to the national stage once again. While most fans see Fox for MLB or NFL games much of its sports empire is a series of regional deals, but that may change as it is once again pushing for a national sports cable presence that unifies all of its properties.

Now on Aug. 1, 2013 we will see that rebirth with Fox Sports 1, an all sports network that it will be launching. This is a direct shot at ESPN, and who knows, it might drive that network back to talking about sports rather than whatever it is doing now days.

White House supports cell phone unlocking
The recent ruling mailing it illegal to unlock cell phones and tablets may get beaten back as the White House has come out saying that unlocking phones should be legal. The practice of unlocking, which enables a user to use the phone on the network of their choice, was recently declared illegal.

A petition was filed to the White House and R. David Edelman, White House adviser on Internet, innovation and privacy, responded by saying the administration feels consumers should be allowed to unlock their phones without civil or criminal penalties, especially if the phones were purchased secondhand or as gifts. Congress is also starting to weigh in on the issue and a number of bills are being proposed that would make it legal.

Samsung Galaxy Note III to have larger screen
A report from the Korea Times, via Brighthand, says that the upcoming handset release from Samsung will feature a 5.9-inch screen and is expected to be released in the second half of this year.

The handset is seen as a replacement for the current Galaxy Note II, a handset that has a 5.5-inch display and has already sold over 10 million units since last fall.

News Corp. Enters Tablet Space with Amplify
When most people think of News Corp. they probably think of Fox News or the Wall Street Journal but you can now add educational hardware to the mix with the introduction of Amplify, a company that it has created to deliver digital products for the educational system.

The tablet is a 10-inch device that will originally be available only with Wi-Fi but a 4G LTE version is expected later. It will have a $299 price tag but also require a 2-year subscription that will be $99 for Wi-Fi and $179 for 4G. Amplify is not just a tablet but part of a larger program that will include new curriculum offerings that it claims will reinvent teaching and learning and the devices will ship with a host of programs preloaded.

Asus has huge Tablet hybrid
Asus has said that it will start shipping its huge Transformer AiO device in the second quarter of 2013. Designed to be used as either a tablet or as a PC the Transformer AiO is an 18.4-inch tablet that has 1920 x 1080 resolution.

The interesting thing is that in tablet mode it has an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor, 32GB of storage and runs the Android operating system. Attach it to a dock and it now has an Intel Core i5 processor, 1TB of storage and runs Windows 8.

Filed Under: Tablets Tagged With: , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: Cadillac Championship and Rory’s Apology

March 7, 2013 by

Are we all clear about the great toothache now? With a no-excuses apology Wednesday for his sudden departure last week, No. 1 Rory McIlroy cleared the decks of controversy (for now) ahead of the World Golf Championship Cadillac Championship this week at Doral.

Since there’s no cut for the select field this weekend, McIlroy will have to grind it out over four rounds at the TPC Blue Monster at Doral, bad molars or not. As of Thursday afternoon it didn’t look like much fun, as McIlroy was flirting with last place. Expect more questions over the weekend about his switch to Nike clubs, which so far this year has been a disaster.

Putting Rory aside, there’s still plenty of good golfers in the pack this weekend, including Sir Eldrick. No Live@ video this week, but you can still catch simulcasts online if you are a Comcast cable subscriber. NBC picks up on the weekend, for you Johnny Miller fans.

WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, March 7 — Golf Channel, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, March 8 — Golf Channel, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 9 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 2 p.m.; NBC, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 10 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 3 p.m.; NBC, 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.

LIVE ONLINE COVERAGE

Thursday and Friday, Golf Channel TV simulcast coverage via PGATour.com and GolfChannel.com; Saturday and Sunday, NBC coverage via the PGA site and from NBC sites, which include Golf Channel. Right now only Comcast cable subscribers can watch live online video on weekdays. NOTE: If you are using the PGA Mobile app to watch the Golf Channel online video, be advised that it only works with iOS phones and with some (not all) Android phones. There is no fix planned for the immediate future.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite) 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Use the PGA Facebook page for the WGC event this week.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

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.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s a hole by hole description of the TPC Blue Monster at Doral.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Justin Rose.

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, NBC Sports, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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