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Pac-12 Digital Network Ready for Primetime with help from Ooyala

June 8, 2012 by

The Pac-12 has finally taken the wraps of its pending network effort in time for the advent of the 2012-2013 BCS football season with the revelation of the Pac-12 Digital Network that it created in partnership with Ooyala.

We reported on the early plans of the Pac-12 at the start of the start of the year as the conference started filling out its management team for the Pac-12 Enterprises, the body that will be handling the network and now more details have come forth.

This is part of an ongoing trend in schools as networks that support your sports teams, and academics are increasingly important as a source of coverage and revenue for the institutions and more and more conferences are forming them.

From its inception the goal has been to make the network more than simply a television broadcast arm of the Pac-12 and instead make it a tool to reach fans in a manner that meets their needs. SO it includes capabilities for tablets, smartphones and the Internet as well as the more traditional television broadcasts that we have all come to know and love.

To bring video and broadcast to all of these devices the Pac-12 teamed with Ooyala, a company that develops cross platform broadcast video solutions and also has a great deal of expertise in monetizing the resulting video.

The two will be developing customizable content that users can use to create a platform that meets their viewing needs. The initial plans are to develop for both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.
The various capabilities that will be offered to subscribers of any of the Pac-12 broadcast partners and will enable them to view sports, highlights and other content anywhere in the world. There will be both ad-free and ad-supported content.

The network will broadcast an estimated 850 live games in both men’s and women’s sports and all of the men’s football and basketball games that are not carried nationally. Its broadcasting team will feature celebrities Ronnie Lott, Rick Neuheisel and Summer Sanders.

The Big Ten Network recently expanded to provide a very similar service to its fans with the development of BTN2GO and I suspect that when I take a look at other conferences around the legue we will see similar efforts. What sets this one appart is that it was part of its basic concept and built-in from the ground up rather than added later.

I wonder if this means that there will be a big build-out in wireless networks at stadiums around the league. Once you provide the capability on video I am sure fans will want to see replays and highlights of plays at events they are attending.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, BCS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, Smartphone, Tablets

Friday Grab Bag: Replacement Refs, Sports Conspiracy and Windows 8 Coming

June 8, 2012 by

NFL’s contract talks with refs breaks down
The week started off with some bad news as it appears that the NFL and its referee’s union have not been able to come to a meeting of the minds in regards to the next contract for the refs. The most current one expired on May 31.

The two sides apparently met with a mediator to try and reach an agreement but that has not panned out and according to ESPN the talks have completely broken down. The league is now actively looking for replacement officials and will seek former officials and ones from smaller collegiate leagues but it is reported that it does not plan to raid BCS officials.

Apparently the NFL’s decision to hire backup refs does not sit well with the NFL Players Association, which has derided the hiring of ‘scab’ officials. Who would have guessed that these two would not get along.

Two trade associations seek to represent crowdfunders
You knew this was coming due to the growth of the number of crowd funding sites and the still undefined role that they play in providing funding for startups looking for a cash infusion. Now there are two lobbying groups vying for the crowd funding sites support.

The two are the National Crowdfunding Association and the Crowdfunding Professional Association both want to be the force for these companies in Washington D.C. This is still in its infancy since neither has yet hired a staff or leased offices, but you know it is coming.

Apple publishes guide on iOS security
With the growing concern about data security, especially on mobile devices Apple has moved to try and ease the concern about data on devices that run its iOS operating system by publishing a guide to how it implements security. Macnn has a nice breakdown here.

Window app numbers continue strong growth
The number of apps submitted to Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace has now topped 100,000, double what it was just five months ago, according to a piece in Endgaget. For those of you scoring at home this is slower that Apple’s App Store but faster than the Android Marketplace.

One of the big differentiators between the rival Apple and Android apps has so far seemed to be that the Android apps are too often one size fits all, good for tablets and smartphones while for Apple there tends to be a clear differentiation. I wonder how this is panning out for Windows and will we see most of these apps available, unchanged, for Windows 8 tablets?

NFL concussion lawsuits consolidated
A large number of the many lawsuits now pending in a number of courts across the United States have been consolidated into a master complaint against the league. In all it looks like approximately 80 cases have been brought together in this effort.

The suits contend that the NFL both glorified violence and downplayed the damage that concussions had on players. The NFL contends that it always has the players safety at heart, well that and an 18 game season.
Windows 8 in two weeks?

Microsoft is reportedly going to make pubic a preview of Windows 8 on June 20th, according to a report in Digital Trends. The move will make it an interesting month for operating system fans since Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference is next week and should have some interesting updates while Google’s Google I/O event is at the end of the month.

The Windows Phone 8 preview is expected to happen at a Microsoft event called the Windows Phone Summit, billed as a sneak peak of the future of the Windows Phone.

The Greatest sports conspiracy story ever told
For years I have heard that the 1985 NBA draft was rigged so that Patrick Ewing would go to New York. Never paid any attention to that, and for that matter really do not to this day. But Patrick Hruby goes to town on the issue and a host of others in the piece “The Truth is out there: From the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery to the Olympics to Game-Fixing…”

It s all here, frozen envelopes, mafia controlling NFL games, IRS and FBI documents carefully redacted and so much more. I enjoyed it a great deal, but was not sure if it was one long rant or a very clever tongue in cheek piece. Bonus conspiracy flow chart here.

YouTube to broadcast Olympics
We have long talked about how YouTube can position itself as an almost independent sports network and now it looks like it is taking that next step. The site will be providing live webcasts of the upcoming London Summer Olympics to viewers in Asia and Africa.

The plan is to provide ten channels that will feature high definition video of a variety of events including the medal finals of all 32 sports. In all it will broadcast a total of 2,200 hours.

FTC claims import ban on Microsoft& Apple could hurt competition
The Federal Trade Commission has said that Google’s efforts to ban Xbox imports by Microsoft and Motorola/Google’s efforts to stifle Apple’s iPhone sales based on patents that Google owns and claims the two have violated could harm competition. It will be noteworthy if the FTC puts some muscle behind this comment as it does appear that patent lawsuits are going to stifle both competition but also innovation

Filed Under: Android, Apple, BCS, FTC, Google, Microsoft, NBA, NFL, Olympics, Startup, Windows 8, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

Intel Predicts a Wave of Windows 8 Tablets with Intel Inside

June 7, 2012 by

Intel started talking about a potential major move in the tablet space at January’s Consumer Electronics Show when CEO Paul Otellini took the stage for his keynote, but most of the hype that day was centered around its ultrabook slim form notebooks.

Now fast forward several months and a half a world away and the company is making some bold pronouncements in the tablet space at the Computex show in Taipei and the center of attention is on tablets, specifically ones powered by Intel’s Atom Z2760 chips that were formerly code-named Clover Trail.

According to IDG, Intel said that its OEM partners have a total of 20 tablets in the labs and in various stages of completion that are based on its processor. The big beneficiary of this, aside from Intel of course, appears to be Microsoft and its forthcoming Windows 8 operating systems that is expected sometime in the fall. Intel has had other offerings in this space but they have been a non-factor so far.

Acceptance of these tablets will be important for Intel because Windows 8 will also be designed to run on ARM-based processors and these chips now dominate the non-Apple side of the tablet market. There is expected to be compatibility issues with older Windows apps on ARM, however.

Next week we will deliver a wrap up of the tablets that were unveiled at the show this week and it looks like there are some interesting ones including hybrids, ones for Android and some of the first Windows 8 offerings.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Intel, Microsoft, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , ,

Pocket TV Seeks to Turn your TV into a Giant Android Device

June 6, 2012 by

A new crowdfunding effort has caught my eye this week with a project to turn your television into an Android tablet. It does seem a bit counterproductive at first since I can buy quite a few tablets for the cost of my TV but on looking at the details it seems that if it is priced right it could make a very solid tool for people on the go, work wise and for vacation.

However the Pocket TV is an interesting device. The builders have created a computer on a dongle powered by a 1GHz Cortex A9 processor that runs the Android 4.0 operating system and is designed to plug into a TV’s HDMI port. Once connected it permits you to display your Android environment on the big screen.

The dongle enables you to bring the environment with you wherever you go so that you can use it in say a hotel room and it would give you video conferencing capabilities if you so wanted. It also allows you to access data and videos that you have stored in the cloud, giving a traveler even more flexibility. Included with the dongle is a standard IR remote that enables you to control the device while using the big screen since it does not convert it to touch screen capabilities

The funding process is going quite well for the effort. As of this morning it had a bit over $94,000 pledged of the $100,000 that it is seeking and it still has 33 days to go, so it looks like it will reach its goal with time, and possibly money to spare.

The more I learned about the device the more interested I was in Pocket TV. I can really see this as a boon when you have short trips and just need something to respond to check social media, play a game or two or respond to email but dislike carrying a notebook or tablet, and with the large screen it can be much more convenient than a smartphone in some environments.

The Pocket TV is the first from a startup called Infinitec, a technology developer that is based in Dubai, making it the first high-tech project I have seen from that country. It has been around for some time, having opened its doors in 2008 and was founded by Ahmad Zahran and David McKern and got its start developing USB memory drives.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Infinitec, Kickstarter, Startup

Nike and Microsoft Team for Fitness App on Xbox

June 5, 2012 by

The connected athlete just got a bit more connected today as Nike has entered into a partnership with Microsoft that will see the development of games for the Microsoft Xbox that uses the Nike+ technology.

The alliance was announced at the E3 show in Hollywood and the first program to be developed will be called Nike+ Kinect Training and the target date for release will be this year’s holiday season. And it will be exclusively available on Microsoft’s Xbox platform. It is currently estimated that there are 67 million Xboxes worldwide.

The program will connect users wearing shoes or a wristband that has Nike+ technology. Using the Kinect camera in the Xbox a user goes through a set of physical tests and the data is recorded and a personalized workout program is generated.

Then activity is recorded over a month and a reevaluation is made. As a user makes progress in getting in better shape the program evolves to raise the bar on their workouts. The program is capable of providing real time feedback to help keep workouts in line with goals.

Multiple users can share a video and work out at the same time by using the Xbox network. You forgot to work out? No problem as you can set it up to send reminders to your phone (apparently only if it is a Windows Phone).

The effort is expected to help expand the Nike brand, and as part of that effort the program will feature the ability to integrate with Facebook so that a user can share results on the social network.

In other Xbox news Microsoft has released a software program that enables tablets and smartphones to connect to the Xbox console and allows them to be used as a second screen. Called Smart Glass it can be used on devices powered both by Microsoft’s Windows family as well as operating systems from rivals such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Microsoft, Nike

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Tablets and Tradeshows

June 4, 2012 by

With the growth of apps that can read and transmit data files such as contact lists improved security is becoming increasingly important. A new security app has come on the scene from mobile security developer SentrySP that seeks to prevent your smartphone from giving away your personal information.

The company’s SentrySp InSight app tracks all operational transmissions from a smartphone it is installed on and looks for transmissions that have the characteristics of an unauthorized transmission, and when it finds one it alerts the owner.

Steve Jobs to speak at trial
Quotes from the late Steve Jobs that were given to biographer Walter Isaacson will be allowed in a patent trial between Apple and Motorola, Chicago Federal Judge Richard Posner has ruled. The book had some pretty strong quotes about the lawsuit and it will be interesting to see how they are used in the trial.

A good look at Facebook’s rise
While the continued poor performance of Facebook’s stock is a source of a steady stream of articles and OP-ED pieces, Nielsen’s takes a different path and has a nice piece on the rise of the social media giant and how far and strong its reach is today.

Among the tidbits in the article are some very interesting facts. It passed Myspace as top social network site in January 2009 and by March 20012 it had 152 million unique U.S. visitors representing two out of three Americans that were online during that time.

Apple wins standards battle
It looks like Apple will emerge victorious in setting the requirements for the next generation SIM that is called the nano-SIM. The new standard is expected to be 40% smaller than the current SIM card design that is popular in mobile devices such as digital cameras and smartphones.

Apple beat rivals Nokia, Research in Motion and Motorola Mobility which had submitted a rival standard to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to get the standard approved. Officially called fourth form factor (4FF) it will be backwardly compatible with existing SIM card designs.

Judge rules Java API’s not copyrightable
In what could be one of the last gasps of the Oracle vs Google battle over Java patents and copyrights; the judge overseeing the case, William Alsup, has thrown out Oracle’s claim that the Java APIs that were used in Android by Google were copyrightable.

Application program interfaces are what allow one piece of code or software to talk to another and this portion of the ruling has been of great concern to the software industry because it has been widely assumed that these were available to all. Oracle has said that it will appeal this decision which concerned 37 APIs.

Big month for conferences
Expect an interesting parade of news this week from the variety of major trade shows and conferences occurring around the globe in the next two weeks. In Taipei there will be the Computex show that is expected to provide a first look at some of the Windows 8 tablets from a variety of hardware developers.

Apple will see Tim Cook take center stage for the first time as Apple’s CEO at its World Wide Developer Conference that will be held in San Francisco from June 11-15. New iPhones or iPads in the wings? Last but not least there is the E3 show down in Los Angeles where the gaming industry will be rolling out some of the next generation offerings and updates on current ones.

Twitter to see $1 billion in ad revenue by 2014?
A report from Bloomberg News claims that Twitter expects to generate an estimated $1 billion in ad revenue by 2014, based on inside information from two sources. The article noted that this would mean that the site would have to grow at double the rate that many market analysts have predicted.

Reports from Pew and others have shown that Twitter has seen steady growth in the last year but nothing like this. The technology has an estimated 140 million users and earned $139.5 million last year.

Appsplit focuses on apps
We have written a good deal about crowd funding and Kickstarter in particular as a way that new products and ideas can get funding and a boost into the market, and idea of this type of funding is increasingly popular as new sites have arisen to play in the market.

One new one, at least to us, is AppSplit, which focuses just on apps. It has a front page that is similar to its rivals, showing a few efforts to get funding, where they stand and how many days left. There are seven platforms that a potential investor can browse; iOS, Mac, Web, Android, Windows and Windows Phone.

Ice Cream Sandwich not hot with Android crowd
A site called Android Developers is reporting that adoption of the Android 4.0 operating system, code named Ice Cream Sandwich, has been very slow among developers. Seven plus months after its release the platform has a paltry 7.1% market share.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Appsplit, Facebook, Lawsuit, Mashable, Smartphone, Startup, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,
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