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Friday Grab Bag: Top Sports Twitters, No one wants NASCAR

October 11, 2013 by

Sports humor site Deadspin breaks down the top sports Twitter accounts with a short synopsis of each, most of them dead on and pretty funny, using actual tweets from each account to highlight, sort of, what the person stands for.

The piece does not spare many, with pretty much an impressive list of people and put downs. It should be noted that Deadspin only included 73 sites in its Top 100 list.

Instagram a threat to hockey reporters?
Sports reporters who cover the Philadelphia Flyers are all up in arms over the team’s decision to use Instagram as the avenue by which it announced who would be its starting goalie. The best part is how the reporters, some of the most old school in the nation, responded.

That would be via their smartphones and through their Twitter accounts of course. Nothing can show your disgust over someone using the latest technology than by also using it to complain about that use.

Aereo coming to Android
The TV over Internet developer Aereo said that it will soon be delivering to the Android operating system. It already has a version of the iPhone but said that the Android took much longer because of the huge number of customized versions of the OS.

Aereo is currently locked into a lawsuit with TV broadcasters over its rights to rebroadcast their products and they are trying to fast track the suit to the US Supreme Court to prevent the rapid expansion of the company,

iPhone 6 to reported to have 4.8-inch screen
Cnet is reporting that a Jefferies analyst is predicting that the next generation iPhone, expected in sometime in 2014, will have a 4.8-inch screen. The current screens on the just released iPhone 5s is 4 inches.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek made his prediction after meeting with Apple suppliers in Asia. Currently Apple is behind the curve in screen size, with an estimated 50% of other smartphones that shipped last quarter having screens larger than 4 inches.

ESPN & Turner fleeing NASCAR
It has been reported elsewhere that NASCAR’s viewing numbers have been declining for the last several years but has it really come to this? The Sports Business Daily is reporting that both Turner Sports and ESPN are looking to exit their respective broadcast deals with the sport early.

The idea was to turn responsibility for the telecasts over to Fox Sports a year early, since Fox will be the new broadcaster for NASCAR in the future. NASCAR turned down the idea according to The SBD.

Motorola to one-up Samsung in large format smartphones
According to Cnet there is the possibility that the next generation smartphone from Motorola will feature a 6.3-inch display, placing its own stake in the ground in the rapidly growing phablet market segment.

The space, pioneered by Samsung and its Galaxy Note lineup, has seen a number of additional players enter the market such as Sony while others such as Microsoft have hinted at the possibility. Apple appears to be the lone holdout on the large screen segment among the major players.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, Fox Sports, Instagram, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Motorola, NASCAR, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , , , , ,

LG ready to ship high-end G Pad tablet

October 9, 2013 by

lg gpad

The fall tablet rollout continues as LG delivers the details of its LG G Pad 8.3 as the company seeks to establish itself as a contender in the small to midsized tablet space with an offering that should start hitting stores later this month.

The tablet, originally shown at IFA in Berlin last month, has an 8.3-inch display with 1920 x 1200 resolution but LG worked hard to keep the bezel small enough so that the tablet could be easily used in one hand. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.7GHz quad-core processor.

It features 2GB of RAM as well as 16GB of storage that can be expanded to 64GB via a microSD card It has a 5MP rear facing camera and a 1.3MP front facing camera. It runs on the Android 4.2.2 operating system release.

The company plans to release the tablet in the U.S. in the upcoming weeks according to reports and then follow that up with a European launch. It is expected to be first available next week in Korea but pricing for the U.S. model has not yet been announced.

The release of the G Pad 8.3 puts the company directly in competition with the growing number of developers cashing in on the demand for the smaller than 10-inch tablets with high quality smaller form factor offerings.

One of the top complaints against the 10-inch and larger models is that they are too cumbersome to use with one hand and need steady support for use, something that is not an issue with the smaller models.

Apple’s new iPads are expected later this month, the actual date of introduction is still a point of speculation at this time. Others that have refreshed already include leaders such as Amazon and Google.

Then of course there are lower cost models, usually ones with a lower resolution screen, less storage and fewer other bells and whistles, which does not mean that they have no role in this market, just not in a heads-up competition with the top of the line offerings.

There is also the growing corporate space where much larger storage is seen as a must. It will be interesting to see how the market segment breaks out going forward and if one tablet will suffice to work in all spaces or if it will be broken down by both size and market segment, with different leaders in the differing areas.

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

Dell targets both consumers and corporate users with latest tablets

October 7, 2013 by

dellc

Dell has released a new line of tablets and notebook computers in its new Venue family as the company strives to maintain its position in the market as its behind the scenes buy-out continues to play out to a conclusion.

The company, which is no stranger to the tablet market having had both a Windows RT offering earlier as well as its XPS lineup, delivered four new tablets. Dell is describing its new line as “ultrathin,” with a pair of tablets running the Windows 8 Pro operating system and two of the tablets operating on the Android operating system.

There are two offerings in the Venue Pro series, an 8.1-inch model and an 11-inch tablet, both of which will run the Windows Pro operating system. They both have stylus and keyboard options.

The Dell Venue 8 Pro features a 1280 x 800 display with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage as well as Office 2013 Home & Student as a standard feature. It is powered by the Intel quad core Bay Trail microprocessor.

The Dell Venue 11 Pro features a 1920 x 1080 resolution display. It supports a maximum of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage along with WiDi and NFC support. It also features a user removable/replaceable battery that can provide 11 hours of usage time and also has a quad core Bay Trail processor from Intel.

The Dell Venue 7 has a 7-inch 1280 x 800 pixel display with 16GBs storage with a microSD slot for additional storage; it is powered by a 2 GHz Intel processor and uses the Android operating system. The other Android model, the Venue 8, has an 8-inch display with the same resolution and processor as the Venue 7, but also comes in a 32GB storage model.

The $149.99 Dell Venue 7, $179.99 Venue 8 and $299.99 Venue 8 Pro will be available Oct. 18 while the $499.99 Venue 11 Pro will be available sometime in November.

I expect that the road to acceptance in the tablet space for Dell will be a bit harder than for other major hardware developers that have name recognition. The company is currently in the process of being taken private and that has to raise a few flags for potential customers, particularly in the enterprise space where the Venue Pro line appears to be targeted.

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

Friday Grab Bag: Fenway Boots, Fox vs. ESPN

October 4, 2013 by

Nokia is starting to sound like a punch line from a Monty Python movie “I’m not dead yet.” While many have given up on the company it is still churning out products and is expected to unveil its first tablet later this month.

According to Yahoo a Nokia tablet has passed FCC approval and the company, soon to be owned my Microsoft, plans to show a tablet that will run a version of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system at an event in Abu Dhabi.

The difference between ESPN and Fox Sports Live
The good folks at the Sports Business Daily have broken down the difference between the two sports broadcasters, looking at how each o them present the biggest sporting events of the day, using last Monday night as the benchmark.

Not surprisingly ESPN led off with the NFL Monday night game that it had just concluded broadcasting while Fox focused on the MLB playoffs. As usual ESPN pretty much ignored hockey.

L.L. Bean makes Fenway Park boots
LL Bean now has something that only a die hard Red Sox fan could want, boots that are made, in part, from the tarp that was used to cover the field at Fenway Park during the 2012 season. 100 pairs are expected to be produced.

However the made to order boots are not available on a first come/first serve basis. The company is having fans visit Facebook/LL Bean site and share their favorite moments for a chance to win with 50 selected at random. There are additional avenues a fan can enter, to be announced at a later date.

Nike sets date for NikeFuel Forum
If you are an athlete, or maybe not one, but use the NikeFuel band to track you exercise and caloric output you will be happy to know that the company will be hosting an event in New York City that will discuss how it sees the digital world and physical activity merging.

This market, slow to emerge over the last few years has really jump-started with the news of wearable appliances such as Samsung’s Galaxy Gear and rumored other smartwatches as well as the Google Glass and rival efforts. It will be interesting to see how the company plans to compete going forward.

McAfee to deliver device that thwarts NSA?
Antivirus developer John McAfee has a new target in sight, preventing the NSA or any agency from snooping on your online activities. He has developed a product that he calls “Decentral” to do this.

The small device can be used with smartphones and other mobile devices to create a type of mobile network that cannot be penetrated by government surveillance. He said it will cost around $100.

New iPad to outsell last edition?
With Apple’s newest iPads expected to be unveiled in the near future analysts are back predicting how sales will be and KGI is saying that the new iPad 5 will far out pace the new iPad Minis, at least initially.

Market research firm KGI has said that it expects about 10 million iPad 5s sold in the fourth quarter compared to 2 million Minis. There has been a great deal of speculation that the Mini production is slow getting going and that supplies will be limited.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, Fox Sports, iPad, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , ,

GoPro’s latest actioncam smaller and lighter

October 3, 2013 by

gopro

For fans of actioncams, those small cameras designed to be worn by the user in sporting events and other activities but are concerned about the potential interference the devices could have, GoPro has good news for you.

Its Hero+3 lineup is now out and the company has addressed issues such as weight and size by the simple move of reducing both, while maintaining the functionality that customers are used to from its other offerings.

The latest lineup is 20% smaller and lighter than its last generation while at the same time the company has managed to increase battery time by as much as 30%. The entry level offering is the Hero3+ Silver Edition and the company said that it performs at 2x the speed of its Hero3 Silver offering.

The camera can support both 1080p60 and 720p120 frames per second video and even when loaded in its new waterproof housing is still 15% smaller than earlier editions. It also now sports a much faster Wi-Fi capability for transferring files, reaching speeds that are 4x faster than in older models. It also has a faster image processor, operating at double the speed of the last generation.

The top of the line Hero3+ Black Edition has the same video and Wi-Fi capabilities available in the Silver Edition. The camera boasts a new lens for sharper images and an auto low light mode that can adjust for changing lighting conditions. Its underwater housing now has a 20% smaller and lighter footprint than older models and is good down to 40 meters. The $400 camera is currently available.

In addition to improving its cameras GoPro has also enhanced the clamps by which users attach them to their bikes, bodies or other objects. There is now a smaller version of its chest harness, called Junior Chesty, for smaller children and there is a Headstrap + Quickclip for low profile mounting of the cameras on baseball caps, belts and other objects.

Filed Under: Apps, GoPro, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Motocross, Outdoor Activities, Running, Skiing, Sports Action Cameras Tagged With: , ,

Emetic latest with low cost tablet

October 2, 2013 by

ematic

Ematic has joined the tablet fray with an 8-inch Android-based offering as the market continues to heat up in the short term and Android tablets overtake Apple’s iPad in market share, just prior to Apple’s expected revamping of its own tablet offerings.

The Ematic 8” Pro Series tablet is a low cost alternative to many of the rivals in this space be they running Apple, Android or Microsoft operating systems. The 8-inch tablet has a $130 price tag, putting it under almost all rivals in this space.

The tablet runs the Android 4.1 operating system (Jelly Bean) and features an 8-inch 1024 x 768 resolution display with 1GB RAM, an ARM 1.6GHz dual core processor with 8GB of storage that is expandable to 32GBs via a microSD card. It comes with 5GBs of cloud storage and there is also a 2MP back and 0.3 MP front facing cameras. For those that want to stream to a television it has HDMI output.

The competition in the tablet space has been fierce and is expected to stay that way, at last now that new platforms are here or on the way. Amazon and Google have both recently refreshed their offerings and Apple is expected to do so later this month.

Sales slowed in the last quarter, attributed to lack of new models from the major players, according to research firm IDC.

However once you have one tablet a second one often makes sense and I can see the low cost providers starting to surge as they offer a great deal of what the larger, better known players offer. Into this space developers such as Ematic should find a sweet spot.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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