Jumproping Shoes: Do We Need This?

Posted by Anthony Mowl in EQUIPMENT on 07-29-11    2 Comments


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I’m a little Dutch girl
Dressed in blue.
Here are the things
I like to do:
Salute to the captain,
Bow to the queen,
Turn my back
On the submarine.
I can do the tap dance,
I can do the split,
I can do the holka polka
Just like this.

All of the little Dutch girls on schoolyard playgrounds had better check to see if they’re wearing the right shoes. Ropix founder Dennis Dwyer has come up with the first shoe specifically for jump roping. As a New York City boxer in the early 1990s, Dwyer spent a lot of time jumping rope. He felt that neither boxing shoes nor sneakers gave him the support he needed to jump rope for a long time, so he came up with The Forefoot trainer, “a system made of a dual density rubber material with a soft cushion landing pad in the ball of the foot. The mid-sole turbine insert is designed to attenuate shock and made of soft bounce rubber material.”

In other words, it’s a special shoe that I could salute the captain and bow to the queen with. The design is sleek and looks cool, but at $80-$90 a pop for something I can only do one thing with, I figure I’ll pass. Even Ropix’s website says, “You don’t have to jump with a pair of Ropix, but you’ll know you can…” I’m not really sure what that’s supposed to mean. That same page says that “The cross-trainer was invented more as a marketing need rather than an equipment requirement.” Quite frankly, I think Ropix fills this same gap. A shoe for jump rope? Unless you’re one of the 12 teams competing at the World Jump Rope Championships, the shoe sounds like a marketing need to me too.

While I can understand that a person who spends a lot of time jumping rope may find this shoe beneficial, jump rope is just one piece of a training session for a lot of athletes. Having to change shoes to do different activities over the course of a workout just doesn’t seem to be something that will become widespread. The shoe is only available online at Ropix’s website, and it’s likely to stay that way.

As for all the little Dutch girls, they’ll probably continue using their Sunday shoes in the playground.



There’s Another New App For That

Posted by Anthony Mowl in ALL, MOBILE, STADIUM on 07-28-11    No Comments


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The Portland Timbers soccer team just announced an app that will help their fans find their way around JELD-WEN Field. Fans will be able to find concession stands for beer, and find restrooms to release that beer back into the wild.

Thanks to Meridian, a do-it-yourself app maker, teams like the Timbers are able to quickly and easily produce GPS-enabled apps. Something like this would have been particularly useful when I went to the Indy 500 a few years ago and started walking in the wrong direction to my seat. 2 1/2 miles around the oval track left me too exhausted to enjoy all of the women around me lifting their shirts, even though that did perk me up a little bit in time for the race. At the time, apps did not exist, so I didn’t complain. But today, the Indianapolis Speedway had better get with the program and do as the Romans do.

The neat thing about Meridian’s products is that they allow digital media staff for teams and venues to easily design for the app without too much technical expertise. The flexibility allows the app to be much more than just a scaled-down version of the team’s website. The app plugs into existing content management systems as well as Meridian’s own customized CMS, which gives these guys the power to modify and produce new content on the app quickly and easily — things like what’s available for sale in concession stands, players and their stats, and RSS or Twitter feeds. Meridian has been used in museums like the Smithsonian to help people find their way around sprawling buildings and locate specific exhibits, but putting this stuff in a sports stadium sounds like a no-brainer.

I would definitely use this app to find my way around a new stadium (or racetrack), but once I’m at my seat, I really doubt I would use those apps for anything else. Like any good sports fan, I know who’s playing on the field before I arrive at the stadium, and I didn’t buy a ticket to stare at my smartphone. I would, however, use this app at home as one of my sources for information to do my homework before heading out to see a game.

Meridian apps’ ability to help teams produce more original content is going to keep them constantly busy in our “give us everything now” world. And that isn’t a terribly bad thing, considering fans are demanding more for less. As for me, I would be content if I could just find my seat quickly at the Indy 500 (sans the 5k walk), relax, and enjoy the view.



Stop Getting Ripped Off By Scalpers

Posted by Silissa Kenney in GENERAL, INTERNET, STADIUM on 07-28-11    No Comments


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Have you ever bought a ticket to a live event from a scalper and just cringed at the escalated price? Or gotten to the ticket taker only to find out you’ve got a high-priced fake in your hand? It just sucks. Well fear no more, someone is looking out for you. A lot of someones.

Dozens of  recording artists, professional sports teams, industry leaders, and more than 60 venues across the United States have launched the Fans First Coalition, a nationwide, not-for-profit dedicated to protecting fans from fraudulent and unscrupulous ticket practices. Breathe a sigh of relief!

I know someone who used to work at Tower Records (you remember, those stores people used to have to go to — in person! — to buy CDs). Tower Records had a Ticketmaster counter. Whenever tickets were released to a major live event, the scalpers would come to buy. And they’d pay big “tips” to whoever was manning the counter in order to buy beyond the ticket limit Ticketmaster set for individual purchase.

Of course, this is an ancient way of doing business, but technology has opened up new ways for ticket buyers to get screwed.

In the Internet age, scalpers use software to buy large amounts of tickets online. Or, sometimes fans buy from a ticket reseller website, not knowing they are paying higher than face value. It all adds up to you paying higher prices, but the artist, or the team or the venue don’t make any more money. Seems like it’s bad for everyone.

Maybe we could all just be a little more careful about the sites we use to buy tickets. But, then again, there doesn’t seem to be any way to get around that Ticketmaster “convenience” charge. We all know the one. And there is nothing more annoying then trying to buy a ticket and finding out that the event is sold out within minutes. If that happens because scalpers are scooping up all the tickets, then maybe it will be good to have some superheroes (or singers) fighting the good fight for us little people.

Plus, the Fans First Coalition has brought together Megadeath and Kenny G on the same team. How cool is  that?



XOS Digital: Taking Film Study Out Of The Dark Ages

Posted by Anthony Mowl in Uncategorized on 07-27-11    No Comments


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It used to be hell for a football team to analyze video, scout other teams and manage thousands of hours of footage. This usually meant rooms filled with tape — remember VCRs? — endless hours in dark rooms with clunky technology and a lot of searching. But as good as players have gotten in recent years, the technology behind video analysis has gotten even better. XOS Technologies (branded as XOS Digital) is one of those companies that obviously has employees who used to be film room rats. They came up with some seriously cool tools that may actually make time spent in the film room a little more fun.

While coaches and players would not dare think of spending less time studying film, these sorts of tools are allowing them to get much more production out of the time they spend, helping them devise the best schemes and make sports much more of a chess game than ever before.

Backed by more than $50 million in funding (most recently raising another $3.95 million in venture capital), XOS has developed a suite of products geared toward college and professional programs. XOS makes broadcasting and live production products like digital signage and on-field camera systems, but their most productive item is the Thunder, designed for coaches, scouts and players to break down the game much more quickly and effectively. A team that buys the entire line of products from the camera to the broadcasting tech is going to be able to seamlessly make use of the footage from every second played in every game. It’s part production studio, part coaching tool, allowing coaches to find patters in the chaos and get their game plans organized.

XOS also is working on apps for fans, including this one featuring the University of Kentucky basketball program and this one for the Big East Conference.

There’s no question that this stuff is expensive, likely beyond the reach of many schools, giving yet another advantage to the teams with the most boosters, car dealerships and tattoo parlors funneling cash into those programs. It makes the gap between the haves and have-nots much wider, but then again what else is new? Like every other innovation in the past, prices will drop eventually, and that kind of technology will make it in every program that wants to win. Having teams come up with more advanced and exciting schemes is sure to make games much more fun to watch. And with tools like these, being a film room rat might not be so bad.



Bloomberg Sports Pitch Review: Video Analysis For The Pros

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, MOBILE on 07-26-11    No Comments


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You gotta love that Bloomberg guy … he’s not just the mayor of New York anymore. And he’s not just the guy who founded Bloomberg News anymore either.

Over the last couple of years, Bloomberg has launched a sports division that has delved deeply into statistical analysis, including tools for fantasy sports enthusiasts. And the beat goes on for Bloomberg Sports, which this year started a video app specifically for Major League Baseball players and teams.

Baseball players have been examining video of their at bats for years. There are legendary stories of Tony Gwynn lugging multiple VCRs (VCRs!?!) on the road with him in order to fine tune his approach.

You wonder how much better Gwynn might have been if he’d had access to today’s technology. Bloomberg’s system allows players to access video of their at bats or pitches with a couple of taps on an iPad touchscreen. They can look for at bats in specific situations or against certain pitchers. You’re a right-handed hitter getting ready to face Roy Halladay? Punch up the video of every righty he faced in his last outing. Frustrated that you’re not getting good wood on the ball with two strikes? Punch up every at bat you’ve had this season with a two-strike count and see what pitchers have been doing to you. The flexibility and portability are remarkable. Players can access it via the web or using the iPad. In other words, anywhere, anytime.

Of course, the problem I always have with any analysis of this type is akin to the warning that Bloomberg’s financial services gurus might pass along to investors playing in the market: Past results aren’t indicative of future performance.

Surely, there are insights to be gleaned from examining your at bats or from watching how opposing pitchers worked against you. But then you actually have to go out on the field and play.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates surge back from perpetual irrelevance and into first place in the National League Central Division. Earlier this month, they called up an outfielder from the minors named Alex Presley, who was hitting .333 in 20 games before going on the disabled list earlier this week. He’s had a nice run. But the inevitable question is this: What happens when he faces teams for the second or third time? It’s the proverbial “next time around the league” that is the telltale sign of how well a guy can hit. The opposing pitchers will adjust, so he’ll have to adjust too. Will he continue to smack the ball all over the place just because he’s checking out how pitchers worked against him the last time? That — much like the Pirates’ ability to stay competitive for the long haul — remains to be seen.

To be sure, this is an incredibly useful application, and Bloomberg has asserted itself as a company to watch in sports data analysis. But is there a point where teams and players get so caught up in the numbers and in looking for trends that they start overthinking?

Ty Cobb was a .366 career hitter, and the closest he could come to this Bloomberg system was a stack of black and white photos. And you thought Tony Gwynn and his VCRs were old school.



New Sports Bra Gives Women Support

Posted by Silissa Kenney in EQUIPMENT on 07-25-11    No Comments


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Technology-driven bras give support

When technology meets skin, women everywhere win. A new sports bra from the lingerie company Panache promises to eliminate the, uh, bounce that large-breasted women experience when exercising or playing sports. Now women can get racy in a whole new way — like running a marathon in comfort. You might not realize it, but the bounce is not all that fun. In fact, it’s downright uncomfortable.

This new sports bra, coming in October, is specifically designed for women with cup sizes D to H and promises to reduce bounce by 83 percent. Sounds pretty scientific, doesn’t it? Well it is. The bra was tested on a 32E model running on a treadmill using 3D motion sensors. Instead of flattening the breasts, the Panache bra is supposed to be like two hands cupping the breasts, providing support. OK, we knew we weren’t going to get through this post without inducing some snickering, so go ahead.

The truth is, a great sports bra is as important as any other piece of sports or excercise equipment. You spend time choosing the best sneakers, or the best protective gear, and women should be able to use a bra that provides the most support. Female athletes play hard and deserve to have sports gear that let’s them play their very breast, I mean best.



Are You Ready For Some Social Media? Keep An Eye On Twitter If You’re A Football Fan

Posted by Seth in INTERNET on 07-25-11    No Comments


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Well, they finally settled the NFL lockout. The season will happen. Disaster has been averted. The sky will not fall. And all we’ve lost was the Hall of Fame game.

You know what else we lost? Week after week of endless droning about football. I think the offseason talk in football is more meaningless than in any other sport — weeks that turn into months of talking heads speculating about what they think is going to happen to a team based on what transpires in practices where not everyone on the team is actually there to begin with.

Practices!

In the immortal words of Allen Iverson, “We talkin’ bout practice, man!”

I think there should be a lockout every year in order to spare us from this mindless drivel. Fortunately the league came to its senses and the new collective bargaining agreement includes a pretty significant cutback in the amount of offseason activity. I always snicker when I hear someone say they “love playing football.” Let’s see, you practice five days a week and play one day a week. Then, up until now, you practiced 14 weeks a year in the offseason. Then you went to training camp for the better part of a month.

Seems to me what you love is practicing football, not playing.

The fun part is now. All those months of evaluating players and working on deals and managing the salary cap will be condensed into a few days. So many players will be coming and going, you just know that reporters on the NFL beat won’t be able to keep up with it.

Word to the wise, keep your eye on social media over the next week or so. The number of roster cuts and free agent signings that find their way onto Twitter and Facebook before they are reported through mainstream sources is likely to be very high.

At this point, unfortunately, all we’re seeing are a bunch of Tweets almost as mindless as a talking head show on NFL Network, full of  “football is back.” Folks, it never went anywhere. And it was never going to go anywhere. Did anybody really think there would be no 2011 NFL season?

There’s no shortage of players Tweeting. And if you want news breaks, that’s where you should look. Even the NFL website is tracking player Tweets. These are the guys I expect to be reporting the news to most of us during the flurry of player moves that’s about to take place.

Mainstream media and offseason football workouts — strolling off into extinction together.

#EverythingYouNeedToKnowAboutTheNFLYou’llLearnOnTwitter



Apple Sets Sights On Controlling The World — Or At Least Mobile Gaming

Posted by Seth in GAMING, MOBILE on 07-21-11    No Comments


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We all know that Apple aspires to world domination, and I say if they’re going to do it they should quit doing it little by little and just rip the Band-Aid off already. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be that lucky, and they have apparently co-oped EA Sports as a co-conspirator.

EA is going to release its soccer game, FIFA 12 for the iPad. Take a guess at what you’re going to have to use as a controller. Here’s a hint: It’s an Apple product.

That’s right, the iPhone and iPod Touch aren’t just for talking on the phone or listening to music anymore. This is me trying to contain my excitement.

Now, speaking strictly from a gaming perspective, this is a pretty cool idea. Your controller, which has been simply a piece of plastic with buttons since the days of Pong and Space Invaders, now has a visual interface that opens up lots of new doors for interacting with the game. In fact, it’s such a good idea that Nintendo has a whole new console coming out next year based on the concept. The Nintendo Wii U will come with a touchscreen controller.

But there’s still something about this that rubs me the wrong way. It’s not enough that you plunked down $500 (or more!) for an iPad, now you need to have another mobile device from Apple so you can play games on it?

To be sure, this trend is going to send Sony and Nintendo scrambling to keep up in the mobile gaming market. Knowing what we all know about how things usually go for Apple, the cool factor of gaming on the iPad will turn Sony’s PSP and the Nintendo DS into items destined for the department store discount bin.



TV In The Palm Of Your Hand, But Why?

Posted by Silissa Kenney in MOBILE, TELEVISION on 07-19-11    No Comments


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Breaking news! With the new $10 Orb Live app, you can stream TV, movies, and sports on your smartphone from sites like Hulu, Netflix, ESPN, and more. The app is available for the iPhone immediately, and will be ready for Android devices in mid-August.

OK, please tell me you are not jumping up and down with excitement right now. I mean, how much TV do you really need to watch?

The answer, apparently, is a lot. At least according to Orb, which cites a Nielsen study that mobile video viewing has increased 41 percent since last year.

“No matter where they are,” said Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks, ”people can use their mobile phone to get the same great content that is available on their home PC for watching at the beach, on the soccer field, at the airport or on a commuter train.”

On the soccer field?!? Why would anyone be watching TV on their smartphone at a soccer game?

If you are still jumping up and down, undeterred, with anticipation, you’ll be interested to know about one cool feature with this app. You can type in the show you want to watch and Orb Live will find it, whether it’s on Hulu, Netflix, ABC, or wherever. I like that. Still, I can’t see this app as being anywhere near necessary. Plus, the battery drain will prevent you from doing the things you’re supposed to use your phone for. Like work, or, I don’t know, actually talking to people.



More Streaming Sports News: NHL GameCenter Making Strides — Sort Of

Posted by Seth in GAMING, INTERNET, TELEVISION on 07-18-11    No Comments


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Following up on my fanboy fawning over MLB.TV, there was news that came out a few days ago about the NHL’s online streaming package.

NHL GameCenter Live, which streams more than 1,000 games per season, saw a 31 percent increase in subscribers and an 83 percent increase in renewals during the 2010-11 season. GameCenter Live is available for Apple, Android, Nokia and BlackBerry devices, as well as the PlayStation 3, Roku and Boxee. It provides games in HD. There’s also a big archive of games from the last couple of seasons and classic games of the past, which is something MLB.TV should add.

However, it seems GameCenter Live should add one key element that the MLB.TV package has in abundance: Quality.

The NHL package debuted on the PS3 last year, and predictably there were some bumps in the road, as evidenced by this thread on the PlayStation Community message boards. It seems there were a host of problems with streaming live games via the PS3, and according to folks who posted on the thread, no refunds were available because the NHL said the games were still viewable on the computer. That is a complete crock  for anyone who planned to watch on their TV, and the NHL should be embarrassed to offer that as a response. Even if the problem was on Sony’s end, they’re in this together.

Another issue here is the price point. It cost $159 for the season last year, but actually you can tack on another $10 if you want to watch on the PS3, because that’s what Sony charges you to download the app you need to view live games. It’s free for PlayStation Plus users. Again, the NHL should take a cue from MLB, which offers a free download of the software the PS3 needs to view baseball games. Even at $159, that’s almost as much as it costs to buy NHL Center Ice on DirecTV or cable/satellite providers. MLB.TV is only $120, and the baseball season has more games.

GameCenter Live has gotten some rave reviews for its quality and the depth of its content. But it sounds like it’s a little too expensive, and concerns about the quality are making me hesitate whether to go with it this fall. The question is whether a hit-and-miss experience with games in HD on the PS3 will outweigh the nightmare of watching hockey in standard-def on Verizon Fios.