You are here: Home / Archives for iPad

MLB Home Run Derby App has Real Prize

July 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

allst

Leading up to the annual Major League Baseball All Star game is the Home Run Derby and the league is made alterations to its mobile game based on the event with a contest that can send a fan to the World Series.

The updated mobile game “MLB.com Home Run Derby”, produced by MLB Advanced Media, the league’s interactive arm, is a free app that is available at both the App Store and Google Play and available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and select Android devices.

The latest version now includes this years’ eight players that will participate in the event, which is scheduled for this evening as well as include all 24 players that participated in the event in the years between 2010 and 1012. The ball park has been altered so that it now is a recreation of Citi Field, the park where this years’ derby and All Star game will be staged.

However for fans playing the mobile game there is a bonus. Fans with a valid account in MLB.com Home Run Derby playing the game, up until July 18 at 11:59 pm EDT that wins five multi player matches will be automatically entered into a sweepstakes for the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for two to Game Two of the 2013 World Series.

So see if you can have Prince Fielder defend his individual title that he earned last year at the event or if one of the seven other players participating will wrest the title from him. The other sluggers are David Wright, Robinson Cano, Chris Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, Bryce Harper, Michael Cuddyer, or Pedro Alvarez

Filed Under: All Star Game, Android, Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Baseball, Major League Baseball Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Apple Shows iOS7, OSX and iTunes Radio at WWDC

June 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

wwdc

Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference opened today at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the company’s CEO Tim Cook took center stage to talk about what the company’s near term plans are and to drop hints about what it might do in the long run.

There had already been a host of hints about what the company would discuss, focused primarily on the software side with a new iOS and a new OS for computers online. The questions people had were about a possible music service and if there was going to be any solid news about hardware such as next generation iPads and iPhones.

The issue that Apple increasingly faces at this event, and for that matter at any event at which it makes an announcement is that there is a sense of over anticipation among the company’s fans and it is increasingly hard to have blockbuster after blockbuster announcements

Apple opened the show with its usual retail update and one set of numbers really stands out of you are an app developer looking at this platform. Apple has 575 million online accounts and it has paid app developers $10 billion over the last five years, reportedly that is 3X more than all of the other platforms combined. The company’s game center has 240 million users. 600 million iOS devices sold.

Mac sales are up 100% in the last year, compared to only 18% for PCs. The company introduced its latest upgrade to its computer operating system, OSX Mavericks. It has, as expected a host of new features including CPU optimization, compressed memory that enables apps to start much faster, iBooks, Maps, and the ability to merge multiple windows.

The operating system is available now for developers and for the general public this fall. There is also a new line of MacBook Airs with a huge increase in batter life due to using the Haswell processor, all available now while a sneak peak at forthcoming Mac Pro desktops was also provided.

The company showed iWorks for iCloud that enables users to create and format documents in your browser, and it supports drag and drop. It is in beta now and should be available by the end of the year.

The latest mobile operating system, iOS 7 was also introduced at the show. It starts out with a basic new look with redesigned icons and what is referred to as a flatter look. That is just on top, it has been redesigned to have distinct layers of functionality that help with order and establish a hierarchy.

An interesting twist is that in the future you will be able to get iOS in your future car as at least 12 automakers have agreed to integrated the OS by the end of next year. It can get maps, make calls and play music, just as you would expect.

A few of the new features include multitasking supported by all apps, folders now support multiple pages so they can store more apps. New access to Control Center, you just simply swipe up from the bottom of the device as well as faster access to Wi-Fi. It has the ability to judge apps that you use more, or use at specific times of day to enable them faster.

New organization and added filters for photos and it can now share video with iCloud. New updated version of Siri of course including a male voice, information from Twitter, Bing and Wikipedia has been integrated.

iTunes radio was introduced and is built into the music app, with features such as one tap purchase of songs and the ability to share music with friends and create your own stations. Another new iTunes feature is that it will no longer notify you when apps need updating, it will just do it automatically.

Other software news was that the new iOS 7 will be supported by iPhones 4 and later and iPad 2 and later. There are 1,500 new APIs for developers and the final release of the operating system will be this fall.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, iOS 7, iPad, iPhone, OSX, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Watch NBA Finals on Select Mobile Devices: New Rival to Google Glass

June 7, 2013 by 1 Comment

Just a reminder that with the NBA Finals now being fought out on the court you can still watch the games if you are not in front of your television on ABC. Well on most but not all mobile devices. For users of Apple’s iPhone and iPad there is an app at the iTunes store.

There is also an app for users of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Viewers using laptops as well as desktop computers can log into ABC.com. Looks like Android users are out in the cold on this for some reason. This is all part of a free access preview running through the end of June.

Asus fights for tablet share with low cost Memo Pad HD7
Asustek’s latest offering is a 7-inch tablet that could create demand for lower cost offerings in the tablet space. The $129 Asus Memo Pad HD7 has a 7-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution and it includes a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and a 5 MP rear facing camera. Depending on market it will be available with either 8GB or 16GB (at $149) of storage.

The company also delivered a 10-inch tablet this week, the 10-inch Transformer Pad Infinity that has the Android 4.2 operating system and is powered by a quad-core Tegra processor. It also features a 2048 x 1600 resolution display. Pricing is not yet available according to Arnnet.com.

Intel invests in gesture control technology developer Thalmic Lab
There has been a great deal of talk about the advent of wearable computing devices, from smartwatches to Google Glass and Intel does not want to miss out on the fun. It has joined an investment round to provide $14.5 million in Series A funding to Thalmic Labs.

Thalmic Labs has developed a wearable gesture control device called MYO and said that it will use the funding, which came from a round that was led by Intel Capital and Spark Capital and included Formation 8, First Round Capital and FundersClub, along with the following individual investors: Paul Graham, Marc Benioff, Geoff Ralston, Sam Altman, Garry Tan, Fritz Lanman, Hank Vigil, Tom Wagner, Alex Bard, Michael Litt and Daniel Debow.

Intel will provide access to manufacturing and technology to Thalmic to help it both scale production of its existing devices as well as develop future generations.

Rivals to Google Glass starting to emerge
At the annual Computex trade show a developer called Oculon Optoelectronics surface, that has a rival product to Google Glass that Oculon calls Oculon Smart Glasses. It claims that they will have better battery life, a better display and will cost less, around $500. Well that is settled.

Google Glass is not the first time a developer has created a wearable computer in the form of glasses, although Google’s effort is by far the largest and best financed effort. I wonder if developers that once sneered at the idea of a tablet now want to try and be in front of the acceptance curve rather than behind it and so are working to have products out simultaneously with Google so as to not initially surrender the market?

Filed Under: ABC, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Google, Intel, Intel Capital, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

New iPhone App Designed to Help Golfers’ Short Game

June 5, 2013 by 1 Comment

strack

All golfers have a part (or parts) of their game that vexes them continually. Short off the tee, poor game in the rough or in the sand, you name an area and someone has trouble with it, but it often seems that putting is where many are found to throw their clubs.

The problems can be from just having a case of the yips to misreading the green. Now StrackaLine has developed an app for iPhones, iPods and iPads that it believes will help with at least on part of the problem, reading the green.

The StrackaLine app features the topography of hundreds of course and used 3D laser technology to collect the data from every green on those courses. It has the ability to calculate the users’ position and proper putting line in real time.

It provides a 2D and 3D view of each putting green that features Fall Line arrows that will tell you the shape of the green so that you can figure the proper line. The app features a demo mode that users can play with to see how it works. The demo mode features holes from a number of famous courses including Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, and Torrey Pines.

The company is just getting started and so there is obviously a huge number of courses that have not yet been scanned, so remember this when you are purchasing the $19.99 app. It currently includes 30 courses that are on the PGA Pro tour. While only available for the Apple iOS platform the company said that it will have an Android version available, but not until next year.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golf, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Microsoft Signs Deal that Brings Interactive Viewing to the NFL

May 23, 2013 by 2 Comments

xbox

Microsoft will soon be a presence on the field and in your home as part of the NFL game-watching experience as the team has joined with the league to provide interactive viewing capabilities to fans in a 5-year deal that is estimated to bring an additional $400 million to the NFL’s coffers.

There is a catch of sorts, you need to be viewing using Microsoft’s Xbox One game console or another device that features Xbox Live. For the fans that have that technology they can now permit users to have split screens that show stats, fantasy football team data and game highlights in real time, among other things.

It will also support Skype so that fans can be using the same device to watch games as well as chat with other fans or friends during the game. Other features include access to the NFL’s RedZone and replays from a matchup. Also if a user has a second screen or mobile device they can have additional information sent to that device simultaneously as when they are viewing on the Xbox One.

The deal could lead to another solid plus for Microsoft. Over the last few years a number of teams in the National Football League have talked about their use of Apple’s iPads as a training tool and a superior replacement to the traditional binders that had been in use for decades. However it now looks like Microsoft has taken a night march on Apple and inked a deal with the league that will call for the Microsoft Surface tablet to be used on all the teams’ sidelines.

While this is still in an area that the league is investigating the Surface tablet would be used to provide up to the minute information about looks and formations that other teams are using during games. Players viewing printouts and pictures of formations could be a thing of the past as they instead watch plays on a tablet on the sidelines. Referees will not be left out of the action as it could become the key viewing tool for replays and challenge calls.

Filed Under: Apps, iPad, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Microsoft, NFL, Surface, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

MLB Comes to TiVo-Is there a Player it Does Not support?

May 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

mlbf_25902193_th_13

One of the advantages of having MLB.TV Premium subscription has always been that you can use a variety of platforms to watch and listen to games, but until MLB added TiVo I never realized how many it actually did support.

TiVo users can now watch MLB games, subject to certain limitations, and the app is designed to take advantage of select features that come with TiVo. MLB integrated TiVo’s standard playback functions into the app, including the ability to pause, fast-forward and rewind or skip game action.

The MLB.TV is set up to deliver game viewing and video stream in a picture-in-graphic (PIG) or an “L bar” window to view the score while watching a game. There are a range of additional features from the relatively mundane ones such as stats and standings, favorite team selection, a choice of home or away broadcasters, and calendar view to one called “Jump to Inning” that permits users to jump back to the beginning of any inning in the game.

The addition of TiVo support is in line with MLB’s approach of delivering its programming and games to its audience in as wide a manner as possible. It has a number of mobile devices supported including Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Then there is the huge number of devices that support Google’s Android operating system and most recently added was support for the BlackBerry Z10.

Now I was aware of all of these but the other, more stationary platforms caught me by a bit of a surprise, although I have watched games on two of the platforms. There is the Sony Playstation 3, Samsung TV and Blu-ray Disc Player, Apple TV, Roku Player and Boxee. Then of course there is also Xbox 360, Sony TV and Blu-ray players and Western Digital TV Live.

It is too bad that other sports do not actively follow the lead of MLB, but I guess that the broadcasting contracts most likely prohibit them from doing so. Fans of many teams, say in football, are constantly subjected to a limited number of teams on national broadcasts, and if you live outside of your teams home base you may only see them once or twice on broadcast TV a season.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, BlackBerry, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »