You are here: Home / Archives for Apple

Bantr Seeks to bring Soccer Fans Together

June 18, 2012 by

With the Euro 2012 tournament up and roaring along with the first round of eliminations I got to wondering about what type of chat and viewing options that was available for fans to catch up on scores and possibly talk a bit of trash to rivals and went looking.

Not surprising there is a number of apps available for a fan, including some we have talked about here previously such as Fancru. One i found that caught my eye was Bantr, an app that is designed to bring together soccer fans.

What made it noteworthy was it was one of the first fan interaction sites I have seen that is dedicated to a single group of fans, it is only about soccer, which I suspect is just fines with fans of that sport because the cross over talk would probably get pretty heated.

The free app is currently only available for products that run Apple’s iOS operating system including the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone. It is obviously designed for European soccer and supports English, German, Northern Sami and Spanish.

It shares many similarities with other interactive fan sites: you can select your teams that you support, check into games; chant or banter with other fans and predict outcomes. Some interesting touches include in game voting on if a player dives, on cards and penalties and the worthiness of substitutions. You can also vote for player of the match, rate players, refs and matches, and vote on manager and player approval.

The company was founded in 2010 and has secured $328,000 is seed money, according to Crunchbase. If you want to get a taste of what is available but do not want to download the app just yet, or do not have an iPhone (Android support is supposedly coming) you can head over hear at Facebook and take a look at what is available.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, ESPN, Euro 2012, Facebook, iOS, Soccer, Startup Tagged With: , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Tablet Sales Forecast Upgraded for Faster Growth

June 18, 2012 by

Judge reverses course in Apple/Motorola Patent battle
Just a week after saying that he planned to dismissed the case Judge Richard Posner has ordered an injunction hearing in one of the patent lawsuits that Apple has against Motorola Mobility. The hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday and will enable both sides to argue why he should issue an order barring the other from using their respective patents.

IDC predicts strong tablet demand-Apple to benefit
Market research company IDC has said that it expects that demand for tablets will increase over the second half of this year and has upgraded its forecast from 106.1 million units sold worldwide to 107.4 million, eweek reported.

For 2013 IDC predicted that 142.8 million will be sold, up from its previous forecast of 137.4 and by 2016 it expects that 221.6 million will be sold. Apple’s iPad is expected to own 62.5% of the market this year, up from 58.2% last year. Android is expected to drop from last years’ 38.7% to 36.5% this year.

Facebook points finger at NASDAQ
After the calamitous IPO day and the resulting rash of lawsuits by traders that had issues with buying and selling at the opening of the market, Facebook has responded to the suits by seeking to consolidate them into a single case and by placing the blame on NASDAQ, Mashable reports.

The 30 minute delay in trading due to a software glitch at the opening of the market has been the source of much talk, and legal action. Facebook has requested that six class action lawsuits be combined and heard in the Southern District of New York to streamline proceedings. In addition it said that the 30 minute delay was due entirely to a flaw in the software used by NASDAQ.

US teams with private partners to build ultrafast broadband network
A new public/private effort that will combine corporation, higher education, non-profits and the US government is seeking to develop very high speed broadband networks that will be situated in a number of communities around the country.

The goal of the program, which is called US Ignite, is to enable developer to have a test bed to create new technologies and applications for use in these newer, faster networks that can achieve speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

The program combines the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation, and the GENI Program Office, seeks to roll out the networks in 35 cities within the next six years.

YouTube-Your next cable channel?
We have already reported that YouTube is seeking to create a range of premium video channels, including some sports focused ones, and now it looks as if the site is seeking to expand further into the entertainment business.

The company said last week that it is investigating the possibility of working with cable companies and charging for content that the providers might be seeking to broadcast via other methods in an effort to grow their viewership. YouTube noted that noting is finalized at this time.

Apple patent hints at future iPhone features.
A patent that has been filed by Apple, as noted by PCMag and others shows a smartphone that has a swappable camera lens. The phone would have a replaceable back panel that could be swapped out for one with a different lens allowing for increased options for photographers.

Ebook sales roar past hardcover
Net sales for ebooks has surpassed that of traditionally printed books for the first time, according to a report released by the Association of American Publishers and noted in Mashable. The report covered the first quarter of this year and excluded children’s books.

Ebooks accounted for $282.3 million in that time frame while hardcover books reached a total of $229.6 million. More notably was that ebook sales increased 28.4% over the same period last year while hard cover increased only 2.7%.

Sony gets Ice Cream Sandwich for its Tablet P
Sony has finally upgraded its clamshell Sony Tablet P platform, a device that features a screen that can be used as a single or dual screen display. The software upgrade to the latest available for Android devices has been expected for some time.

ARM preps low cost tablet chip
While Android tablets sales have not met with expectations and continue to lose share to Apple’s iPad, chip developer ARM is preparing a new front in the battle with the development of its Mali platform that is expected to enable the development of lower cost tablets.

ARM does not sell its chips directly to tablet OEMs but rather to developers’ such as Broadcom and others that then create the final processors that go into the tablets, as well as a range of other products including smartphones.

According to Computerworld the Mali-450 family will include the ability to develop eight cores and have double the processing power of the Mali-400 line. The dirt products using the technology are expected in the first half of 2013.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Facebook, iPhone, Lawsuit, Mashable, Microsoft, Motorola, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Big Kindle Sale, Kentucky Derby Point System

June 15, 2012 by

Looking for a sports watch that can track your every move but dislike the bland sameness that seems to pervade the industry? Well Nike has teamed with TomTom to break that boredom with a set of Nike+ Sports watches that come in day-glo colors so that you can match your jogging outfit.

The upgraded GPS watch, which runs around $149, will support NikeFuel and provide users with a wealth of information including position, speed, and the ever popular calories burned. It also can be programmed with reminders and motivational messages.

Apple to kill Ping in next OS release?
Apple has been hinting for some time that Ping, its attempt at social networking, was on a short leash and now it sounds as if it is at the end of its short product life as the company decides not to spend good money after bad.

All Things Digital reports that the technology will be absent in future operating system releases. Of course in hindsight that seems quite obvious considering all of the Facebook integration there will be in the next release.

ESPN loses Premier League broadcast rights
Sports Illustrated has reported that ESPN was shut out of the latest round of broadcast rights for the English Premier League. The winning bid of $4.49 billion was submitted by BSkyB and BT for the domestic TV rights in a 3-year deal. The previous deal, which was split between ESPN and BSkyB was for $1.95 billion.

ITC throws out Google patents in Apple/HTC dispute
The International Trade Commission delivered some bad news to Google when it threw out five of its patents that it had assigned to HTC. HTC needed the patents in its legal battles with Apple where it is trying to bar the import of select Apple products into Taiwan.

According to Foss Patents the court rejected an investigation into the assigned patents and said that it cannot sue Apple over violating patents that it does not own, and which it appears is just renting from Google for the trial. HTC said that it will appeal. Both Apple and HTC/Google have a series of patent lawsuits against each other ongoing around the globe.

HTC buys some patents
So if you can’t rent them, buy them. HTC has confirmed that it is buying once high flying graphics processor developer S3 Graphics, and that a driving reason behind the deal is to get its hands on the company’s patent portfolio.

While not the largest in the industry S3 does own approximately 270 patents, some of which are licensed to other third party developers. HTC is one of the major companies that has been fighting it out with Apple over patents used in mobile devices such as smartphones.

Kentucky Derby Follows NASCAR’s Lead
Ever wonder how a horse qualifies for the Kentucky Derby? Well wonder no more because the races organizers are taking steps to spell out how and why horses manage to gain entry to one of the premier racing events in the world.


Churchill Downs has developed what it calls the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” and will use a point system much like NASCAR’s that will assign points to horses that run select races, based on how they finish. The program will start this fall for the current crop of two year olds and will be used to determine next years crop of horses for the race.

Android growth still strong
Google’s Andy Rubin, who is the head of the smartphone operating system, said that the daily activation of devices running the Android operating system is now averaging 900,000 devices a day. Last year at the same time it was 500,000.

Asus confirms Google Tablet-off the record of course
Android Authority said that it sat down with an executive from Asus at the recent Computex show who confirmed that his company was building a Google-labeled tablet that will enter the 7-inch form factor fray.

Expected to be powered by Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor the device is expected to be priced in the $150-$250 range. Look for Google’s big Google I/O conference at the end of the month as the launching pad for the device.

Want to make your pillow a touchscreen? With MaKey MaKey you just might be able to
MaKey MaKey is the latest startup to catch my limited attention span has appeared at Kickstarter, a project that seeks to turn everyday items into functioning touchscreens with the ability to interact with the Internet.

Sound too good to be true, well it is not reality yet but there is a some interesting demos over at Kickstarter. It is simply a board, some alligator clips and an Internet connection via a PC and in no time you to could be using bananas as a keyboard.

Its funding effort, which ends today, has been a tremendous success. Seeking a $25,000 goal it went over the top and at the time of this post had already received pledges worth $533,313 with close to 11,000 backers. Nice bit of overkill.

Kindle scores big with State Department
While Apple gets most of the publicity due to its tremendous success with the iPad the Kindle just scored a major deal with the US State Department. According to a piece from The Atlantic Wire, the State Department will be purchasing thousands of Kindles.

The total value of the deal has been reported at $16.5 million and will call for the tablets to come with a teaching program. The initial buy for the project is 2,500 devices and they will be sent to libraries and other education around the world.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Asus, English Premier Soccer League, Google, iOS, Kickstarter, Kindle, NASCAR, Startup, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Fancru Takes up the Sports Fan Chat Challenge

June 12, 2012 by

Fans like to talk with fans, at least ones that share similar allegiances, and Fancru is seeking to exploit that with its sports app that will enable groups of like minded fans to chat as well as allowing you to reach out to your friends.

If this sounds a bit familiar it is. There are several other apps that are seeking to establish themselves as platform for fan interaction and FanCru realizes that it has to step up to the plate big time to enable it to be recognized above the noise in this space.

The app, currently only available for the iPhone (it will work on an iPad but is not optimized) is the brainchild of John Wagner, Fancru’s co-founder and president and Bill Diamond, co-founder and CEO. Wagner is a self proclaimed sports nut who constantly watches games and saw this as an opportunity for fans to share experiences with others both attending the sporting events and those following elsewhere.

The app has several different distinct functions, and in some ways it reminds you of a host of other apps such as Foursquare, since you can log in your location, ESPN, since it gives you scores, and rival apps such as Recapp which provide news articles about selected teams.

Similarities aside it has a game feed that connects you to other fans following an event. Then on top of that there is the Cheer & Vent function that allows you to vent etc as well as post images from where ever you are.

You establish an account and then select the sports teams and leagues that you want to follow-NFL, NCAA Football, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS and Brazilian Soccer. Add the teams you want and then you can connect to them via Facebook, Twitter, searching your address book, SMS and the old fashion way by including their names manually. You can check to see which teams have the most fans and earn points for prizes by doing various actions.

The company’s first version of the app, for all practical purposes a beta release, provided it with plenty of user feedback that it used to incorporate in its current offering. But it is not just listening to what fans think of the product that is important to the company. Available now for the iPhone the company is working on an Android release and then will optimize its iPhone app to efficiently run on iPads.

Fancru is taking an interesting approach in that it is seeking to engage teams and leagues into using its technology as possibly a front end to an app that the teams might be developing by opening up its SDK and APIs up to the market freely available.

It is hard to predict how that will work out for the larger, more established leagues such as the NFL and MLB. Right now MLB has AtBat as its official app, which it own. However MLB has been very proactive in trying to engage fans via a series of apps and contests and having like minded fans chat during games would seem to fall into the direction it is taking. There is also an effort to allow teams to add a local flavor to AtBat so that while the league might not adopt the technology local teams might have that option.

In addition Fancru has been accruing analytics about what its users are doing and so it would enable teams to better meet fans wants and needs, Wager points out. He sees the app as a valuable tool to teams that want to bring fans out to the events in a day when many have huge high definition televisions and are content with watching at home.

By enabling a team to have contests that could be centered on a game, a player or a section of seats it can bring fans into more active participation and with that more active attendance.

A challenge to an app of this sort will be breaking through the noise. The Apple App store has almost a million apps currently. There are slightly older rival apps that either point to a single sport such as GolfGamebook or are also more broadly based such as GrabFan, PlayUp and Kwarter.

Being a relatively new category helps since there really is not established leader and they are all facing the same uphill battle. In addition stadiums and leagues are only ow upgrading their wireless capabilities to enable in-game fan interaction. I suspect that within a year or two a huge number of fans will be using a chat technology that connects them to others in and out of the stadium.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Facebook, Fancru, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, MLS, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NFL, PlayUp, Startup Tagged With: ,

Apple Details New iOS 6: Releases Mountain Lion and New Notebooks

June 11, 2012 by

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference began this week in San Francisco, and a good example of the excitement it generates among the faithful is the fact that the 5,000 tickets that went on sale for $1,599 sold out in less than two hours, according to the Wall Street Journal. Reports are that some are now being scalped in front of the Moscone Center.

The joy of this event to me is that we get to see how the rumors about the event match up with the actual announcements. New operating systems, iPads, iPhones, new TV and more have all been promised by a variety of outlets, now we get to see what is true.

The company introduced two different OS at the show starting with the next generation iOS, iOS 6.0 with 200 new features including new map app, shared photo streams and very tight Facebook integration. Expect this in the late fall.

Also the latest Mac operating system, code-named Mountain Lion, which will be available next month for $19.99. Interesting notes from the keynote include Apple working with some big name auto manufacturers to incorporate Siri into their entertainment systems. Expect to see results from this in a year or so and brands include BMW, GM and Jaguar. Siri will also now be able to launch apps.

Lots of upgraded or new hardware on the PC side including an 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.7 GHz processor starting at $1,099; a 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.8 GHz processor starting at $1199, and 256GB of flash storage starting at $1,499.

Also some new MacBook Pro models including a 13-inch with a 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor starting at $1,499, a 15-inch MacBook Pro with either a 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor starting at $1,799; or with a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor starting at $2,199. The 15-inch displays will feature high resolution Retina technology.

Some stats from the show
iMessage has 140 million users
Apple users send 1 billion messages daily
650,000 Apps of which 225,000 for iPad
Asia Pacific soon to be largest revenue geography for company

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Facebook, Google, Intel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Judge Kills Patent Suit- Wave of the Future?

June 11, 2012 by

One of the many patent lawsuits from around the globe has been canceled by the presiding judge, although this may not end the case. In an Apple/Google lawsuit Judge Richard Posner has entered a tentative order dismissing the case because he believes that neither party can establish relief.

According to Foss Patents, which had previously speculated that this might occur, this is more likely a bigger setback to Google, but that it will take future court cases to see if that is true. One of the more interesting aspects of this ruling is the esteem with which Judge Posner is held in legal circles and his apparent disgust with the two companies and the patent system. I wonder if this is a trend that will continue going forward as judges try to clear up the huge logjam of patent cases?

Android not ready for quad core?
It appears Intel is complaining about the poor performance of the Android operating system when used on devices that feature quad core processors, according to the Android Guys. It seems that the guys at Intel are not so much complaining about the OS but rather the chips that it runs on in the smartphones.

It should be noted of course that virtually all of those chips are made by rivals, and that Intel is just now selling its processors t developers that create smartphones. In addition Intel does not currently offer a quad core in this space.

Will Windows Phone win out?
A recent study by market research firm IDC predicts the demise of the Android phone and the ascendency of the Windows Phone by 2016. The report predicts that Android phones will still be the dominate operating system over tge next 5 years but that its market share will peak this year.

Apple’s iOS operating system is expected to continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in the past. The winner over the next five years will be Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system, which it claims will gain a 16% market share over the next few years.

Not everybody is on board with this bold prediction however, and a number of pieces have been published questioning the predictions. One that took the time to examine past IDC predictions with the subsequent results was run in The Street.

RIM kills one model of BlackBerry PlayBook
Research in Motion has killed its 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as the mobile device developer continues to find footing in the new market for connected devices. The company said that while it remains committed to the market overall it would discontinue the 16GB version but would continue to ship the 32GB and 64GB versions. A new generation of tablets is expected from RIM later this year.

Adding insult to injury in Oracle/Google case
A judge has ordered Oracle to pay Google’s legal fees after the outcome of Oracle’s patent and copyright suit against the search giant did not go its way. Apparently Judge William Alsup had told Oracle that if it brought the case to court (it had failed twice before) that it would have to pay Google’s expenses, which apparently ran to $300,000.

Facebook’s app center opens
Facebook has officially opened its App Center and already has 600 apps available for Facebook users. The center is operating system agnostic and so there are apps for Android, iOS and others available. The purpose of the center is to encourage app developers to create programs that use Facebook as its front end, helping it in the mobile space.

Motorola, others violate RF patent?
EETimes is reporting that the International Trade Commission is investigating the use of select RF chips by Motorola Mobility, HTC Corp. and RF Micro Devices. The complaint was brought by Peregrine Semiconductor that claims that chips used by the companies violated its patents.

Mobile Apps in New York this month
If you happen to be in New York City and are interested in mobile technology, specifically mobile apps, then the Mobile App Showdown might be right up your alley. The two day showcase starts the 25th but if you want to vote online for the best app you can go online on June 15th and cast your vote. It should be interesting t see what direction the voting takes.

LinkedIn stops collecting calendar data
It appears that one of the fallouts from LinkedIn’s security breach that led to the loss of 6.5 million passwords was the revelation that the professional networking site had been surreptitiously collecting data from the private calendars of its members, at least iPad and iPhone users. The company has now said that it will discontinue that practice.

Asus PadFone hits the States
It looks like the Asus PadFone, a mobile device that combines a smartphone with a tablet to make a platform that can be used as a single product or separated into two distinct devices has finally made it to the US.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Facebook, FTC, Google, Research in Morion, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »