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These AI-generated tennis matches are both eerie and impressive
An new AI allows us to answer the question of what it would look like if Roger Federer played himself.
Snapchat made a Bitmoji tennis game to celebrate Wimbledon
It's no secret that Snapchat is a big fan of sport, and tennis is no exception. Last year it released a 3D Bitmoji Lens that let users "take on" tennis legend Serena Williams at Wimbledon, now it's launched a real-time Bitmoji multiplayer tennis game that'll let you challenge your friends right within the chat function.
Snapchat’s new lens lets you play tennis against Serena Williams
Wimbledon is in full swing, and thanks to Snapchat you can get in on the action by playing your very own match against tennis legend Serena Williams. Kind of. Snap and Williams have collaborated on a new interactive 3D Bitmoji Lens that lets you take on the tennis queen in an increasingly fast-paced match. Let's be honest, you're never going to beat her -- but you might be able to beat the high scores of your friends, and that's still gloat-worthy. As the tennis star herself said, "It's so fun because how often do you get to play against me?" Watch Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian Sr. foolishly believe he can match her, below.
BBC to stream 1,000 extra hours of live sport each year
The BBC continues to reduce the amount of public money it spends, it's led to some notable sporting events being cut from its programming. It's already been forced to drop the rights to big-name British golfing tournaments, Formula 1 and perhaps the most prestigious global sporting event of all: the Olympics (although it has since agreed a sub-licencing deal with Discovery-owned Eurosport). Instead, the corporation has focused on sports that it believes are most valuable to licence fee payers, including Wimbledon tennis and Six Nations rugby. Expanding that commitment, the BBC today announced "its biggest increase of live sport in a generation," confirming that will add 1,000 extra hours of live sport to the BBC Sport and iPlayer websites each year.
IBM’s Watson will analyze Wimbledon to suggest the best matches
IBM's Watson can apparently do everything. From manufacturing and medical treatment planning to portrait drawing and filing your taxes, there seems to be no limit to what the Jeopardy-winning AI can do. And next week, Watson will be offering its services to the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Twitter kicks off sports streaming with Wimbledon
Twitter paid a reported $10 million for the rights to live stream NFL broadcasts, and now we have an idea as to what that will look like. The social network is livecasting its first sports event, Wimbledon, from the tournament's "Live @ Wimbledon" feed, which features interviews, match replays and other secondary content. It isn't streaming any live match coverage, though, and is using the tennis tournament as a trial run. "This livestream is an extremely early and incomplete test experience, and we'll be making lots of improvements before we launch it in its final form," the company said in a statement to Recode.
Hawk-eyed police seize drone flown over Wimbledon
If you own a drone and want to take it for a quick test flight, heed our advice: don't fly anywhere near large sporting venues. Police arrested a pilot for filming Premier League football matches in March, and now a drone has been seized for swooping too close to Wimbledon. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was spotted flying over the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday morning and the Metropolitan Police were promptly notified. The pilot was discovered at a nearby golf course and officers ultimately confiscated the trespassing drone -- hardly surprising, given the Grand Slam starts this week.
Twitter's Wimbledon emoji will let you ace your tweets
Twitter knows it plays a big role in delivering sports news, but it also hosts millions of conversations around the biggest events. To help get users in the spirit, the company has launched emoji for World Cup 2014 and the NBA in the past, but with Wimbledon just around the corner, it's now turned its attention to tennis. Helped by Serena Williams, Twitter has unveiled four new Wimbledon-related "hashflags," giving users the opportunity to adorn their tweets with a racket emoji or images relating to #TheQueue, #TheHill (also known as Henman Hill) and #TheWorld.
Wimbledon bans 'nuisance' selfie sticks
If you're heading to the All England Lawn Tennis Club in June to enjoy some strawberries and cream and perhaps snap the odd selfie while watching the world's best tennis players, we have some bad news: Wimbledon has banned the selfie stick. Laid out in the official ticketholders' guide, the event's organizers write: "In common with many other major sports and entertainment events and cultural attractions, the championships will not allow selfie sticks into the grounds." No wide-angled photo action for you.
Settle those sports arguments with Who Won Sports
Many of us love to argue or rather have animated discussions about a variety of topics, politics, religion, where to go for the best hamburger and the king of argument starters: Sports. Now with Who Won Sports you and your friends can settle those disagreements by just pulling out your phone and using this free universal app. Who Won Sports is a simple app that tells you at a glance just what the name implies, who won. You will find team championships, individual award winners and more for all the major sports. Choose your sport, then select which category you want and Who Won Sports in most cases, provides you with a list of winners by year going back as far back as the beginning of the competition or as long as the award has been given. In the baseball category you can choose from twenty-two different championships or awards. You will find World Series winners going back to 1903, Cy Young winners, home run champs, Gold Glove winners, Manager of the Year awards for both leagues and many more including the winners of the College World Series in Omaha and the first player picked in the annual amateur draft held each summer. Did you know Rick Monday was the very first player picked back in 1965? You would if you had Who Won Sports. Overall the app has eight categories from which to choose: baseball, football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, hockey, and the Canadian Football League. Golf and tennis feature the four grand slam events in each sport. Tennis includes the Women's winners but no LPGA winners in golf. However the app does include Ryder Cup winners. Who Won Sports makes it much easier to access all this data than using a browser and search engine on your phone. The navigation within the app is a breeze. However I did find a couple of issues that troubled me. For baseball and hockey you will get the winners in whatever year you select but nothing about which team they beat or how many games the series took. However, in the NBA you get a paragraph detailing the outcome of the series and the number of games. In the football category the listing is for NFL Champions but only goes back to the first Super Bowl in 1967. For each winner it tells you what number Super Bowl it was, where it was played and the two teams that played. Why do they provide more details for two of the sports but not the others? Also what about all the NFL Championship games that were played before the Super Bowl started. And what about the American Football League? After all without the success of the AFL, we would have never had a Super Bowl. A little more attention and information would have made this app more complete. I believe you will find Who Won Sports a handy app to keep on your phone and for the most part it will settle a lot of discussions about who won what. You won't find the answer to who is the greatest NFL quarterback of all time but you can see who won the 1928 Stanley Cup if that become important - It was the New York Rangers if you need to know.
BBC to broadcast Wimbledon final and semi-final matches in 3D
Though ESPN 3D's imminent demise might be evidence to some that 3D TV isn't exactly killing it, BBC has confirmed that it will cover Wimbledon again this year with that extra dimension. In particular, it will broadcast selected matches, including the men's and women's finals and semi-finals, in free-to-air 3D for those with the Red Button service and supported sets. Wimbledon marked its first-ever 3D broadcast two years ago, and the BBC is also experimenting with 4K coverage this year with Sony, albeit exclusively at a live spectator "experience zone" on the finely manicured grounds. The network also said it would up its live streams from six to ten to go with its YouTube coverage -- meaning UKers who miss a single grunt will have only themselves to blame.
Five apps to celebrate the weird and wonderful world of Wimbledon tennis
It's been a wild first week at Wimbledon 2013 with 13 people dropping out, reports of slippery grass and major upsets that ousted champions like Maria Sharapova. Check out these five apps below and get your tennis fix as you watch the second and final week of this prestigious tennis tournament unfold. Wimbledon Official App [iPad; Category: Sports; Free] Get breaking news, live coverage and more from the official Wimbledon app. Riversip Tennis News [iPhone; Category: Sports; Free] Riversip Tennis News brings you a live scoreboard, videos and news from the world of tennis. It compiles its content from sources like Tennis World, We Are Tennis, Tennis Now and others. miCoach tennis [iPhone; Category: Sports; Free] The miCoach tennis app is for court-side fans who enjoy playing as much as they do watching. Use miCoach training to help improve your tennis game by measuring your speed, rallies and the distance covered during your tennis matches. It uses data from the miCoach Speed Cell and supplemental lessons from tennis star Andrea Petkovic. Hit Tennis 3 [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Free with in-app purchases] Swipe or flick your way to tennis stardom in this arcade-style tennis game. Coach's Eye [iOS Universal; Category: Sports; $4.99] Coach's Eye is a video-based training tool that records you while you play tennis and allows you to critique your form. You can review the video and add audio commentary, annotations and slow-motion to provide tips for improvement.
Sony puts micro ads on Wimbledon player, ushers in an era of 4K marketing
Sony is shipping its Bravia X9 line of 4K TVs in the UK this week, and it wants to convey the advantages of all those extra pixels. The solution? Advertising that's as finely detailed as the screens themselves. It's putting micro ads on the fingernails and uniform of tennis player Anne Keothavong as she makes her way through Wimbledon, showing how the extra detail pays off. Few of us will get to see the ads in full clarity, however -- while Sony and the BBC are recording some of the event in 4K, they're playing that footage at an experience zone on the Wimbledon grounds. We're not looking at a decisive marketing coup, then, but those left squinting at home will at least know what they're missing.
Watch Wimbledon tennis live on YouTube beginning Monday (video)
It may not be the NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the world's oldest tennis tournament has a solid following as well, particularly abroad. A new Wimbledon partnership with YouTube could help boost the competition's appeal stateside; for the first time, you'll be able to access video feeds from the two-week London event, live on Google's prized streaming site. Beginning this Monday, you can catch all the action on Wimbledon's YouTube channel, with Rolex footing the bill. You'll also find interviews, behind-the-scenes segments and press conference streams on the video site, along with past match highlights and other featured content. There's a teaser clip waiting for you just past the break.
BBC launches updated, interactive live video player ahead of Olympics; lines up 'summer of 3D'
As the London Olympics creep closer, BBC is unveiling more of the technology it plans to use to bring the Games home to UK viewers. In the last few days it's shown off both the new live video player shown above, as well as a new Facebook app in beta for BBC Sport. The interactive live video player is built to deliver up to 24 HD streams during the Olympics, along with alerts for key events and extra information and stats. It will work on computers and tablets that support Flash, and for those notable ones that don't, there's a stripped down version for mobiles and iPads that loses the extra interactivity. The BBC Sport Facebook app will also be able to stream the Games, but also let you see if any of your friends are watching the same stream or what sport is the most popular. Finally, the Beeb has lined up what it's calling the "Summer of 3D" with a lineup that includes Planet of the Dinosaur, Last Night of the Proms, Wimbledon and the Olympics. There's a lot going on, hit the source links or check the press releases after the break for the highlights.
Must See HDTV (July 2nd - 8th)
UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II This weekend Chael Sonnen gets his wish. Most of our wishes don't include being locked in a cage with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, but it's the only way for Sonnen to take the belt he's been chasing for the last few years, including a loss in their first title fight in 2010. While we'll be interested to see if the "best fighter on the planet" Silva can extend his 14-fight winning streak, that's not the only fight on the card as Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin square off for the third time as light heavyweights. Plus, unlike other sports, UFC isn't purely tied to subscription pay-TV, so you can watch on YouTube, Roku, Xbox 360, PC or mobile device if you'd like. Check out a video preview for the fight embedded after the break. (July 7th, PPV, 10PM ET) Tour de France Cycling's biggest race is going on all month on Versus, oops, we mean NBC Sports Network / NBC. While we usually try to avoid getting up early for anything other than Formula 1, fans of the sport can get their stage action at 8AM daily (with a few exceptions). Epic hillclimbs, peloton crashes, inevitable accusations of doping, what's not to love? (All week, NBC Sports Network / NBC) Wimbledon Completing the sports trifecta for this week's highlights, Wimbledon action continues after the early rounds last week. Also broadcasting from Europe, Wimbledon is bringing a morning and daytime schedule finishing up with the men's and women's finals on Saturday and Sunday. ESPN has locked up the entire schedule and will be broadcasting it live, including on ESPN 3D. (All week, ESPN / ESPN 3D)
Five apps to help you prepare for the non-stop tennis of Wimbledon
It's the end of June, and for tennis fans that means it's time for Wimbledon. The UK tennis tournament kicks off Monday, June 25. Whether you'll be attending in London or watching from afar, we have a list of apps that'll help you follow the matches from your iPhone and even brush up on your own tennis skills. Official Wimbledon app (Free) The official Wimbledon app is for fans who don't want to miss any of the action. The app lets you keep track of live scores and even listen to matches on one of the three Wimbledon Radio stations. Player profiles, schedules and on-demand video round out this excellent app. If you're in the UK, you also can download the BBC's iPlayer app which will have even more coverage. Tennis Trakker Pro ($12.99) Tennis Trakker Pro is a statistics app that'll let you keep track of a tennis player's performance. You can record the outcome of each point in a tennis match and use this information to identify a player's strengths and weaknesses. The app has a cloud component that'll let you upload match information for future reference and also share it with others who can watch the updates in real-time using ScoreTrakker. This cloud feature does require a subscription which is available via an in-app purchase. New users are eligible for a free 90-day trial of the upload service. There's also a lite version of the app which will let you evaluate it for free. Flick Tennis: College Wars HD ($3.99) Flick Tennis: College Wars HD is for those idle moments when you are tired of tennis highlights and want to settle down with an entertaining game. Flick Tennis isn't a simple back and forth volleying game. It has a storyline that lets you play the role of tennis prodigy Kevin Adams who must fight against the odds to become the best tennis player in the world. There are three modes in the game including story, exhibition and multiplayer. Story and exhibition mode have both single and double matches, while multiplayer mode lets you play head-to-head against a friend on the same device. The game has 11 tennis courts, 10 players and even 35 comic book cut-scenes which add to the plot in story mode. Tennis Clinic ($4.99) Tennis Clinic is for the budding tennis star who wants a portable pocket reference. The app is filled with video tutorials from tennis pros who cover the basic strokes, specialty strokes and other tips & tricks that'll help improve your game. All the tutorial videos are embedded into the app which means you don't have to worry about finding a fast internet connection when you want to watch a video. Because the lessons are included, the app is a hefty 571 MB. USTA Mobile (Free) The USTA app is for US tennis players who want to keep track of United States Tennis Association leagues and tournaments while on the go. You can find tournaments and review the draw. Once you've picked a tournament or a league, you can register for them right from your phone. The app also keeps tracks of players so you can view their records and gain a competitive edge before you start your first serve.
Wimbledon NetMix lets you turn down on-court grunts in favor of staid commentary
Wimbledon, typically a quiet leafy suburb in the great urban sprawl of London, tends to get a little noisier around this time of the year as the world's top tennis players descend upon it with a grunt and a huff of exertion. It's precisely those un-British howls of effort that the BBC is offering to filter out for you with a new Wimbledon NetMix tool. It's a simple audio mixing slider, available to BBC Radio 5 Live listeners, that adjusts the balance between ambient on-court sound and the soothing timbre of commentators' voices. The technology's enabled by the guys and gals at Fraunhofer, who were nice enough to do it for free, and is being introduced in response to a great many complaints received by broadcasters about the primal screaming that's accompanied this year's matches. If the reaction to the NetMix slider is positive, it could find further job opportunities on the Beeb's iPlayer or in coverage of other sporting events.
BBC picks Wimbledon for its first 3D broadcast in July
More than three years after testing out 3D production during a Rugby Six Nations match the BBC is ready to send out its first 3D broadcast during the men's and women's singles finals at Wimbledon. UK viewers can catch 3D tennis via the BBC HD feed on Freeview, Freesat, Virgin or Sky, July 2nd and 3rd. Here in the US ESPN 3D has already announced plans to air those matches, plus the men's semifinal, both live and reaired at more convenient local times. While Panasonic featured its 3D tech last week during the French Open at Roland Garros, Sony is going to be working the dials at Wimbledon along with the BBC as the network undertakes "a 3D TV editorial experiment." 3D Focus TV has more details like the channel listings and a behind the scenes look at a 3D promo shot to advertise movie theater screenings that will also be available during the event. So far Sky has been way out in front of the 3D push in the UK while the BBC is taking a more cautious approach, but since Wimbledon was one of the first sporting events aired in color on the BBC, it's no surprise this pops up as a test event in the run up to new broadcast technologies emerging during the London Olympics next year.
DirecTV keeps multi-screen trend alive with Wimbledon Interactive coverage
If you enjoy juggling six screens at once, you should seriously considering switching to DirecTV or DISH Network. As the back-and-forth action between the two continues, DirecTV is serving up Wimbledon Interactive in order to provide viewers with a multi-screen montage of grass court action. The satcaster is teaming up once again with ESPN2 in order to "provide nearly 200 hours of live interactive coverage of the first five days of the 2008 Wimbledon Championship." The half dozen screens will include live ESPN2 coverage, a Wimbledon Extra for keying in on crucial matches / highlights, and shots from four other courts which can be expanded to full screen at the touch of a button. As you know, the first fuzzy ball flies on June 23rd.
