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RotoWire Delivers Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2012 App

August 13, 2012 by

RotoWire

The first round of pro football preseason games has just concluded and so naturally many fans minds turn to fantasy football and how they can get that one game changer that will put them over the top in their league and so win boasting rights for the next year.

One good tool to have in your arsenal is the latest sports app from RotoWire, the Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2012, along with the usual selection of preseason magazines, sports web sites and a list of pundits that you believe and disbelieve.

The kit, currently available for iPhones and iPads at Apple’s App Store for $4.99 with an Android version is expected to be available later this week, has been upgraded from last years version with new features and support capabilities.

The app takes a lot of the grunt work out of sorting stats and looking at all key position players, although of

course nothing replaces a good understanding on injuries and team and coaching dynamics.

A user would simply input their leagues scoring and roster settings and the app then goes and creates a projections based on value-based calculations using RotoWire’s 2012 stat projections. It also uses those projections to create cheat sheets that can be used during drafts.

However you do not need to use the rankings that it sets and can manually adjust the rankings to meet your perception of the relative value of players. You can also create a watch list for players that you expect to have a breakout season.

Other features include projected stats for the year as well as players stats from last year when applicable. It will also enable a user to download updated stat projections until the start of the season. It has a number of customized settings as well including the ability to set the number of teams in the draft, modify and set offensive scoring, roster spots, defensive scoring and kicking scoring.

The release of this app is just the tip of the iceberg for RotoWire, which has a number of apps in the queue waiting for release including a Fantasy Football Guide and a Fantasy College Football Draft Kit, so keep your eye on the company or your favorite app store.

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Filed Under: Apple, Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2012 App, Fantasy Sports, iOS, NFL, RotoWire Tagged With: , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Olympics a Big Win for NBC

August 13, 2012 by

The Pew Research Center has done a study on the Summer Olympics in London and U.S. viewership and the numbers are truly amazing, and must make the bean counters at NBC very happy indeed since it invested $1.12 billion for the broadcast rights.

According to the report 78% of Americans were watching the game either on broadcast television, online or on social media. TV is head and shoulders above any other option as the most popular viewing medium with 73% watching the big screen.

The approval ratings are very high as well, with 76% giving the broadcasts either an excellent (29%) or good rating (47%) with 13% said it was fair and 5% said it was poor. Looks like the “vocal minority” (as NBC execs called them) criticizing the games and the broadcast schedules on Twitter didn't keep their friends from watching.

Google gets $22.5 million fine over privacy breakdown
The Federal Trade Commission has come down hard on Internet search giant Google, hitting the company with a $22.5 million fine, the largest ever from the FTC, for its manipulation of Apple’s Safari browser.

Google has developed a method for tracking people Safari users and gather data on their activities, even though the company had promised not to do anything along this line. The move violated Google’s settlement with the FTC on a different issue, it concluded.

I wonder how this will impact Google’s current testing of using information garnered from users’ gmails to help come up with search results. I know that if this becomes a mainstream feature I am off gmail.

Nokia sheds app unit- puts more eggs in Microsoft’s basket
Nokia is parting way with its QT app tools unit, agreeing to sell the unit to Digia Oyj, Bloomberg reported. Nokia purchased the tool company back in 2008 when it needed its expertise to help create apps for two operating systems that Nokia owned at that time — MeeGo and Symbian.

It has since curtailed those operating system efforts and has been focusing on delivering phones that run on Microsoft’s operating systems. With that in mind it can now leverage the ecosystem that Microsoft is growing in terms of app development without a self funded effort.

Android and iOS dominate smartphone OS
The latest report from market research firm International Data Corp. s

hows that between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating system the two own 85% of the smartphone OS market. I don’t think that this comes as much of a surprise to anyone, but it is great to see hard numbers on the issue.

Overall in the second quarter of 2012 IDC found that Android phones had 104.8 million units shipped good for a 68.1% market share while Apple’s iOS had 26 million iOS products shipped, good for a 16.9% share. Samsung appears to be the big winner, accounting for 44% of all Android phones in the second quarter of this year. BlackBerry came in third at 7.4 million units and a 4.8% market share.

Facebook settles privacy issue with FTC
The Federal Trade Commission has reached a final settlement with Facebook over what users’ personal data Facebook can expose. The company will now need an explicit ‘opt in’ from the user before it can change the types of information that it will make public. Facebook will also face an audit every other year for the next 20 years to ensure compliance.

Apple vs. Samsung Week 2
Nothing earth shattering has come out of this lingering case. It looks like an iPhone, it does not look like an iPhone. Does Samsung’s products confuse consumers or are they already confused? One interesting piece of information was the total iPhone sales in the platforms five years of existence. In the US market the company has sold 85 million iPhones, good for a hefty $50 million. It sold 34 million iPads in the US market in the last two years, good for $19 billion in revenue. It appears Apple warned Samsung in 2010 that it believed that Samsung was infringing on Apple patents and that it wanted between $30-$40 per device in licensing fees.

Smartphones pay off for Microsoft, just not how you would expect
Microsoft is still seeking to establish a major presence in the smartphone space, trailing Android, iOS and even Symbian-based devices, but if a report from Trefis is correct, it still rakes in the big dollars in the smartphone market.

The reason is patents, and some of the most successful players in the smartphone space including Samsung and HTC, pay Microsoft a bundle in royalty payments each quarter. According to a piece in Yahoo news, Microsoft made approximately $792 million in the second quarter of 2012 just from the two companies mentioned.

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Filed Under: Android, Apple, Facebook, FTC, Google, HTC, iPhone, Lawsuit, Olympics, Samsung, Tablets, Yahoo Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: 30 on 30 Returns, Arena Bowl Tonight

August 10, 2012 by

Avitae Arena Bowl XXV

The Arena Football League will crown a champion this weekend when the Arizona Rattlers take on the Philadelphia Soul in New Orleans at 10:30 ET on Aug. 10 for all of the marbles.

Philadelphia reached the championship game by decisively defeating the Jacksonville Sharks 89-34 while the Rattlers reached the final round with a much closer victory over the Utah Blaze, 75-69. The Rattlers will be playing in their second consecutive championship and seventh overall, quite an accomplishment in a 25-year-old league.


What do the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA have in common?
Apparently it is an extreme hatred of a new sports betting lottery game that has been long talked about in New Jersey. The bill would permit gambling on both pro and college sports, and that is something that has the said sports leagues very upset.

From a look at the discussion at ProFootballTalk it looks like New Jersey has a very tough challenge ahead of it. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, relies on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, and the window that would enable New Jersey to allow gambling has long since closed. In addition the state of Delaware has already tried this and lost.

It seems that if the bill does make it past the courts the NFL will retaliate by “punishing” New Jersey by not allowing it to host another Super Bowl. I wonder if a win would open the floodgates to other states also allowing sports betting and what the NFL will try and do about that?

Apple expected to exclude YouTube in iOS 6
Apple is expected to no longer include the popular video viewing app YouTube in the next version of its mobile operating system iOS 6 when that OS is released. The app has been a standard feature included with Apple’s products for the past five years.

Apple said that its license to include the standalone version of YouTube app in its operating system has ended. It can still be used via the Chrome browser and Google is working on a version for the App store. What will the world do without its morning fix of cute animal videos?

Will NBA backpedal on Under-23 rule for Olympics?
NBA Commissioner David Stern had advocated that future Summer Olympics only allow players that are under 23 into the competition. This move would have the affect of saving the NBA’s team owners the angst of worrying about their star players’ health prior to the start of the season.

However it appears that there is a great deal of pushback from the rest of the basketball playing world. It seems that many nations want to send their best athletes, not just the ones that are convenient for the NBA. Who would have guessed?

Anyway it now sounds as if the NBA may just leave well enough alone, at least until a new commissioner replaces Stern, who is running out his term as commissioner.

AT&T Shared data plan on the horizon
AT&T has said that it will launch its mobile share plans, which allow a user to have a data plan that can be used with multiple devices, eliminating the need for a separate plan for each device, on Aug. 23.

The plans will range in size from 1GB to 20GB each and requires at least one smartphone with a unlimited talk and text plan as part of the overall bundle. A user can have a maximum of nine devices on a single plan.

ESPN re-ups 30 for 30 for second season
ESPN’s 30 for 30 series will make a reappearance this year as the sports giant has a new slate of topics that will get a full blown film treatment. The series is scheduled to start on Oct. 2, 8 pm ET with an episode entitled “Broke” about athletes who have burned through their fortunes. The series will run through December and you can head over to ESPN to get the synopsis for the fall offerings.

Google to add voice activated services
Google is once again firing a shot across Apple’s bow as it launches a voice activated service that will run on Apple’s iPhones and so directly compete with Apple’s Siri. The company will also be pushing the app, called “voice search” on the Android platform.

The company expects to release the app for iPhones within the next few weeks and then it will release it for the Android at a later, unspecified date.

Instagram on your camera?
It makes sense on the face of it. You might have a camera that has much greater capabilities compared to the one in your smartphone. Now at least one camera manufacturer is working to deliver both Android in its cameras, but Instagram along with the operating system.

Mashable has reported that Nikon is working on just this solution in its next generation cameras and that one could be available soon. While the vast majority of apps would be relatively worthless, unless the camera is a hybrid of some sort, image apps such as Instagram should find an instant home.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Arena Football League, Basketball, ESPN, Facebook, FIBA, Google, Instagram, iOS, iPhone, Major League Baseball, Mashable, NBA, NCAA Football, NFL, Nokia, ProFootballTalk, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Lenovo Unveils its Windows 8 Tablet Early

August 9, 2012 by

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2

I guess it is never too early to get a jump on your competitors and with that in mind Lenovo has unveiled the specifications and look of its new ThinkPad Tablet 2 that will be running Windows 8 from Microsoft.

The tablet, which will not be available until late October when Microsoft officially makes the new operating system available to the public, is one of the first to be shown prior to the event, but we expect a number of others to show off their wares prior to the October 26 launch.

It is powered by an Atom processor from Intel code-named Clover Trail, and will run the Windows 8 Pro version of the operating system. Both are major changes from last year when Lenovo debut its first generation ThinkPad Tablet that ran on an ARM processor and used Google’s Android operating system.

The tablet is expected to weigh in at 1.3 pounds and will be available in either a 3G or 4LTE version. It will include a 10.1-inch display that has 1366 x 768 display, a front facing 2MP camera and a 8MP rear facing camera and is expected to have a 10 hour battery life. A few nifty options will also be available including a keyboard, dock and a digitizer that enables pen input. Pricing has not been released

Lenovo has previously said that it will target businesses as much or more than it will consumers with its tablets, which is the reason for going with both the Intel processor and the Windows OS. This will enable backward compatibility with existing x86 apps and documents, something that the ARM/Android combination does not.

There is a host of developers that will be releasing products into this space in the upcoming weeks, from Microsoft itself with its Surface tablet to Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer, among others. On the non-Windows front there is also a new Kindle expected soon as well as a refresh in Apple’s iPad family, so the options for a user looking for a new tablet continue to improve with more choices.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , ,

PGA’s Mobile Device Policies a Bit At Odds With Tourney’s Online Promotions

August 9, 2012 by

The golf hasn’t started yet but as we look through the spectator guide for the PGA Championship we ran across the mobile device policy, which seems pretty sound. Turn your phone to vibrate, you can check data and send messages, just no picture-taking during the golf. And certainly no video. Otherwise you will be asked to surrender your device, which you can then pick up later you naughty online phone user, you.

Of course, this rule will apparently NOT apply to PGA staffers, since the championship is making a big deal of its social media coolness this weekend in Kiawah. The tournament even has an Instagram page and will be hosting some fun Viddy videos, probably shot on phones. Just not on fan phones. So, yes, the PGA Championship is into social media. Just not any social media created by, you know, people.

Scrolling down a bit on the user guide we see that the PGA is suggesting that folks leave distracting items at home like dogs and milk crates, as well as iPods and iPads. But the news release for the tournament’s digital coverage notes that a lot of items will be designed to take advantage of the iPad:

Optimized for iPad – the official PGA Championship site and PGA Championship LIVE will be optimized for the iPad. The site and video player will take advantage of the iPad’s large, multi-touch display to provide fans an enriched viewing experience.

Seems like with the inevitable rain delays, an iPad could be a handy thing to have out there on the island. So don’t bring it. But if you do, enjoy the iPad optimization.

Our favorite bit from the user guide, however, has nothing to do with digital — unless it’s the digits on your hands that you save by not being utterly stupid:

DANGER FROM WILDLIFE
Please do not disturb or feed alligators, snakes or other
natural wildlife while on the grounds of the Ocean Course.
Use caution when walking in areas near ponds and tall grasses.

I’d watch out for Tigers too. They tend to attract big crowds, and will turn on anyone using a camera phone to record their brush with greatness.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Golf, iPad, iPhone, PGA, Startup, Viddy, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The PGA Championship

August 9, 2012 by

Good news first: The 94th running of the PGA Championship will have a boatload of online and viewing options, and all kinds of web-enabled goodies to allow you to enjoy the year’s last major from the comfort of your desk, laptop, or iPhone or iPad. (Here’s the link to live video.) The bad news? It may not wrap up until Monday given the probability of thunderstorms likely to hit the Island Course in Kiawah, South Carolina. At least during the inevitable rain delays, you will have all kinds of diversions like the PGA’s new Social Caddy page to let you watch Twitter streams of players and caddies waiting out the rain.

A quick note on the online stuff — though we had written before that the PGA Tour and Turner Sports were parting ways, the relationship between Turner and the PGA Championship is a different beast — and as such Turner will be pulling out all the stops with TNT coverage Thursday, Friday and before CBS on the weekends, and a whole bunch of good website stuff, including lots of photos and videos.

Several things that we are going to look closely at for the live online video (which starts at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday) are the multiple camera views and featured groups that Turner says we’ll be able to follow online. We were disappointed at the U.S. Open’s somewhat limited online options, so let’s see if Turner can do better at the PGA. So far, the Masters is still far and away the online king of majors. We are heavily disappointed that the PGA app is iPhone only — c’mon folks, there are a heckuva lot of Android phones out there. Bad form to not have an Android app ready. Like in gymnastics, we’re taking a full point deduction there.

As for the actual golf… once again it really is all about Tiger, and whether or not he can get the job done at a major. Kiawah really doesn’t suit his perfectionist game — weirdo target golf — but when he is on, he really is the Usain Bolt of golf. I think it’s good to note here that had he not three-putted on that disaster bunker hole and not gone over the green on the par-3, Tiger would be your defending British Open champion. Just saying, the guy didn’t have anything near his “A” game and he still almost took the jug. He’s still the rock lock on my ESPN Fantasy team, but behind him I see… maybe Jason Dufner? An incredibly consistent year and good performances in the majors. Like last year, he could be standing near the end while others are falling.

Who else? I like Dustin Johnson’s ability but fear that Dustin is his own biggest enemy. At least there are no sand-trap rules for Johnson to worry about. Unlike the PGA two years ago where there were bunkers everywhere, there is a lot of sand at Kiawah but… according to some weird rule none of the sand is a bunker. So expect to see a lot of guys grounding their clubs, and a million calls to the PGA offices to follow. Watch the video and learn why it’s not a problem.

Finally my dark horse pick: Someone who historically plays well in South Carolina coastal courses, someone who has been surprisingly sharp at times this year… while he puts together his Ryder Cup team. That’s right, I am giving some love to the Captain, DLIII, Davis Love the Thirdly, to find another rainbow and win a second major in the gloaming of his career. I watched Love for a hole at Olympic during the Open, and his game seemed anything but old, striping a 2-iron off the tee and outhitting a younger playing partner who went 3-wood. Nice. In reality Love will probably be on the sidelines Saturday and Sunday, watching to see if Phil Mickelson can give him a reason to make him a captain’s pick for the Ryder roster. Enough Olympics already. Let’s get this war by the shore started.

Here’s where to follow the action:

94th PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, Aug. 9 — TNT, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 10 — TNT, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 11 — TNT, 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.; CBS, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 12 — TNT, 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.; CBS, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
Coverage starts at 12 p.m. Thursday & Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

ONLINE
As we said above, there is going to be a lot of online video, including marquee groups, par 3 coverage and press conferences. HERE IS THE LIVE VIDEO PAGE.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No Shot Tracker this week.

FACEBOOK PAGE
If it looks like the beach, it’s the PGA Facebook page for Kiawah.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

HASHTAG FOR THE PGA IS: #PGAChamp

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. Who won’t be going back to Akron anytime soon.
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?
You’re kidding, right? Like you haven’t heard of the Island Course. Or seen numerous recaps of The War by the Shore. Well here is the official page, knock yourself out.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Keegan “long putter” Bradley. Outlasting our man Duf.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 2,204 points
2. Zach Johnson, 2,018
3. Jason Dufner, 1,983
4. Hunter Mahan, 1,739
5. Bubba Watson, 1,712

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Tiger Woods; 3. Rory McIlroy; 4. Lee Westwood; 5. Webb Simpson.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, CBS Sports, Golf, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Tiger Woods, TNT, Turner Sports, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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