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Verizon Wireless joins the tablet market with Ellipsis 7

November 6, 2013 by

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Football fans that use a Verizon-backed smartphone to watch NFL games will be thrilled to learn that they may now be able to boost the screen size in the future with the company’s 7-inch HD Ellipsis tablet that is expected to be in its stores by week’s end.

The details are sparse from Verizon on the exact specifications but the tablet will have a HD display but no report on the resolution while C/net is reporting that it will also feature a 1.2GHz quad core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage that can be expanded via an optional microSD card.

Not surprisingly connectivity is a big feature with the Ellipsis 7. It will feature 4G LTE and mobile hotspot support for as many as eight additional Wi-Fi devices, according to C/net.

The Ellipsis tablet is obviously not chasing after Apple’s iPad, the Samsung Galaxy offerings or the high-end releases from Google, Amazon and others. Rather it is positioning itself as a low cost, solid alternative to these products for users who might not want or need all of the bells and whistles, and associated price tag, that come with these different offerings.

While it seems that everybody is now jumping into this space, from supermarkets to bookstores that is not a bad thing. As their price continues to drop the commercialization of tablets will continue and customers will benefit from this.

When the prices get low enough it makes sense to have one dedicated to work purposes, maybe with an external keyboard that has an additional battery while having a second tablet that can be kept by the television that can serve as a second screen, to watch two football games or allow one person in the room to escape sports. A low cost offering bedside for a late night reading before sleep. All of this is coming closer to reality as tablets become increasingly ubiquitous.

Verizon said that the tablet is the first of an expected family of Ellipsis products and it will be available online exclusively at the company’s stores for $249.99, with a short term offer now for $100 off any tablet from Verizon with a new 2-year wireless service contract.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Galaxy Note, Google, iPad, Samsung, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , ,

MLB sees strong increase in mobile and social media demand during playoffs

November 4, 2013 by

mlbpost

Major League Baseball had a great postseason (depending on who you were rooting for), with exciting games and strong broadcast viewership but it also experienced a great deal of success connecting online and via mobile with its fans as well.

While all of the playoffs and World Series had strong viewership during the 38-game run MLB.com saw a huge increase in fan participation, with a total of 296.4 million viewers over that period, an increase of 43% over the previous year and an average of approximately 10 million a day, according to stats from MLB.com.

In the area of live video streams MLB.com saw a very big jump in viewership, overall up 22% compared to 2012. Viewership on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones was up 30%YOY. The video was available from MLB’s broadcast partners TBS and MLB Network and was seen on Postseason.TV on MLB.com and in MLB.com At Bat.

However live video, which requires a subscription, was only the tip of the iceberg. Combined with on-demand video MLB.com had 152 million video streams representing a massive 170% increase over last year. Mobile is driving this usage with MLB.com At Bat app’s share of the total video streams delivered increased 130% compared to last year’s Postseason.

MLB’s mobile app, At Bat, saw its usage up 76% this postseason, and was opened 76.6 million times or an average of 2.5 million times a day. MLB was active on Facebook, with its team of posters recording 4,800 individual posts, which in turn had 1.4 billion impressions. The impressions were up 80% from last year. MLB also delivered 2,840 posts on Twitter at @MLB and saw an increase of 81% in retweets.

For the first time MLB.com distributed highlight clips across a wide swath of social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which were watched collectively 33.5 million times.

MLB.Com’s use of a wide variety of mobile and social media technologies to reach fans is obviously showing strong return interest by fans and enables fans that cannot see the games to catch highlights and information on a as it happens basis, something that will keep fans coming back for more.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Facebook, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Smartphone, Sports Social Media, Tablets, Twitter, YouTube Tagged With: , , , ,

Aruba scores with new Wi-Fi deployment for Portland Trail Blazers; Toyota dealers sign on as Wi-Fi sponsor

November 1, 2013 by

Wireless networking vendor Aruba Networks scored a big-time NBA deal as the centerpiece technology behind an enhanced Wi-Fi deployment at the Moda Center, home of the Portland Trail Blazers. With more than 400 Wi-Fi access points reportedly deployed, the 20,000-seat arena should have great connectivity for fans as the 2014 NBA season kicks off this week.

While we haven’t yet talked to Aruba folks about the deal (we are working off the numerous versions of the press release we found yesterday) there seems to be a really interesting financial twist, one that could prove a model for others if successful: According to the press releases the local Toyota dealerships in the greater Portland area have signed on as title sponsor for the new Wi-Fi service, which will appear to user devices as “Toyota Free Wi-Fi” in the SSID list. With teams and stadium owner/operators facing the question of how to pay for Wi-Fi infrastructure deployments, title sponsorships could be one way to help offset the millions in sunk costs.

We’ll try to circle back with all the companies involved in the deal, since there are many fingers in this pie: According to the release there is participation from Crown Castle on the deployment side, and popular team-app provider YinzCam scoring yet another team-app deal.

Filed Under: Apps, Basketball, NBA, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

MLB’s At Bat app rakes in the viewers and sales

November 1, 2013 by

atbat

Major League Baseball has been very aggressive in developing and delivering a variety of apps that can enhance a fan’s appreciation of the game and the flagship product in that effort is clearly At Bat, a program that enables fans to watch and/or listen to games.

The program has seen strong demand, with 10 million downloads in a single season, and very high usage with 1 billion launches. MLB said that 60% of fans open it every day. Last year it had 6.7 million downloads.

Apple recently announced that the program is one of the 10 top grossing iOS apps of all time, and that is no surprise in view of how long the two have partnered. When Apple opened its App store in 2008, At Bat was one of the original apps available.

Of course the app is not just for Apple’s platform, although they are often the first to get the latest releases and have the most features, but it also has an Android version as well as BlackBerry and Kindle Fire.

It would be interesting to see if the growing popularity of the app, which helps fans view games that might not be broadcast in their area, or hear favorite broadcasters has had any impact on other areas of the game such as television viewership. The recently concluded series between Boston and St. Louis saw TV ratings jump 17% this year.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: A look back at ABA, Sculley returning to High Tech?

November 1, 2013 by

If you fondly remember red, white and blue basketballs then this is probably great news for you — ESPN Films is going to explore the history of the American Basketball Association in its latest 30 for 30 documentaries.

One of the few leagues that, at least semi-successfully, challenged an incumbent one, the ABA ran from 1967 until it merged with the NBA in 1976. It helped bring a new degree of flash into the NBA with freewheeling players such as Julius Irving.

Android KitKat and Nexus 5 here
The next generation of the Android operating system, code named KitKat and the Nexus 5 smartphone that is the first device to run the new OS are here this week.

CNN Tech has a nice roundup, and points out that LG will be making the phone that is expected to have a 4.95-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution and have the latest generation of Gorilla Glass 3 for the front cover. Expect to see a new generation of tablets and phones with the OS in the coming months.

Few tablets have paid cellular
When you look at the price for a tablet you often see two figures: one that lists the Wi-Fi only cost and one for having 3G or 4 LTE cellular as well, which is often at least $100 more. A recent study from theConsumer Electronics Association shows that few use cellular.

The survey found that only 29% of tablet owners buy cellular enabled tablets and of these only 49% buy a data plan. Of those who buy it is almost split evenly between those that buy a separate plan for the tablet and for those who bundle.

CEA to debut WristRevolution at 2014 International CES
With Samsung, Sony, Google and a host of others now chasing the ‘wearable tech’ space the International Consumer Electronics Show will have a section that is devoted to products and technologies coming out for this market segment.

In the past products that perform some of these functions such as health monitors/wrist watches would be found across the huge show floors but now they will be gathered into a single area so that both hardware and software developments can be easily tracked.

First ticket for wearing Google Glass?
Speaking of wearable technology it is being reported that a California driver was ticketed for wearing Google Glass while driving. The officer cited a law that starts with “person shall not drive a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor, or a television or video screen, or any other similar means of visually displaying…” They were also speeding.

John Sculley to buy BlackBerry?
Former Apple and Pepsi CEO John Sculley is now being rumored to be in the running to buy the beleaguered smart deceive manufacturer BlackBerry, according to a report carried in the IT Wire, originally from the Globe and Mail.

Sculley is probably best known for pushing out Steve Jobs, one of Apple’s founders and the man that recruited him for the job while at Apple. He has been active in high tech since leaving Apple and is said to be working to bring a group of investors together to buy BlackBerry.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Basketball, BlackBerry, Consumer Electronics Association, ESPN, Google, NBA, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

TigerLogic seeks to drive fan engagement via social media

November 1, 2013 by

tiger

TigerLogic is charging into the collegiate sport scene with its social media platform Postano (meaning, ‘to post’ in Italian) a set of tools that will enable the school’s athletic departments to use fans’ social media posts to help promote the sports and school.

The company has already landed its platform at a number of schools, and at least one pro basketball team as well. Its customers see Postano as a way to engage fans not only at the events but in-between games as well. Among the early adopters are the University of Oregon and Arizona State University.

Postano is a flexible tool that can be adjusted to meet a school’s needs, according to the company. The goal is to enable schools to be able to present their teams in exactly the way they want them presented, down to the correct colors if somebody wants to paint their face school colors, said Tom O’Keefe, TigerLogic’s senior vice president of Social and Mobile.

The idea is pretty simple on the face of it: The company can provide a package of technology that allows the school to collect, curate and rebroadcast social media including posts from Instagram, Facebook, Vive and Twitter. They can be text, photos or video or combinations of these types of content.

Under Postano, the schools can create a media command center and then after the collection of the data they can display it in a variety of ways including on stadium scoreboards, or on displays set up for the purpose. Fans can see their own social conversations being broadcast while at the events. At the same time the schools can get a feel for the mood of the fan base by reviewing what is going on in the social media world.

Postano has created set packages specifically for college sports that include access to the following options: The Postano Social Hub, Postano Command Center, Postano Mobile and Postano Events and Social wall. It also will create customized features for its customers. The mobile platform supports both Apple’s iOS and the Android operating system.

One of the challenges that its technology faces is the inability of some stadiums to support large volumes of social media. Users can flood the grid bringing it to a halt. It does no good to try and engage fans if they cannot get a connection to post data.

While most major athletic conferences have signed away broadcasting and some digital media rights, the use of social media was not covered in these deals, and TigerLogic believes that this will be a major growth market for the company as schools use the media to further engage fans, O’Keefe said.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, DAS, Facebook, Instagram, iOS 7, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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