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Polaroid Makes a Strong Move into Action Cams

October 16, 2012 by

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: , ,

Friday Grab Bag: YourSport-The Facebook for Sports? Kindle 4G Gets OK

October 12, 2012 by

YourSports: The Facebook for sports?
A new online sports publication is coming into being called YourSports and it is a customizable sports page that is designed to enable fans to get the sports news that they want, including local sports that might be missed by the larger rivals.

While currently in beta it is open to all for the first time to take a look, it claims that it will fill in sports that is not currently handled by its rivals such as ESPN, BleacherReport and others by using social media to help fill in what is not available on broadcast sports while also providing news feeds on your favorite teams.


Amazon gets FCC approval for 4G Kindle
While Amazon announced its 4G Kindle Fire HD tablet last week it was only this month that the company obtained permission from the US Federal Communications Commission to actual sell the high end Kindle Fire HD that has the ability to connect to high speed 4G cellular networks.

The FCC approval is required for any device that has wireless communications to ensure that it does not create interference with other wireless devices. The product has been on preorder and is expected to ship Nov. 20.

Microsoft accuses Motorola of map stealing
As if Apple’s map problems are not enough now Microsoft is claiming that the Android phones from Motorola that use Google Maps, infringe on a mapping patent that Microsoft owns. The patent in question covers a method of obtaining the map from one database, resource information such as Starbucks locations from a second database, and overlaying the two sets of data.

The lawsuit is just one of several that Microsoft has filed in Germany regarding patent issues with the Google-owned Motorola Mobility as Microsoft increases the pressure to get Android phone makers to pay it royalties, according to Computerworld.

The Hank Aaron Award

Time to vote for the Hank Aaron award
While League MVP, Cy Young and other awards seem to always dominate the off season, the Hank Aaron award, for each league’s best all around offensive player, is one award that fans can have an impact in by voting.

The fans, along with an all-star panel that includes Aaron, ony Gwynn, Paul Molitor, Joe Morgan, and Robin Yount will vote on which of a slate of players is the best in each league. Voting closes Oct 16.

Lenovo now top PC maker
Market research firm Gartner has found that Hewlett-Packard has been unseated as top PC seller worldwide by Lenovo. HP, the top gun in this space for the past six years owned a 15.5% share of the market while Lenovo grew to 15.7% of the market.

This comes at a time when overall PC sales are declining. Gartner reported that in the third quarter of this year sales fell 8%, but it looks like some of that decline is simply buyers waiting for the Windows 8 release later this month. Dell, Acer and Asus make up the top 5 PC makers.

HTC departs US tablet market
While there is a growing rumble about a host of new tablets expected to be announced in conjunction with the Windows 8 rollout by Microsoft later this month, HTC is jumping off the bandwagon just as others are jumping onto it.

The company has announced that it is dropping its HTC Flyer and other tablet products from the US market. It said that the products were at the end of their lifecycle and the company has said it will watch the tablet space but does not want to have an offering that is a “me too” offering.

RoboCup Soccer gets champion robot
Don’t know what RoboCup Soccer is? Well join the club but an interesting piece in Gizmag talks about the state of modern robotics and how a league of five teams competed in the league that uses what it calls TeenSize robots, ones that are three to four feet tall.

They use an open source platform and cost roughly $26,000 apiece. The leagues goal is to develop a team that can beat the human champions, by 2050 that is.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Amazon, Android, Asus, Dell, Facebook, HTC, Lawsuit, Lenovo, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, Motorola, Tablets, YourSports Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The World Wingsuit League Jumps into Action backed by Red Bull China

October 11, 2012 by

While the news of a new sports league often seems like old news being just an imitation of an existing sports league, the World Wingsuit League, that leaps into being tomorrow in China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park seems assured of not being another knock off pro league.

The league is kicking off with the Tianmen Mountain Grand Prix Wingsuit Race where contestants will start the race by jumping off a 900-foot cliff, which you have to say is very different than how most sporting events begin.


The event is brought to us, not surprisingly, by Red Bull China, and will feature 16 athletes dressed in wingsuit who will not just leap off of a cliff but then complete a three quarter mile long obstacle course while flying. While maybe not quite the Red Bull Stratos experiment this looks like a real thrilling and exciting event.

They will fly around a course marker platform on the ground below that is roughly the size of a tennis court seconds after jumping, then swoop down the mountain and under the tramway cable finish line before opening their parachutes and landing at the mountain’s foot.

Just doing the jump once seems like an award winning feat and that is really just the start. There will be two rounds of two runs each with the first being an elimination round with all 16 wingsuit pilots, then a finals round with the top eight. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the top finishers. In addition, the Grand Prix champion will earn $20,000, 2nd place will win $10,000 and 3rd place will take home $5,000 while the fastest time gets a trophy.

From the images posted at its Facebook page it looks like in the practice runs the athletes are diving into a fog bank. I am pretty sure that there is no way you could get me to do that. So far the fastest round in the qualifying rounds was by James Boole and his time was 23.83 seconds

I think this looks like a great event and one that I would be very happy to watch but unfortunately it looks like it will only be broadcast live in China. The WWL said that it is working hard to get a live streaming video of the events that will take place on the 13-14 of this month, but so far no news. You can follow the league on its Facebook page. It also has a YouTube channel but it does not say if that will have live video.

Filed Under: Facebook, Live Sports Video Consumption, Red Bull, World Wingsuit League, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

Watching Golf This Week: Frys.com Open, aka Golf, Silicon Valley Style

October 11, 2012 by

If you aren’t from the San Francisco/San Jose area you may not know who or what Fry’s Electronics is, or why there’s a PGA Tour stop sponsored by something that sounds like a McDonald’s snack. If you do live here, of course, you know all about Fry’s, as the chain of stores is legendary for having been the place where you could buy all the stuff you needed to build your own PC, right down to the individual microprocessors — as well as big bags of Fritos. Chips and chips at Fry’s.

Now everyone hear hardly ever talks about Fry’s anymore, since the stores have kind of devolved into a sort of catch-all low-end cross between a Best Buy (there are washers, dryers and ranges in the back of the Palo Alto store), a music and video store and a place where you can buy all kinds of electronics, cell phones, headsets, and geeky stuff too. Apple stores have long since replaced Fry’s as the places where cool kids hang out. But the Fry’s family still has the bucks to put its name on a PGA Tour stop, so — welcome, pro golfers and the Fall Season. We’re happy to have you. And next year the Frys.com open will be the official tour opener, so this isn’t just some fill-in date. It’s a tourney with Silicon Valley-style growth in mind.

Mobile Sports Report its own busy self will do its best to get down to the course this weekend — thanks to the tourney and the PGA we have a press pass waiting — but if you have cable of course you can watch coverage on the Golf Channel, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Thursday through Sunday. This tourney has some notable names here too, including British Open champ Ernie Els (whose main sponsor SAP is big in Silicon Valley, so to Frys.com Ernie will go) and Nicolas “play what’s in your pants” Colsaerts, who is probably a lock pick for Masters pools next spring given his lights-out play in the opening round of the Ryder Cup. The Frys.com will also see U.S. Captain Davis “Blame Me” Love III playing, alongside vet Vijay Singh. And John Daly! Here’s a list of tee times.

FRYS.COM OPEN

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Oct. 11 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 12 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 13 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 14 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday-Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

FACEBOOK PAGE
C’mon, Facebook headquarters are just up 101 in Menlo Park! Of course the Frys.com Open has a Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The Frys.com Open Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on the CordeValle course, a classic Robert Trent Jones Jr. track through the oak-studded hills of southern Silicon Valley. (It’s actually south of San Jose.) The club is known mainly as a private refuge for many Silicon Valley uber-rich CEOs. What’s less known is that Santa Clara Valley (the real name of the area) has a bunch of fun wineries, nothing as world-class as Napa or Sonoma but many worth checking out if you are visiting. Two places we like are Thomas Kruse and Kirigin Cellars.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Bryce Molder.

Filed Under: Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, PGA, Ryder Cup Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

2Bet2 Focuses on Social Betting on Games

October 9, 2012 by

2Bet2

Socialized betting is undergoing an interesting change, migrating from the office water cooler, if one actually exists, and onto social media sites such as Facebook and Google +, and one of the recent entrants into that field is 2Bet2, bringing out its Facebook offering around the start of the year.

It has many of the features that are currently coming on line in rival sports apps using odds to set the line on bets and winners can get awards that allow them to advance and open up new opportunities. You can bet against friend or the house and do so on events that are played around the globe.

There is real time game and odds updates and along with seeing how your bets are doing you have a chat ability that permits congratulating, taunting, or anything in between, among players. All major sports are covered including both NFL and NCAA Football, both NBA and NCAA basketball, Hockey, Baseball, 25 different European Football leagues, Rugby Union/League, Cricket, Tennis and Golf.

2Bet2 has plenty of competition in the social betting world both with mobile app developers moving over onto social media and developers focusing initially on social media as the platform of choice. Players such as SideBet have added social media access.

There is a growing list of competitors in this space I believe that fantasy sports sites will also look towards online gambling if and when it gets the ok. Look at players including Rotowire, Grabfan, Pickmoto to name just a few. Even casinos are getting into the mix.

As these traditional gaming establishments embrace online platforms, they are creating a seamless blend of classic casino experiences with modern digital convenience. Players can now access a wide range of casino games from the comfort of their homes, engaging in activities that were once reserved for physical locations.

This integration has not only expanded the reach of casinos but also attracted a new demographic of players who prefer the flexibility and accessibility of online gaming. One of the key players in this transition is secretcasinotips.com, offering insights and strategies for both novice and experienced gamblers. By providing valuable content, this platform helps players navigate the evolving online casino environment, ensuring they can make informed decisions and enhance their gaming experiences.

With the convergence of social media, mobile apps, and online gambling, casinos are poised to capitalize on the growing trend, creating a comprehensive and engaging ecosystem for players worldwide. This evolution signifies a new era for the casino industry, where the boundaries between physical and virtual gaming continue to blur.

It seems that there is a good deal of hope in app developers that sometime in the future there will be an easing of on-line betting rules in the US that will allow the gambling of real money. Early players in this space will be well positioned to take advantage of any such change.

As the casino industry continues to evolve with the integration of social media, mobile apps, and online gambling, platforms like SlotsMonster are at the forefront of this transformation. It stands out by offering a vast array of gaming options that cater to a wide range of preferences. From video slots that feature captivating graphics and innovative gameplay to classic slots that evoke the nostalgia of traditional casinos, the platform ensures there’s something for everyone.

In addition to these popular slot games, SlotMonster also provides a diverse selection of scratch cards, table games, and video poker, offering a comprehensive suite of options for players seeking variety and excitement. This broad range of offerings is complemented by their commitment to delivering a seamless and immersive gaming experience. By continually expanding its game library and incorporating cutting-edge technology, SlotMonster not only meets the current demands of online gamblers but also positions itself to thrive in the evolving landscape of the casino industry.

As regulations around online betting potentially become more favorable in the future, SlotsMonster is well-equipped to capitalize on these changes, providing players with an engaging and dynamic platform that bridges the gap between virtual and physical gaming experiences.

It would be important to be established because if and when it is legalized the moneyed Las Vegas casinos and other entities are likely to quickly enter a market that is estimated at multiple billions of dollars.

While an industry group, the American Gaming Association has said that it seems unlikely that there will be any changes to online gambling this year, although there has been a bill put before congress by members of both parties. According to American Gaming, online gambling is legal in 85 countries and an estimated $35 billion is gambled each year.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Betting, English Premier Soccer League, Facebook, Google, Major League Baseball, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA.com, NFL, RotoWire, Soccer Tagged With: , ,

SideBets Adds Facebook, Twitter Integration to Mobile Social Betting App

October 4, 2012 by

Screen shot of the SideBets app. Credit: SideBets

The year-old SideBets mobile sports betting app has added functionality that allows users to send messages about their successful wagers to Facebook and Twitter, according to company executives.

Announced today, the new version of SideBets also supports the creation of betting “groups” and the ability to send a single bet to a group of friends, with a “first accept” feature allowing the first respondent to accept the wager. If you’ve not used SideBets before the app has virtual “SideBet Dollars” that act as a counter for your friendly wagers. The app also supports several betting games, which users can play with friends who also have the app.

According to Jon Goldstein, one of the three founders of SideBet’s parent company, the Detroit-based Blue Ox Entertainment, the SideBets app now has 5,000 active users among the 15,000 or so who have downloaded it since its debut last September. The new features, Goldstein said, are meant to enhance the main “utility” of the app, which he sees as its own type of social network, like Twitter or Facebook.

“Real gambling is not social,” Goldstein notes, pointing out that bets with casinos or bookies aren’t friendly interactions and may not be something you want to talk about, even if you win. But betting with friends, he said, is inherently social, and could eventually become a business.

While SideBets does charge a small amount of money for virtual cash (approximately $1 for each $100 in SideBets Dollars) there is no way to cash in winnings for real money, a factor that keeps the SideBets game relatively free of legal entanglements. Like other social betting apps, such as PickMoto and GrabFan, SideBets is betting on winning users by making it easy for them to find detailed information like games, point spreads and other information, while also keeping track of all betting activity.

But the jury is still out on whether SideBets or any of the other sports betting apps out there will win a big number of users, especially with the specter of legalized mobile betting hanging somewhere in the future. Right now, Goldstein sees the mobile sports betting market as a field in true infancy, with no real successful model to follow.

“Eventually there will be a tipping point [of a successful model] but nobody really knows how to do this yet,” Goldstein said.

Filed Under: Apps, Betting, Facebook, iPhone, Pickmoto, Sports Betting, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,
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