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Nike Takes Next Step in Digital Apps with Nike + Accelerator

March 19, 2013 by

nike

Last year Nike introduced the Nike + platform and NikeFuel, and activity measurement technology that allows athletes to track their results in real time. Now the company has reached out to expand this effort with the Nike + Accelerator program that will bring in third party developers into the fold.

Nike is working with TechStars, a company that assists startup tech companies in raising seed money, connection to venture capital firms and angel investors as well as providing mentoring services to its clients.

Nike has selected ten companies as partners in the Nike + Accelerator program and will work with them in a three month program designed to help develop new products and services that are focused around the Nike + platform. Nike is seeking to have a broad focus in this program, looking for apps and development in areas such as training, coaching, gaming, sport and wellness.

As these startups engage with Nike’s platform, effective communication will play a crucial role in their success. While formal meetings and structured feedback are essential, communicating with your team informally can foster a more relaxed and open environment. This informal communication allows for spontaneous brainstorming and quick problem-solving, which can significantly enhance creativity and innovation during the program.

Each of the ten companies selected will receive assistance in a variety of forms starting with $20,000 in funding. Nike, and others, will also provide mentoring for the companies including app developers, VC funding managers and company executives with 30 mentors available.

The Nike + Accelerator program is expected to end in mid-June and at that time Nike host an Investor Demo Days event at its headquarters during which the companies will have the opportunity to pitch potential investors including Nike for additional funds and partnerships. There will be Demo Days held both at Nike’s headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. and in Silicon Valley.

The ten companies are:
FitDeck: Digital decks of exercise playing cards that deliver ever-changing workouts for fitness and sports.

GoRecess: Helps users find, book and review fitness activities.

Chroma.io: An indie game studio that creates virtual worlds tied to real-world activity.

CoachBase: Provides a digital sports coaching platform.

GoFitCause: Leverages fitness data as a means of raising money for charities.

HighFive: Ad network for health and fitness apps that helps people achieve their goals by rewarding them along their journey.

Sprout At Work: Provider of corporate wellness solutions leveraging social and gamification tools to inspire employees and empower employers.

GeoPalz: An interactive gaming and rewards platform for kids and families.

Incomparable Things: Creates activity-driven fantasy sports leagues.

RecBob: Offers a platform that makes recreational sports easy by organizing play.

It will be interesting to see if we get true differentiated apps from this push. If so that will likely to encourage others to follow Nike’s footsteps, or for those that already have some form of app developer program to ramp it up another level.

Filed Under: Apps, Nike Tagged With: ,

New 2013 ESPN Bracket Bound app for Smartphones and Tablets now available

March 18, 2013 by

bracket

It comes as no surprise that ESPN is reaching out to mobile users to offer leagues for users to enter for the upcoming NCAA Basketball Tournaments, but it is nice to know that there are features that will appeal to the diehard basketball fan as well as to people that only pay attention at this time of year.

The free “ESPN Bracket Bound” app, designed for use with both Android and Apple’s iOS mobile devices provides fans with the chance to enter both the Men’s and Women’s tournaments with either the ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge, presented by Allstate, Acura and Taco Bell or the ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge presented by Capitol One.

The app also allows fans to participate in the ESPN College Hoops Pick’Em challenge that allows fans to predict the winner of each tournament match up, with bonus points for correctly picking games where the lower seeded team wins.

The app can be customized to allow fans to follow individual teams and specify games that they are interested in following by providing the scores and schedules. Other features of the ESPN Bracket Bound app include game clips, video analysis from ESPN’s college basketball experts and analysts, bracketology, game previews, recaps, analysis and highlights

ESPN.com also provides several levels of support and information to help fans select their teams. Available for all fans is access to its college basketball experts and analysts. For members of ESPN Insider there are additional predictor and analysis tools available.

The tournaments are not just for bragging rights. When the Men’s tournament is over the top 1% are entered into a random drawing to win a $10,000 Best Buy Gift Card and the top 1% in the Women’s bracket will be in a drawing to take home a $5,000 card from Best Buy.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Basketball, ESPN, Fantasy Sports, iOS, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Ready for the SEC Network?

March 15, 2013 by

Samsung has continued its steady expanse of its Android powered smartphones with the release of the Galaxy S4 at an extravagant unveiling at New York’s Radio City Music Hall earlier this week.

The handset has a 5-inch screen and features a 13-megapixel camera while its software now includes both eye-tracking and gesture control features to make its use even simpler. Expected in mid-April it is being carried by 327 mobile operators.

Apple files patent for Smart Cover inductive charging
Apple has filed for a patent for its Smart Cover for iPads involving a technique that would allow the cover to charge the device when the cover is closed. A built-in induction cable would make the charging possible.

The cover would also have battery cells that would be able to charge the iPad where ever it was as long as the cover is closed. The cover could then be recharged via a USB cable, according t a report on the topic at AppleInsider.

MLB’s mobile seats upgrade program advancing
MLB’s At the Ballpark mobile app that will allow fans to upgrade seats when at the ballpark has undergone a successful trial run at this year’s Spring Training and is expected to be ready for the opening of the regular season.

The app, available for iPhones and iPads, was developed by MLB Advanced Media in partnership with Experience Partner and should be usable at the homes of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics initially with other teams adding support as the season progresses.

Consumers want more personal data control with mobile apps
It seems that just about every month another article comes out telling you that one app or another can access your personal information on your smartphone. Now a survey from Mobile Marketer shows that consumers are increasingly wary of this and want more control over what personal information is shared.

The report showed that 70% of consumers say that they want to know what information apps are collecting and what data it is sharing.

SEC expected to launch TV channel next month
The Southeastern Conference is expected to announce that it will be launching its own television channel that will be called the SEC Network sometime in mid-April, ESPN has reported.

The move has been expected for some time and the network should help funnel more revenue into the powerhouse conference. Other conferences have already formed their own television channels including the Pac-12 and the Big 10

Google Glasses Banned from bar
While not earthshaking news by any means it appears that a bar is Seattle has banned customers from wearing Google Glass, claiming that they violate customers’ privacy and that they do not want people videotaped or photographed against their wishes.
The 5 Point Café is a self described seedy bar whose owner said the ban of the $1,500 glasses is partly a joke, partly for privacy reasons and partly just a statement of the type of customer that the place does not want.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, NCAA.com, Samsung, SEC, Smartphone Tagged With: , , , , , ,

CBSSports.com Delivers Updated Mobile App in time for March Madness

March 14, 2013 by

cbs

CBSSports.com has updated its mobile app with enhanced features that enables avid fans of the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, and even just casual observers, to follow the tournament, get insight into games and map out their bracket strategy.

This is not its first shot at delivering an app for the tournament but the company has completely redesigned the program to provide an enhanced experience for people that follow the event on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as via a web site.

At the most basic level the redesigned CBS Sports mobile app provides instant access to brackets and access to insight from experts on which teams to pick, which as even the most casual fan knows is of all importance during the tournament, for bragging rights if nothing else.

However the app, available for both Android and Apple iOS device users is not just a static data program but provides a host of other features including featuring live access to all CBSSports.com bracket games (iOS users only), tweets from other game that are currently ongoing as well as updates and final scores as they are warranted.

It provides fans with several options in the area of brackets including allowing a user to enter the Bracket Challenge where a user can have as many as three brackets and competes with others who enter the event. There is also a tool called Bracket Manager that is designed to help create and manage bracket groups that you might want to form with friends or coworkers. For Users whose picking skills are similar to mine there is also something called Round by Round that permits fans to pick each of the six rounds, eliminating “busted” brackets.

For those who cannot wait for the tournament the app also provides coverage of this weekend’s Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament Semifinals and Championship on Saturday and Sunday.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Basketball, CBS Sports, Contests, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com Tagged With: , , , , ,

7-inch Asus Fonepad With 3G Slated for March Release

February 27, 2013 by

ASUS-Fonepad-02-276x300

Asus is the latest to get into the multifunction 7-inch tablet space with its Fonepad, a device that functions as both a tablet and a smartphone, something that will go head to head with other devices in this emerging category such as the recently released Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

The handheld is powered by an Intel Atom Z2420 processor running at 1.2GHz and will feature 1GB of RAM, and will be available with either 8GB or 16GB of storage while a microSD slot enables users to add additional storage up to a total of 32GBs.

The 7-inch display has 1280 x 800 HD resolution and it features a 1.2MP front facing camera while an optional rear facing 3 MP camera with 720p HD video recording capabilities is also available. It uses the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system.

The Fonepad has an expected nine hour battery life and comes with built-in 3G with HSPA+ mobile data so that users can browse and download data and apps as well as use it as a telephone. The company has included a set of Asus exclusive apps including Floating App for easy app management and simpler multi-tasking; SuperNote lite for handwritten notes; and WebStorage Office Online for Microsoft Office-compatible document editing on the move. Fonepad users also get 5GB of free lifetime ASUS WebStorage.

It is expected to ship next month and will have an entry price point of $249. It seems that the smaller form factor is heating up as the new place to be, with an increasing number of companies entering the space. I suspect we will see a number of additional offerings in this space over the next few months as handset developers as well as tablet companies seek to carve out some of the market for themselves.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Asus, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Cool New Web App for Getting PGA Scores: Live Interactive Course Map

February 7, 2013 by

PGA scoring map appThere’s a cool new way to get live scores from PGA Tournament events, which uses live data superimposed on a Google map to give you a graphic way to see who is playing on which hole, and what their current score is.

Built by a company called Earthvisionz from my old stomping grounds of Boulder, Colo., the app is already live on the web — go take a look at livemaps.pgatour.com to see how it works, since you will be able to figure it out faster than I can tell you about it. Basically, it’s a Google map of the course with live data that shows who is playing the hole, how far they’ve hit their shots, how far to the hole, etc. From what we can tell, it’s the PGA’s Shot Link info but put into a form that’s cooler to use than looking up and down a graphical list.

The only quibble I have right now is that you have to click on the bubble twice to get the full shot info like distance and score. (See screenshot below) But according to the press release from Earthvisionz the app is designed to do a lot more, including being able to see where you are on a course, and where important “amenities” like bathrooms and beer tents are located. (This would have been a great app to have at last year’s U.S. Open!) Since this looks like a web app it should be available to any device… let us know if you can’t see it on a particular device. Looks great from our desktop connection, I wonder how well it works on cellular. Anyone at the tourney this week, please let us know!

We will circle back next week with an interview with the Earthvisionz folks as time allows… but for now take a look and let us know what you think of the new app.

Screen shot 2013-02-07 at 11.48.24 AM

(Click on the image to the left to see what the app does when you click through the scoring bubbles)

Filed Under: Apps, Golf, PGA Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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