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ESPN Answers CBS With API Push to Developers

March 5, 2012 by

Could mobile applications be the next big “network” for sports content? Nobody knows yet, but Monday’s news about ESPN opening up its programming application interfaces to independent developers is another sign that the current content kings want to make sure they’ve got their hooks into any possible innovation that might dethrone them.

In non-geek terms, what ESPN announced today was a way for developers of applications to add features like ESPN headlines and stats to whatever new app they develop. Early partner Foursquare is a good example, with an app that gives fans access to ESPN headlines when they “check in” at a stadium using Foursquare. On one level, ESPN’s well-thought move seems to be a bit of a response to a decision made earlier this year by CBS Sports to similarly open up its fantasy-league content to developers, who might combine whatever innovation they can dream up with the network’s extensive sports information.

Though these initiatives are all in very early days, on one level it seems to make a lot of sense for a developer, especially a small firm, to take advantage of whatever free goodies it can reap from the worldwide leader or from CBS. From a quick look at ESPN’s developer FAQ it appears that developers wouldn’t have to start paying any royalty fees until they started selling a lot of apps or driving a lot of traffic. In that case, pretty much everybody is happy because they are simply sharing a bigger pie of revenue.

For ESPN and CBS, the moves are an easy way to keep potential competitors close to the vest, by offering them assistance with the parts of the business (sports newsgathering and compilation) that is often beyond the reach of most resource-constrained startups. So far, there hasn’t been a sports app to surface that was significantly different or disruptive to what the big players have been able to put out themselves. But by allowing developers to include their content APIs, ESPN and CBS seem to be taking no chances, allowing innovators to become part of the Borg if they so choose.

Filed Under: Apps, CBS Sports, ESPN Tagged With: , ,

PlayUp Signs Exclusive ‘Fan Engagement App’ Deals With America East, Southern and Sun Belt Conferences for Hoops Tourneys

February 28, 2012 by

Following its first-ever exclusive deal to be the “fan engagement app” partner for Fordham University, fan-based social network app provider PlayUp has signed a similar deal with the American East, Southern and Sun Belt conferences for their upcoming men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

The PlayUp app, which gives sports fans the ability to track teams, scores and to converse with other fans in either small or large, or private or public groups, is a good fit for schools and conferences who have interested alumni who might not be able to view games in person. PlayUp said in addition to hosting conference-specfic “rooms” on its platform, it will be giving away prizes based on participation in the respective conferences’ rooms.

In a press release, PlayUp CEO Dennis Lee said:

“Each of these conference tournaments will showcase high-level basketball, and we are looking forward to bringing the fan experience closer to the court. As social media further integrates itself within the sports world, athletes, teams, conferences and brands will be pursuing opportunities to best reach fans in this capacity, and the America East, Southern and Sun Belt Conferences are leading this trend.”

The Southern Conference tournaments runs from March 2 – 5 and will be played at the Asheville Civic Center and Kimmel Arena in Asheville, N.C., the home of the University of North Carolina–Asheville Bulldogs. The Summit Arena in Hot Springs, Ark. plays host to the Sun Belt Conference Tournaments from March 3-6, and the America East Conference men’s and women’s tournaments will be held from March 1-4 at the University of Hartford’s Chase Arena at Reich Family Pavilion in Hartford, Conn.

Filed Under: Apps, NCAA Hoops Tagged With: ,

World Golf Match Play, Live Online

February 22, 2012 by

It’s somewhat under the radar — did you hear any promos on TV? — but the PGA does have a pretty good online option for a short list of tournaments, including the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships currently underway. The Live@ tour coverage is available for mobile platforms as well as online.

Tourneys like the match play are perfect for online watching — this thing stretches with multiple head-to-head competitions all day today and tomorrow, during times when a lot of golf fans in the U.S. are at work. We just fired up the online window and appreciate the major-league production values.

Filed Under: PGA Tagged With:

The Viva! Vision: Former NFL Players Create ‘App Enablement’ Firm for Athletes, Celebs

February 21, 2012 by

Joe Tafoya (left) and Kerry Carter of Viva! Vision, at the AT&T Developer Summit. (Screen shot courtesy AT&T)

Anytime you go to a “developer’s conference” hosted by some large firm, you can pretty much count on at least several instances where groups of geeks are shepherded to the stage for their 15 seconds of fame. Look! The big-company execs will say. Developers who believe in us!

At the recent AT&T Developers Summit ahead of CES, however, there was a twist: During the meet-the-developers segment the audience saw 6-foot-4 Joe Tafoya take the stage and tell a quick tale about how he and some other ex-NFL players were getting into the development game, previewing a cool forthcoming “locker room” app featuring their friend, NBA star Jason Terry.

After shaking hands with some AT&T execs and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Tafoya was gone, but not after causing no small amount of buzz among the thousands in the audience. Ex-NFL guys? Doing sports apps? Cool! And then everyone went back to checking their email.

Tafoya, however, stuck around the summit, wandering the exhibit-hall booths with one of his partners, Kerry Carter, an ex-NFL running back who is still playing in Canada. Towering over most of the real geeks present, Tafoya and Carter were happy to stop and talk about Viva! Vision, a company formed in a unique manner and with a unique purpose. Over several phone and email interviews and some research we have a fuller picture of Viva! and what we think its purpose is: Though Tafoya and co. may not exactly agree with this definition, we see Viva! Vision as not a true app development company but instead an “app enabler.”

What do we mean by that? In Viva! Vision’s case it means that Tafoya and his partners aren’t doing any of the actual coding of apps but instead are bringing to the table their ability to bring people to the table — on one hand, corralling talented technology outsourcing firms to help develop cool, custom apps, and on the other hand bringing in athletes, entertainers and other celebrities who want to maximize their personal brand via online channels. How did this all get started and where might it end up? We’ll need more than a short blog post to tell you.

Next: From the NFL cut line to the command line

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Filed Under: Apps, AT&T, Athlete to Follow, NFL, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , ,

CrowdOptic Gets Super Bowl Beta for Focus-Based Fan App

February 20, 2012 by

The folks at CrowdOptic are reporting a successful Super Bowl beta test of a prototype point-and-join social media sports application, based on the company’s unique ability to “triangulate” the most important things people may be pointing their phones at during an event.

As we’ve reported before, the San Francisco-based CrowdOptic is developing technologies to provide analytics and real-time results from social, mobile audiences. With a small app installed on a phone, CrowdOptic takes info from the phone’s GPS service and its camera, and feeds it into a system that can then provide “Google style analytics” to show what the fans are pointing their phones at.

According to CrowdOptic, at the Super Bowl the company staged an invitation-only beta test of focus-based discussion pages at the Super Bowl Village festival in Indianapolis during Super Bowl XLIV. The triangulation technology used by CrowdOptic allowed people in the beta test to be instantly joined in a live social network with people who were pointing their phones at the same thing.

Here’s the company’s official statement on how the test went:

During the soft launch of the application at the Super Bowl Village, participants in the beta trial said the simple act of pointing a phone was a far more appealing way to join an online following than searching for indexed tags. Users also praised the ability to microblog live with other spectators who share a specific common interest and to move effortlessly in and out of mobile discussion groups simply by holding up their phone or taking photos, as they normally would. CrowdOptic’s core capability is detecting significant clusters of mobile phone users who share a common focus in real time, instantly joining them together online, and creating a common call to action among them, such as an invitation to comment.

Though CrowdOptic has had several other beta-type demonstrations of its technology, using its triangulation features to empower fan-focused discussions appears to be a winning step forward, since the company said it will now make the technology available to its media partners. A screen shot of the beta test technology is below.

Filed Under: Apps, NFL, Social Media, Sports Social Media, Super Bowl Tagged With: ,

Major Apps Designed to Data Harvest Apple iOS Users

February 17, 2012 by

Is there a mole in your iPhone?

Are iPhone apps stealing data off your smartphone?
In a general sense it looks like the answer is yes, even if you as an individual are unaffected. A series of studies has shown that it looks like the market as a whole has not been immune to this problem but it is running rampart and is lead by some of the leading app developers.

While to some it might seem that harvesting data such as contacts is a minor issue consider that may use their smartphones for both work and personal use and there could be a good deal of proprietary information on the phone.

While the current list of offenders comes from the world of corporate app developers the next generation destined to exploit this issue will no doubt be hackers, something that could pose a major issue to all concerned.

A study by VentureBeat comes after a developer called Path was caught in the act harvesting names, numbers and e-mail addresses and storing that information on its servers. Venture Beat found that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that it is very likely that an iPhone user has one or more of the apps involved.

VentureBeat used a program called mitmproxy that is a traffic monitoring utility to observe data traffic and found that a host of applications were uploading personal data from the iPhones, in some cases unencrypted.

A list of some of the players is a who’s who of apps, much over shadowing the much smaller and less popular Path. Included in this list is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Foodspotting, Yelp, and Gowalla. They do not all do exactly the same thing but it is an interesting read over at the VentureBeat site.

At the same time it appears that Google has developed work around for safeguards in Apple’s Safari browser that enable Google to place tracking cookies that circumvent Apple’s default privacy settings. The workaround affected not just iPhones but Mac computers, iPads, and iPod Touch.

Google has said that it has disabled the code that enabled the actions and said that it was unintentional. However a complaint has been filed against the company with the FTC.

Apps for the iOS platform from Apple are in violation of Apple’s guidelines, which prohibits the app from sending information about a user without their permission. The company said that it is working to tighten this up in the future, according to Enterprise Mobility Today.

However it is not just iOS apps that are an issue here. The Federal Trade Commission has just issued a warning that smartphone apps can invade a child’s privacy and advocates are calling for greater safeguards. I wonder if this market segment, largely left to its own devices will start to see the advent of more, and increasingly tougher regulations due to the actions of a few developers.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, FTC, Google, iPad, iPhone, Smartphone, Social Media, Tablets, The New York Times, Top News, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,
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