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Guest Blog: Pickmoto Players as Good as ESPN Pickers?

December 1, 2012 by

Editor’s note: This blog is a series from Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.

WEEK 12

We’ve put a bullseye on the ESPN “Experts” this season. We’ve dissected who among the dozen is label worthy (Mort, Wickersham) and who is definitely not (Jackson, Ditka, Allen).

This week, instead of comparing ESPNers, let’s take a look at how they fare as a group against another tribe of opinionated NFL fans: the Pickmoto community.

The most interesting games are those with the strongest disagreement. So, we isolated games where each team received 4 to 8 of the 12 ESPNers’ picks. So far, 43 games qualified (8 in Week 12 alone).

For each of those games, we awarded a point to the group with the higher % that correctly picked the winning team. For example, for Redskins v. Cowboys, ESPN scores a point because 7/12 or 58% of ESPNers vs. 51% of Pickmotoers took the ‘Skins.

The final total is ESPN 22, PM 20, Tie 1. It was tied, but the ESPNers inched ahead with a 5 to 3 advantage in Week 12.

If you’ve read this far, then numbers and %s don’t nauseate you. So for the 4 of you left, we’ll continue.

Among the 43 games, there were 9 games with a 20+% difference. PM won 7 to 2. And among the 25 games with a 10+% difference, PM won 14 to 11… Wow you’re still with us!

Ok ok, just one more semi-interesting stat. The Falcons and Steelers had the most wins of the 43 games. Pickmotoers were 4-0-1 in the Falcons wins and 0-4 in the Steelers wins. So, the PM community is savvy to the Falcons and underestimates the Steelers.

We can go on and on slicing the numbers and trotting out slight hypotheses. Bottom line, the “Experts” and the PM community are about equal. The ESPNers have a slight edge if you include all 43 games. The Pickmotoers have an edge in games with the clearest difference of opinion.

Bottom-er line, you guys don’t call yourselves “Experts” so neither should ESPN.

ESPN Experts Leaderboard – Week 12
-Everyone starts with 300 points.

+Seth Wickersham – 743
+Chris Mortensen – 648
+Merrill Hoge – 362
+Adam Schefter – 335
+Ron Jaworski – 332
+Cris Carter – 284
Keyshawn Johnson – 247
Mark Schlereth – 238
Mike Golic – 237
+Tom Jackson – 191
+Mike Ditka – 183
Eric Allen – 71

In Week 12, the strong separated from the weak. All of the Top-6 gained ground. Wickersham and Mort keep climbing. Week after week, they net points with a savvy sprinkling of underdog picks. This week, they went against the grain with the Browns and Jags and those picks accounted for much of their point gains. Wickersham is actually inching closer to the Top 20 Overall on Pickmoto, which is really impressive because he doesn’t use gold pins … and doesn’t even know he’s playing.

Elsewhere, Tom Jackson(!) had the best pick record (12-4) and the best week in points besides Wick and Mort. Note the backhanded exclamation point.

Eric Allen dropped closer still to 0. It’ll be close, but if he keeps picking the Cardinals and Eagles to win football games, he’ll get there.

Pickmoto is fun, quick, easy competition. It recreates the fantasy sports experience on mobile. Its first game for the 2012 NFL season is free for iPhone and iPad. Its second game for the NBA season just hit the AppStore.

Pickmoto asks the most basic question in sports – which teams will win. It’s pick’em with a twist: there’s a crowdsourced scoring system that rewards correct picks based on their popularity – the less popular, the more points.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, NFL Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Happy Cyber Monday

November 26, 2012 by

Apple is seeking to keep the pressure on Samsung in the legal game and this week has extended its infringement motion against Samsung to now include the Galaxy S3 Mini, the Galaxy Note 2, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Rugby Pro according to TechRadar.

The move looks to be in retaliation for a similar push by Samsung which has added Apple’s iPad Mini and iPhone 5 to a list of devices that it claims infringe on its patents.

Tablet shipments top laptops in October
You knew that the day when tablets would pass PCs was coming, but there had been estimates that it would not occur for some time. Apparently those predictions were wrong. According to market research firm NPD Display Search, tablet sales passed laptop sales last month, based on its following of the panels used in both products. In October there was an estimated 16.9 million notebook panels shipped while there was an estimated 18.7 tablet panels shipped. However this may be a one month blip as the researchers also said that there were many notebook buyers holding back until after Windows 8 shipped.

Instagram rules on Thanksgiving
This is probably a no-brainer out there for most people but Thanksgiving was Instagram’s biggest day ever. The photo imaging service reported that it averaged 226 photos posted per second over a 24-hour period, with a total of 10 million photos shared over Thanksgiving. That is a lot of turkey. Or a lot of turkey pictures, anyway.

Microsoft planning a set-top box?
According to the Verge, Microsoft has an Xbox TV in the works that it has slated for release sometime in 2013. The device will enable streaming video as well as serve as a platform for the casual gamer, according to the article.

Most likely to be release roughly a year from now it will represent a two SKU strategy for Microsoft in the Xbox space with a dedicated Xbox that supports higher end games and the TV/Xbox combo for the everyday user.

Motorola repeats request for Apple Source Code
As part of one of its lawsuits against Apple, Motorola Mobility has requested access to Apple’s source code. Five times now, but who is counting? Motorola made the first request last May according to a story in the Inquisitr, and has now just made its fifth.

The case is being heard by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The request is for the source code for both the Mac OS X and iOS and Motorola is also asking for a specific date from Apple on when it plans to hand over the code.

Kickstarter kicked
Kickstarter launched a bit over a month ago in the United Kingdom and it now looks like one of is first projects is going to cause the crowdfunding site a few headaches. A successful funding effort landed a startup called Formlab over 2 million pounds.

Birthed from MIT’s Media Lab, Formlab is developing a 3D printer, however 3D Systems, a maker of 3D printers is claiming patent infringement and has sued the startup, as well as Kickstarter. The issue is over how a laser causes a synthetic substance to solidify as part of the 3D process.

According to a piece in PC Adviser, Kickstarter is also being sued by a rival crowd funding company called ArtistShare over the use of a database software program and how it can be used.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Google, Instagram, iOS, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Kickstarter, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Guest Blog: Pickmoto Tracks the ESPN NFL Experts

November 24, 2012 by

Editor’s note: This blog is a series from Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.

WEEK 11

As you might expect in a week in which Favorites nearly ran the table, the ESPNers shined. None were as perfect as 33 Pickmotoers, but Golic, Jaws, Schlereth, and Carter came close, only whiffing on the Rams. And Hoge, Mort, Wickersham, Jackson, and Ditka were right behind with 1 wrong pick on top of the Rams. Even Allen went 10-3 and gained a point.

Schefter and Johnson were the only two who lost ground. But they were also the only two who picked the underdog Panthers, a near hit, which would have been enough to flip their Week 11 fortunes to positive.

Naturally, we feel compelled to claw back some of the credit we just dispensed. Besides the Panthers, the morning games nearly gave us 4 other big upsets. The Jags, Browns, and Lions were all winning heading into the 4th Quarter and the Cardinals were tied. Not one ESPNer picked any of them. Ultimately, they were right, but what turned out to be a stellar week almost fell apart early Sunday. Considering what heavy underdogs they were, we actually would have respected wrong picks more.

Finally, glad to hear that Ditka is doing better.

ESPN Experts Leaderboard – Week 11
-Everyone starts with 300 points.

+Seth Wickersham – 694
+Chris Mortensen – 616
+Merrill Hoge – 340
Adam Schefter – 319
+Ron Jaworski – 310
Keyshawn Johnson – 275
+Mike Golic – 263
+Mark Schlereth – 249
+Cris Carter – 223
+Mike Ditka – 175
+Tom Jackson – 145
+Eric Allen – 84

Pickmoto is fun, quick, easy competition. It recreates the fantasy sports experience on mobile. Its first game for the 2012 NFL season is free for iPhone and iPad. Its second game for the NBA season just hit the AppStore.

Pickmoto asks the most basic question in sports – which teams will win. It’s pick’em with a twist: there’s a crowdsourced scoring system that rewards correct picks based on their popularity – the less popular, the more points.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, NFL, Sports Betting Tagged With: , , ,

Guest Blog: Pickmoto Tracks the ESPN NFL Pickers

November 16, 2012 by

Editor’s note: This blog is a series from Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.

WEEK 10

Wickersham and Mortensen keep on climbing. Wickersham has gained points in 9!!! of 10 weeks and Mort has in 8 of 10. As the leaderboard illustrates, they are in a tier of their own – the Experts of the “Experts”. They didn’t take any big upsets in Week 10. Just smart, sound picking. Mort was one of only (surprisingly) two ESPNers who took the Vikings over the Lions. That’s the sort of pick that really impresses us: two fairly evenly-matched teams and Mort correctly picked the less popular, less sexy Vikings.

Merrill Hoge was the week’s big winner as he was the lone man to correctly take the Bengals over the Giants. That was quite a pick: the Bengals, who hadn’t really beaten anyone of note this year, took down the defending Super Bowl Champs. And it wasn’t even close.

On the other end of the spectrum, again, was Eric Allen. He managed to go 6-8 even though he basically just took favorites. The only underdog he took – the Chargers – was the typical misguided pick of someone not paying attention. Despite big names at QB, TE and a “genius” offensive head coach, the Chargers are much worse than their reputation. And the Bucs have quietly been very good since their bye week. We like Eric Allen as a commentator. But as a prognosticator? If he dips below 0 in our scoring, we’ll be calling for relegation from the Experts picks page.

ESPN Experts Leaderboard – Week 10
-Everyone starts with 300 points.

+Seth Wickersham – 673
+Chris Mortensen – 594
+Adam Schefter – 325
+Merrill Hoge – 320
Keyshawn Johnson – 302
Ron Jaworski – 276
Mike Golic – 229
+Mark Schlereth – 215
Cris Carter – 203
+Mike Ditka – 171
+Tom Jackson – 130
Eric Allen – 83

Pickmoto is fun, quick, easy competition. It recreates the fantasy sports experience on mobile. Its first game for the 2012 NFL season is free for iPhone and iPad. Its second game for the NBA season just hit the AppStore.

Pickmoto asks the most basic question in sports – which teams will win. It’s pick’em with a twist: there’s a crowdsourced scoring system that rewards correct picks based on their popularity – the less popular, the more points.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, NFL Tagged With: , , ,

Guest Blog: Pickmoto Rates the ESPN NFL Experts, Week 9

November 9, 2012 by

Editor’s note: This blog is a series from Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.

Week 9 featured four games that the ESPNers split evenly on: Dolphins-Colts, Bucs-Raiders, Steelers-Giants, and Eagles-Saints. It’s these close calls, these coin tosses that should offer the best opportunity for prognosticators to demonstrate superior insight.

And by that measure, Ron Jaworski was the top Expert Week 9. Actually, by any metric he was. He went 12-2 total, 4-0 in the close calls, and gained 43 points on our Pickmoto scoring system. Jaworski’s only misses were the Cowboys and RGIII over Cam, which all dozen had backwards.

Of course, The Colts and Steelers baaaaaaaarely won. But we’re not talking knuckles scraping the endzone or replacement ref fiascos. Jaws went a legitimate 4-0. He’s now closing in on the magic 300, the number a beagle should get if he made picks every week.
Elsewhere, the top 2 and bottom 2 put some distance between themselves and 300. Wickersham usually picks a big upset, but smartly passed this week. Mort went out a ledge with the Browns and Jaguars, but was strong enough with his other picks to still take home a positive number.

At the other end of things, Allen and Jackson both went 10-4, but their wins came in low point value games, so they fell even further behind. Allen, we like because of his work in the Bay Area. Jackson, we’ve been tuning out for years and now we have empirical proof why we should continue.

ESPN Experts Leaderboard – Week 9
-Everyone starts with 300 points.

+Seth Wickersham – 668
+Chris Mortensen – 576
Keyshawn Johnson – 333
Adam Schefter – 320
+Ron Jaworski – 279
Merrill Hoge – 277
+Mike Golic – 229
+Cris Carter – 226
+Mark Schlereth – 208
+Mike Ditka – 166
Eric Allen – 142
Tom Jackson – 125

Pickmoto is fun, quick, easy competition. It recreates the fantasy sports experience on mobile. Its first game for the 2012 NFL season is free for iPhone and iPad. Its second game for the NBA season just hit the AppStore.

Pickmoto asks the most basic question in sports – which teams will win. It’s pick’em with a twist: there’s a crowdsourced scoring system that rewards correct picks based on their popularity – the less popular, the more points.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, Fantasy Sports, NFL Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Androids Rule!

November 5, 2012 by

A report from market research firm IDC shows how well smartphones that are running Android are doing in the market. Its latest report, that covers Q3, shows that they have a 75% market share with a total of 136 million handsets being shipped during the quarter.

These numbers leave all other operating systems in the dust. Apple’s iOS platform shipped 26 million iPhones, good for a 14.9% share of the market, BlackBerry had 7.7 million shipped, good for a 4.3% market share while Microsoft’s Windows and Windows 7 platforms shipped 3.6 million units good for a 2% market share.

Microsoft has a smartphone in the works
There has been a lot of noise over a rumored smartphone from Microsoft this week. It seems to make sense — the company introduces a new operating system for tablets and follows with its own tablet and it now also has a new operating system for phones.

While most just report on the rumor, Forbes has discussed why the phone is a good idea (at least in the eyes of the author) and takes a good look at what the impact of such a phone might have on the market and current and potential future Microsoft OEMs.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer is taking aim at Apple it appears and he said that Apple is a low volume player in all of its markets aside from tablets. It will be interesting to see how well Windows tablets do against the iPad.

When is an apology not an apology? When Apple makes it
Stung by a court order Apple has re-apologized to Samsung after a court in the United Kingdom deemed its earlier effort had inaccurate depictions of an earlier court ruling and that the apology must make an obvious reference to the court ruling.

Apple’s original effort was a cut and paste job that gave the appearance of exactly the opposite of what the court wanted it to say.

Microsoft vs Google trial has secrecy issues
The next major trial looming on the horizon in the U.S. is the pending case of Microsoft vs. Google, has a common request that is starting to worry legal experts. A part of the case has to do with royalty payments that these companies make to licensees, and they want that to remain secret, even when discussed at a public trial. The gist of a request that both companies have made separately is that a good deal of the trial be conducted in secret, so as not to reveal information that they deem confidential.

New crowdsourcing for app developers
Mobile app crowdsourcing player AppStori has teamed with Millennial Media to provide funds for not only mobile app development but also for advertising and support. The program provides eligible projects that post on AppStori $500 in cash funding and a $500 advertising credit to put toward driving app discovery. Millennium Media provides mentors to help the developer on everything from creation to marketing.

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