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Grunts of the Week: Saints WR Nick Toon Talks About Team’s 1st Win

October 12, 2012 by

Our second installment of “Grunts of the Week,” video messages from NFL players courtesy of the new Gridiron Grunts app, which lets you hear from pro players via your phone. In the segment above Saints WR Nick Toon gives QB Drew Brees a shout-out after New Orleans’ first victory of the year.

Below, Chicago Bears safety Major Wright talks about having “a lot of juice, a lot of energy” as he heads early to practice, and shows off his Gator gear prior to Florida’s big win over LSU. Download the Gridiron Grunts app for more.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, NFL Tagged With: , , ,

New GoPro App Turns Phone Into Camera Remote Control

October 10, 2012 by

If you are a fan or user of the GoPro mobile cameras, you now have a potentially cool new toy — the new GoPro smartphone app, which lets your phone act as a remote control for the company’s mobile HD Hero2 cameras.

The short video above does a great job of showing you what’s possible with the new app. Here’s some verbiage from the official GoPro announcement page:

Features include full control of all camera settings, live video preview to your smartphone or tablet for easy shot framing and more. The GoPro App also gives you access to our Photo and Video of the Day posts keeping you in touch with the latest radness from GoPro.

GoPro also notes that you need a software update to both the HD Hero2 camera and the Wi-Fi BacPac to use the app, all available from this page.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, GoPro Tagged With: , , ,

2Bet2 Focuses on Social Betting on Games

October 9, 2012 by

2Bet2

Socialized betting is undergoing an interesting change, migrating from the office water cooler, if one actually exists, and onto social media sites such as Facebook and Google +, and one of the recent entrants into that field is 2Bet2, bringing out its Facebook offering around the start of the year.

It has many of the features that are currently coming on line in rival sports apps using odds to set the line on bets and winners can get awards that allow them to advance and open up new opportunities. You can bet against friend or the house and do so on events that are played around the globe.

There is real time game and odds updates and along with seeing how your bets are doing you have a chat ability that permits congratulating, taunting, or anything in between, among players. All major sports are covered including both NFL and NCAA Football, both NBA and NCAA basketball, Hockey, Baseball, 25 different European Football leagues, Rugby Union/League, Cricket, Tennis and Golf.

2Bet2 has plenty of competition in the social betting world both with mobile app developers moving over onto social media and developers focusing initially on social media as the platform of choice. Players such as SideBet have added social media access.

There is a growing list of competitors in this space I believe that fantasy sports sites will also look towards online gambling if and when it gets the ok. Look at players including Rotowire, Grabfan, Pickmoto to name just a few. Even casinos are getting into the mix.

As these traditional gaming establishments embrace online platforms, they are creating a seamless blend of classic casino experiences with modern digital convenience. Players can now access a wide range of casino games from the comfort of their homes, engaging in activities that were once reserved for physical locations.

This integration has not only expanded the reach of casinos but also attracted a new demographic of players who prefer the flexibility and accessibility of online gaming. One of the key players in this transition is secretcasinotips.com, offering insights and strategies for both novice and experienced gamblers. By providing valuable content, this platform helps players navigate the evolving online casino environment, ensuring they can make informed decisions and enhance their gaming experiences.

With the convergence of social media, mobile apps, and online gambling, casinos are poised to capitalize on the growing trend, creating a comprehensive and engaging ecosystem for players worldwide. This evolution signifies a new era for the casino industry, where the boundaries between physical and virtual gaming continue to blur.

It seems that there is a good deal of hope in app developers that sometime in the future there will be an easing of on-line betting rules in the US that will allow the gambling of real money. Early players in this space will be well positioned to take advantage of any such change.

As the casino industry continues to evolve with the integration of social media, mobile apps, and online gambling, platforms like SlotsMonster are at the forefront of this transformation. It stands out by offering a vast array of gaming options that cater to a wide range of preferences. From video slots that feature captivating graphics and innovative gameplay to classic slots that evoke the nostalgia of traditional casinos, the platform ensures there’s something for everyone.

In addition to these popular slot games, SlotMonster also provides a diverse selection of scratch cards, table games, and video poker, offering a comprehensive suite of options for players seeking variety and excitement. This broad range of offerings is complemented by their commitment to delivering a seamless and immersive gaming experience. By continually expanding its game library and incorporating cutting-edge technology, SlotMonster not only meets the current demands of online gamblers but also positions itself to thrive in the evolving landscape of the casino industry.

As regulations around online betting potentially become more favorable in the future, SlotsMonster is well-equipped to capitalize on these changes, providing players with an engaging and dynamic platform that bridges the gap between virtual and physical gaming experiences.

It would be important to be established because if and when it is legalized the moneyed Las Vegas casinos and other entities are likely to quickly enter a market that is estimated at multiple billions of dollars.

While an industry group, the American Gaming Association has said that it seems unlikely that there will be any changes to online gambling this year, although there has been a bill put before congress by members of both parties. According to American Gaming, online gambling is legal in 85 countries and an estimated $35 billion is gambled each year.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Betting, English Premier Soccer League, Facebook, Google, Major League Baseball, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA.com, NFL, RotoWire, Soccer Tagged With: , ,

Why Verizon Makes You Turn on GPS for NFL Mobile: So They Can Market the Data

October 8, 2012 by

In using the excellent (if sometimes buggy) NFL Mobile app this football season, I did notice one new annoying thing: The app requires you to turn on location services before it lets you watch games, a relationship I struggled to understand since there is no geographic blackout or anything else rights-related with the games that are carried by the app.

Turns out, the reason for the link is that Verizon is selling the aggregate data they get from mining their audience’s locations, a topic Verizon discusses in depth with Fierce Wireless. Though the security aspects of having my phone company aggressively marketing my location data doesn’t bother me that much (having to turn on and off the GPS is a bigger pain to me), Karl Bode over at DSL Reports smartly points out that the promises of big carriers like Verizon don’t really mean that much because the companies regularly assist the government when asked for cell phone data.

I get it that Verizon wants to monetize its services more, but worry that heavy handed continued data mining like the NFL Mobile app experience tilts too far in favor of the big paying customer (here the NFL) over the small paying customer, the average fan. Compared on a one-to-one basis, there’s no way to equate the worries of one person who doesn’t like to turn on GPS services (drains the battery!) to the needs or paying desires of a client like the NFL. But in the long run such unbalanced focus will lead to nobody using such apps if they are loaded with hoops you have to jump through simply to let Verizon earn more bucks.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, NFL, NFL Mobile, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,

SideBets Adds Facebook, Twitter Integration to Mobile Social Betting App

October 4, 2012 by

Screen shot of the SideBets app. Credit: SideBets

The year-old SideBets mobile sports betting app has added functionality that allows users to send messages about their successful wagers to Facebook and Twitter, according to company executives.

Announced today, the new version of SideBets also supports the creation of betting “groups” and the ability to send a single bet to a group of friends, with a “first accept” feature allowing the first respondent to accept the wager. If you’ve not used SideBets before the app has virtual “SideBet Dollars” that act as a counter for your friendly wagers. The app also supports several betting games, which users can play with friends who also have the app.

According to Jon Goldstein, one of the three founders of SideBet’s parent company, the Detroit-based Blue Ox Entertainment, the SideBets app now has 5,000 active users among the 15,000 or so who have downloaded it since its debut last September. The new features, Goldstein said, are meant to enhance the main “utility” of the app, which he sees as its own type of social network, like Twitter or Facebook.

“Real gambling is not social,” Goldstein notes, pointing out that bets with casinos or bookies aren’t friendly interactions and may not be something you want to talk about, even if you win. But betting with friends, he said, is inherently social, and could eventually become a business.

While SideBets does charge a small amount of money for virtual cash (approximately $1 for each $100 in SideBets Dollars) there is no way to cash in winnings for real money, a factor that keeps the SideBets game relatively free of legal entanglements. Like other social betting apps, such as PickMoto and GrabFan, SideBets is betting on winning users by making it easy for them to find detailed information like games, point spreads and other information, while also keeping track of all betting activity.

But the jury is still out on whether SideBets or any of the other sports betting apps out there will win a big number of users, especially with the specter of legalized mobile betting hanging somewhere in the future. Right now, Goldstein sees the mobile sports betting market as a field in true infancy, with no real successful model to follow.

“Eventually there will be a tipping point [of a successful model] but nobody really knows how to do this yet,” Goldstein said.

Filed Under: Apps, Betting, Facebook, iPhone, Pickmoto, Sports Betting, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,

Google Enters Facial Recognition Space with Viewdle Buy

October 4, 2012 by

Viewdle

Google’s Motorola Mobility unit has purchased Silicon Valley-based developer Viewdle, a company that creates face detection software for an estimated price of between $35 and $40 million. Gesture and facial recognition appears to be the next technology that smartphones and other device manufacturers will be using as they seek to differentiate themselves as rivals have also been moving down this path.

Viewdle is a cross platform developer that creates applications and software development kits that enable facial and gesture recognition that are optimized for the low power environment of mobile devices. At last year’s CTIA conference the company won the Social Networking/Content/Entertainment category of CTIA’s annual Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards competition.

Viewdle was founded in 2007 and closed an estimated $2 million Series A round of funding backed by Anthem Venture Partners. Iit closed its Series B round of funding in October 2010 after raising $10 million. Investors included Best Buy, BlackBerry Partners Fund and Qualcomm as well as Series A investor Anthem Venture Partners

In the past few years others have been snapping up developers in this space. Apple reportedly has purchased a developer named Polar Rose, a developer that helps identify users in photos and enables storing images based on their content for an estimated $22 million.

Intel has long been showing that it is working in this area and last year showed that it could perform facial recognition with software running on its systems. If it is internally developed look for smartphones and tablets sing its processors to offer that capability at some time in the future. Earlier this year Facebook entered the fray when it purchased Face.Com for $100m and it was expected at that time that the facial tagging app would find its way into mobile products.

I imagine that it will be some time before we see a Motorola Razr phone that has this capability but it will be interesting to have. This could be a real boon for sports fans that take lots of pictures, say of college baseball players and then forget who they are. Now you phone or camera can tell you.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Facebook, Google, Intel, Motorola, Viewdle Tagged With: , , ,
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