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Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Chipped Jerseys?

December 5, 2011 by 4 Comments

Microchip in Jerseys boosts merchandise, ticket sales
The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lighting has added a replica jersey to its lineup that features a radio frequency chip that allows fans to scan to get assorted deals. The chip, when scanned at stadium stores will offer discounts on team merchandise and refreshments.

The team had been struggling with fan support and claims that this program has been a boon for its sales and has attributed the chip in part for a twofold increase in its season ticket sales this year. A secondary effect has been the increase in fans wearing the home team jerseys, rather than those of the opposition.

Acer readies budget Iconia Tablet.
After leaks about its new tablet starting hitting the streets Acer must have decided “why not” and unveiled its budget tablet, the Iconia Tab A200. The company kept some things the same-10-inch display and dual core Tegra 2 processor.

To save costs the available storage has been reduced to 8GB or 16GB rather than the 16GB and 32GB offerings elsewhere in the Iconia line. It will have a 2MP front camera but no rear facing camera, a microSDHC card slot and will ship with Android 3.2 but the company said that it will be upgradable to 4.0. Pricing has not been announced.

A Microsoft platform without Windows?
Well not quite but PC Advisor is reporting that the forthcoming Windows 8 Tablets and other devices will just have to do without the traditional Windows desktop since it will not be offered on ARM-based devices.

Instead Microsoft will continue to push its Metro interface as the interface of choice on mobile devices. The company has already debuted Metro on the Windows Phone 7 devices. If you are an iPhone or Android user Microsoft is offering test drives of the interface on those platforms.

Intel eyes China as destination for additional investments
EE Times Asia is reporting that Intel Capital is planning to increase its investments in China next year. The company looks to focus on technologies that are related to the mobile device and ultra-thin portable PC technologies sector.

Intel said that in 2011 it invested approximately $70 million in 10 companies based in China, out of a total worldwide investment of $500 million. Other areas that it will look into investing in include cloud computing, software, security and products that support the mobile device ecosystem.

New features for Android in 2012
Wondering what will be in store for your next generation smartphone, assuming you are using an Android-based device. Well PC World has taken the time to list a range of the new features that are expected, but not announced for that platform.

Included are some that are expected such as better graphics and better cameras as well as a few that might be a bit further out such as enhanced voice command capabilities and hopefully a translation features as well.

Samsung wins latest patent round with Apple
A US federal judge has stymied Apple’s efforts to block Samsung from selling a range of smartphones and Tablets that Apple claims infringe on its patents related to its iPads and iPhones. Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court in San Jose last Friday denied Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung.

This is just one of the ten countries that the two are fighting a heated patent battle with the results mixed for both companies. This ruling opens the door for Samsung to sell its highly rated Galaxy S and other tablet and phone products.

Scrolling by the patent wars
While a great deal of noise over who stole what is still going on, Apple has apparently licensed some of its iOS technology and even offered it to Samsung, according to a report from the Verge. It said that the “scrollback” feature that displays a different background when you scroll past the edge of a document.

The report stated that Apple licensed the technology to both IBM and Nokia and offered this to be licensed by Samsung as well. Samsung declined. This technology is one of the bones of contention between Apple and Samsung.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apps, HTC, Intel Capital, iPad, iPhone, NHL, Samsung, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

AT&T takes on Verizon on Washington Capitals’ home ice

October 19, 2011 by 2 Comments

In a sign of the times, AT&T announced Wednesday significant improvements to mobile broadband coverage at Washington, D.C.’s Verizon Center. The announcement underscores the growing importance of providing superior connectivity around sports facilities.

AT&T will likely use added capacity as a way to convince Washington Capitals, Washington Mystic and currently-locked-out Washington Wizards fans to keep using AT&T services to get a 360-view of the live sports experience, or defect to AT&T if their current mobile carrier is substandard.

That AT&T has brought its in-stadium network improvement push to the Verizon-branded Verizon Center with better connectivity is a cagey move by AT&T.

Rob Forsyth, greater Washington/Baltimore area vice president and general manager for AT&T, said:

We’re committed to our investment in the local wireless network, and providing enhanced wireless coverage at major sports and entertainment venues is just one way.

There are interesting wrinkles to the AT&T upgrade. The owner of Verizon Center is Ted Leonsis, who was an pioneer in creating digital content during the early days of AOL.  Now owner of the Washington Capitals, Leonsis is also one the most wired sports executives in America. Whether AT&T will seek to buy favor with Leonsis as the sports viewing experience shifts toward social media and watching broadcasts on smartphones and iPads remains to be seen, but giving NHL fans really good digital throughput when they go to watch their 4-1-0 Capitals can’t hurt.

How Sports Fans May Benefit

If Verizon chooses to reciprocate, fans in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Chattanooga, Tenn. and San Francisco are most likely to benefit. In all of those markets, AT&T owns sole naming rights to stadiums, including the home of the San Francisco Giants and the San Antonio Spurs. Though AT&T probably doesn’t need Verizon to help out inside the Giants’ ballpark, Verizon does have its new speedy 4G LTE service active in San Francisco, while AT&T’s LTE service is not yet there.

Verizon has sole naming rights at the Verizon Wireless Center in Mankato, Minn. and the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Sprint owns sole naming rights only at Sprint Center in Kansas City, which currently does not house a major professional sports team.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, NHL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How to get customized ESPN radio feeds on your smart phone, iPad

September 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

ESPN RADIO

Until now, mobile sports fans who wanted to listen to such popular ESPN programming as “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and “The Scott Van Pelt Show” couldn’t cache the programs on smartphone memory cards. Listening to ESPN radio required a network connection and drew down battery life. A solution to that problem has arrived, for a fee.

This week, ESPN went into partnership with San Diego-based Slacker Inc. to provide ESPN on Slacker Radio, including premium services priced at $3.99 and $9.99 per month which allow people to store radio programming locally.

If you don’t want to pay to listen to what you want, when you want, Slacker is also delivering a near-instantenous free feed of content from The Death Star (ESPN) 

Slacker is the first digital radio distribution service to feature ESPN Radio, and the agreement turns up the heat on such competitors as Last.fm and Pandora to angle for similar deals with ESPN. The deal signals that ESPN is unafraid to be aggressive in flowing digital rights to its content for mobile distribution, which is considered key to the growth of the mobile sports viewing experience. According to Juniper Research, mobile sports content and services like the Slacker/ESPN offering could reach $3.8 billion in 2011.

Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and AT&T subscribers can bill premium services directly to their accounts via Android and Blackberry smartphone applications, which are already available. A similar iOS application for iPhone and iPad is pending Apple’s approval.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, BlackBerry, ESPN, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL, NHL, Slacker, T-Mobile, Uncategorized, Verizon Wireless, WatchESPN, Wimbledon

NHL To Slap Players Who Shoot-Off Mouths With New Social Media Policy

September 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Phoenix Coyote left winger Paul Bissonnette represents a new generation of professional athlete, who can keep fans connected with irreverent commentary. He’s not yet a very good NHL player, playing in only 48 games in the 2010-11 NHL season, and scoring exactly one goal. But the 26-year-old can really tweet. As of Sunday September 18, he had 133,783 followers @BizNasty2point0, and he is in near-constant dialog with his fans, answering questions in a matter of minutes.

Now, Bissonnette is going to have to be a little more careful about what he says. The NHL released this week an in-depth social media policy that tells players what they can and cannot do on such channels as Twitter and Facebook, and some of Bissonnette’s most recent posts would violate league policy if they came on a game day.

Consider Sunday:

  1. Bissonnette received a Tweet from fan Michael Kinky that said “just read about ur hand/wrist injury, how bad does that still affect daily life?”
  2. Bissonnette responded seven minutes later “that injury was bad. A guy stepped on my wrist with his skate. Cut tendons, nerve and artery. I lost feeling in my thumb.”
  3. Six minutes later, Bissonnette tweeted “folks that wrist injury was 3 years ago.”

 

 

Under the NHL’s new policy, that three-tweet exchange would probably be a game-day violation. Even though Bissonnette moved quickly to clarify to fans that he was commenting on an old injury, his first response was discussing an injury that may or may not be current. And on a game-day, that kind of information could be used in bookmaking or other activities the league wants to discourage, and Bissonnette might have been fined.

Luckily for Bissonnette, it wasn’t a game day and he’s a fringe player who can hardly break into the line-up, let alone move a Las Vegas line. Since his transgression comes only days after the NHL introduced its social media policy, it instead illustrates how significant these new policies could become in coming years.

Ice hockey was one of the last professional sports leagues to institute a policy, so it comes at a time when ties between social media and sports is tighter than ever. There was more media exposure placed on the NHL’s agreement than any other than came before it, and the policy gives mobile sports fans real insight into the limits placed on players in all professional sports leagues.

Yahoo journalist Greg Wyshynski had by far the best take on the NHL’s agreement with his “inside the NHL’s new social media policy for players.”

Wyshynski wrote:

“The good news is that the new policy doesn’t completely muzzle them. The bad news is that it’s been made crystal clear that Big Brother’s got an eye on Twitter and Facebook, watching for NHL players that share a little too much with their fans.”

Here’s what mobile sports fans should know about league agreements:

–Players are typically blocked out on game days. In the case of the NHL, players can’t tweet beginning at 11 am through postgame media obligations. Fines can result.

–Players typically run their tweets through the public relations offices of their respective teams so don’t expect much more than personality to come across your smart phone.

 

Filed Under: NHL, Twitter
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