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Watching Golf This Week: Phil’s Tax Advice, the Farmers Insurance Open and More Golf Online… if you have Comcast

January 24, 2013 by

Too bad Phil Mickelson’s such a nice guy — nobody can really stay mad at him for long, even if he makes Latrell Sprewell-type remarks about the money woes of a millionaire. Maybe you heard about Phil’s kinda tax-rant from this past weekend? Wednesday the guy everyone loves to love in golf rebounded with a press conference where he blamed himself for saying dumb things, tossed in a few jokes and everything was OK. But we know the golf media — just watch the next time Phil wins, there will be a lame lead about “his tax burden increasing.” You read it here first.

What else did you read here first about golf? How about our worldwide scoop from last summer, about how the PGA Tour was going to simulcast all its live TV coverage online this season? Well that story comes true this week with the official kickoff of expanded live online coverage of pro golf’s top tour… that is, if you are a Comcast cable subscriber.

Confused? So are we after reading and re-reading the PGA’s official announcement of its new live streaming feature. Safe to say, the PGA is moving in the direction of having all its live TV available online, but there are a lot of moving contractural parts that haven’t quite been sorted out yet. But hey! It’s moving in the right direction, of MORE GOLF ONLINE. Thank you PGA Tour.

To put it simply: Starting with CBS’s coverage this weekend, all weekend broadcast coverage this season from CBS and NBC should be available online; weekday coverage from Golf Channel is also available online right now IF you have a Comcast cable subscription — and later in the year for other broadband video providers. The lucky Comcast subscribers and others later will also be able to watch live video via mobile devices, through the NBC Sports Live Extra and Golf Live Extra apps. Your best bet if you have questions about where to find live online video is to check out PGATOUR.com every week until this all gets solved and is easy.

No word yet on the Majors but we expect those properties to bust out online extras like they did last year — and since we never got around to giving out our 2012 awards, let’s just say that the online golf coverage champ is still CBS and the Masters, with the U.S. Open and the PGA a close tie for second. (The British Open needs to step up its game, in our opinion.)

And golf this week? That guy Eldrick returns to his favored stomping grounds of Torrey Pines. Now that the Phil “controversy” is out of the way we can go back to the story of the forthcoming year, that of Tiger vs. Rory. And the anchoring ban! Let’s ignore that for now. The overworked golf media can only stand so many controversies at one time.

FARMERS INSURANCE OPEN

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Jan. 24 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 25 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 26 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 27 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

LIVE ONLINE COVERAGE

Thursday and Friday, Golf Channel coverage via PGATour.com and GolfChannel.com; Saturday and Sunday, CBS coverage at CBSSports.com. The PGA will also show live coverage of the 10th and 13th holes at Torrey Pines South at its Live@ page. You can also get live video via the PGA’s mobile apps, for tablets and smartphones. Cable contracts and wireless plans necessary. Right now only Comcast cable subscribers can watch live online video on weekdays.

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

FACEBOOK PAGE
Here’s the Farmers Insurance Open Facebook page. Like it.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The Farmers Insurance Open Twitter feed. Beware of links to CEO speeches. You’ve been warned.
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?
If you’ve never played, you should hit this bucket list course hard by the Pacific coast north of San Diego — one of the great classics that is open to public play. (And even at $229 a round, it’s a bargain.) And the scene of Tiger’s great 2008 U.S. Open win. Here is the Torrey Pines site, complete with its mystical music.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Brandt Snedeker. Remember him?

Filed Under: Apps, CBS Sports, Comcast, Golf, Golf Channel, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBC Sports, PGA, The Masters, Tiger Woods, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Indy 500 Will be Coming to You via Instagram

January 23, 2013 by

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has entered into a deal with social media management company Venueseen to have photos taken at the venerable brickyard to be used in a marketing campaign. As part of the program Venueseen will open its API for the marketing campaign, a possible sign of things to come.

The marketing program, which centers around a sweepstake called Indy500orBust that asks fans to upload photos to Instagram using the hashtag #Indy500orbust. The sweepstakes have not officially been launched and the rules were not up on the site yet but according to a piece in Ad Age the winner of the contest will receive a VIP race experience.

The uploaded images will be given a geotags so that they can be plotted on an interactive map that can be seen at the www.indy500orbust.com site. According to the interview at Ad Age that site will be the only place that the photos will be used.

Move comes at a time when users fearful how their store images will be used

No doubt you have heard about Instagram’s change in its Terms of Use that caused a huge outrage among its users a few weeks ago when users were concerned that the photo sharing site was now declaring that it had the right to use all of your photos. A number of prominent users said that they were pulling their images from the site for fear that they would be used in a manner that they did not approve of or because they did not feel that Instagram had a right to profit from their images.

It only took the company one day to recant that position and go back to its older TOU. However there has been a number of stories since that claim that the site has started to lose appreciable numbers of users due to that misstep, claims that Instagram denies.

Be that as it may, this move could reopen that can of worms. Venueseen claims that its open API will enable other developers to tap into the huge photo catalog and use the images for campaigns, claiming that the images are in the public domain.

It is too bad that this fight has to go on because I like what the Indy 500 is doing and think it will be interesting to track fans and see some of their posts. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months, with the race slated for late May as usual.

Filed Under: Facebook, Indy 500, Instagram Tagged With: ,

Sony Unveils Latest Tablet-The Xperia Z (Non-Smartphone Version)

January 22, 2013 by

Sony released a smartphone at CES called the Xperia Z and has now followed that release up with its latest tablet offering, the Xperia Tablet Z as the company continues to battle for relevancy in the tablet space.

The tablet is a light, thin device that features a 10.-1 inch display with a 1920 x 1200 pixel high definition display, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.5GHz quad core processor. It will run the Android 4.1 operating system.

Included will be support for 4G LTE as well as NFC (near field communications) capabilities and weights a very light 495 grams and is 6.8 millimeters thick, making it slightly thinner than Apple’s iPad Mini. The case is waterproof and dustproof.

Other features include a microSD slot for memory expansion and an 8 megapixel camera that can automatically adjust its settings in low light and dark conditions to provide the best possible image. Overall storage capability and the frequency for the NFC have not been unveiled yet.

There are a number of questions that have yet to be answered about the device that received a very quiet launch that consisted of a simply press release in Japan. The two biggest questions are will it be released in the United States, or for that matter outside of Japan, and what will its pricing be? It appears that the tablet will be available this spring with pricing set at that time.

Still the move shows that Sony, despite some missteps in the tablet, and smartphone space, are not ceding them to Apple, Microsoft, Samsung or any other player without a fight. That will be good for the market as the increased competition will continue to help drive innovation in this space and provide new features and technology for users.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Surface, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

NFL.com adds Exclusive ‘Fan Pass’ Content for Super Bowl

January 22, 2013 by

In case you can’t get enough Super Bowl info from your regular media outlets the National Football League is providing some new content and Super Bowl event interactivity via something it is calling the NFL Fan Pass, available at NFL.com/fanpass.

In addition to daily “exclusive” interviews, video segments and photos, the NFL says Fan Pass will let fans submit questions to celebs and players and it will also be the hosting place for a Google+ Hangout on media day. Given the oversaturation of media covering the Super Bowl, we’re not sure how “exclusive” NFL material will be. But given the league network’s generally high quality of analysts and production, it will likely be at least the equal of anything from anyone else so — why not add it to your Super consumption schedule, especially if you are bored at work with a decent Internet connection.

Like we said, if you can’t get enough from your regular media outlets, the NFL is making sure you have… more. In addition to Fan Pass, if you bookmark the NFL.com and SuperBowl.com sites you will find a wealth of live streaming run-up events, including live video from Radio Row, live coverage of commissioner Roger Goodell’s Super Bowl press conference and the Hall of Fame class announcement.

To answer the one question everyone will have: The GAME ITSELF starts on Feb. 3, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, with TV coverage from CBS.

Filed Under: NFL, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , , , ,

AT&T adds DAS Coverage to New Orleans for Super Bowl Crowds

January 21, 2013 by

AT&T has beefed up its cellular coverage in the New Orleans downtown area by installing several Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) to help handle the expected crowds for the forthcoming Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

According to an AT&T press release Ma Bell has added some outdoor DAS systems as well as DAS deployments inside New Orleans hotels to help ensure that Super Bowl fans stay connected with their mobile devices. For those new to cellular technologies, DAS is basically a bunch of smaller cellular antennas that get spread around strategic locations where large crowds might gather, to bring more capacity to the cellular cloud. You can put up DAS antennas outside, on street poles, or inside places like hotels. There they act just like regular cellular antennas, connecting to the closest handsets.

Just to make sure that important call, tweet or Facebook post gets through, AT&T will also deploy 11 temporary cell sites to the Big Easy for Super week — the cleverly named COWs or Cell towers On Wheels — and if all else fails you can look for one of the 135 existing AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots in the New Orleans area.

We expect other major cell providers to chime in with their Super Bowl enhancements soon. The good news is, the Mercedes Benz Superdome had a pretty major DAS upgrade of its own last year so cell service inside should be OK.

Filed Under: AT&T, DAS, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

CBS Plans Big Online Blitz for Super Bowl: Watch Online, Mobile, and oh yeah… on TV

January 20, 2013 by

With the Harbaugh Bowl lineup now set, NFL fans will be glad to know that CBS is planning to stream this year’s Super Bowl live online, for free, at this website, with apparently no requirement to download any software like last year’s broadcast.

The Feb. 3 game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, with lots of stuff beforehand. You can also “like” the CBS Sports Facebook page, or follow CBS Sports on Twitter, just in case you’re not getting enough pre-Super Bowl info.

What we really like, though, is the simple instructions for online viewing — “Bookmark this page to access the live stream on Super Bowl Sunday,” reads the CBS page. That’s a lot easier than last year’s online broadcast by NBC, which required viewers to download the Microsoft Silverlight plugin. Not good. Let’s also hope that they will sync the broadcasts this year, unlike last year when the online show was 3 to 4 plays behind the live TV, making it useless as a “second screen” app.

According to tweets we have seen from CBS execs, as well as this press release written up by Engadget, there are apparently going to be a lot of bells and whistles available online, even perhaps a fan-selected camera view. CBS’s Jason Kint was apparently beta testing the app during Sunday’s games:

Our only quibble is that CBS Sports won’t exactly show the game live on your cell phone — to have it stream via a cell phone or pad you need to have a Verizon contract and you need to download the NFL Mobile app, which costs $5 per month. No word yet whether or not you will be able to watch via the CBS web page via a mobile phone or tablet browser, but we will discount double-check that option so stay tuned.

Filed Under: CBS Sports, NFL, NFL Mobile, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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