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NFL Launches ‘Thursday Night Xtra’ App, Still a Work in Progress

September 28, 2012 by

In what has to qualify as one of the most low-key introductions of a major sports app, the NFL has quietly launched something called Thursday Night Football Xtra, an app meant to be a “second screen” feature for your mobile device while you watch the Thursday night games on the NFL Network channel. The new app is sponsored by State Farm; you find it by clicking on the small “Xtra” chevron in the middle of this page.

Just so there’s no confusion, the app does NOT allow for live mobile viewing of Thursday night games — for that you need a Verizon cell phone and the $5 per month premium version of the NFL Mobile app. The Xtra app, which went live last week and which we checked out this Thursday night, promises to provide live sideline reports, game info and trivia, and predict-the-play contests where registered users can win points, for what we are guessing is some prize-redemption package.

There’s a little bit of a trek to find the app, since if you are on an iOS platform you will find it inside the NFL ’12 app; Android users and Verizon users need to find a separate TNF Xtra app, but it was easy to find in the Play Store. Since there’s no official press release out yet we don’t have all the details, but it seems pretty straightforward, and is an attempt by the league to bring its own smack talk/fan games interactivity app to the table. However, the league’s app follows a whole bunch of independent entities that are already up and running, though to the NFL’s credit there is already a version for both Android and iOS. Many of the new apps from smaller operations are still iPhone-only, a problem for roughly half the world’s smartphone users.

In our limited test run — right now let me say some of the problems may be due to my personal device, a Verizon 4G LTE Samsung Stratosphere, which has been acting hinky lately, requiring Tier-2 service calls to Verizon if you know what I mean. When you open the app the main screen says something about “Stay Tuned” which if you only saw that screen you might think the thing isn’t connected; instead what it means is that you are between actions, which may be a predictive contest, a bit of trivia or info, or a sideline report from the game. From our limited interaction it seems like these things just pop up at random, which I guess is OK if you are simultaneously watching the game.

A swipe to the right pulls up a Facebook-powered comments page, which we could read, but weren’t able to log in to. A swipe to the left from the main screen brought up what looked like a Twitter login page, but after we entered our Twitter account info all we got was a white screen of death (see picture). The middle-screen interactive stuff looked like the best bet anyway, though it might help to know what we are winning points for. Also, when the app launched it asked which team I was a fan of, with no “neither” option for this Chicago Bears follower on the night that Baltimore played Cleveland.

We’ll give this one another run next Thursday — if you get a chance to check it out (apparently the tablet version has even more bells and whistles) let us know what you think. I am not sure how independent app developers feel about the league getting into the apps business — seems like it’s a little bit of a poach into the territory of folks who might help promote the league — but I guess it is also a signal that the NFL isn’t going to miss a chance to engage its audience. (Some screen pix below)

A picture of the Thursday Night Football Xtra app, showing a game info tidbit. Credit: MSR

The Xtra app showing a pretty standard Facebook comment stream. We couldn't log in.

A tweet from the field! "It's raining." Not great sideline reportage but hey. It's early.

What we got when we tried to log in via Twitter. The white screen of death! May be a problem with our phone and not the app. We need... wait for it... a REPLACEMENT PHONE

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, iOS, NFL, NFL Network, Twitter

Barnes & Noble Unveil High Definition Nook Tablet

September 27, 2012 by

Barnes & Noble has expanded its tablet offerings with a pair of new offerings including the first high definition models as the company is once again going head to head with rival Amazon and its tablet offerings.

The latest from Barnes & Noble is the Nook HD and the Nook HD+, with the Nook HD seeking to stake out the low cost leader in the 7-inch high definition space and the 9-inch Nook HD+ seeking to do the same in the larger screen space.

The Nook HD features a 1440 x 900 display that is capable of 720p HD video playback, with a standard 8GB of storage that is expandable to 16GB, running a version of Android 4.0 operating system and powered by a dual core 1.3GHz OMAP 4470 processor. It does not feature a front facing camera or NFC capabilities.

The Nook HD+ features a nine inch display that has a 1920 x 1280 pixel resolution and comes with 16GB storage as standard that can be upgraded with a microSD card to 32GB. It is also powered by the TI OMAP 4470 processor, this one running at 1.5GHz.

The arrival of these tablets was not that big of a surprise for two reasons. The first was the simple need to keep up with the Jones, or in this case Amazon and the second was that the company had announced its streaming video service and that almost certainly meant having a HD device to view the video. Both tablets are due in late October and the Nook HD will start at $199 and the Nook HD+ will be available at $269.

Barnes & Noble is touting the wide array of content for the devices including its large catalog of digital books. The Nook Store has been revamped and features 3 million books including nearly 3,500 children’s interactive picture books as well as a growing collection of comic books and graphic novels.

The streaming video service will be called Nook Video and will launch in late October. The service will feature TV shows as well as HD movies that can be downloaded and viewed. Among the studios that they have licensed content from are HBO, STARZ, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers Entertainment.

The latest generation of Nook devices can also be connected to a television so that a user can view the videos in full 1080p. The content can also be viewed on tablets and smartphones via the Nook video app.

Other areas that it has either added new features or support are in its UltraViolet support enabling the integration of physical DVDs and Blu-ray discs that have the UltraViolet logo from Barnes & Noble with the Nook.

The Newsstand has been revised with a new look and allow you to select only specific sections of a paper if so desired. The Magazine 2.0 allows readers to cut out pictures and just read text if they want and has a feature called Nook Scrapbook for clipping pages and saving them. The Nook Apps offers a range of apps for the tablets, with currently around 6,000 available.

The move comes both in time to help maintain its position as a top provider of tablets at a time when the competition, now from Amazon but soon from others as well, is increasing. It still trails rival Amazon in apps available, as well as Amazon having a huge set of additional services that are well established and familiar with its customers, something that will help propel Kindle HD sales.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Nook, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Wedge Buster Closes Series A Funding as it Launches a set of Social Media Games

September 26, 2012 by

Wedge Busters

While looking into RocketPlay, a company that has started developing gaming apps for social media I also started looking around for others in this field since it is relatively new and seems to offer a great deal of opportunity.

Enter Wedge Buster, a startup formed last year and based in Los Angeles that has just closed its first round of funding which will give it a $2.2 million cash infusion and which already has its site up and running.

Wedge Buster is focusing on two different but related areas, sports gaming and fantasy sports, and will be presenting its offerings on two related but different platforms, social media and mobile platforms.

The Series A funding round has some interesting investors including NFL quarterback Drew Brees, pro skater Rob Dyrdek, 37 Venture Technologies as well as some angel investors that the company said include players in the gaming and media industry. The company said that it will use the funding to speed game development, support marketing strategies and expand the distribution gaming network with media companies.

It already has a stable of games at or near a stage where they can be played by users. It has ether developed or acquired 100 games and since its launch earlier this week has a number of games already available.

Among the games is Soccer Trouble, Around the World Darts, WB Striker, WB Footy and a number of others that span everything from baseball to sharpshooting. Currently in the fantasy space it has four offerings including one where it offers a Fantasy Football Commissioner with SI and Turner. The company is now launching on Facebook and expects to soon be launching on Android and Apple phones as well in the near future.

The potential of this space appears to be huge. Earlier this year Juniper Research said that overall, games and infotainment in the mobile space is expected to become a $65 billion market by 2016 due to the growing move to mobile devices.

Wedge Buster claims that others are missing the value that social media offers, but are they? Also are the barriers to entry that high that established Internet players cannot quickly enter? I think the answer to both of these is no.

In the area of Fantasy sports look at RotoWire, which has a presence on Facebook as well as on the Internet and mobile apps as well. Its rivals also have followed suit. Then players like Zynga have entered this type of social games with its first partnership.

Others are sure to follow since this is obviously a growth area and so established players in the gaming field such as EA Sports see opportunity here. That said with its broad based approach, having so many games that can appeal to a wide, diverse audience will certainly place Wedge Buster in a good position right from the start.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, EA Sports, Fantasy Sports, Market Research, RocketPlay, RotoWire, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Startup, Venture Capital, Video Games, Wedge Buster, Zynga

Ryder Cup Gets Big Online Push — Live Video and Social Media Too

September 24, 2012 by

Following on their successful joint effort at the season’s last major, the PGA and Turner Sports will kick out the online jams for this week’s Ryder Cup matches, with a lot of free online live video and some social-media bells and whistles that include a U.S. vs. Europe Twitter contest.

According to a press release from Turner and the PGA, the Rydercup.com website will be the host of a wide array of event coverage that will supplement the TV coverage, which is also extensive — 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Eastern) on ESPN on Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on NBC Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on NBC Sunday. Online coverage will start Friday and Saturday at 8:30 a.m., and continue until play concludes. Sunday, online coverage of the singles matches starts at noon. The matches are taking place at Medinah Country Club just outside Chicago.

The live video online will probably be similar to the experience we saw at the PGA Championship, with live updates, video archives and scores. There was both good and bad, with a great feature that let you go back and replay anything that had happened previously, and a terrible feature called “predict it” that keeps annoying you in a popup window asking you to predict what’s about to happen. Though sports prediction games are increasingly appearing, I have yet to be convinced that predicting shots in golf online is what the experience is all about.

There is one big whiff, however, on the Ryder Cup mobile side — the accompanying mobile-device apps for all this online goodness only work on iPhones and iPads, leaving half of the mobile consumers who use Android platforms high and dry. Though Turner reps claim the mobile website will work just as well as the iPhone app, any mobile user knows that a dedicated app almost always delivers better performance.

On the social-media side, Rydercup.com will offer a “Tweet Battle” between Team U.S.A. and Team Europe, with a “Social Scoreboard” showing which team is winning, both online and at the course. The score will be tallied by counting the number of fans using the respective hashtags — #RyderCupUSA or #RyderCupEurope — in their social media posts. The event is also on Facebook and on Twitter, with something called “The 13th man” replacing the “Social Caddy” feature from the PGA, where you could follow a bunch of Twitter streams.

The PGA earned itself no small amount of social media self respect by not censoring messages from the PGA, especially when its parking situation at Kiawah Island resulted in a lot of angry fans and media for long delays getting out to the course. Right now it appears the site is taking a very USA-USA-USA stance, which is perhaps understandable, but probably not so appealing to European fans. Not sure if other golf fans agree but I for one would rather we see a return to the days when this competition was more collegiate and friendly, and less jingoistic. You can still compete hard without having to make it a sports equivalent of war. But I may be on the short side of that argument.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, Golf, Golf Channel, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, NBC Sports, PGA, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Major League Baseball jumps on Apple’s Passbook Ticket Technology

September 20, 2012 by

Major League Baseball has long been a fan of Apple and its technologies, rolling out its very popular sports apps on the iOS platform first and so it is no surprise that it has quickly adopted Passbook, the mobile ticket option available as part of its iOS 6 operating system.

With the operating system just being released this week MLB already has four clubs set up to support the technology, the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals, all of which will offer the option at their home games for the remainder of the season.

Passbook is a technology that enables a ticket to be transmitted, stored and displayed on an iPhone. Apple is seeking to have it adopted as an accepted technology at a wide range of establishments that use tickets including movie theaters, boarding passes as well as used for coupons and loyalty cards, to just name a few. A nice feature is that the ticket can appear on the lock screen so that users don’t slow down a line activating and logging into their phone.

For baseball fans they have multiple avenues to purchase the digital tickets including via MLB.com or the official Club websites, including the mobile web, or through the MLB.com At Bat or At The Ballpark mobile apps. MLBAM also will automatically display the digital ticket from Passbook on the device’s lock screen as a day-of-game reminder.

The tickets will be like a normal ticket and will show the information that you would expect including game date, opponent, time, section, row and seat. StubHub, the official secondary reselling site for MLB will also adopt the technology.

Filed Under: Apple, Baseball, iOS, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, Passbook, San Francisco Giants Tagged With: , , ,

ESPN Intros SportsCenter Feed, a Twitter and Team Stream Competitor

September 19, 2012 by

Here at MSR we have praised Bleacher Report’s Team Stream app for doing a great job of aggregating content we care about, namely that about the teams we like. What we like a lot about Team Stream is its embrace of content from all sources, not just Bleacher Report, to give as full a range of news and opinions as possible.

Now from the other side of the coin we have the Worldwide Leader, which today introduced a beta version of something it is calling SportsCenter Feed, which does exactly what you think it might do — brings all of ESPN’s breadth of content into one Twitter-like stream, with a kind of cool big viewing window to the side.

Though nobody doubts ESPN’s ability to give you more sports content than you could actually consume, the question we have is whether or not sports fans really want to stay inside the ESPN bubble, or whether they might prefer creating their own “feed” on say, something like Twitter itself, which as we said earlier is already the default AP wire for all of sports. For many fans ESPN might be more than enough, while others might prefer to have opinions and takes that originate somewhere other than Bristol.

Where you might see SportsCenter Feed getting some love is outside ESPN itself, as (we think) the strategy is to license the APIs so that other content aggregators or sites — like say, a team or league’s home page — could license the ESPN content which it could then show in some kind of a streaming window. Some mobile sports apps like PlayUp are already experimenting with similar sports news feeds, so that users of those apps don’t need to log on to another app or site to get scores and other info.

What is clear is that ESPN is making good on its pledge to do things digitally first, even if that means sabotaging some of its current cash cows (if you sift through SportsCenter Feed, for instance, you may not need to turn on your TV to sit through the commercials on the regular SportsCenter broadcasts). So even as Twitter and other new options look for a sporting edge, the Worldwide Leader is going to be the Yankees in this arena as well. Not that the Yankees can’t lose, but you will need a good game plan to beat their killer lineup.

Filed Under: Apps, bleacherreport, ESPN, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
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