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After Math: With the kids away, it's time to play
Since it looks like the fall school semester is happening whether we’re ready for it or not, you’ll finally have dibs on “next game” on that console your kids have been bogarting for the past quarantined four months. Used to be that if you wanted to reassign the gender of your World of Warcraft’s character, you’d need to shell out $15 — that’s in real cash money, not in-game currency.
Intel’s multi-angle cameras come to three Premier League soccer stadiums
Intel's work in sports can be found across the world's best leagues, from the MLB, NBA and NFL in the US to Spain's La Liga soccer tournament. Over the past few years, it has been trying to make games more immersive for fans, using camera technologies that offer people more viewing options than a traditional broadcast, like enjoying matches in virtual reality or watching 360-degree video replays. And now Intel plans to bring this to the English Premier League. Through a new partnership with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City (three of England's biggest clubs), Intel will start utilizing its True View tech at their stadiums, which will capture "every match from every angle," the company says.
Bixby will start collecting sports scores and news next month
Bixby Home is getting smarter. Well, in the sense that now in the US, Samsung's virtual assistant will offer sports scores and up-to-the-minute news coverage through a partnership with theScore. Swiping right on "select" Galaxy device home-screens including the S9 and S9 Plus gives access to the stats and news. To make the feature a little more useful, you can even follow your favorite teams and leagues so only the news that matters to you will show up.
Amazon set to bid for Premier League streaming rights
When the English Football Association opens the bidding for Premier League broadcasting rights in February, it may see keen interest from a significant but not-so-unexpected source: Amazon. Bloomberg reports that the online retailer is preparing to bid for matches next month, likely providing traditional UK broadcasters Sky and BT with some much-needed competition over the next three years.
FIFA’s tech ‘experiments’ drag soccer into the modern age
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It may not be as big as American football, baseball or basketball in the US -- at least not yet-- but there's a much larger interest in it here now than five or 10 years ago. One of the problems with soccer is that, unlike pro sports organizations such as the NFL, NBA or MLB, it has never been quick to adopt new technology. For decades FIFA, the sport's governing body, opposed cutting-edge ideas that could keep referees from making the wrong calls. "We shall rely on human beings," former FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in 2002. "Players make mistakes, coaches make mistakes and yes, sometimes referees make mistakes. But football is passion, football is emotion. Football has a human touch."
Sky is shaking up the way you pay for and watch sport
Televised sport is big business -- just ask Sky and BT Sport. Between them, the two companies have spent billions in order to secure access to the world's biggest sporting leagues and major events, resulting in a significant markup for consumers. The rising cost of Sky Sports, for example, has led many to cut the package altogether or seek more dubious alternatives like the so-called Kodi box (although it's the add-ons, not the software facilitating illegal streams). Sky is keenly aware of this, so today it announced a new plan to make its sports coverage more accessible. It's expanding the number of Sky Sports channels to 10, which will cater for individual sports and allow customers to subscribe to each one on their own.
You won't need cable to watch the Premier League next season
Good news for football fans in the US who love the English Premier League: NBC Sports has announced a standalone streaming package that will include 130 games, both live and on-demand, from the upcoming 2017-2018 campaign. The Premier League Pass, which is set to cost $50 per season starting in August, is definitely going to appeal to cord-cutters all over the country -- especially since they'll be able to watch on their desktop, smartphone, tablet and TV with a compatible set-top box. Bye bye, illegal streams.
Arsenal FC delivers match day updates with Alexa
Amazon's virtual assistant can tell you all sorts of info on a range of topics. Sure, Alexa can already give you sports details, but one English Premier League club is going a step further. With a hand from digital agency AKQA, Arsenal Football Club says its the first team in the league with its own Alexa Skill. The Echo add-on will serve up match day info like pre-game coverage, lineups, live commentary, score updates and post-match analysis. Of course, if you're truly a fan, why would you need this? Let me explain.
How the UK plans to block illegal Kodi soccer streams
Last week, at the High Court, the Football Association Premier League (FAPL) was granted stronger powers to crack down on the illegal streaming of English football matches. Instead of chasing websites hosting live players, the League can now block the servers that provide the live feeds, cutting off "Kodi boxes" -- a combination of legitimate media centre software with non-authorised third-party plugins -- and similar IPTV services. But how will it be enforced? Now that the order is publicly available, we can shed some light on how the FAPL intends to utilise its new powers.
Deezer gets into live football commentary with TalkSport's help
In recent months, Spotify and Deezer have mixed things up by extending beyond music and into podcasts and video. But what about live content? That's exactly what Deezer hopes will set it apart from rivals after it launched a new partnership with TalkSport, one of the world's biggest sports radio stations. From today, customers in the UK and Germany can access live coverage of Premier League and Bundesliga games respectively. It'll also host match fixtures and results, football-centric music playlists and extra content from Deezer's football editors. Football podcasts will also be available, but only for UK subscribers. If you're a Deezer user and want to see what it's all about, Football on Deezer is prominently displayed on the homepage, as well as in the apps section. It's also available on free and Premium tiers, but non-paying customers will need to sit through ads.
Cortana made me a better gambler, but I'm never listening to her again
I'm a bit of a gambler. I've probably placed at least one bet per week for the past year. I'm also pretty good at it -- since winning a few hundred dollars on the World Cup last year, I've maintained a positive account balance at Ladbrokes (other betting sites are available), never adding additional funds, and never betting more than $10 on a single event. Last week, Cortana began predicting English Premier League results, so I decided to see what would happen if I let the Windows Phone (and soon to be Windows 10) assistant make my decisions for me.
Find out what channel the game is on with Bleacher Buddy
We are entering one of the busiest times of the year for sporting events. Baseball playoffs are starting while both college football and the NFL are in full swing as is soccer world-wide. Plus the NBA and NHL start their seasons in the next couple of weeks. In addition to tracking all these games, you have to go through hundreds of cable and satellite channels. So where is my game being televised? Now Bleacher Buddy offers a one-stop app that will not only provide the channel and time but will also alert you in advance if you choose. This is a free universal app that needs iOS 4.3 or later. First with Bleacher Buddy you enter your zip code. This brings up a list of the local cable and satellite providers in your area. Choose the one you use and you are all set. Now once you select the sport or game you want to watch, the app gives you the local channel and start time. It is as simple as that. Just about every sport is available: MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLS, EPL, WNBA, NCAA football and basketball, golf and even lacrosse. Once you select the sport you get a list of the specific leagues available like in the photo below, basketball is broken out to include the NBA, College Basketball, and the WNBA and Women's College Basketball. Users select the one they want and they receive a list of the games being played that day. They can then go forward to see games in the upcoming days. After you select the game you want, Bleacher Buddy brings up a game page that includes the local TV channels where the game can be viewed, the local start time, and other info such as odds, a chat area, and a place for you to make a prediction on the outcome of the game. Another feature included in Bleacher Buddy is an area where users can set up favorite teams so they can receive alerts on the start of the game and score updates. Each sport also has a "locker room" area so users can chat amongst themselves and "talk" sports and about the game itself. This app works for all zip codes so if you are away from home working or for some other reason, just enter the local zip code and get the local channel listings for your game. Bleacher Buddy takes all the guessing and searching out of finding the game you want to watch on TV.
The Premier League's new app helps you enjoy a wet Wednesday night in Stoke
Old football folklore states that a super-talented and skillful overseas player hasn't earned his stripes until he's performed on a cold, wet and windy Wednesday night in Stoke. Those achievements would be nothing without fans there to chronicle them, so the Premier League has launched a new app to ensure there's enough travelling supporters there to do just that. Available on both iOS and Android, Away Days has a simple premise: to get you to the stadium with plenty of time before kick-off. You'll get access to live travel updates, details on the best places to crash, pubs to drink in, as well as comprehensive overviews of the stadiums themselves. The Premier League has gone as far as partnering with clubs and suppliers to cut the cost of getting to the ground, while also offering money off food, drink and parking when you arrive. Good news if you're looking forward to seeing Falcao, Di Maria, Shaw, Rojo, Blind and Herrera attempt to emulate legends past at the Britannia come New Year's Day.
English Premier League to adopt goal-line technology next season, Hawk-Eye to be the provider
Football's ruling body, FIFA, has already decided that goal-line technology will be used at next year's World Cup in Brazil, which, in and of itself, was an indirect nod for other competitions to follow suit. Today, one of the globe's biggest leagues announced it too will implement the recently approved tech in its matches, with the Premier League letting it be known that the 2013-2014 season is set to be the first to adopt the new system. Speaking of which, the Football Association decided to go with Hawk-Eye, a technology currently present in professional sports like tennis and cricket -- one that provides seven fast-frame shooters around the two goals and uses software to quickly analyze if the ball indeed crossed the line. For the football (soccer) faithful, it's been a long time coming, so here's hoping this makes the game less prone to errors. After all, Howard Webb and Mike Dean need all the help they can get. [Image credit, Premier League]
Europhysics Letters publishes first paper submitted from space, your homework excuses now deemed invalid
Couldn't find the resources? Too much commotion? Had to run your pup to the vet? Save it. Alexander Alexandrovich Skvortsov took the time to detail a series of experiments aboard the International Space Station back in July of 2010, and rather than just noting 'em in his flip-pad, he worked with Sergey Alexandrovich Volkov to submit the work to a highly-regarded journal on the 27th of October, 2011. Unsurprisingly, EPL (Europhysics Letters) has just published the work, making it the first piece of its kind to ever hit the public after being submitted... from space. For those curious, the paper itself reports on "the measurements of the speed of sound within complex plasmas." And now we all feel dumb.
Fox Soccer Channel HD coming to DirecTV in time for Premier League play
Check the official DirecTV Twitter account for confirmation, according to a recent post, it's going to add the channel and plans to have ahead of the English Premier League's upcoming season. Subsequent tweets reveal Gol TV HD is also in the works, but nothing to report yet on Fox Soccer Plus, AMC HD or BBC America HD yet.
Where are you heading once Wrath hits?
In an earlier post I spent some time wondering if it might be a good idea to level a Shaman alongside the new fleet of Death Knights guaranteed to appear once Wrath hits. A lot of commenters were of the opinion (correct, I think) that the desire to avoid hugely crowded areas is probably better served by leveling an alt to 58-60 and sticking it in Outland. The alt can then await the surge of Death Knights who decide to continue leveling, and who should have some experience with its playstyle by then. While I'm still most likely to level my main to 80 once the expansion hits, having an alt in a less crowded area of the game is pretty appealing. For all I know, the Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord will be packed to the scuppers too. I play on a laptop with a wireless connection, so my gameplay tends to suffer badly when the area I'm in resembles Los Angeles during rush hour. Avoiding overcrowded areas is no small thing.My realm's considered medium population, but we've still got enough people that, if even 10% of the population typically online at server high time decides to roll a Death Knight once Wrath is released, Eastern Plaguelands is going to be in total gridlock for a while. The same thought occurred to a few friends, who wondered if they might be better off spending a week or two on low-level alts in an empty Azeroth while waiting for the furor to die down. With that said, that's not an ideal option if your guild wants to start raiding as early as possible, or if you just don't want to be left behind by guildies leveling to 80.I'm genuinely curious. Let's say you've bought the expansion, installed it, and you're at the character selection screen on your usual realm with the option to create a Death Knight, hit your main, or head to an alt. Given your own personal circumstances, which do you pick, and where are you going in those first few hours?%Poll-19367%
The Art of War(craft): Outdoor PvP, Part I - War in the Old World
So you've tried out all the Battlegrounds; maybe even ground your Honor quota from the Call-to-Arms holiday. You've played your Arena games for the week, and maybe you've sent a message to those filthy campers who messed up your guildie's daily Simon Says. What else is there to do in the world of PvP? Well, there's always World PvP. Technically, any PvP that occurs outside of an instanced zone (i.e. Battlegrounds and Arenas) is considered world or outdoor PvP. In the old days, that meant hours of skirmishes between Tarren Mill and Southshore or endless assaults on the Crossroads. In Patch 1.12, however, Blizzard introduced objective-based outdoor PvP with A Game of Towers in the Eastern Plaguelands and The Silithyst Must Flow in Silithus. The trend continues in Outlands with objectives in Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terrokar Forest, and Nagrand.I wrote about how I always wanted my PvP to have some sort of meaning, and objective-based zone PvP is about as meaningful as it gets. More than the Battlegrounds, where PvP is contextualized only through a story, or the Arenas where PvP is purely sport, the objectives in the outdoor PvP zones are designed to give a direct benefit to your faction. If any sort of PvP highlights the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde, it is the battle for control of these PvP zones. Achieving these objectives can make a player feel like he or she's contributed something substantial to his or her faction. Although it gives little to no Honor and no Arena points, it can be fun, spontaneous and even rewarding for the little time you put in it. Whether it's role-playing or for something different to do in between 2-on-2 Arena queues, world PvP offers a different slice of the PvP pie.
Breakfast Topic: Wishlist
2006 was a year of much change for our favorite MMO, from patch 1.9 through 2.0.1 (not to mention the BC beta). Here's a quick rundown: 1.9 saw the first world event in the form of the opening of AQ. It also contributed further to server unification by linking auction houses. Paladin talents were updated. 1.10 gave us weather effects, new Priest talents, and Tier 0.5. 1.11 introduced Naxx, keyrings, nifty Mage talents, and a global LFG channel, which was quickly patched to default to off. 1.12 had cross-realm BGs, the EPL and Silithus PvP objectives, and new Rogue talents 2.0.1, as I'm sure you all know, was the day the add-ons died, honor got completely overhauled, and we all got shiny new abilities and talents to tide us over till the expansion. What would you all like to see come to with WoW in 2007? Is the Burning Crusade giving you all your wishes, or do you have more burning desires for the game?
