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Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca offers App For Food, Auto Parts Discounts for Rest of 2012 Season

July 12, 2012 by

The most prestigious motorcycle racing event in the Unites Sates is on the imminent horizon and that means good thing for those in attendance with hearty appetites and a wont to save some money.

The Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, featuring the MotoGP World Championship, scheduled July 27-29, is the first of the three remaining motorsports events this season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif.

With the Corkscrew Passport app, available for free download, on iTunes, several restaurants on the Monterey Peninsula are offering dining discounts during the three events. The new app allows users to make reservations at participating partner restaurants, get directions and post to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca fan wall.

“Our fans come from all over the world and are eager to explore the area but want suggestions on where to go,” says Gill Campbell, CEO/general manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. “The discounts are a bonus. The real value to the fan is its simplicity. It’s all at their fingertips.”

Initial Corkscrew Passport participating partners and their offers:
Anton & Michel (Carmel): 15 percent off entire meal
Cannery Row Brewing Company (Monterey): happy hour pricing anytime
Famous Dave’s (Salinas): free appetizer with purchase
Merlot Bistro! (Carmel): 15 percent off entire meal
Portabella (Carmel): 15 percent off entire meal
Santa Cruz Auto Parts (Santa Cruz): 15 percent off parts, products or services
The Grill on Ocean Avenue (Carmel): 15 percent off entire meal

In addition to the MotoGP World Championship, the benefits of the Corskscrew Passport will be available during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion (August 17-19) and Continental Tire Sports Car Festival, powered by Mazda (Sept. 7-9).

For more information about Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca or the Corkscrew Passport, visit www.MazdaRaceway.com.

James Raia is a California-based journalist who writes about sports, travel and leisure. Visit his cycling site at tourdefrancelife.com

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, iOS, Smartphone, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: ESPN’s Strong Euro, Archos $250 Tablet

July 6, 2012 by

ESPN followed Spain’s’ lead and finished strong in the Euro 2012, bringing in its strongest soccer ratings to date. The broadcaster reported double and triple digit increases in viewers across all of its platforms that carried the matches.

The finals match that featured Italy against Spain, won by Spain 4-0, set a record as the most-watched UEFA Championship game in the United States and was watched by an average audience of 4.068 million viewers. This represented an 8% increase from four years ago from the Spain vs. Germany match.

For the whole of the tournament, which took place over a three week period and featured 31 matches, ESPN’s English language presentation had a 51% viewership increase from 2008. Its digital properties were in some ways even stronger with 900,000 unique viewers on its ESPNFC.Com and ESPNSoccernet.com , up 54% and 28% respectively while mobile usage across its platforms was up 497%.

Samsung fails to block injunction
A US Court has denied Samsung’s request for a stay on a preliminary injunction against the company that is preventing it from selling its Galaxy Nexus smartphone as well as for a similar injunction against it selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

The injunctions are the result of a ruling in a long running patent dispute between Samsung and Apple. The company wanted the suspension while it takes its case to the US Court of Appeals, according to an article in Infoworld.

Tablets to outsell notebooks in four years
A report from the research firm NPD Display Search predicted that notebooks will be supplanted by tablets and the mobile computing device of choice by 2016. It said that notebook sales will continue to increase, from an estimated 208 million units this year to 393 million units by 2017.

However during that same time span tablet sales will grow at a much faster pace, increasing from 121 million units this year to an estimated 416 million units by 2017. Among that factors that will fuel the growth are its improved portability and battery life when compared to notebooks.

Apple loses patent round in UK
While Apple has managed to block Samsung in the US, to a degree, it has failed in a similar suit in the United Kingdom, where the courts have ruled against it in a fight with HTC. The high Court ruled that HTC did not infringe on Apple’s photo management patent.

It also ruled that three additional patents that were in dispute were invalid, including apple’s ‘slide to unlock’ feature, according to TechWorld. If Apple had succeeded in its cases it would have affected both tablet and smartphone products from HTC.

Archos unveils 97 Carbon Tablet
Archos has taken the wraps off of its latest tablet, the Archos 97 Carbon. It features a 9.7-inch display with 1024 x 768 pixels that is capable of running 1080p HD video. The 1.5 pound tablet features 16GB built-in storage and supports an additional 16GB via either a SDHC card or a USB flash drive.

The tablet features a mini-HDMI port and has 1GB of memory. It runs the current Android 4.0 operating system and is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex processor. The starting price for the table is expected to be $250.

Recapp adds Summer Olympics news
Sports news aggregator Recapp has added support for the upcoming Summer Olympics in London. The app, which brings the leading news stories on user selected sports topics has expanded its support so that now you can follow your favorite teams and events during the games with articles from a wide source of news outlets including Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

A tale of two smartphones
Samsung, developer of some of the most popular smartphones, has reported that its latest quarter had a profit of $5.9 billion with earnings from its mobile phone division more than doubling in the quarter as Galaxy sales soared.

On the flip side is HTC, which had a very poor quarter, reporting that its net profits fell 58% from the same quarter a year ago, with a net profit of $247 million and it said that the current quarter’s outlook is cloudy due to increased competition.

LUMOback- the anti-couch potato device?
A sensor and app designed for better posture? That is what LUMOback is designed to provide. The sensor pad fits in your chair and vibrates when you slouch in your chair and provides feedback to your iPhone in an effort to promote good posture. Android and other platform support is on the horizon, the company said. The project on Kickstarter has already exceeded its $100,000 goal. I wonder if it is a comfortable vibration because I could get a pretty good massage while watching the NFL.

Rumors de jour
Amazon is planning on fighting back against Google and others by introducing its own smartphone and is looking to buy patents in that space first. Amazon has declined to comment.

It also looks like the next generation Kindle, the Kindle Fire 2, will be available in the fall as well. This is not really a surprise considering how hot the original Fire sales were during last year’s holiday season.

Is Apple preparing a mini iPad for Fall introduction, many sources say so. Numerous sites and news agencies have reported that a 7-inch version is on the way in order to fight Amazon, Google and others that are concentrating in this space.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, ESPN FC, ESPN3, Euro 2012, FTC, Google, HTC, iPad, iPhone, Kickstarter, Kindle, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Olympics, PCWorld, Samsung, Smartphone, Soccer, Tablets, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , ,

Google Delivers 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7; Google Q Streaming Media CE device

June 27, 2012 by

Google has delivered a host of new features for its Android operating system as well as a co-developed 7-inch tablet and its first consumer electronics device that is designed to unify and play the data that you might have stored in the cloud.

The tablet was developed along with partner Asus and is called the Nexus 7, a 7-inch tablet that will take on everything from products from rival’s Amazon’s Kindle , Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Microsoft’s Surface and Apple’s iPad to just name a few.

The $199 tablet features a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor as well as a12 core Nvidia Tegra application processor that will run the just announced next generation Android operating system 4.1, code-named Jelly Bean and has a 1280 x 800 pixel display.

The Nexus 7 is designed to work with other Android devices so a user can start reading a book on their phone and pick up on where they were on the tablets. It supports interactive articles that enable a user to go from an article in a magazine to say a video showing an exercise being described in the article.

The Nexus 7 is built around using the company’s Google Play store as a center of usage and said that it is available now for preorder with shipment expected for mid-July. It will come with a $25 credit to spend in the Google Play store as well as free books, magazines and others.

The company also showed its Nexus Q, a black ball that is a social media streaming device that a user can control via another Android device and is designed to access data and media that is stored in the cloud.

Designed to be set up from your phone it is essentially jukebox and movie player, and as the ability to serve as a center that allows your friends to add songs or movies from their devices to the playlist, and anyone can take control and rearrange the playlist to suit their tastes. Same with movies and YouTube videos. It will run Android 4.0 and feature 16GB of internal storage and have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.

The company displayed its Google Glass project, much to surprise of the audience. The live Google Glass demo started by showing ski divers in a blimp over San Francisco equipped with glasses. They jumped from the blimp and the glasses enabled the audience at the Moscone Center, and online viewers, to follow the divers as they descended onto the roof of the building.

They also employed bikers doing flips on the roof top and then building climbers to drop down the side of the building, all wearing the glasses. It was a very impressive live demonstration and I suspect it will give users of cameras such as GoPro a moment of pause.

But the company does not envision the Glasses to be just for recording information and video for friends but also make it easier to access information via your glasses rather than taking out a smartphone, unlocked it and then do a search for the required information.

The Glasses in Project Glass feature and array of technology including a display, a camera, a processor and memory to store what is being recorded as well as a touch pad, microphone, small speaker, sensors including gyroscopes as well as multiple radios for data communications.

Project Glass is still a work in process and the company was asking for feedback to see what else the audience, which features many of its top developers, would also like to have in the devices. It announced the Google Glass Explorer addition for developers and admitted it was still a rough product. Hopefully some of this will make it to YouTube.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Barnes & Noble, Google, Kindle, Microsoft, Nook, Smartphone, Surface, Tablets, Wi-Fi, YouTube Tagged With: , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Google I/O This Week

June 25, 2012 by

Google’s Goggle I/O show is this week so expect to hear an onslaught of news from the company and its partners on all things related to Android, smartphones, tablets, Chrome and most likely a host of other issues that they are concerned with.

The show will be held from June 27 to June 29 at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center and most of the keynote sessions will be live streamed for those of you that are interested but don’t want to endure the cold of an SF summer. (editor’s note: 75 degrees here today, Oregon boy.)

One message I would like to hear is how it will deal with the growing fragmentation of its Android operating system. It seems that most of the major manufacturers are only now coming on board with Ice Cream Sandwich, and a new OS is expected this week.

The issue is important for a number of reasons but a major one is that continued fragmentation could lead to developers only focusing on Apple’s iOS and even Windows 8 when that OS is available.

Intel invests in touchscreen developer
Intel Capital was the lead investor in a EUR20 million investment funding round for touchscreen technology developer FlatFrog Laboratories. Invus was also an investor in the round. FlatFrog is developing technology that tracks light traveling inside the cover glass of a screen.

Apple dealt a setback in battle with Motorola
Judge Richard Posner, who is presiding over one of the major patent disputes between Apple and Motorola, has ruled that Apple cannot pursue an injunction against Motorola and has dismissed the case with prejudice.

Posner had previously indicated that this was the direction he was leaning in but relented to allow testimony from both sides of the case last week. Apple does have the option to appeal his ruling.


Apple moving ahead in Samsung patent suit
While losing an important round to Motorola, Apple is continuing to push ahead with its Samsung lawsuit and will have its request to have a court order blocking sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 heard this week.

The judge in the case has also said that she hopes to rule on Apple’s bid to block sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone at the June 29th hearing.

Microsoft says no to Motorola patent proposal payout
Microsoft has declined to accept the offer that Motorola made that would settle the patent dispute between the two companies that has threatened Microsoft’s ability to ship Xbox 360 consoles into the US and would bar some Android phones from Motorola as well.

Motorola was offering to pay 33 cents per phone that uses Microsoft’s ActiveSync software and wants Microsoft to pay it 50 cents for each device that uses Microsoft’s Windows operating system that uses Motorola’s industry standard video compression patent.

Mobile Carriers agree to alert travelers on roaming charges
Have you ever traveled in a foreign country and used your smartphone and had a slight heart attack when you got your bill at home with the huge roaming charges attached? Now carriers are going to do something about that.

What they are doing is to send you a message alerting you to the fact that your data plan has changed and new rates will apply. Among the 24 that have signed on are AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom-Orange, Hutchison 3 Group, SoftBank Mobile Corp., Verizon Communications, America Movil, and Vodafone Group.

Apple fined over 4G claims
An Australian court has fined Apple $2.27 million over its claims for its iPad that included unsupported promises of 4G support. After the charges were brought Apple changed its advertising and offered refunds. Apple now touts the device as WiFi+ Cellular.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, Google, Intel Capital, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , ,

Friday Grab Bag: X Games Coming, Soccer Corruption in China, Bike Lojack

June 22, 2012 by

ESPN’s annual summer X Games will begin next week on June 28 and run until July 1. Fans and athletes will descend on Los Angles for the events that will start with the X Fest that runs from noon until 7 pm on the opening day.

ESPN will be spreading the 21 hours of live broadcasting, both on-air and online, between a number of its properties: ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC will have the on-air duties with HD handled by ESPN 3D. For online, the games will also be digitally streamed on XGames.com and WatchESPN.com.

Intel buys InterDigital patent portfolio
Intel has reached an agreement to purchase approximately 1,700 patents and applications from wireless technology developer InterDigital for $375 million. The patents primarily are in the areas of 3G, LTE and 802.11 technologies.

Intel said that the move will be a benefit to its development efforts in the mobile segment, and the unspoken part of the deal is that it will no doubt provide ammunition in the ongoing legal spats over patents that are common in the mobile space as well.

Vungle creates App Fund for developers
Vungle, a startup that seeks to provide a variety of advertising and promotional avenues aside from the traditional pop-up ads has moved to draw more players to its platform. In a very interesting turn the company, which just closed a $2 million venture round last month will use half of that money and create a fund for other developers.

The purpose of the move, according to TechCrunch, is to lure developers to its platform and so gain a boost for its approach to alternative advertising for mobile apps. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Corruption in Chinese soccer — who knew?
The New Yorker, where I often go for my sporting news, had an interesting piece on corruption in the world of Chinese soccer. League executives, players and refs have all been hauled away and imprisoned due to an apparent widespread match fixing epidemic.

It seems that it has been ongoing for several years and that one top referee received $128,000 to fix seven matches. The country, which is seeking to win the rights to host the World Cup in the future, is cracking down to show that it will not tolerate this type of blatant corruption. What impact that will have on FIFA I am not sure.

Apple and Motorola get chance to push claims
The Apple vs Motorola litigants had the opportunity to speak their piece to US Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner. Apple apparently does not want Motorola to pay royalties but wants it to change its design and also claims that since Motorola’s patent is never used it has no value. Motorola obviously does not agree with either position.

Oracle taking Google lawsuit to next level
Oracle has agreed to accept zero damages for the copyright infringement claims that it ‘won’ in its case versus Google over Java technology. Oracle had been seeking big money in the case, claiming that it suffered up to $6 billion in loses.

However this is not the end of the affair. Oracle has said it will appeal its claims in the case once again, including both the patent infringement and whether its APIs can be copyrighted, to the Ninth Circuit appeals court.

Amazon App Store goes International
I have to say that I was surprised when I read that Amazon had not really extended its App Store to other countries and that it was primarily focused on the US market, a short sighted deal since one of its top developers of Android running devices Samsung is so strong internationally.

But anyway that looks to be a thing of the past as the company has now started opening it up and now developers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain can release games and apps designed specifically for those markets and the company has promised that more nations will be opened up to the joys of apps in the near futire, according to Cnet.

Ever had your bike stolen? SpyBike GPS could track the next one
SpyBike is a product developed by Integrated Trackers that is designed to look like a normal headset cap. It is designed to be activated when the bike is locked and you use a simply arming key and if the bike is moved it starts sending out data via a GPRS message and uses GPS to locate the bike. If GPS fails it has a fall back technology to help locate it.

The device does not come cheap, at $153 as well as a per message charge. The company said that it costs a fraction of a penny per message, but that varies by country. It features a rechargeable battery that can hold a charge of months.

Microsoft is on a roll, but is it a good one?
PC Mag is reporting that the company only gave some of its top OEMs a few days notice prior to announcing its Surface tablet platform earlier this week. As a number of them have made a major investment in developing for the underlying operating system, Windows 8, this seems a bit shortsighted.

Then later in the week it talks about its Windows 8 for smartphones and reveals that customers that buy the current family of smartphones will not be supported by Windows 8. I am sure that cheers up Nokia which has made a major investment in promoting Windows Phone technology.

Filed Under: ABC, Amazon, Android, Apps, Dell, ESPN, ESPN3, FIFA, Intel, Lawsuit, Microsoft, Motorola, Oracle, Smartphone, Soccer, Surface, WatchESPN, Windows 8, X Games Tagged With: , , , ,

U.S. Open Sets Records for Online, App Viewing

June 20, 2012 by

We don’t have any definitive viewer numbers, but according to a press release from the USGA, the recent U.S. Open golf tournament in San Francisco attracted a record number of online viewers, especially for live online video and via mobile devices. This is hardly a surprise, since online golf viewership overall has been spiking this year, with no end in sight to the growth curve.

According to the USGA, which pioneered online coverage of golf, overall viewer visits to the U.S. Open website during the week increased 79 percent from the year-before totals, while views of live streaming video increased 210 percent from 2011. Though the USGA hasn’t provided exact numbers on page views and streaming video looks, it’s a good guess that the latter number is somewhere in the one- to two-million range, since approximately a half-million to a million folks will watch online video of a regular PGA event, according to PGA Tour reps. The U.S. Open’s website features were powered technically by IBM, which also helps produce the wonderful online experience for The Masters golf tourney.

The availability of an Android version of the USGA’s U.S. Open app helped spike visits to the mobile version of the Open website — according to the USGA, mobile website views increased 375 percent in 2012, with iPhone app downloads jumping up 44 percent from the previous year. In addition to live video the U.S. Open websites also included a live leaderboard, a photo stream and a unique feature that let you look at an interactive map of the course and see which players were on which hole. The USGA was also extremely active on Twitter, with the official U.S. Open Twitter feed providing constant scoring updates and links to feature coverage.

Even though the U.S. Open live online video wasn’t very comprehensive — on Thursday and Friday the coverage followed one “marquee” group throughout its round, and on the weekend the coverage consisted of only play at two holes — it was extremely well produced, with commentators that were critically judged by many observers to be better than some of the broadcast TV talent. It’s probably a safe guess to say that next year the USGA will continue to expand live online coverage of the U.S. Open, in sync with the expanded live online views coming next season from the PGA Tour for regular events. That’s good news for golf fans, who will apparently be rewarded for finding more ways to watch.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, ESPN, Golf, Golf Channel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Smartphone, The Masters, Tiger Woods, Twitter, US Open, USGA Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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