Wireless Wednesday for 10/8/14: Atlantic City and the Best Golf Course Apps

Rick and Mitch look at some of the best apps dedicated to Golf Courses and what they offer

Rick and his wife Lindsay have been out on the left coast for the last week on the Monterrey Peninsula and at the First Tee Open, Champions Tour event at Pebble Beach and Rick played the newly renovated Poppy Hills course in Carmel.

He's in Atlantic City this week.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 10/8/14 on 92.9 The Game Part 1’ on audioBoom

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 10/8/14 on 92.9 The Game Part 2’ on audioBoom

1.  Poppy Hills iOS and Android app

Rick played the legendary Poppy Hills Course last week and used the app while playing.

The Poppy Hills App includes a GPS enabled yardage guide, 3D flyovers, live scoring and much more!
Soak in the symphony of nature playing all around you. There's the quiet roar of the ocean, the distant crash of waves, the occasional bark of a sea lion. There's the chirping of birds, the crunching of wildlife scurrying across the forest floor, the pattering of deer dashing across the fairway. Throw in a little percussion — the solid knock of a golf ball against a stately Monterey Pine. Welcome to Poppy Hills, the closest experience in golf to a round in a national park. The peaceful and serene backdrop sets the scene for a tranquil trip through the grand Del Monte Forest in Pebble Beach.
 


2. The Dunes (Myrtle Beach)

http://thedunesclub.net/Golf/Misc-Information-14.html

Available for both iOS and Android devices, The Dunes app gives you a tour of one of the best courses in Myrtle Beach and so much more.

The Dunes Golf & Beach Club was formed in 1947 by Myrtle Beach area businessmen. Designed by famed architect Robert Trent Jones, The Dunes is thought to be his finest work, incorporating many of his favorite design features into one course.

The Dunes app allows you to book tee times, includes a GPS yardage guide, and includes a course scorecard. If you are going to play The Dunes, why not have the official app downloaded and ready to go on your smartphone?


3.  Augusta Golf HD  -  Free for your iPad

A great overview of Augusta National along with Masters info

 
4. Bandon Golf  - for Bandon Dunes (The golf Mecca in Oregon)

Free for iOS

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bandon-golf/id726285282?mt=8
This Bandon Golf App features free, unlimited, reliable and accurate GPS, Scoring and Stats for the local courses, including all five at the renowned Bandon Dunes Resort.

Courses Mapped for GPS, Scoring & Stats:
Bandon Dunes
Pacific Dunes
Old MacDonald
Bandon Trails
Bandon Preserve
Bandon Crossings
Bandon Face Rock

5. Seaview Golf App

Rick was just in Atlantic City and tried out the free Seaview app

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seaview-golf-resort/id519822472?mt=8

The OFFICIAL Seaview Golf Resort app gives golfers a free, easy to use, interactive combination of comprehensive course information, GPS positioning, digital scorecard, augmented reality range finder, and various other useful club-specific features.

GPS CADDIE
- Instantly view distances to the tee, front, back, and middle of the green, as well as par for each hole
- Interactive shot positioning: simply touch the shot target to move it and get instantly updated distances from your current position
- Full aerial satellite zoom capability
- Pro Tips: take a tip from the pros on how to play the hole with our built-in Pro Tip feature

SCORECARD
- Easy to use scorecard for up to four players
- Add players manually or from your device's address book
- Auto-populates par for each hole and allows you to simply add or subtract from par
- Includes auto-calculating cards for both Skins and Gross
- Email your full scorecard at the end of a round to yourself or to a friend to show off your skills

RANGE FINDER
- View distances to the front, back, and middle of the green in state-of-the-art augmented reality

OTHER APP FEATURES INCLUDE
- Book tee times right from the app!
- Exclusive relevant Special Offers from local and national companies
- Real-time weather forecast

 
6. St. Andrews Links - The Home of Golf app

Free

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/st-andrews-links-home-golf/id623979848?mt=8

Welcome to the official iPhone app for St Andrews Links Trust.

Bringing you closer than ever to the beauty, history and heritage of the Home of Golf. The official iPhone app of St Andrews Links Trust provides the most comprehensive digital coverage available.

The official St Andrews Links Trust app features:

• The Links In-depth – Details of all 7 Links courses at your fingertips with hole guides, interactive scorecards and hints to help you shoot your best score.
• An interactive planner to organise every step of your trip from tee times to flights.
• “Prepare to Visit” by Allianz, providing a wealth of useful information to help you before and during your visit to the Links.
• The latest news from the Links, from course updates to the latest tournament information and competitions across the Links,
• Keep up to date with latest weather by viewing the current conditions powered by Allianz WeatherSafe.
• Stunning photography of the Links and the town.

 

App of the Week:

3-D Sun and Moon for iPad - A high tech compass app

$2.99 but often it is Free

3D Sun and Moon Virtualization app on iPad!
This is a virtual 3D compass sphere which shows the position of Sun and Moon in the sky with perfect application of virtual reality technology! Full utilization of the build-in digital compass and accelerometer drive the best user experience.
With the cutting edge signal processing technique and applying the raw data directly from the build-in digital compass chip instead of the existing degree provided by Core Location API, this app has fast reaction and high accruacy, which is as fast as the gyro app Jobs shows on the WWDC ;)

Features:
- The 3D compass in a fantastic crystal ball will always point to the True North, no matter you rotate or position the phone in which direction.
- You could see the current position of the Sun and Moon simultaneously on the 3D compass ball, and the 24-hour orbit of the Sun and Moon will be displayed as a circle surround the ball.
- Display the time of Sun rise/set and moon rise/set.
- Time and date can be adjusted smoothly, the position of Sun and Moon will move simultaneously with the changing of the date or time.
- User can choose current location from a world map by trigger the top left location button, this is mainly designed for iPad WIFI version which may not get the location from

Wireless Wednesday for 9/24/14: Tech Topics are Discussed

Rick and Mitch will look at some of the current tech news topics

****  Apple Inc. pulled an update for the iPhone operating system after the new software caused some people to lose cellular service.

After rolling out the latest version of its iOS 8 mobile software on Wednesday, the Cupertino, California-based company withdrew the update when scores of customers experienced dropped cellular service so they couldn’t make calls. The fingerprint reading Touch ID feature also wasn’t working.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 9/24/14 on 92.9 The Game’ on audioBoom

1.  1.2 Billion Smartphones Will be Shipped in 2014

Leading mobile analyst firm Juniper Research estimates that the number of smartphone shipments will approach 1.2bn this year, an increase of 19% from 985m in 2013. The market is expected to be driven by growth in emerging markets, due to a continued surge in sales and adoption of low-cost Economy ($75-$150) and Ultra-Economy (sub-$75) smartphones.
See: www.juniperresearch.com
 



2.  The word "Google" is trademarked, but only as a noun

Even though "googling" and "Google it" are now common phrases, a federal court ruled that the "Google" trademark is still a valid trademark instead of a generic term (unlike former trademarks such as escalator, aspirin or yo-yo). The court distinguished between consumers using Google as a verb (such as "google it"), which didn't automatically make the term generic, and consumers using Google to describe one player in the market, which 90%+ of consumers still do.

3.   Men are much more likely than women to lose their smartphone

New data reveals something many women have suspected all along: men can be much more irresponsible than women when it comes to losing their electronic devices.

In fact, nearly half of employed men (46%) admit to being likely to lose the electronic device they use for work and all the important company files on it, compared to only 27% of employed women. Young employed men are the most likely to lose their electronic device, with a whopping 60% of men ages 18-34-years-old owning up to, compared to 30% of women in the same age group, according to a new study released by TeamViewer, which examined the behavior and attitudes of American office workers and how they affect on-the-job data loss.

Nearly half of employed men (46%) admit to being likely to lose the electronic device they use for work and all the important company files on it, compared to only 27% of employed women. Young employed men are the most likely to lose their electronic device, with a whopping 60% of men ages 18-34-years-old owning up to, compared to 30% of women in the same age group.

Executives in many organizations may frown upon the news that more than one-third (37%) of employed Americans in all say they are likely to lose the electronic device (smartphone, tablet or laptop) they use for work. The most common places to lose devices include:

⦁    A car (15%)
⦁    A restaurant (13%)
⦁    A hotel (13%)
⦁    On a train or bus (11%)
⦁    A plane (10%)

 

4. Microsoft Paid NFL $400 Million To Use Surface, But Announcers Call Them iPads

Those tablets NFL teams are using on the sidelines are the Microsoft Surface.  
Microsoft and the league ran into a problem during weeks one and two of the season when at least two television announcers mistakenly referred to the tablets as iPads, giving a huge rival some unexpected exposure. The announcers were John Lynch and Trent Dilfer.

App of the Week:

 Simplyhealth Back Care app

Free iOS app
Mitch's back prob may be more serious than this app can help with, but many people have ongoing and recurring back problems
The Simplyhealth Back Care app offers information and advice to help you manage and prevent back pain. There are graphics and videos of exercises for you to follow and you can input the area and strength of your pain to find those suitable for you. You can also search for practitioners near you from thousands of physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths and acupuncturists.
All information and exercises are supplied by the UK charity BackCare.
With this app you'll be able to:

- Record where and how severe your own back pain is in the ‘Me and My Back’ diary
- Watch and follow exercise videos and animated illustrations of common back pain relief and prevention exercises
- Search for qualified practitioners near you

Find information on preventing back pain:

- At home
- In the office
- When driving
- When cycling

Wireless Wednesday for 9/10/14: The Apple Announcements

The Big Apple Announcement was Tuesday.  What is new?

An iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay and Apple Watch

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 9/10/14 on 92.9 The Game Part 1’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 9/10/14 on 92.9 The Game Part 2’ on Audioboo

1. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

The new iPhones, meanwhile, will have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays, larger than its current four-inch screen. Apple said it expects the new phones—to be called iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus—to go on sale on Sept. 19.

"Today, we are launching the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone," Mr. Cook said.

Apple said it plans to sell the larger 5.5-inch model starting at $299 with a two-year carrier contract, higher than the $199 price for its current high-end iPhone 5S. The company said the 4.7-inch iPhone will start at $199 with a contract. The company said the new phones come with many hardware improvements, including a sharper display, better battery life and improved camera performance.

 

2.  Apple Pay

Apple Inc. on Tuesday introduced a digital-payments service tied to its iPhone 6 handsets and new Apple Watch that will allow consumers to make purchases using just their phones or watches, marking the company's first big push into brick-and-mortar payments.

Apple said it hopes to speed up the checkout process, make credit-card payments more secure and ultimately, to replace physical wallets. The company said it is using a technology known as near-field communication, or NFC, that works by transmitting a radio signal...

3.  Apple Watch

Apple Watch, represents the company's first new product in more than four years. Apple said the watch will start at $349 and be available in early 2015.

Apple said the Apple Watch would have a strong focus on health. It highlighted an app called Fitness that it made to track statistics for different exercises, like bicycling or running. An accelerometer tracks the movements, and a heart rate sensor helps measure the intensity of the workouts.

The wearable computer has a rectangular screen for a face with a flexible display and comes in two sizes. It has a crown on the side that acts as a digital dial, which can be turned to zoom in; tapping the crown returns to the main menu. The watch can be attached to six strap styles, including stainless steel and leather.

Similar to a smartphone, the smartwatch can run a variety of apps. Tapping on the home screen zooms in on a “neighborhood” of apps. From there, the user can tap on the app. Apple demonstrated apps for a calendar, map navigation and a music player.
 


4. Health Tracking

The iPhone 5’s A7 chip was already a key technological step in allowing anyone to track their daily step count with just the phone. But the Apple Watch will include some key, proprietary apps and sensors for tracking fitness too.

The Activity app monitors a wearer’s movements throughout the dray, while the Workout app will track workouts, and they appear to incorporate simple colored rings to judge how well a wearer has done throughout the day – simple, graphical judgments are hard to get across on wearable trackers but this could be one way Apple manages to go further than early movers like Fitbit, Jawbone or Samsung’s Gear Fit. The company claims that “some of the world’s most respected health and fitness experts helped developed Apple Watch.”

5. iOS 8

The iPhone 6's new operating system, iOS 8, will give you predictive typing and App Store parental control, among other features.

App of the Week:

Circa News: Compact Headline News

iOS and Android

News articles and small screens on smartphones just don’t play well together. But thanks to Circa News, this problem is now a thing of the past! The app provides factual and comprehensive but to-the-point news coverage (currently English-only) in a condensed version that is easy to read on a mobile device. The features of version 2.1.3:

    Follow function allows you to follow stories and receive updates
    Breaking news alert
    Share function allows you to shares stories and points via social media

Requires Android 4.0 or higher. Available on Google Play and in the AppStore
 

Wireless Wednesday for 8/13/14: Green Bay and Football Tech

Rick is in Green Bay all week at Packers training camp and checking out various things in Green Bay

Rick and Mitch take a look at some of the new technology being tried out in football in 2014

More information at www.greenbay.com

Have a listen:

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 8/13/14 on 92.9 The Game’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 8/13/14 on 92.9 The Game Part 2’ on Audioboo

**Topics**  

New football tech

1.  High School team to test new high tech helmet

Riddell approached North Little Rock High's football team about trying a new helmet sensor that can alert trainers when athletes may have sustained a concussion. It's a brand new technology that only a handful of schools around the country are using.

"There's no high school in the state of Arkansas with this technology right now," said North Little Rock Athletic Director Gary Davis. "Concussions are a major concern for every football program."

Davis was honored when Riddell approached his program about trying its new InSite Impact Sensors. The sensors, put inside a players' helmet, record the strength of every hit and send alerts to a handheld device on the sideline when the impact is strong enough.

"If a kid sustains a big enough impact it will alert the trainer that this happened," said Davis, "which gets us started on the preventative measures and the recuperation of that athlete making sure that we don't put him in any more danger."

The sensors don't just monitor big hits, they record every hit and even send an alert when a individual player sustains multiple lower-level impacts over the course of a week. While Davis would love to put one of these in every football helmet in his school district right now, it's not in the budget.

2.   NFL placing RFID tags in helmets and shoulder pads

“The NFL will use Zebra Technologies’ real-time location system in 17 stadiums during the 2014 season.

The tech will track position, speed, and distance, sending it first to RFID receivers around the arena and then to a database where the NFL is envisioning new uses for the data. Zebra, which is better known for building asset-tracking tech for Fortune 500 companies, will install the receivers in the 15 stadiums that host Thursday Night Football games (Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, New England, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington) as well as in Detroit and New Orleans. The data will be captured from all 32 teams and presumably will be shared among them.”

3. New technology on the NFL Sidelines (Tablets)

Gone are the days when NFL teams took Polaroid pictures of plays from atop the stadium during games then send them down to the field on a rope.

Technology improved so that an automated camera could deliver the images to a printer on the sideline, creating that familiar sight of a quarterback staring at a sheet of paper to figure out what went wrong on an interception.

Tablets as in Microsoft Surfaces will be allowed for the first time this season and it started with Sunday's Hall of Fame game, though they won't exactly be running the most cutting-edge apps. The devices will replicate the old system of transmitting still photos to the field — but faster, clearer and in color.

No surfing the Web. No selfies or tweets. And more important from a football standpoint: no watching replays of the last snap.

For every game this season there will be 13 tablets on each sideline and 12 in each coaches’ box providing overhead snapshots. Only now they will arrive more quickly and in color.

Two pictures per play — one just before the snap and one after the play is over — are all the league allows.

 
4. New 49ers' Levi Stadium  - high tech stadium

The new $1.2 billion 68,500-seat venue 39 miles south of Candlestick Park in Santa Clara and about 30 feet from the 49ers’ team headquarters -- designed something different, creating a stadium with the most lower-bowl seats in the NFL, stacking all the suites in a hotel-like structure on the west side, fully exposing the entirety of the concourses and integrating the high-tech amenities you’d expect from a stadium that features views of some of the world’s most influential tech company headquarters.
The 49ers were able  to glass-in an oversized team store and magnificent 20,000-square-foot museum with 150 artifacts on the street level. A year-round restaurant and television studio also sit at street level.

Located under the seating bowl at the 50-yard-line, one of the more exclusive locations in the venue, the BNY Mellon club -- one of the five clubs and part of the 9,000 club seats -- will give patrons a college-style experience, with the 49ers players walking through the club on their way to the field. While the majority of the club rests below the seats, patrons will move onto the field and up into the stands to find their seats.

Each of the five clubs was created to offer use year-round for special events and designed in a different local theme and indigenous wood, featuring some of the over 200 pieces of original artwork commissioned for the building or 49ers photos.

A 25-beer tap room on the main concourse will attract visitors and the upper deck end zones each feature club-style party decks directly below the 200 feet by 48 feet scoreboards, one sponsored by Budweiser and the other Pepsi. The Budweiser deck, with a nice view of the roller coasters at next-door California’s Great America amusement park, has a wide offering of beverages planned.

The scoreboards, the highest points of the stadium, rise 188 feet, the tallest allowed by the FAA as Levi’s Stadium sits directly below the San Jose airport’s flight path. Southwest Airlines -- one of the largest carriers to the airport -- will get plenty of free advertising that way.

The stadium’s other high-flying location is the 27,000-square-foot green roof atop the suite tower that includes 16 different species of plants. The roof can open like a club-style venue offering fans the ability to mingle near the stadium lighting, an experience unlike any other in sports.

Expect plenty of sustainable aspects to the roof. Along with helping filter water, the roof holds an 18,000 square foot solar terrace that assists with housing 1,162 photovoltaic panels used in the building and on the three pedestrian bridges. Levi’s Stadium plans to score LEED Gold status, the first new professional football stadium to reach it. On game days, the stadium will achieve net-zero energy with the onsite power generation staying in the internal grid.

A new in-stadium app will give fans not only high-speed connectivity, but also access to information and real-time video.

Within the stadium, 2,000 Bluetooth low-energy beacons will provide access to static maps and stadium information. In-app food ordering will allow for in-seat food delivery for every single seat and the team will have over 1,000 runners to handle the demand. But if you get up, you can find charging stations in the drink rails.

From mobile ticketing to GPS locators telling you where the nearest concession fare, beer or restroom is, the “hero feature” of the app, Guido said, is the ability to offer in-game replays and video content.

“You might not have seen if he got two feet inbounds and we can deliver three to five replays and angles within five seconds,” he said of the in-stadium broadcast featuring 13 stadium cameras.

To keep this all working, Levi’s Stadium will have over 400 miles of data cable, including 70 miles of cable to support WiFi, with an access point under every 100 seats. In all, more than 12,000 physical network ports and 1,000 WiFi access points have been installed, supporting a bandwidth 40 times larger than any known U.S. stadium and plenty of IPTV throughout the 4K facility.

Also 194 charging stations for your gadgets.

 

5. Otterbox offers new NFL-themed Cases
 For fans who want to protect their smartphone and support their favorite team, OtterBox®, the No. 1-most trusted brand for smartphone protection, provides premium coverage with the Defender Series® for Apple® iPhone® 5/5s, Samsung® GALAXY S® 4 and S 5, now available with all 32 NFL team logos.1
Through a relationship with Verizon Wireless® and officially licensed by the NFL, fans can sport their NFL team logos, while still protecting their smartphone from drops, dust and scratches.

"NFL fans are passionate, and cases with team logos are a top request from our consumers," said OtterBox CEO Brian Thomas. "We are elated to team up with our partners at Verizon Wireless to offer officially licensed NFL products. The Defender Series provides our fans trusted OtterBox protection that is tougher than the meanest lineman and shows off their favorite team at the same time."

The iPhone 5s NFL case includes a built-in screen protector and utilizes a full polycarbonate shell and exterior slipcover to help guard smartphones from mishaps.2 A holster-style belt clip is included for hands-free carrying and doubles as a media stand, perfect for streaming games away from home.
NFL-themed Defender Series cases are now available for all 32 NFL teams on otterbox.com and verizonwireless.com for $64.95. For more information, visit otterbox.com.


 
App of the Week

NFL Now  for iOS, Android and Windows

+    Select your favorite teams and players and get non-stop video streaming
+    Access the extensive NFL video library, including NFL Films archives
+    Follow your NFL.com fantasy roster with instant news and stories
+    Watch instant highlights on gamedays



 

Wireless Wednesday for 7/23/14: With Mitch Evans - BB&T Atlanta Open and Tennis Tech

Rick and Mitch are back with "Wireless Wednesday" and some tennis talk

**Topics**  
It's BB&T Atlanta Open tennis week and that means Rick is living down at Atlantic Station all week.  We will also talk some of the latest in tennis technology.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘Wireless Wednesday for 7/24/14 on 92.9 The Game’ on Audioboo

BB&T Atanta Open

Running all week at Atlantic Station. A men's ATP World Tour 250 event that kicks off the lead up to the U.S. Open. It's the first even in the Emirates Airline US Open Series. With players like defending champ, John Isner, it's one of the strongest draws, ever for this event.

 

The new Wilson Roger Federer 97 Autograph racquet

Wilson and Roger Federer team up for a new racquet

For months Roger Federer's stealthy, matte black racket has been the source of conjecture and debate amongst tennis fans.  Wins in Dubai and Halle, along with several finals appearances amplified the buzz surrounding his new secret weapon.   After three years of development and dozens of prototypes, Roger Federer and Wilson officially announced the new Wilson Pro Staff line of rackets, which they collaborated in developing.

The new Wilson Pro Staff RF 97 Autograph* delivers the precise feel Federer demands with a larger sweet spot and more power in comparison to the Wilson rackets he has used throughout his storied career.  The Wilson Pro Staff line will feature rackets suited for a variety of attack-style players: from avid players to youth striving to improve their game. The Wilson Pro Staff rackets provide more power without compromising the classic feel long associated with the Pro Staff line. The final graphics package will be unveiled closer to the projected October 1, 2014 in-store date.
 

Chase Review AKA "Hawk-Eye"

Hawk-eye is the name of a line-calling system which traces a ball's trajectory and sends it to a virtual-reality machine.  It's used at all top level professional tournaments.

Hawk-Eye uses six or more computer-linked television cameras situated around the court. The computer reads in the video in real time, and tracks the path of the tennis ball on each camera. These six separate views are then combined together to produce an accurate 3D representation of the path of the ball.
If the player is correct with a challenge, then the player retains the same number of challenges. Effectively they have an unlimited number of correct challenges to make.
If the player is incorrect with a challenge, then one of the challenges is lost.

During a tie-break, each player will receive an additional challenge.

Challenges may not be carried over from one set to another.
 

Tennis Tournament Websites and SlamTracker

Last year nearly 20 million unique users visited wimbledon.com during the Wimbledon championships. Fans are able to access the site from their smartphones, tablets and other devices. This will allow them to create personalised feeds with the latest live scores and videos, stats, and match analysis, giving that extra layer of analysis to enhance the fan experience and engagement.

BM SlamTracker tool provides a "second screen" experience for fans on wimbledon.com. At its simplest SlamTracker provides a real-time dashboard for all the matches around the 19 courts. It also uses predictive analytics to identify performance indicators for any particular head-to-head match – the three key things each player needs to focus on to be more likely to win. These update in real time during the match to give fans a sense of being part of the action. SlamTracker works by examining 41 million data points from eight grand slam tournaments.

Smart Racquets and sensors

Babolat, Head and others are coming out with smart racquets. Actual racquets that have a chip embedded in them and then the information from an entire match or practice session can be downloaded to be analyzed.
 


 App of the Week

ATP/ WTA Tour App

 
Free for both iOS and Android

TP/WTA Live is the official Live Scoring App from the ATP World Tour and WTA.

Follow your favourite professional tennis players and tournaments in real-time throughout the season, including ATP Challenger Tour events.

Key Features:
• Live Scores
• Live Match Statistics
• Completed Matches
• Order of Play
• Draws
• Rankings
• Tournament Calendar
• Player Bios & Head to Head Records
• 15+ Languages
• Share with Friends