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Watching NASCAR This Week: Going Hollywood! In Kansas, Dorothy.

October 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It looks like Clint Boyer drove himself into the title talk with a win last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a win that now makes it look like a four way fight for the Cup as it hits the halfway point with three drivers within shouting distance of the lead.

Boyer took the lead after Brad Keselowski lost it due to an error by his crew- more on that in a second. He moved up one spot to forth and trails by 28 points, a challenge but not an insurmountable one. He was followed over the finish line by Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch.

Points leader Brad Keselowski’s team did not learn from its mistakes, even though they were very recent. He was dominating in the race and yet a miscalculation on his pit crew had him run out of gas and so finish in 11th. It might be understandable except he did it the night before as well. I suspect someone s going to get a talking to.

This Week: Hollywood Casino 400
The teams are at the Kansas Speedway’s 1.5 mile tri-oval track for the Hollywood Casino 400, where practice time has been tight due to weather conditions but it is expected to be a bit cloudy and good racing conditions this weekend. The lack of practice time hopefully will not be an issue since the track has a new surface and that has caused some issues at other tracks.

Broadcast: Oct. 21 at 1 pm ET ESPN

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Sprint Cup Standings
1) Brad Keselowski
2) Jimmie Johnson-7
3) Denny Hamlin -15
4) Clint Boyer -28
5) Kasey Kahne -35
6) Greg Biffle -43
7) Martin Truex Jr. -43
8 ) Tony Stewart -50
9) Jeff Gordon -50
10) Kevin Harvick -56
11) Matt Kenseth -67
12) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -86

Nationwide Series

Stop me if you have heard this before. Joey Logano wins a Nationwide race. Seems like it is almost an everyday occurrence as he won at Charlotte, his eighth win this year. If you are wondering why he is so far down the points standing it is because it is only his 18th series start this year. Wonder if he will race a full slate next year?

Logano led for 62 laps during the race but was helped by some bad lick on the part of Brad Keselowski how pitted with nine laps to go and did not take on enough gas. Oops. Keselowski finished 18th. The top five was filled out by Kevin Harvick, points leader Elliott Sadler, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamplin.

The Nationwide Series will have a few minor changes next year. Its field of cars will shrink from 43 to 40, although the Sprint Cup will remain at 43. Also there s a new qualifying rule in which the 36 fastest cars will make the race on speed, followed by the next six highest-ranking cars in owner’s points and one spot for the most recent eligible past champion

This Week: Kansas Lottery 300

Broadcast: Oct.20 at 3 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -13
3) Austin Dillon -29
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -93
5) Michael Annett -146

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, ESPN, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kansas Speedway, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Rickey Stenhouse Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart Tagged With: , ,

Guest Blog: Pickmoto Rates the ESPN Pickers and Finds them… Average

October 18, 2012 by 3 Comments

(Editor’s note: This is a guest blog from the folks at Pickmoto, a fantasy sports mobile app.)

Football studio shows are fans’ ambient noise, like waves crashing or birds chirping … only the waves are a typhoon and the birds are tucans with megaphones. The analysts talk as if they know how you watch them – getting ready in the morning, eating, before you fall asleep. If they speak with less than complete force, we won’t pay attention.

At Pickmoto, we’re trying to figure out who we should tune in to and who we can put on mental mute. ESPN publishes a dozen “Experts” picks every week. We created a fake user for each Expert and entered all of their picks through 6 weeks. Of course, these guys don’t know they are playing Pickmoto. So their picks deserve some slack for being out of context.

But not much slack according to their Week 6 performance. Mort was the only one who cracked .500 and saw his Pickmoto score go up. (Editor’s note: See the Pickmoto FAQ for explanation of the scoring.)

The odd thing is it was not a crazy week. Sure there were upsets. But there weren’t any shockers. The Titans over the Steelers qualifies on paper – 85% on Pickmoto took the Steelers. But considering how lackluster Pittsburg has looked, you’d think at least one “Expert” would have foresaw struggles on the road in primetime.

And that’s the point. The “Experts” offer evidently little insight. Their picks are nearly uniform and uniformly boring. Removing Mort from the equation, the other 11 unanimously or just short of unanimously picked the Steelers, Falcons, Eagles, Bucs, Ravens, Cardinals, Patriots, and 49ers. Those teams were 3-4.  

No NFL game is a no-brainer. Last week we might have conceded that Raiders-Falcons was an exception. But the Silver and Black were one horrible Carson Palmer interception return for a TD away from taking a lead with 2 minutes to go.

Yes, hindsight is 20/20. And yes, these guys undoubtedly know way way WAY more football than we do. But it’s still frustrating when we see them day after day, segment after segment yammering on about blitz packages, injuries to the secondary, and trick Tebow plays. Their picks demonstrate a lack of recognition of the strongest, most consistent, most important force in all of football: PARITY.

ESPN Pickmoto Standings Thru Week 6
Chris Mortensen – 582
Seth Wickersham – 535
Keyshawn Johnson – 352
Adam Schefter – 337
Ron Jaworski – 230
Merrill Hoge – 225
Cris Carter – 206
Eric Allen – 205
Mark Schlereth – 166
Mike Golic – 153
Mike Ditka – 138
Tom Jackson – 120

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Pickmoto (www.pickmoto.com) is recreating the fantasy sports experience on mobile. Its first app for the 2012 NFL season is free for iPhone and iPad. Pickmoto asks the most basic question in sports – which teams will win. There is a crowdsourced scoring system that rewards correct picks based on their popularity – the less popular, the more points. The basketball app will be out at the end of October and a College Bowl app will be available in December.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, NFL, Sports Betting Tagged With: , , , ,

Polaroid Makes a Strong Move into Action Cams

October 16, 2012 by 2 Comments

Polaroid has expanded its presence in the growing sports action cam space with the addition of a trio of offerings that are designed to meet a wide range of uses and price points as the company moves more strongly into this space.

This is an interesting space, with these cameras used in place of smartphones at one end of the device spectrum and more dedicated camcorders at the other end. Often housed in at least water resistant cases and more durable than a phone or a tradition camera they are for users that wish to record their latest skiing, skateboarding, diving or off road biking experience.

The 1.6 ounce entry level XS7 has the ability to take 720p high definition video or still images at 1MP, 3MP and 5MP and has a 2-inch full color screen so that users can view video and images that they have just shot with the camera.

Its case is waterproof up to 30 feet and it, as with all of the new action cams, comes with mounting brackets that enable it to be used on top of a helmet or on a bike’s handlebars. The $69.99 camera supports Micro SD cards with capacities up to 32GB.

Moving up a step is the Polaroid XS20 that also captures 720p video as well as 5MP still images. It is waterproof to 65 feet so it can be used on dives and other more water based activities. Its three hour battery gives a user more time to record their activity while it is designed for use in all lighting environments including low light due to its 8 built-in LED lights. The $99.99 camera can even act as a security device due to built-in motion sensors.

The Polaroid XS100 is the high end offering and can not only record in 720p but also 960p and 1080p video as well as record 3MP, 5MP and 16MP still images. It has an ultra wide lens that can provide 170 degree coverage and while in camera mode it has adjustable frame rates like burst shooting mode, time lapse and fast and slow motion.

Polaroid is a well recognized name in imagery and has an established track record delivering quality cameras so it will be interesting to see how well it is accepted in this space.

There are some well established players in this space led by GoPro, which has deals that bring it into the forefront such as its relationship with ESPN’s X Games. Others are moving into the space such as Sony with its Bloggie Sports Camera. However Polaroid is a well recognized name in imagery and has an established track record

Filed Under: ESPN, Facebook, GoPro, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, X Games Tagged With: , ,

Watching NASCAR: Bruised Teams Head to Charlotte

October 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If the old saw “Misery loves company” is true, it sure had a lot last weekend at Talladega where the track took its toll among the leaders in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, and like a living entity it waited until almost the end to extract as much drama as possible.

Tony Stewart was defending his lead on the last lap when he moved over to block some fast moving traffic. In hindsight I am sure that he did not want to end the evening sailing through the air as part of the 25 car pileup that he created, one of the most spectacular crashed this year. He had just zoomed to the lead at the start of a two lap sprint to the checkered flag and moved to block Michael Waltrip’s car and clipped the car, starting the mayhem

The move did not just hurt his finish at the race but featured 10 of the 12 drivers competing for the Cup as, not surprising; they were all competing for a top finish at the restrictor-plate track. The ultimate beneficiary of the accident was Matt Kenseth, who won under a caution flag. The rest of the field included Jeff Gordon at second followed by Kyle Busch, David Ragan and Regan Smith.

The toll of the crash will be felt for some time now. Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a concussion in the crash, and following an unreported one that he suffered in an August race that was just too much for him and he is shutting down for at least the next two races, killing his hopes for winning the Sprint Cup Championship for this year. He was currently 11th in the standings.

This Week: Bank of America 500
This week everybody heads to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. Hopefully everybody’s bruises from last week have had time to heal before they tackle Charlotte’s 1.5 mile quad oval under the lights.

Broadcast: Oct 13 at 7 pm ET ABC

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Sprint Cup Standings
1) Brad Keselowski
2) Jimmie Johnson -14
3) Denny Hamlin -23
4) Kasey Kahne -36
5) Clint Boyer -40
6) Jeff Gordon -42
7) Tony Stewart -46
8 ) Martin Truex Jr. -48
9) Greg Biffle -49
10) Kevin Harvick -49
11) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -51
12) Matt Kenseth -62

Nationwide Series
I am pretty sure that there was a collective sigh from the Nationwide drivers when they saw the last lap at Talladega last week, glad that they did not find themselves in that mess. With no race last week they could prepare for this week’s race without the problem of possibly needing a new car.

This Week: Dollar General 300
I somehow though this race was last week- sorry about that.

Broadcast: Oct. 12 7 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -9
3) Austin Dillon -25
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -60
5) Justin Allgaier -128

Filed Under: ABC, Charlotte Motor Speedway, ESPN, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Rickey Stenhouse Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, Talladega Superspeedway, Tony Stewart Tagged With: , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Atlantic 10 Inks Broadcast Deals — Microsoft Surface/Windows 8 Date Unveiled

October 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Atlantic 10 Conference has just closed a pair of broadcast deals that will enable it to maintain a strong presence on broadcast television. The 9-year deal with NBC Sports calls for the network to nationally televise men’s and women’s basketball games on the NBC Sports Network, as well as select local games on NBC Sports Regional Networks. Included will be the ability to live stream games on NBCSports.com for mobile users starting next year.

ESPN has also reached a new agreement with the conference, one that will extend the existing agreement to broadcast the conference’s men’s and women’s basketball games, including each conference championship. The agreement will begin with the 2013-14 season and conclude in 2021-22 and will continue to include extensive action on ESPNU.

ESPN’s Atlantic 10 programming will be available across the network’s multiple properties including ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, WatchESPN, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN International, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic and ESPN.com.

Google/Motorola drops a patent claim against Apple
Motorola Mobility has withdrawn a patent infringement claim against Apple that it had filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission two months ago according to a report in Bloomberg. However it has said that it does reserve the right to refile and that the withdrawal is not due to any agreement between the two companies.

Tablet Global Market sales expected to top $40B this year
Market research firm Global Information has estimated that the worldwide revenue for tablets this year will reach $40.4 billion and that due to a forecast growth rate of 29% year over year it will reach $181.5 billion by 2018.

Tablets have been in the news a great deal lately, with a bevy of new devices hitting the shelves soon from Amazon and Barnes & Noble while the Windows 8 and Apple iPad launches are in the near future. With all of this news it is probably no surprise how well they have been selling.

Samsung wins a small victory over Apple in U.S.
Samsung has convinced the trial judge that heard the case with Apple in the United States to lift the ban on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. The tablet was one of many devices that Apple sought to have banned after it prevailed in its copyright and patent win in US District Court earlier this year.

Major League Baseball reaches 8-year TV deals with Fox and Turner
Earlier this week Major League Baseball announced an 8-year national media rights agreements with FOX and TBS, which coupled with the deal signed with ESPN earlier will make the teams’ owners very happy. The three contracts will deliver $12.4 billion over their life.

The new deals with Fox and Turner will start in 2014 and allows Fox to keep the All Star game as well as the World Series while the League Championship Series and Division Series will be shared across FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG), TBS and MLB Network. A plus for mobile fans is that the deals include a digital “TV Everywhere” rights to stream televised games and other MLB-related programming online and through mobile devices.

Microsoft confirms Oct. 25 for Windows 8 launch
So mark your calendar and prepare your ‘Is this the iPad killer’ story as Microsoft and its allies will be taking center stage in New York City to show you everything from Intel’s Clover Trail microprocessor to Microsoft’s Surface Tablet.

Intel has said that there are over 20 designs in works with its processor for the platform and showed a few last week, with Hewlett-Packard taking the wraps off of its offering earlier this week. Expect more details by the time of the event from other OEMs.

Microsoft to open pop-up stores next to Apple Stores
If imitation is the highest form of flattery Apple should be pleased with Microsoft. It was reported in Computerworld that Microsoft will start opening ‘pop-up’ stores at malls starting Oct. 26. Interestingly that is the day after it introduces Windows 8.

What makes it interesting is that all of these 32 temporary stores, which will be selling the Surface tablets, 29 are in sites that already have an Apple store. I guess customers will be able to get a good comparison that way.

Filed Under: All Star Game, Android, Apple, Baseball, ESPN, ESPN FC, ESPN3, Fox Sports, Intel, iOS, iPad, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, NBC Sports, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com, Surface, Turner Sports, WatchESPN, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Watching NASCAR: Will Johnson Win Again at Dover?

September 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Denny Hamlin has continued his winning ways in the post season by taking the checkered flag in New Hampshire last weekend it brings his total for the year to five. Then again he predicted it prior to the race on Twitter but I doubted that he realized that he would need an assist from his teammate Kyle Busch.

While having the fastest car in practice he started back of the pack due to a pit crew error, but that did not seem to be much of an issue as he quickly worked his way forward, taking the lead around half way through the race and holding on until the end. Teammate Bush helped clear debris from the front of the car that was impeding air flow.

The race helped Hamlin move two spaces up, but steady Jimmie Johnson, who finished second, moved into the top spot, dropping Brad Keselowski down to second in the standings, down by a single point. Jeff Gordon rebounded from last week’s poor showing and finished third while Clint Boyer and Kasey Kahne filled out the top five.

http://youtu.be/CEZCTiQa4dM

This week: AAA 400
This week the Chase heads to Dover International Speedway and its Monster Mile 1 mile oval track for the AAA 400, not good news for much of the field since Johnson lists this as one of his favorite tracks. Jeff Gordon, the bottom feeder in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, needs to not just finish strong, but start winning or he will soon be mathematically eliminated.

Broadcast: Sept 30 1 pm ET ESPN

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Sprint Cup Standings
1) Jimmie Johnson
2) Brad Keselowski -1
3) Denny Hamlin -7
4) Tony Stewart -10
5) Kasey Kahne -15
6) Clint Boyer -15
7) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -26
8 ) Kevin Harvick -31
9) Greg Biffle -33
10) Martin Truex Jr. -34
11) Matt Kenseth -35
12) Jeff Gordon -45

Nationwide Series

There must be something about Kentucky that Austin Dillon really likes as he has won for the second time this season at the Kentucky Speedway, and while the win was not as dominating as his earlier one, few are.

Still he lead the last 50 laps as his competition was felled my mishaps and miscues helped keep him in the front. First a pit road accident between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Eric McClure slowed him down. This allowed Elliott Sadler to shot to the front, where he led 93 laps before also falling down as he was passed and fell to fifth. The top five was filled out by Sam Hornish Jr. in second, Brendan Gaughan, Drew Herring and Sadler.

This week: OneMain Financial 200

Broadcast: Sept. 29 3 pm ET ESPN

Nationwide Standings
1) Elliott Sadler
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. -4
3) Austin Dillion _19
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -46
5) Justin Allgaier -103

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dover International Speedway, ESPN, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Rickey Stenhouse Jr., Sam Hornish Jr., Sprint Cup Series, Tony Stewart Tagged With: , , ,
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