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Friday Grab Bag: Fox Sports 1 around the corner

August 9, 2013 by

If you have been waiting for a new 24-hour national sports broadcast network then your dreams have been answered as Fox Sports 1 is set to launch on Aug. 17 as the network once again challenges ESPN for sports supremacy.

The network already has a very full array of content teed up from different sports and leagues such as MLB, NASCAR, FIFA World Cup, UFC as well as college football conferences such as the Big Ten, Big 12 and the Pac-12.

Hopefully the fight between the two powers will be a bit more mature than the last time when they would both superimpose their logos over scenes so that if the rival carried the broadcast they had to show the logo.

Samsung to debut next Galaxy Note in September
Samsung has sent out invites to a major announcement that the company will be making on Sept. 4, and the line ’Note the Date” is being taken as a sign that the company will be delivering its Galaxy Note 3 at the event.

It is expected to follow in the footsteps of previous Galaxy Notes and be released at the annual IFA trade show that is held in Berlin, where the two previous generations were also unveiled.

Tablet sales slow, IDC says; no new iPad to blame
Market research firm International Data Corp. has reported that tablet sales slowed in the second quarter of this year, down 9.7% from the preceding quarter. However that number is more than offset by the 60% increase sales have increased compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

IDC expects the market to take off in the upcoming months, helped a great deal by the expected release of Apple’s next generation tablets. Apple has not refreshed the lineup in a year. It said it expects ‘impressive growth’ in the fourth quarter of this year.

One area of positive news for iPad rivals is that Windows Tablet sales on the upswing, with a 527% increase over the same period a year ago, reaching 1.8 million compared to the 300,000 shipped a year ago.

Spartan Race World Championship to be broadcast on NBC
The 2013 Reebok Spartan Race World Championship will be the centerpiece of a collaboration between Spartan Race Inc. and NBC Sorts Group for a television special on the obstacle racing sport.

The special will culminate with coverage of the championship that takes place in central Vermont on Sept. 21-22, 2013. That event is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants vying for the $250,000 in cash and prizes.

Apple’s fused glass patent destined for iPod, iPhone, iPads?
The most recent Apple patent application that has come to light shows that the company is looking to secure the rights to a method of fusing glass that the company describes as being applicable to several different products.

As shown on Slash Gear the next generation products that are built using the fused glass would be entirely enclosed by the material, but don’t get your hopes up for the current generation of Apple products expected within the next month or so, this looks to be a year out at the least.

Android-powered game console?
The game console market is a cutthroat business and minor errors in judgment regarding features and functions can alienate legions of fans. According to rumors from Game Informer, that segment maybe drawing a new player into the fold, Amazon.

The rumor is that not only does the company have a console in development that will use the Android operating system but that fans of midnight shopping may be able to get one by Black Friday.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, FIFA, Fox Sports, Galaxy Note, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Microsoft, NASCAR, NCAA Hoops, NFL, Samsung, Spartan Race, Surface Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Turner Sports Goes All-in On PGA Championship Coverage

August 7, 2013 by

pga

The 95th PGA Championship is being held at the Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Rochester, N.Y. and if you cannot catch any (or all) of TNT’s 18 hours of broadcast coverage there are other options that will enable you to stay abreast of the tournament.

Turner Sports is seeking to provide one of the broadest multimedia sports presentations possible with its coverage of the PGA Championship starting tomorrow, the 23rd consecutive year that the network has covered the event.

There is first off PGA.Com, an online site that provides users with a variety of features about the event but possibly the most important for remote fans is that it provides live streaming via PGA Championship Live. It is designed for not only PC users but also available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.

Among the features available from the app are a 360-degree camera that provides a panoramic view of the course and it has the ability to allow users to move the camera to get a view that matches their desire (aside from being there live). Fans can also look for highlights via its Video Highlight Hub so that they can witness all of the top moments and will allow fans to search and browse by player, round, hole or top moment from the 2013 PGA Championship.

For desktop users there is also a function that provides bird’s eye view of the interaction between players with an enhanced leaderboard that not only provides scores and highlights but also players interaction with each other around each hole

For mobile users there are also some specific features available as Turner has expanded its app from last year and added Android support in addition to the existing iOS features, although they offer slightly different features. For iOS users the user news, video alerts, detailed leaderboard and scorecards and access to live video streaming. The mobile web site will also offer live video, score updates and other news.

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Turner is not forgetting social media and has a number of new, improved or returning features. In the new category s Twitter Mirror showing shots and comments from players that fans can view @PGA.Com. Twitter will also be showing video highlights at the Twitter address and fans can participate in join a chat site that will include journalists and players at #PGAChamp.

Turner is also offering a variety of extras such as Predict It, an interactive tournament prediction feature and “PGA Championship Pick the Hole Location Challenge Hosted by Jack Nicklaus” that will enable fans to select the location of the famous Par 3 on the 15th hole.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golf, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Sports Social Media, Tablets, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , , ,

Fan Vision Delivers the PGA Championship to Attendees

August 5, 2013 by

fanv

Have you ever been to a golf tournament and you can hear the roar of the crowd after some great feat by a golfer, but you did not witness it because you are sitting at the 18th hole waiting for your favorites to play through?

Well FanVision, a company that is seeking to establish itself as a leading provider of in-venue content is offerings its technology at the tournament that is being held this week at the Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.

The idea is simple: lease or buy a small device that features video feed from the venue, and possibly elsewhere at the same time. The handheld device supports ten channels that have the ability to provide multiple camera angles or events happened at multiple places.

It is not just a source for live video but also provides information about the event as well as providing up to date news from the tournament. The company is renting the handheld devices at the Championship on a daily basis as well as for the week. If anyone uses one there we would be interested in some feedback.

The company first came to our attention two years ago when it started pushing its technology at NFL games, but then fell off the radar as that effort appears to have fallen to the wayside. But that did not mean that the company went away- it moved into new areas including NASCAR, which seems to be a natural fit for the technology, the Indy 500 and had a relationship with Formula One but that appears to be over, which is a pity. This is an interesting approach, and I can see it appealing to fans at events such as auto racing and golf, and even horse racing.

Filed Under: Apps, FanVision, Golf, Horse Racing, Indy 500, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NASCAR Tagged With: , , ,

Google’s Latest Nexus 7 Raises the Bar on Tablets

July 26, 2013 by

nex7

Google has introduced its next generation Nexus 7 tablet this week and has incorporated a host of enhanced features as it seeks to maintain the popularity of its top selling 7-inch tablet, which already has a 10% Android market share.

The tablet, built by Google partner Asus, weighs in at slightly more than half a pound (0.64lbs with Wi-Fi, 0.66 lbs with LTE) and runs the Jelly Bean 4.3 operating system. Among the features in the latest Jelly Bean release is parental control features as well as support for the newest energy efficient Bluetooth technology.

The screen is a standout item on the latest Nexus 7 with support for 1080p high definition video that equates to 1920 x 1200 resolution and includes new stereo speakers. The tablet is powered by a Qualcomm snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB of memory and the company said that you get 9 hours with active use from its battery.

The tablet has a pair of cameras with a 1.2 megapixel fixed focus front facing one and a 5MP auto focus rear facing camera. It sports dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 with 4G LTE available as an option.

The Nexus 7 comes with two basic storage capacities, a 16GB model and a 32GB version. The company said that the tablet will be shipping in the US by July 30 with an entry level price of $229 and $269 for the high end model without 4G LTE, and then will start a global rollout.

The company has also delivered a product called Chromecast, a $35 USB dongle that enables you to stream video over Wi-Fi to smartphones, laptops and tablets. It plugs into a television’s HDMI port, you then load an app onto the receiving device and then chose what to watch. Initially Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Music and Google Play Movies are all supported.

It will be interesting to see what Apple and Samsung have in store to combat Google in terms of pricing and features when their next generation 7-inch products hit the market.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Google, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Tablets, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Topps Uses Technology to Reach Out to Fans

July 16, 2013 by

topps

Do you remember baseball cards? Many of my friends collected them when younger but as it became overly commercialized with too many companies selling too many versions, so that what was once a childhood rite of passage slowly became an overly complex market that collapsed in on itself.

According to the piece that ran in Bleacher Report a few years ago the market topped out at $1.2 billion in 1991 and then collapsed to its current position of under $300 million. It has been trying to reinvent itself ever since.

Well credit Topps, one of the original powers in this category to adopting new technology to help promote a very non-technology offering, pieces of cardboard with baseball players stats on one side and their picture on the other.

The company has incorporated two short range communications technologies in a display at the 2013 MLB All-Star Fanfest with QR (quick response) codes and NFC (near field communications) incorporated into huge cards of the games All=-Stars that were on display at the event.

The first of the technologies, QR codes, for those of you that do not know are those boxes that look like an overgrown bar code, could be scanned by fans attending the event with mobile devices equipped with a scanner, and in doing so put themselves in the running for prizes such as card sets, Topps’ new Big League Minis and autographed memorabilia. Alternately a fan could use the NFC function of their mobile device, if so equipped.

The interactive effort, spearheaded by partner Scanbuy, is part of a larger effort by the card company to appeal to younger fans that are tech savvy. It will be interesting to see if the company publishes the final results and if we will see a new generation of cards with embedded technology.

Filed Under: All Star Game, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Baseball, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , ,

MLB Home Run Derby App has Real Prize

July 15, 2013 by

allst

Leading up to the annual Major League Baseball All Star game is the Home Run Derby and the league is made alterations to its mobile game based on the event with a contest that can send a fan to the World Series.

The updated mobile game “MLB.com Home Run Derby”, produced by MLB Advanced Media, the league’s interactive arm, is a free app that is available at both the App Store and Google Play and available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and select Android devices.

The latest version now includes this years’ eight players that will participate in the event, which is scheduled for this evening as well as include all 24 players that participated in the event in the years between 2010 and 1012. The ball park has been altered so that it now is a recreation of Citi Field, the park where this years’ derby and All Star game will be staged.

However for fans playing the mobile game there is a bonus. Fans with a valid account in MLB.com Home Run Derby playing the game, up until July 18 at 11:59 pm EDT that wins five multi player matches will be automatically entered into a sweepstakes for the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for two to Game Two of the 2013 World Series.

So see if you can have Prince Fielder defend his individual title that he earned last year at the event or if one of the seven other players participating will wrest the title from him. The other sluggers are David Wright, Robinson Cano, Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, Bryce Harper, Michael Cuddyer, or Pedro Alvarez

Filed Under: All Star Game, Android, Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Baseball, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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