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Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Chipped Jerseys?

December 5, 2011 by

Microchip in Jerseys boosts merchandise, ticket sales
The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lighting has added a replica jersey to its lineup that features a radio frequency chip that allows fans to scan to get assorted deals. The chip, when scanned at stadium stores will offer discounts on team merchandise and refreshments.

The team had been struggling with fan support and claims that this program has been a boon for its sales and has attributed the chip in part for a twofold increase in its season ticket sales this year. A secondary effect has been the increase in fans wearing the home team jerseys, rather than those of the opposition.

Acer readies budget Iconia Tablet.
After leaks about its new tablet starting hitting the streets Acer must have decided “why not” and unveiled its budget tablet, the Iconia Tab A200. The company kept some things the same-10-inch display and dual core Tegra 2 processor.

To save costs the available storage has been reduced to 8GB or 16GB rather than the 16GB and 32GB offerings elsewhere in the Iconia line. It will have a 2MP front camera but no rear facing camera, a microSDHC card slot and will ship with Android 3.2 but the company said that it will be upgradable to 4.0. Pricing has not been announced.

A Microsoft platform without Windows?
Well not quite but PC Advisor is reporting that the forthcoming Windows 8 Tablets and other devices will just have to do without the traditional Windows desktop since it will not be offered on ARM-based devices.

Instead Microsoft will continue to push its Metro interface as the interface of choice on mobile devices. The company has already debuted Metro on the Windows Phone 7 devices. If you are an iPhone or Android user Microsoft is offering test drives of the interface on those platforms.

Intel eyes China as destination for additional investments
EE Times Asia is reporting that Intel Capital is planning to increase its investments in China next year. The company looks to focus on technologies that are related to the mobile device and ultra-thin portable PC technologies sector.

Intel said that in 2011 it invested approximately $70 million in 10 companies based in China, out of a total worldwide investment of $500 million. Other areas that it will look into investing in include cloud computing, software, security and products that support the mobile device ecosystem.

New features for Android in 2012
Wondering what will be in store for your next generation smartphone, assuming you are using an Android-based device. Well PC World has taken the time to list a range of the new features that are expected, but not announced for that platform.

Included are some that are expected such as better graphics and better cameras as well as a few that might be a bit further out such as enhanced voice command capabilities and hopefully a translation features as well.

Samsung wins latest patent round with Apple
A US federal judge has stymied Apple’s efforts to block Samsung from selling a range of smartphones and Tablets that Apple claims infringe on its patents related to its iPads and iPhones. Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court in San Jose last Friday denied Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung.

This is just one of the ten countries that the two are fighting a heated patent battle with the results mixed for both companies. This ruling opens the door for Samsung to sell its highly rated Galaxy S and other tablet and phone products.

Scrolling by the patent wars
While a great deal of noise over who stole what is still going on, Apple has apparently licensed some of its iOS technology and even offered it to Samsung, according to a report from the Verge. It said that the “scrollback” feature that displays a different background when you scroll past the edge of a document.

The report stated that Apple licensed the technology to both IBM and Nokia and offered this to be licensed by Samsung as well. Samsung declined. This technology is one of the bones of contention between Apple and Samsung.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, HTC, Intel Capital, iPad, iPhone, NHL, Samsung, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report Monday TechWatch: Poor Android Apps Revenue?

November 21, 2011 by

The Kindle-It’s Cheap!
Love it or hate it, the Kindle Fire is making its mark, and a primary reason is that it is less than half the price of rival tablets such as Apple’s iPad. A compilation of reviews at Network World is less than kind to the device for all uses aside from reading books.

I keep wondering why people compare it to an iPad when it looks to be trying to take a slice of the market that only somewhat overlaps. My Dad wants a Kindle, I want an iPad or a Samsung Galaxy and we want them for different purposes.

Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire- a Side by Side Look
Decided you want a small form factor tablet but cannot decide which one you want or how they compare to each other. Engadget kindly did the work for you by taking a hard look at the features of these two recently released devices so that you can make an informed holiday purchase. Among the areas they look at are performance, form factor, software and display.


Android Apps poor Revenue Stream?
A report in Business Insider claims that despite the huge platform advantage that the Android platform is enjoying over rival Apple iOS and the rest of the pack, it’s payback to developers lags at just 7% of what iOS developers receive. The report said that Android revenue for developers is dwarfed by the revenue for the iOS. According to a study from Piper Jaffray that breaks down to $330 million for Android developers compared to $4.9 billion for the iOS community. Could they have possibly dropped a zero or two?

More Patent Goodness
Slashdot notes that Apple’s iOS 5 has a Reminders feature that can be location based and a patent pending called Computer Systems and Methods for Collecting Associating and/or Retrieving Data (Snappy title that). Amazon was just granted a patent on its Location Based Reminders while Google has a patent on Geocoding Personal Information that includes location based reminders. Microsoft, not wanting to be left on the sidelines has a pending patent called Geographic Reminders.
There are also some older patents involved from Microsoft. I see a lot of legal fun and the horde of lawyers that they all employ gleefully rubbing their hands together and buying themselves new helicopter pads for Christmas.

IT Execs don’t seem to mind new Mobile Technology
CIO Magazine found that CIOs are rapidly starting to embrace employees using their own mobile technology such as smartphones and tablets for work. According to its 2011 CIO Magazine Consumerization of IT Survey 49% of its respondents said that allowing their employees to do work on personal devices from home or the office. An issue that has the potential to slow this is the ability or inability of most IT departments to support every hardware and software platform.

Latest Apple Rumors
Thicker iPads, how will I be able to handle the 0.7 mm difference? All metal iPhones that are larger with a 4-inch screen, will the world be able to survive? A revamped MacBook Pro in 2012- that will kill my holiday buying plans! Anyway if you are looking for the latest rumor about Apple’s next generation plans head on over to Cnet which has kindly rounded them all up in a nice tidy bundle.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Intel the Latest to Create Mobility App Fund

November 17, 2011 by

The company has a strong history of focusing funds on specific markets

Intel has created a $100 million investment fund called AppUp Fund that invests in a range of mobile companies and has already helped provide financing to two startups, 4tiitoo and Urban Airship. The fund will invest not only in app developers but also middleware, mobile infrastructure, and digital content.

Intel has created several funds such as this over the years including its $500 million Communications fund formed in 1999 and its recently formed $300 million Ultrabook fund. The funds are managed by Intel Capital.

Of course Intel is not just investing in any company. The ones that will get its blessing, and funding, are ones that advance the Intel architecture, something that is increasingly important for the company as it continues to see important platforms and products being built using processors from rivals such as ARM.

Just One of Many Players in Fund Space

There are other efforts at funding startups, and the number is growing with companies seeking to fund everything from efforts to create apps for a specific operating system like Android, or social media platforms like Facebook, and increasingly just to push the overall market.

There is the App Fund from VezTek that seeks to bring investors and inventors together, United Holdings Group’s Mobile App Fund that offers between $5,000 to $500,000 for developers in a range of mobile spaces from Enterprise, small business, B2B as well as social media and collaborative entertainment.

The Founders Fund and Accel Partners, original funders of Facebook, launched a $10 million fund in 2007 called the FBFund, although it is run a bit differently than others with Facebook executives participating in the vetting process.

First two Investments

One of the first two companies that have received undisclosed funding from Intel is Urban Airship, a Portland, Ore. developer of a platform that enables developers and publishers to target specific market segments with push notifications, subscriptions and geo-location info.

The second, with the snappy name of 4tiitoo, was founded in 2007 in Germany and is an open source developer that already has experience working with Intel. It developed the WeTab OS that is based on the MeeGo technology that was jointly developed by Intel, Nokia and the open source community. It is currently working on software solutions across all system layers from kernel development up to application development.

The amount of funding shows just how important major companies and venture capital firms see the emerging mobile app and social app markets. Expect this to lead to new innovations and a new generation of programs that can enhance all aspects of the user and business experience as related to the mobile space.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Google, Startup, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report Monday TechWatch: Is this Kindle for you?

November 14, 2011 by

Editor’s note: welcome to our Monday TechWatch feature, where we highlight gizmos, gadgets and devices that help deliver the mobile sports experience. Up today: a look at Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

Amazon’s much hyped Kindle Fire is about to make its long awaited splash in the market and its going to be a great success and its going to be a failure, just read the reviews. So to honor Johnny Cash we have a Ring of Fire today on tablets.

The Kindle Fire will be available tomorrow from Amazon-free shipping no less in 3-5 days!, with a $199 list price and a and is powered by a customized version of the Android operating system. But if you cannot wait the few days for it to arrive you can get into your car, drive down to Best Buy and pick up a model there.

Is the Kindle Fire an iPad killer?

Is the Kindle Fire an iPad killer? Probably not. Does a device need to be an iPad killer to be successful? No. This market looks to be huge and there will be room for a variety of tablets, in a range of forms and usage models, to find willing buyers. In fact market research firm IDC predicts that 62.5 million tablets will ship this year, and those won’t all be iPads.

One reason that the Fire will probably not be a iPad killer, or for that matter any other tablet killer, is that it will, at least initially, have little appeal to businesses. Non-Amazon apps are treated as second class in terms of where they are displayed, but also Amazon is not positioning the Kindle Fire as such a tool. However expect that to change in the future as its price and features apply pressure on its rivals.

While the Fire is the news of the moment Samsung, which has quietly been building very good Android-based phones and tablets gets a top review for its Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus from CNet reviewers who call the device the best 7-inch Honeycomb tablet.

If you are wondering what other uses a tablet are good for we recommend wandering over to look at what the good people at Ooyala have to say; they have been following online video viewership and compiling data for 5 years. In its first report on the topic Ooyala said that tablet users average 30 percent more viewing of online videos than PC users and completed watching 20 percent more than desktop PC users.

Seagate: Storage for Tablets

One of the big drawbacks that tablets have is their limited storage space. A 32GB capacity? Heck that will not cover 10 percent of my music collection. Well storage developer Seagate has a product that could fix this issue. The $199.00 GoFlex Satellite is a 500 GB drive that features a Wi-Fi radio so that you can connect wirelessly and stream music videos or whatever else your heart desires. There is a specialized app for iOS, while Android device users simply need to use their browser to operate. There are issues for Mac users so read the instructions carefully prior to purchasing.

Apple: Original iPod Nano Recall

Aside from tablet news, Apple has suffered from the battery draining issue caused by its recent iOS 5.0 update and now reports are coming in to say that the fix, version 5.0.1 does not fix the problem either. To add to the company’s problems it has been reported that Apple is now forced to recall the original iPod Nano due to heating problems.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Google, iPad, iPhone, Samsung, Tablets, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Monday’s Tech Tidbits: Motorola Edition

November 7, 2011 by

Motorola goes Xoom Xoom
Motorola has added two Xoom models to its tablet offerings. Both Xoom 2 models run Google’s Honeycomb 3.2 version of the Android operating system that is designed for tablets. The Xoom 2 features a 8.2-inch display and the Xoom 2 Media Edition comes with a 10.1 inch display and runs on a 1.2GHz processor and includes 1GB RAM and 16GB of storage. They are now only available in the United Kingdom and Ireland with no announced U.S. release date.

Smartphone adoption in US approaching 50%
According to the latest mobile user survey from Nielsen only 43% of all U.S. mobile phone users have a smartphone, but the figure graphs higher with most younger age groups. While the 12-17 and 45-54 segments only have a 40% smartphone average, 62% of the 25-34 age group and 54% of both the 18-24 and the 35-44 age groups use a smartphone. The Android OS is the most popular with 43% of the market followed by Apple’s iOS with 28%.

New Motorola Tablet prototype outed.
Multiple sources are reported what they claim are the features for the pending Motorola Corvair, a 6-inch tablet that will be running the Android 2.3 operating system. What sets this device apart is that it is designed to work with a television, both as a remote control device but also use the TV as a display to mirror what is on the tablet’s screen. It is expected to be a low cost device the question will be will Motorola sell it on the retail market or work with cable companies to get it into users’ hands?

Apple losing patent fights with Google, Samsung?
A German court has dealt a blow to Apple, ruling that it has violated a pair of Motorola Mobility patents and forbidding Apple from selling any mobile device in the country. The ruling, by the Mannheim Regional Court prevents Apple from selling its popular iPad and iPhone products in Europe’s largest market.. Apple is suing three major Android developers, Samsung, HTC and Motorola and they in turn have launched legal counter attacks against Apple.


US Cellular to iPhone-No Thanks!
US Cellular said that turned down the opportunity to carry Apple’s popular iPhone but decided not to because it is too expensive, the company said. The sixth-largest U.S. cellphone company said that the terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint. While Apple charges customers $199 for the entry level iPhone 4S, it charges phone companies $600. The companies are expected to make up the difference on service contracts.
http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/07/mobile_internet_sales_to_hit_record_15_per_cent_of_total/

Mobile Devices impacting online sales
It is estimated that a full 15% of all web purchases will be made from devices that run either the Apple iOS or the Google Android operating system. According to research from IBM the two operating systems impact is three times what it was a year ago in terms of being the platforms used to make purchases. The two represented 11% of the market in October and the estimate is for the holiday season in the U.S. market.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Motorola, Samsung, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

CBS: 214,560 Online Viewers for LSU-Bama Sets New Record

November 6, 2011 by

Turns out we weren’t the only ones sampling CBS Sports’ free online broadcast of the LSU-Alabama game Saturday night: According to the network, the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown attracted what it believes to be the biggest-ever online audience for a college football game, with a total of 214,560 unique viewers through both website and mobile-device application interaction.

“CBSSports.com continues to set the pace in terms of streaming major sports event on multiple platforms,” said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com, in a press release Sunday. “Extending the audience by nearly a quarter of a million viewers during primetime on a Saturday night is quite an accomplishment and the perfect compliment to the CBS Sports broadcast.”

According to CBS, there were 171,648 viewers who watched the game via the CBSSports.com website, and another 42,912 viewers who viewed the game via CBS Sports mobile using an app for Apple iOS devices (either an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod Touch). According to CBS, “this number of unique viewers for the LSU/Alabama game is believed to be the largest audience ever to watch a football game through digital platforms.” Though Mobile Sports Report can’t immediately confirm that claim it’s more than likely true given the limited number of big-time events ever being available for free online.

Though Saturday’s event isn’t close to being the biggest online experience for CBS — according to the press release CBS hosted 1,153,981 online viewers of an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game in 2010 (a first-round game between BYU and Florida) — it also helped prove that online viewers don’t necessarily take away from a regular-broadcast audience, since the TV part of the broadcast earned the network’s second-highest rating since September of 1987. According to CBS the game had an 11.9/21 Nielsen rating.

And while the game might not have lived up to its No. 1 vs. No. 2 hype the expected online audience certainly did, and should mean that we may see more such events toward the end of the year and into college bowl season. Bookmark Mobile Sports Report to stay informed about any future online NCAA football broadcasts.

Filed Under: Apps, CBS Sports, NCAA Football, Nielsen Ratings, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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