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SensoGlove Provides Digital Feedback to Golfers

May 10, 2012 by

I love sports gadgets, even ones for sports that I no longer play such as golf, hence the attention to issues such as watches that tell me where I am on the course or ski goggles that show me how high my last jump was.

I have somehow missed the digital golf glove called SensoGlove from a company called Sensosolutions, based in Aachen, Ger. The glove addresses an issue that can plague golfers, well aside from just about all aspects of the sport, but this one has to do with grip, both placement and pressure. The glove is designed to provide feedback after each swing.

The feedback is produced by a 1.2-inch LED digital monitor that is connected to sensors that are placed through the gloves. The glove has the ability to provide feedback at speeds of 80 times a second so that you can review your entire swing. It also provides audio feedback as well, warning you that your grip is too tight. I do wonder if this might distract you at an important part of your swing if you are not used to it.

The glove has the ability to show you which fingers are gripping too tightly or not enough which allows a user to adjust their grip accordingly to improve their game. The overall purpose is to relax your swing and so help you get a better drive through the ball and so greater distance.

The gloves, available in June, come in all of the usual sizes from small to extra large and for both men and women. They are available in both left handed and right handed configurations as well. The company said that the latest version, which are available for $89 with existing users able to purchase replacement gloves for $22.48 have a longer battery life and more sensitive sensors that earlier versions.

It is interesting to note that among the testimonials for the product on its site is a pair from Tiger Woods back in his prime. Considering all of the criticism that he has come under this season maybe he should return to his roots and use the products again.

Filed Under: Apps, Golf, SensoGlove, Sensosolutions, Startup Tagged With: ,

Will the Facebook App Center be a Boon to Sports App Developers?

May 10, 2012 by

The list of places that you can go and search for the app that scratches your most current itch has just gotten one stop longer as Facebook has formally launched its latest service that it is calling the App Center.

What makes the site look like it might have real legs is that it is not just focused on one operating system or platform, but rather seeks to be a one stop shop for the Mobile Web, Android and iOS users, and the company said that it believes that it can be the destination site for mobile application users.
A user can view apps, select the one that they want and then download it vie either from the App Store or from Google Play. There is one caveat, the apps have to be designed to be used on Facebook and all apps need to have a Facebook login.

While one of the problems that I have found in recent times perusing app stores is that there are just so many I spend a good deal of time either honing down my search or just reading the specifications of a specific app.

Facebook is seeking to help with this issue by prominently displaying apps that garner solid reviews and ratings from users while dropping ones that continually get poor numbers. In addition it has established developer quality guidelines and apps that do not follow them will also not be displayed.

I wonder if and how sports apps will take advantage of this. Drop by a team’s official web page and you can see how popular it is and how often it gets ‘likes’ I chose the San Francisco Giants and the page has 1.4 million likes. Boy does that give a developer of an app about the team a focused market.

Of course MLB might have something to say about apps being liked on the page, a quick look shows that the huge majority of links on the site are to official MLB sites, but not all of them. This is the same with all major sports but could actually be a better tool for developers looking at niche markets.

Rather than hope a fan of say rugby is going to search iTunes for rugby apps, they could have the app mentioned on a team page with a link to the Facebook App pages. Since this effort is just getting off the ground and the paid app portion is still in beat it will take a while to see if this shakes out well for the app developers in sports and out.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Rugby, Smartphone, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data Tagged With: , , ,

Crowdfunding Investments Estimated to Reach $3 Billion in 2012

May 8, 2012 by

I believe that I was like a great many others who when they heard the term ‘crowdfunding’ kind of pretended that I understood what it meant and then merrily went on my way without really giving it a second thought.

Then earlier this year I started running into a number of interesting products that were starting to get funding in that manner, starting with the Pebble watch. I find the whole trend very interesting and I think it’s a great boon to small developers who have great ideas but no expertise or experience in fund raising. It’s especially interesting to sports-related projects, since many of the developers of apps or devices are fans or enthusiastic athletes at heart and not necessarily business-minded as say, an investment banker or a Silicon Valley entrpreneur.

Now Venture Beat talks about how big this trend has become and estimates and where it is going and it is much bigger than I would have suspected. According to the piece which quotes a report from market research firm Massolution the industry raised $1.5 billion last year.

The research paper, called the Crowdfunding Industry Report also predicted that there was 1 million crowdfunding efforts over the course of last year and that $837 million came from North America. It breaks down the efforts into four basic categories: equity-based, donation-based, lending-based, and reward-based.

According to the report the market is expected to double this year. I know of at least two people considering heading this way for seed fund for their future developments and I am really fascinated by how this is all working out. You are also seeing a growing number of companies or sites seeking to be the home of a crowdfunding effort. There is Kickstarter, Crowdfunder, AppStori, and others are out there already.

Filed Under: Apps, AppStori, Crowdfunder, Kickstarter, Startup Tagged With: , ,

Bloomberg Sports adds Fantasy Alarm to ‘Front Office 2012’

May 8, 2012 by

Have you missed out on making an important trade or swapping out an injured player simply because in your busy day you missed looking to see how your team/league was doing at a critical time?

Well if so, and you are a user of Bloomberg Sports fantasy baseball app “Front Office 2012” then these issues will be a thing of the past. The company has integrated the Fantasy Alarm feature into the program and it is free to all subscribers.

You do have to sign up for the feature which will alert you via either e-mail or text. The program tailors its messages based on your roster so that you are not bombarded with messages that are not relevant to your team.

There are a variety of types of messages including alerting you when a player is not in the starting lineup, with a 60-90 minute lead prior to the game. Other information includes when a team changes closers, who is on or off the DL or riding the pine now in the minors.

It covers game time decisions about player availability but also forecasts 24 hours out on probably starting pitcher match-ups as well. Fantasy Alarm estimated that it will send out 25 million messages this year to fans. As an added bonus players who sign up for the Fantasy Alarms alerts will be entered into an All-Star Getaway Sweepstakes for the 2012 MLB All-Star Game in Kansas City.

This seems like a can’t miss item for fans of fantasy baseball. I know a number of people that have missed out on points because a player was sitting out a game or was injured and they missed it for any of a number of reasons. Now you can eliminate that element of chance on your team. Of course still no solution for closers that give up 3 run homers in the ninth.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Bloomberg Sports, Fantasy Sports, Major League Baseball Tagged With: ,

Comcast Subscribers Finally Get WatchESPN Access

May 8, 2012 by

Screen shot of ESPNWatch TV ad with the cowboy in the horse trough -- note the disclaimer text.

If you are a paying Comcast cable subscriber, the day of sports freedom has finally arrived — you are now part of the lucky group that is able to use the WatchESPN app to get sports content wherever you want it, on basically any mobile device.

While this does mean that approximately 40 million more Comcast customers can now watch games and other ESPN programming in the horse trough should they so desire, it still isn’t quite the Internet freedom you get from watching events that are served up live to anyone with an Internet connection, like say The Masters or the Super Bowl. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that content must be paid for in one form or another; and since the cable providers pay ESPN a hefty fee to have the channel available for their regular services, it makes sense that ESPN would require the cable-subscription validation in order to consume that same content on other platforms.

Still, I would like to see ESPN offer some kind of separate, Internet-only subscription fee and I expect that someday we may see such a serving. But not anytime soon, because it makes no sense for ESPN to bite the hand that feeds it so well. For now.

Filed Under: Apps, Comcast, ESPN, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , ,

Lenovo to Enhance Focus on Tablets & Smartphones

May 7, 2012 by

Lenovo to Leap into Tablet Space Next Year

The Lenovo Group has started building a new facility as part of an overall plan to expand its offerings into the mobile Internet market and will be investing approximately $800 million over the next five years as it seeks to become a player in that market segment.

The goal of the project is two sided. It wants to optimize its supply chain but it also wants to enter what it calls the PC Plus space, that of the mobile internet with tablets, smartphones and other mobile appliances

This appears to be a reboot of its presence in these spaces as it already has both smartphone and tablet offerings available globally. I suspect it is taking a page from Dell’s playbook in going back to the drawing board to come up with a fresh offering that can stand alone on its own merits.

The new Lenovo Industrial Base will be used primarily as a research and development site for developing its tablets and smartphones with the intention of creating the first generation products for the huge Chinese market as well as the global space.

The company has aggressive sales expectations and foresees revenue of approximately $1.5 billion by 2014 with a 5 x increase in the following five years. I wonder if it has selected an operating system for its tablets and smartphones yet. I suspect that both Microsoft and Google are hat in hand touting the pros of their respective platforms and the cons of their rivals.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Google, Lenovo, Microsoft, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , ,
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