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Contest Could Get You into PGA Championship

April 15, 2013 by 1 Comment

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The 95th annual PGA Championship is the last major of the season and will be held this year at the Oak Hill Country Club up in the Town of Pittsford, NY and the PGA is holding a contest that could allow you (if you win) access to the course.

On the face of it it looks simple, which always means that it will be much tougher than I imagine. The contest is called the PGA Championship Reporter Contest and all you need to do is tell the PGA why you should be reporting from the links for that event.

The PGA is looking for three criteria in an entry. They are quality of entry, originality of entry and number of votes that the entry receives. The PGA’s rules do not tell what or how votes are accumulated.

From the entries there will be ten selected as finalists on May 13, of which four will make the cut. Each of the ten will then create a one minute video that has you explaining why you should be the person selected for the event.

The four winners will be announced Thursday, May 30 and will have the privilege to report from the Oak Hill Country club during PGA Championship week, August 5-11. The PGA emphasizes that this is a voluntary position and that it does not provide any compensation aside from course access.

If your entry is not selected you can always consider other contests that accept written essays such as the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Just do not use “It was a dark and stormy night” I am pretty sure that it has already been used.

Filed Under: Contests, Facebook, PGA Tagged With: , ,

Major League Baseball teams with Qualcomm to Boost Ballpark Wireless Service

April 10, 2013 by 1 Comment

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MLB, like all major sports, and for that matter any large venue for sports or entertainment, seems to always have a connectivity problem but unlike many others which seem to have patchwork solutions MLB is actively addressing the issue.

The league’s Advanced Media arm (MLBAM) has teamed with wireless equipment developer Qualcomm in a multiyear effort that will first seek to survey the needs of mobile fans and then look at developing a plan to implement the mobile network technology needed to meet those needs.

They are entering a very fast moving space, where it is still hard to predict what the growth and demand will look like. You need only look at some of the numbers that Baseball has provided to see this. Two years ago fans were primarily looking for downstream data flow, that is downloading e-mails checking voicemail.

That has change so that now the primary need is for upstream connectivity, so that twitter, Facebook updates, Instagram photos and a host of other social media needs can be served. Also these types of files are often much larger than the simple text messages downloaded two years earlier. However the growth has been strong for data flowing in both directions, a 50% increase in downstream and a 300% increase in upstream per year over the last two years.

MLB in fact helps create demand for wireless in its parks. It has a range of apps that allow fans to do everything from find images of themselves in the stands as well as post that type of photo to upgrading your seats while at a game.

The range of services now at ballparks range considerably, and even after this effort is over will still have a good deal of variance since it appears that not all teams will be participating.

The deal is a first for Qualcomm in that in the past it has never had a direct relationship with a sports league. Its Engineering Group will provide in-ballpark assessments of select parks and develop a comprehensive plan for wireless access that will include Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G services. The effort is expected to take two years.

It will be interesting to see if the experts can accurately foretell the future and if the installations will meet with future needs. The San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park is continually undergoing enhancements and growing pains as fans mobile usage continues to grow. But at least during the recent World Series it held up, while Comercia Park’s network collapsed under the strain of social commenting at games.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, Cisco, Facebook, Instagram, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Social Media, Sports Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

MLB teams with GigaPan to Engage Fans With Game Images of Crowds

April 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

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Ever looked at photos of a ball game that you attended and you searched to see if you could find yourself? Well that has just been made a whole lot easier with one of the new efforts that MLB Advanced Media and GigaPan have launched this season.

They have developed a program that shows the crowds at games in a high-definition, interactive panorama located at MLB’s TagOramic web site that allows a fan to zoom in on sections of seats and find themselves and friends. Having tried it I found several friends at a recent Giants game. You can then tag yourself, which will appear as a blue dot above your head as well as share photos via Facebook Connect.

This is part of a partnership between the two that has also given birth to a a new series of programs that are digital interactive scavenger hunts. The goal is to find a hidden object or person and you can win prizes.

The first one, called the Scotts Ultimate Home Field Advantage Sweepstakes – was introduced on March 25, and offers fans the opportunity to #FindScott and tag him in theTagOramic for a chance to win a $25,000 backyard makeover. Clues and hints are available from MLB’s Facebook and Twitter feed.

There are plans to run multiple contests over the year. MLB has been very aggressive in using mobile and social media to not only engage fans but also to enhance the experience at the park by allowing you to order food or upgrade seats with a smartphone or tablet. The league appears to be far ahead of its rival major sports leagues at this point and continues to push the envelope on what it can offer. While this program is hardly a epoch making event it does signify the leagues continual interest in providing for its fans.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Contests, Facebook, Major League Baseball, Smartphone, Sports Social Media, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Yahoo! Sports’ Tournament Pick’Em Comes with Possible $10K Payoff

March 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Yahoo! Sports is one of the major online sports sites and so it is of no surprise that it is also one of the major hosting sites for NCAA Tournament contests with a series of options for fans to compete against friends and strangers.

At first blush it has the features that you would expect a site that is hosting tournament pools to have including the ability to create a private group to play against your friends and the ability to join preexisting groups in the open group section. You do need a Yahoo account, which is free, to participate.

A nice touch is the ability to compete against Facebook friends, or after the tournament maybe just people that used to be friends. Yahoo! Sports will create a customized leaderboard that permits you and your Facebook friends to compare brackets, even if you are not in the same pool. Good for bragging rights if nothing else. The way I pick I fall into the nothing else category.

One of the features that is sure to capture the eye of almost anyone entering the contest is the fact that the best bracket is again eligible to win $10,000. There are of course certain eligibility rules including being over 18 years of age. To participate you must opt in when creating your bracket in the basic game portion of the site and you must have a valid Yahoo!, Google or Facebook ID.

Yahoo provides a guide to the tournament and can even fill out your brackets for you, if you so desire. Fans need to remember that time is tight and that to qualify for the tournament, and the prizes, they need to register prior to the first game of the Round of 64 that tips off tomorrow.

Filed Under: Contests, Facebook, Google, NCAA Hoops, Yahoo Tagged With: , ,

Friday Grab Bag: New Tablets, Hybrids ahead of WMC

February 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Rumor has it that Google may be taking a page from Apple’s playbook and plans to open a real brick and mortar line of retail outlets to sell Nexus and Chrome products in a manner that enables the buying public to touch and try the devices prior to purchase.

Currently it is already possible to test drive some of Google’s products at retail but as its lineup of tablets and notebooks grows, and with the possible inclusion of smartphones as well, the company has reportedly been planning a retail move for some time, according to 9to5Google, as relayed by Intomobile.


Instagram coming to BlackBerry 10 OS, indirectly
It looks like users of the spanking new BlackBerry 10 will get a shot at using Instagram on their new devices, however it also appears that it will not be an app that is written from the ground up to run on that platform.

All Things D is reporting that the app will simply be a port of the Android version rather than a native creation. Still the appearance of the popular app will be welcome on the platform as it continues to fight for a bigger share of the market.

LG expected to show a hybrid Tablet/Ultrabook next week
LG has said that it will be displaying its hybrid tablet/ultrabook next week at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. The Tab-Book Ultra Z160 operates with the Windows 8 operating system and is powered by Intel Core processors, according to Gizmag.

The device, first talked about last month at CES is expected to have two different processor configurations. One will have a 1.8GHz Core i5 chip while the other will be running a 1.8GHz Core i3 chip.

Asus debuts low cost tablet
A new player in the 10-inch tablet space comes from Asus with its Memo Pad Smart ME30, which has apparently already been released in some countries, according Android Authority. The tablet is expected to have an official unveiling next week in Barcelona.

Among the details that have been made available is that it is running a quad-core 1.2GHz Tegra 3 processor and will have 1GB RAM and 16GB on board storage with a microSD slot for additional storage. It is expected to have a 5MP rear camera and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

Google’s Chromebook Pixel now available
Google is moving its Chromebook upscale, at least in price with a $1,300 offering that comes in a Wi-Fi only model as well as an LTE equipped model that will be a about $150 more. It is equipped with a 12.85-inch 2560 x 1700 resolution display.

It will be powered by a dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i5 chip and will feature 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Other features include an SD card reader, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 3.0.

Filed Under: Instagram Tagged With: , , ,

Indy 500 Will be Coming to You via Instagram

January 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has entered into a deal with social media management company Venueseen to have photos taken at the venerable brickyard to be used in a marketing campaign. As part of the program Venueseen will open its API for the marketing campaign, a possible sign of things to come.

The marketing program, which centers around a sweepstake called Indy500orBust that asks fans to upload photos to Instagram using the hashtag #Indy500orbust. The sweepstakes have not officially been launched and the rules were not up on the site yet but according to a piece in Ad Age the winner of the contest will receive a VIP race experience.

The uploaded images will be given a geotags so that they can be plotted on an interactive map that can be seen at the www.indy500orbust.com site. According to the interview at Ad Age that site will be the only place that the photos will be used.

Move comes at a time when users fearful how their store images will be used

No doubt you have heard about Instagram’s change in its Terms of Use that caused a huge outrage among its users a few weeks ago when users were concerned that the photo sharing site was now declaring that it had the right to use all of your photos. A number of prominent users said that they were pulling their images from the site for fear that they would be used in a manner that they did not approve of or because they did not feel that Instagram had a right to profit from their images.

It only took the company one day to recant that position and go back to its older TOU. However there has been a number of stories since that claim that the site has started to lose appreciable numbers of users due to that misstep, claims that Instagram denies.

Be that as it may, this move could reopen that can of worms. Venueseen claims that its open API will enable other developers to tap into the huge photo catalog and use the images for campaigns, claiming that the images are in the public domain.

It is too bad that this fight has to go on because I like what the Indy 500 is doing and think it will be interesting to track fans and see some of their posts. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months, with the race slated for late May as usual.

Filed Under: Facebook, Indy 500, Instagram Tagged With: ,
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