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Friday Grab Bag-How is your QB rated?

October 14, 2011 by

Apple stays hot
The demand for the new iPhone 4S is so great that even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had to stand in line to get one, and not just in line, but over night! That might show the popularity of the latest phone offering from Apple, but reports from AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel is that they all sold out of the phone during the preorder period. A visit to their web sites shows that versions of the phones can be back ordered with a wait ranging from one to four weeks.



While RIM keeps cooling
Research in Motion was flying high just a few years ago as its RIM platform was a must have by corporate execs who used it to free themselves from their desks. The company had an overwhelming market share and no viable competition. However it looks as if the market has bypassed the company and it is feeling pressures that it is unused to and questions are arising as to if it can react properly and in time to save itself. That is the issue that is examined by Forbes and should be a warning to all companies that get complacent about their technology and market share. The recent three day outage that RIM recently experienced will not help its standings.

Sony brings video library to Tablet S
Sony is attacking rivals on multiple fronts with the rollout of its Video Unlimited for its Tablet S platform. The company is leveraging its strengths in multiple fields ranging from technology to movie distribution. The company will offer its Video Unlimited feature, which includes more than 6,500 films and 40,000 TV episodes from a wide array of film studios and networks, and will be available not only on the S Tablet but also on Sony Ericsson phones. Now you never have to miss “Friday Night Lights!” The company will eventually move the feature to other Android based devices, but not all of them and currently has no plans to support Apple’s iOS platform due to the high fees that Apple charges.


ESPN’s QB Ratings cause a Stir.
Ever wonder if ESPN’s much ballyhooed Total QBR system would give us a true look at how well a quarterback did in any one game? Here is a look at two QBs from last week. One was 26 of 39 passes for 396 yards and two touchdowns and his team won, the other completed four of 10 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown while also running the ball six times for 38 yards and a touchdown and his team lost. Which one do you think had the better game according to QBR? People have been raging about this all week around the sports world; however my position changed after I read this well thought out piece from The Big Lead. For a slightly different look go to the stats guys at FootballOutsiders.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, AT&T, BlackBerry, ESPN, Sprint, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mobile Football: NBC a No-Show for Live Play-by-Play

October 3, 2011 by


In our ongoing search for the best mobile app for following live football play-by-play, on Sunday night the MSR research team decided to check out the options available from NBC, since the Peacock network carries the Sunday night game live on TV.

The verdict? For an Android smartphone user, NBC’s mobile play-by-play options are about as exciting as a handoff up the middle, far behind the functionality of services from ESPN and the NFL. There isn’t even a standalone app for Android phones — maybe the non-smartphone featured in NBC’s “mobile web” landing page is a tipoff — instead you are sent to a mobile-optimized web page that does give you a live score and can show details of the last play run, but that is all. We didn’t even get our turkey-and-chicken sausages halfway grilled before we switched from NBC’s mobile page back to ESPN, whose Gamecast app seemed to have new life on Sunday, without any of the non-updating problems we’d seen during previous weekends.

Since we are waiting for Tuesday’s expected new iPhone announcement to decide what our phone-upgrade strategy will be for the MSR Verizon account, it may be another week or two before we can check out Verizon’s NFL Mobile app. (Apparently NBC does have a standalone iPhone app, if you have knowledge of how this works please leave a comment below.) Until then we are putting ESPN and NFL 2011 in a tie for first, with Sprint TV a game behind and NBC’s offering at 0-4, looking for a new quarterback and maybe a new head coach.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, NBC Sports, NFL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , ,

Thursday Humor: Don’t Use Your Laptop in a Horse Trough

September 29, 2011 by

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

Just some Thursday fun: While we’ve all seen the ESPNWatch TV ad multiple times now (the one with the cowboy watching a laptop in the horse trough) you have to look quickly to catch the witty disclaimer that runs across the bottom of the screen: “Do not attempt while bathing in horse trough.”

You might also add, good luck finding a cell tower out in the pasture. Or remember, you need to have an existing contract with Verizon, TimeWarner Cable or Bright House to actually use this cool app. But never mind all that. Today we just laugh.

Filed Under: ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: ,

How to get customized ESPN radio feeds on your smart phone, iPad

September 22, 2011 by

ESPN RADIO

Until now, mobile sports fans who wanted to listen to such popular ESPN programming as “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and “The Scott Van Pelt Show” couldn’t cache the programs on smartphone memory cards. Listening to ESPN radio required a network connection and drew down battery life. A solution to that problem has arrived, for a fee.

This week, ESPN went into partnership with San Diego-based Slacker Inc. to provide ESPN on Slacker Radio, including premium services priced at $3.99 and $9.99 per month which allow people to store radio programming locally.

If you don’t want to pay to listen to what you want, when you want, Slacker is also delivering a near-instantenous free feed of content from The Death Star (ESPN) 

Slacker is the first digital radio distribution service to feature ESPN Radio, and the agreement turns up the heat on such competitors as Last.fm and Pandora to angle for similar deals with ESPN. The deal signals that ESPN is unafraid to be aggressive in flowing digital rights to its content for mobile distribution, which is considered key to the growth of the mobile sports viewing experience. According to Juniper Research, mobile sports content and services like the Slacker/ESPN offering could reach $3.8 billion in 2011.

Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and AT&T subscribers can bill premium services directly to their accounts via Android and Blackberry smartphone applications, which are already available. A similar iOS application for iPhone and iPad is pending Apple’s approval.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, BlackBerry, ESPN, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL, NHL, Slacker, T-Mobile, Uncategorized, Verizon Wireless, WatchESPN, Wimbledon

Verizon’s NFL Mobile Twitter Chats: Lame and Tame (and so am I)

September 21, 2011 by

Twitter might be a cool and fun way for NFL fans to get in touch with their favorite teams and players, but the ad hoc “Twitter chats” sponsored by Verizon Wireless leave a lot to be desired, mainly due to the poor manners of the Twittersphere.

On Tuesday night Verizon Wireless and its NFL Mobile application sponsored a chat with Washington Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo, otherwise known as @rak98 on Twitter. The half-hour long chat, which fans could find by either following Orakpo directly or by using the hashtag #NFLMobile, was almost instantly filled with spam Tweets, typically ones of a sexual nature with links to some godforsaken unknown location… which we didn’t click on.

Of the Tweets that did get through to Orakpo, the ones he chose to answer were pretty harmless — ones about “how frustrating is it when people hold you” or “what kind of victory dance will you do when you score a touchdown.” There were a couple that hinted at Orakpo’s personality — turns out his sports heroes include Michael Strahan and Hakeem Olajuwon — but since Orakpo forgot to include the #NFLMobile hashtag on several posts it was hard to follow the “chat” thread, especially with all the spam in between.

And though I tried hard, I couldn’t get Orakpo to answer a couple tweet questions I sent in — apparently they were either too controversial (I asked him if the ‘Skins were solidly behind QB Rex Grossman, someone who us Chicago Bears fans have few fond memories of) or too wordy — I also asked what Orakpo thought of the new tackling rules, a question I later realized couldn’t really be answered in 140 characters or less. So maybe I am as lame as the chat. So we’ll both learn going forward.

But it sure is a challenge to wade through the spam tweets. Not sure if the spam is standard fare for these chats, but with all its dough can’t Verizon get together with Twitter and find a way to keep the crap out of the chat? Otherwise these things are going to die a quick death and that would be unfortunate. Especially if it happens before I get one of my Tweets answered.

Filed Under: NFL, Twitter, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: ,

Verizon Using 4G LTE, not Wi-Fi, for Stadium Upgrades

September 13, 2011 by



Though putting dedicated Wi-Fi networks inside stadiums and other large gathering areas is all the rage this year, Verizon Wireless seems to be taking a different path and is instead adding more cell towers with its 4G LTE cellular service to handle the bandwidth crush brought on by phone-wielding fans.

According to two recent press releases Verizon Wireless is beefing up its 4G coverage by adding four cell towers around the football stadiums at both Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin, to better handle cell traffic at each place on game days.

Though the self-serving press releases sound wonderful — who doesn’t want better cell coverage? — the caveat in this case is that you may only benefit from the improvements if you have one of Verizon’s newer, expensive 4G phones. Other carriers, most notably Verizon’s chief competitor AT&T, seem to be leaning in favor of adding Wi-Fi coverage to stadium sites, perhaps because A) it’s typically easier and cheaper to put in Wi-Fi and B) it can accomodate all types of smartphones since most advanced handsets these days also come with Wi-Fi connectivity built in.

The caveat for the AT&T Wi-Fi announcements is that to benefit you must already be an AT&T customer, meaning that many fans might not see any improvements. There is some talk about AT&T possibly allowing non-customers to use their public Wi-Fi hotspots for a daily fee — such as the one AT&T just turned on in downtown Palo Alto. More on this tomorrow, when we are scheduled to speak with some Ma Bell types at an event in that very university town.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi
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