NFL builds its own Super Bowl app, with no concessions delivery and fewer replays

February 3, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Screen shot of map function on NFL Super Bowl LI app.

The NFL has built its own Super Bowl mobile app, breaking with a recent history of using stadium-app specialists like VenueNext and YinzCam to develop specific apps for Super Sunday.

Also unlike recent years, the NFL’s Super Bowl app will not feature instant replays or have any kind of food or drink delivery services. Instead, there appears to be a big focus on promoting Super Bowl events (especially those for this weekend) and for helping out of town tourists find their way to Super Bowl events and to the game itself.

Curiously, an interview about the app with the NFL’s CIO claimed that this year’s app will also be the first to include the ability for fans at the game to watch Super Bowl commercials. The story also claims without any attribution that “In the past, commercials weren’t on the app in order to avoid using too much bandwidth in the stadium.” However, at the most recent Super Bowls, including the past two, stadium bandwidth has been more than sufficient enough to stream plenty of video. And in fact, both of the last two Super Bowl apps have included the ability for fans at the game to see Super Bowl commercials.

Last year’s app, developed by VenueNext for the Levi’s Stadium hosting of Super Bowl 50, definitely showed Super Bowl commercials, part of what the San Francisco 49ers network team said was a record-breaking day of app-based video watching. The Super Bowl 49 app, built by YinzCam, also included Super Bowl commercials according to this NFL video and according to our previous reporting.

Fewer replays, no food or beverage delivery service

Screen shot of transportation info links from Super Bowl LI app.

And even though NFL CIO Michelle McKenna-Doyle is quoted in the previous story about the new app as saying “You won’t feel like you’re using two separate apps as fans have in the past,” the Super Bowl LI app contains a link to download the separate NFL Mobile app, which is apparently where Super Bowl highlights and replays will live. There was no confirmation from the NFL or Verizon about whether or not fans in the stands would be able to watch the live broadcast of the game via NFL Mobile. Fans not at the game will be able to use NFL Mobile to watch the game on cellular devices; fans can also stream the game from the FoxSports website, for PCs or tablet devices.

This year’s app will also not include any way for fans to use the app to order food or beverage delivery to their seats; last year’s app did have the ability to order in-seat delivery of beverages or to place an order for food and beverage express pickup, a service used for 3,284 orders. NRG Stadium, however, does not offer full-stadium in-seat ordering like Levi’s Stadium does; the stadium does have serving staff with wireless devices providing in-seat ordering services for club sections, which will likely be in use at the Super Bowl as well.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, DAS, Extreme Networks, Facebook, Levi's Stadium, NFL, NFL Mobile, Super Bowl, VenueNext, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, YinzCam Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Extreme Networks, Fox Sports, Levi's Stadium, Mobile Sports Report, NFL, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Super Bowl, Tablet, VenueNext, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, YinzCam

March Madness viewing: More digital options, plus some virtual reality

March 8, 2016 by Paul Kapustka 1 Comment

Remember when college basketball tournament season only had a small slice of games available online? Or when you had to pay extra to watch online? It wasn’t that long ago. Thankfully though the future is here now and for 2016 the college hoops postseason has even more ways to watch games mobile or online, including one option to watch games via virtual reality programming.

Like last year, if you have a qualifying cable contract, you are basically covered and should be able to watch all the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games live, on whichever platform you want. The best way to start is to head to the NCAA’s March Madness home page, where you should be able to find any and all information on devices, apps and other avenues to streaming coverage. According to Turner Sports, the NCAA and CBS Sports the games will be available live on 12 different platforms, including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku players and Roku TV models. The new March Madness Live app isn’t avalable until Thursday, so check back soon for the go-to app for everything March Madness.

Also like last year, you should be able to watch a few minutes of the first game you see without having to log in — great if you are just trying to catch a buzzer beater. The games of course will be available on regular TV, and the March Madness home page has what may be a great time saver, a widget that helps you find those obscure cable channels other than CBS or TNT where the games might be on. Since we’ve just moved, MSR’s NCAA viewing team might make good use of the Zip Code-powered channel finder.

Even if you don’t have a cable contract you can still watch a lot of games that are streamed online; games broadcast on CBS will be available for no charge on desktop, mobile and tablet platforms, while games broadcast on the other channels (TNT, TBS, truTV and local channels) should be available on those providers’ websites. Again, if you get stuck or lost just defaulting back to the March Madness home page should give you a path to whatever game it is you’re looking for.

Big East tourney available in VR

If you have a NextVR platform you will be able to watch the 2016 Big East tournament (it starts Thursday, March 10) thanks to a partnership between FOX Sports and NextVR. We’re not VR-savvy here at MSR headquarters yet but with seven games and 15 hours of programming scheduled this might be a cool treat for VR fans. NextVR has an instruction page on how to watch the games in VR; if anyone tries this out, send us an email with a report on how it worked (or didn’t) and we’ll let everyone else know.

Also, don’t forget — this year for the first time the NCAA Men’s Championship game, scheduled for Monday, April 4, will be on TBS, NOT on CBS, the first time the champs game has been only on cable. And, there will be streaming options as well during Final Four weekend, according to the official announcement:

For the NCAA Final Four National Semifinals on Saturday, April 2, from Houston, NCAA March Madness Live will provide three distinct live video streams of both games to provide unprecedented viewing options for fans – live streaming of the traditional game coverage provided on TBS, along with “Team Stream by Bleacher Report” coverage or team-specific presentations offered via TNT and truTV. This year’s NCAA Tournament will include the National Championship airing on TBS, the first time the championship has ever been televised on cable television.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Basketball, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Hoops, Samsung, Tablets, TNT, truTV, Turner Sports Tagged With: Big Dance, Final Four, Live sports via mobile, Men's NCAA Tournament, Mobile Sports Report, NCAA, NCAA Hoops, Paul Kapustka, Tablet, Turner Sports

Will Firefox on tablets lead to lower-cost offerings?

January 21, 2014 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

The specs for the first tablet that has been designed to run Mozilla’s Firefox operating system have been published this week by project head Asa Dotzler as the OS prepares to give Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Google’s Android a run for their collective money.

The blog posting says that the tablet will feature an ARM Cortex A7 quad core processor running at 1GHz with a PowerVR GPU and 2GB of RAM. It will have 16GB of flash storage that presumably can be upgraded via its MicroSD slot.

The tablet, called the InFocus New Tab F1, will feature a 10.1 inch 1200 x 800 touch screen and have dual cameras, a 2megapixel and a 5MP camera as well as support 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi but no cellular support, at least in the first go-around.

The tablet is not a surprise since the company showed the OS for mobile phones a year ago at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and has been talking about the tablet since last summer when it said that it would partner with Foxconn to build the device. The interesting thing will be what impact it will have, if any, on its rivals.

The Firefox operating system has taken a big chunk on market share in the PC browser space, which along with Chrome has given Microsoft’s Internet Explorer much more competition that it could have wished for.

A number of handset developers use the mobile Firefox OS in offerings for emerging markets and now we will see if tablet developers will follow suit. There are an increasing number of low-cost offerings that offer primarily Android OS but along with the OS there are already a huge number of apps, probably as important as the OS.

It looks like an uphill battle for the OS, but it is also a hill that the development team has surmounted in the past. I could see purchasing a low-cost tablet that could be dedicated for single use. However for fans who want a tablet to serve as a second screen option, slow, low resolution offerings will not make it, but could serve to free up a primary, higher quality tablet for a more dedicated use as well.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Google, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Microsoft, Smartphone, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: Android, Firefox OS, iOS, Mozilla, Tablet

Friday Grab Bag: Apple’s big iPad? And NCAA football changes thru history

December 6, 2013 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Rumors are that Apple is now looking at a large format iPad, one that would be in the 13-inch screen size territory, at least according to a recent piece in Forbes that is relaying news from the Korean Times.

It would be interesting to see as the current trend in tablets has been strong growth in the 7- to 8-inch format, but as tablets start to increasingly replace notebooks and desktop PCs a larger tablet might meet this segment’s needs.

PC sales lag as tablets fill their place
Speaking of tablets as PC replacements eWeek reports that according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker shipments of PCs are expected to fall 10.1% this year in the consumer market and 5% in the business space.

PCs are still used more that smartphones and tablets, but mainly for computational and work exercises while the use of more mobile platforms has seen a dramatic increase as they fill many of the needs that a PC used to perform.

A history of NCAA football conferences
For casual fans, and even some of the more than casual college football fans the changing face of the different conferences, with teams coming and going, can be confusing. The New York Times has a very interesting interactive page that shows the changes since 1965.

It highlights the moves and you can trace teams and conferences over that span as the morph and in some cases dissolve. Also interesting is the huge decline of unaffiliated schools.

Amazon to develop drones for delivery?
One of the funnier news articles from last weekend was the proclamation of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that the company was developing drones that would deliver packages in 30 minutes. It was widely reported and commented on, and yet no one, at least initially put any thought into this.

Really? Drones? Aside from getting FAA approval, the logistics would be a nightmare and they would have to have thousands of warehouses and airports across the nation to support the effort. Who would be controlling them, Sidd Finch?

The perfect holiday gift from the NFL
Teams sell all sorts of swag for their fans and as it is the holiday season many are looking for the perfect gift for both the NFL fanatic as well as the more casual fan who follows the local team but thinks a quarterback that retired 5 years ago is still at the helm.

Mike Tanier of Sportsonearth kindly went to all of the trouble of tracking down the proper gift for all types of fans. Want a toaster that embeds your team’s logo? Got it! A Cleveland Browns thong-uh yeah about that.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, BCS, Humor, iPad, NCAA Football, NFL Tagged With: Amazon, drones, NCAA Football, NFL, notebook, PCs, Tablet

Verizon Wireless joins the tablet market with Ellipsis 7

November 6, 2013 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Football fans that use a Verizon-backed smartphone to watch NFL games will be thrilled to learn that they may now be able to boost the screen size in the future with the company’s 7-inch HD Ellipsis tablet that is expected to be in its stores by week’s end.

The details are sparse from Verizon on the exact specifications but the tablet will have a HD display but no report on the resolution while C/net is reporting that it will also feature a 1.2GHz quad core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage that can be expanded via an optional microSD card.

Not surprisingly connectivity is a big feature with the Ellipsis 7. It will feature 4G LTE and mobile hotspot support for as many as eight additional Wi-Fi devices, according to C/net.

The Ellipsis tablet is obviously not chasing after Apple’s iPad, the Samsung Galaxy offerings or the high-end releases from Google, Amazon and others. Rather it is positioning itself as a low cost, solid alternative to these products for users who might not want or need all of the bells and whistles, and associated price tag, that come with these different offerings.

While it seems that everybody is now jumping into this space, from supermarkets to bookstores that is not a bad thing. As their price continues to drop the commercialization of tablets will continue and customers will benefit from this.

When the prices get low enough it makes sense to have one dedicated to work purposes, maybe with an external keyboard that has an additional battery while having a second tablet that can be kept by the television that can serve as a second screen, to watch two football games or allow one person in the room to escape sports. A low cost offering bedside for a late night reading before sleep. All of this is coming closer to reality as tablets become increasingly ubiquitous.

Verizon said that the tablet is the first of an expected family of Ellipsis products and it will be available online exclusively at the company’s stores for $249.99, with a short term offer now for $100 off any tablet from Verizon with a new 2-year wireless service contract.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, Galaxy Note, Google, iPad, Samsung, Tablets, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, Apple, Ellipsis 7, Samsung, Tablet, Verizon Wireless

Lenovo’s Yoga provides flexibility with tablet options

October 29, 2013 by Greg Quick 1 Comment

Lenovo has expanded its Yoga family of tablets and has added some interesting features that seek to differentiate them from others in this rapidly growing market with a trio of modes that they can be used in ways that the company believes fit customer usage needs.

The latest editions are 8-inch and 10-inch models and one of the key features is the three modes: hold, tilt and stand. The hold mode is for use when being held and includes a cylindrical handle that allows a user to use just one hand to hold the tablet, rather than the two that most 10-inch and large tablets require.

To engage the stand mode simply turn the handle 90 degrees and the stand will deploy, and can be adjusted from 110 degrees to 135 degrees. The tilt mode is for when the tablet is lying flat or in a user’s lap. The tablet has software that brings up the most commonly used apps in each mode.

There are other additions that make the tablets interesting. They have an 18-hour battery life, far exceeding most others that are in the 10-hour range. The new Lenovo tablets get the longer life by using laptop batteries cleverly stored in the handle. They also have the ability to charge other smartphones and USB devices via a USB on-the-go feature.

The two Android tablets feature displays that have 1280 x 800 resolution, a 5MP autofocus rear camera and a 1.6MP front facing camera. They are powered by a 1.2GHz MT8125 quad core processor and have 16GB of storage that can be expanded to 64GB via an optional microSD card. Other features include a pair of front-facing speakers with Dolby Digital Plus DS1. The tablets are expected to be available by week’s end and the 8-inch model will have a $249 MSRP and the 10-inch will have a $299 MSRP.

While none of the additions to the tablets on their own are earth-shattering the combination makes a very nice offering that helps the company create separation between its products and many of its rivals, who often seem to just deliver me-too products.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Lenovo, Tablets Tagged With: Lenovo, Tablet, Yoga