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NFL mulling microchips in footballs for those life-or-death goal line rulings
The NFL is serious business. So serious, in fact, that the idea of refs getting decisions wrong sends chills up and down Roger Goodell's spine. Yeah, we all know they do it habitually, but the League seems to be considering improving accuracy just a little bit with the help of some tech. Cairos Technologies, a German outfit that's been trying to sell its goal line technology to football (as in soccer) bigwigs for a while, has told Reuters that it's in discussions with the NFL about bringing its magnetic field hocus pocus to the gridiron. The idea would be for the ref to be alerted, via a message to his watch, any time the ball does something notable like crossing the goal line or first down marker. It should be a great aid for making difficult calls like whether a touchdown has happened at the bottom of a scrum, and might even help cut down on the number of frightfully dull replay challenges. Win-win, no? [Original image courtesy of NFL.com]
Beta Beat: All your projects are belong to Flow
The public beta of Gridiron Flow for Mac has been released, and I have to say I'm blown away. I love Curio for project management and brainstorming, but for the nitty gritty of version management, file collection and project source file relationships I'd just as soon have something magically do the job for me. Flow does it quite nicely, at least with Adobe, iWork, Office files and the like. As all-seeing as this software is, it inflicts a remarkably small hit on system resources. Mike Rose filmed a great preview last year, so have a look at that, and at Gridiron's FAQ for Flow, for a better idea of what it does than I could convey here. The beta is available for download, and currently has no restrictions. I expect Flow to be a costly bit of software, but I haven't been able to track down any price predictions yet (Update, as pointed out by Nicholas in the comments, it's listed -- fairly obviously -- for $249 right now. About what I expected, really ). For now, have a look and dig into automatic versioning, tag-based organization and project visualization that just takes care of itself. It's especially geared toward designers, and will be of the most interest to those who spend their time with InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Personally, I'm hoping I don't get too hooked on it only to find out it's outrageously expensive. Here's hoping for some pocketbook sympathy!
Madden NFL 09 sticking the boot in with new trailers
Are all football players blockheads? That's what EA might be trying to say with those giant bobblehead players in the above trailer for Madden NFL 09. Here's an idea -- grab a copy of the game and head down to the local arena. Find a group of guys and taunt them with your nerdish ways, saying EA are right to parody player intelligence and the meaning of life is 42. It's a foolproof plan.If you're an NFL fan or not, Madden has been an acclaimed addition to the Wii library in the past and this year's entry looks to be no different. The bobblehead players are taken from the arcade-style 5-on-5 mode, but simulation fans can still duke it out with the traditional, realistic style. Head past the break for another, correctly-proportioned video of a full stadium experience.
Tecmo Bowl making a comeback on DS this fall
We've known for almost a year that Tecmo would be reviving the much-loved Tecmo Bowl franchise, though the company has remained tight-lipped on the intended platform. Until ... now. IGN just revealed that Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff would be hitting our DS screens this fall, complete with stylus control, fully customizable teams, players, and emblems, and both local wireless and internet play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.Apart from the logo above, there's no media for this one yet, but we're already chomping at the bit for some pigskin action. We recommend you warm up by grabbing the original from the Virtual Console. Hut hut!
