NFL fans, boxing fans and  sports fans in general, rejoice! The official HBO PR twitter account tweeted out fantastic news: next year HBO will offer a streaming HBO service, but this time without a currently required cable/satellite connection. In a matter of weeks,  you will — at least if you live in the United States — be able to see the award winning Hard Knocks, fights and of course other shows and films.

Given the success of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus, it really was only a matter of time until HBO joined the ranks of standalone online streaming companies. The announcement was made at a Time Warner  Inc. Investor Meeting where HBO Chairman and CEO Richard Plepler stated

“That [10 million broadband only homes] is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped. It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO.”

Presuming it will be the existing HBO Go, the service will give subscribers full access to all shows, sports and movies available on the TV version of HBO. Between the shows such as Last Week Tonight and The Newsroom plus the currently unavailable HBO exclusive sports coverage, in particular Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, this is an overdue but nonetheless welcome announcement.

The latest major version of Apple’s mobile software, iOS 8, gained the ability to add widgets to one’s phone or tablet. While the counterparts in the Android world have enjoyed widgets since April 2009, Apple has finally sought fit to allow widgets on their devices. As a user of both major operating systems, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see them on my iPhone. Rather than requiring manually authorization to display information, e.g. opening an app, widgets constantly update information. In particular stock, Bitcoin and sports widgets are all incredibly convenient. The first major sports widget launched on iOS8 is the free Forza Football Widget, and it is everything I could want from a soccer info center.

After the initial download, you’re greeted to a lovely welcome screen and quick start guide.

As you progress throughout the setup, you’re given the choice of which country to pick. You’re able to choose multiple countries to pick and I decided to go with the United States and add South Korea later on.

Once you’ve picked out which nation — and you can add Under-21, womens, etc. — the next set of choices becomes how many leagues would you like to follow. Unsurprisingly the main leagues are auto selected, but you can add or remove as you wish.

Now that everything is picked out, you’ll want to utilize Forza Football as the widget, not just the app. In order to add real time score updates, you’ll have to swipe down on the notification bar of your phone and select “new widget available.”

At this point you can add Forza to any current widgets you may have running.

I’m able to partake in pre-game polls on who will win, a fun feature I didn’t even realize I was missing.

Additionally the push alerts that go off when a team I’m following is great for people like me who tend to be a bit forgetful.

Forza offers a superior football experience. I’ve previously touched on and even praised other soccer apps such as MLS Matchday and Fox Soccer 2Go, however I can’t see myself using those apps with Forza on my phone. For a brand new widget I can’t imagine anything else I’d really want.

Engadget has uncovered an FCC filing outlining what appears to be the newest product from fitness-tracking company FitBit. FitBit offers devices that can go either on the wrist or clip onto a pocket or waistline, and the newest offering, called the Charge, stays within that mold. However, the Charge strays away slightly from the simplistic design and features offered in current FitBit products.

Current FitBit models only do a few basic things. They track your steps throughout the day as well as your dedicated exercise, and converts that info into an estimated calories burned metric. You can pair the device to a smartphone or computer to track your progress, and use FitBit’s app to even log meals to get a good sense of your calories in and calories out. The more adventurous/inquisitive user can even plug into FitBit’s API to log large sets of data for a more macro look at their fitness and activities. Some models also offer sleep tracking, which can also be logged to FitBit’s app.

FitBit’s only wrist-wearable option as of now is the Flex, which is really a small device hidden inside a silicon wristband. The only display is a set of five LEDs that let you know your daily progress compared to your step goals. It’s design is intentionally simplistic, as it’s meant to be worn and ignored throughout the day — to be unobtrusive. According to the US Patent Office filings, however, FitBit is adding some new features to the Charge to help bring it to the level of other wearables offered by other companies.

The Charge will come in two versions, one of which has a heart rate monitor. This data, which can be of interest to more serious exercisers, will most likely also be logged in within FitBit’s ecosystem. The Charge also dabbles in a bit of smartwatch technology, offering navigation information, music controls, and call notifications. These features come as a convenience for people on the streets, trails, or treadmills, as it allows them more interaction with their smartphone while it’s tucked away somewhere. Though the USPTO paperwork doesn’t mention it, photos of some Charge advertising by Twitter user @etownsendwx show a display on the device that could also be capable of displaying the time.

New @fitbit coming? Haven't heard about it, called Fitbit Charge hr. Force replacement? @Gizmodo @digg #leak? #tech pic.twitter.com/HSQ893ydbh

— Ed Townsend (@etownsendwx) October 11, 2014

With smartwatches making a push into the mainstream, FitBit seems to be dipping their toes in the shallow end of that pool. By offering a product still focused exclusively on fitness tracking, but with a few smartwatch features thrown in for convenience, it’s clear they are not quite ready to rest on their laurels. For the runners and walkers out there looking for a high-quality performance tracker with just a few necessary bells and whistles thrown in, the Charge might be just what they seek.

Injuries are an unfortunate byproduct of sports. Be it the growing concern of concussions, Tommy John surgery or the more normal strains and pulls, every professional and collegiate — and most high school — sporting event has medical staff on the sidelines. Even routine issues such as sore throats, flu-like symptoms or general knee pain diagnoses could be changed as Google is looking to expand its reach by video chatting with doctors.

Credit to reddit user jasonahoule for posting this (via imgur) of a simple “knee pain” screenshot on Friday afternoon:

Tech website Engadget independently verified Google is in fact exploring a “Helpouts-style” option to video chat from any location with doctors. Google Helpouts currently offers a video connection with experts in a wide range of fields from culinary help to computer setup, though medical assistance could be on the way.

Unfortunately a search done around 5:30 pm eastern yesterday afternoon, Google has seemingly pulled back their live chat trial. The exact same search of “knee pain” in the mobile versions of Chrome and Safari as well as Silk failed to yield any “Talk with a doctor now” options.

Chatting with a medical professional will have certain limits, as things such as MRIs, CAT scans etc. are all things that currently cannot be done with a mouse or a touch screen. That being said, there could be a day — perhaps sooner rather than later — where on-field diagnosis for pains, strains and sprains become a part of our everyday lives.

(Header image via NEC)

Robert Morris University has been in the news lately for its League of Legends team. Its scholarship League of Legends team.

That’s right. A scholarship for video game players. How both delightful and terrifying. And I don’t really know why either emotion strikes me, much less both simultaneously. Perhaps I’m terrified because — much in the way my grandfather, born in 1901, became dismayed at the increasing popularity of the NFL in the 1970s — I am witnessing an irrevocable change in the universe of sports. Esports — or electronic sports — are going mainstream. They’re going NCAA.

Well, not necessarily NCAA, but they’re getting legit like crazy. Actually, the video game tournaments themselves are already legit. Consider pro gamer Nadeshot’s discussion about the team roster around the 2:50 mark in this interview. He makes it very clear how the players inside the industry already see themselves as brethren to the pro athletes of traditional sports. Students of the history of pro sporting leagues (or perhaps just anyone who’s seen the first two episodes of Ken Burn’s Baseball documentary) will no doubt suffer from deja vu at this juncture: Players rapidly jumping from one team to the next; the league lacking clear regulation; the popularity outpacing the structure.

I doubt the world of esports and gaming will ever have a business model identical to the NFL, Premier League, or any other stadium-based sports league, but at the same time, the models of these leagues are changing rapidly, too. The proliferation and growing demand for services like MLB.tv, NFL Rewind, and similar streaming services suggests that an online broadcast would not only be successful, but well-positioned for the next decade of broadcasting trends.

So esports happens to be an activity that people care about. It makes sense, then, that good esports players could make a living doing this popular thing makes sense — that’s how all our current pro sports leagues came into existence. Jim Creighton got paid (under the table) to play baseball, and he got paid with the money from the ticket booth. And when radio coverage started making the sport more money, tickets, hot dogs, and toothpaste commercials lined Babe Ruth’s wallet.

Now, Peyton Manning makes the heft of his income from television. Gate receipts for an NFL game represent only a fraction of the NFL’s revenue. But a guy like Manning also makes a great deal of money in non-NFL advertisements. And this is another piece of the economic puzzle that is pro game.

SK Gaming, one of Germany’s premier gaming teams, has sponsorship deals with Intel, Medion AG, and previously Adidas. As recently as 2008, the 85% of the team’s funding came from sponsorships.

The other side of this inquiry is the question: Is this a sport? Should gaming be considered athletic? Are the Robert Morris gamers student-athletes? I think the answer is probably yes. Maybe it has to be yes. If NASCAR, with it’s heavy reliance on mechanical and electronic components, is a sport, then so is gaming. Like racing sports, gamers cannot survive on intellect alone — so it is unlike a chess or board game tournament. Esports have a very specific, very real physical component to their execution — the rapid maneuvering and manipulating of the hands and fingers; the ability to communicate reflexively and across multiple mediums (with the headset and, say, on-screen flares).

Of course, if we don’t consider pro racing athletic (and I think there’s semantical room to argue that), then we can easily paste that same conclusion on the Robert Morris students. But I’ve digressed.

I would like to point out another similarity of the pro sports and pro esports worlds: Rapid player obsolescence. Whereas the pro tennis, basketball, football, soccer, or baseball player has finished his or her career by age 40, the 30-year-old gamer is an equally rare sight — which is especially surprising since video games have been around for nearly 40 years. But gamer fatigue appears just as real as NFL running back obsoletcence — though with far fewer life-altering concussions to worry about.

So from a collegiate perspective, I think a gaming scholarship is perfectly rational (assuming any sports scholarship is at all rational). It is a sport that could draw attention and attendance to the school; it nurtures an ability that can — though unlikely — result in a lucrative pro career; and it is a topic that is relevant to the interests of many students’ and many in the coming generations.

I say: Well done, Robert Morris. You may have broken the sports and esports barrier, and I think we can all agree that’s delightifying.

(Header image via Piotr Drabik)

At least as far as online sports media goes, GIFs make the world go round. We use them to show bloopers and Peyton Manning faces, home runs and butt fumbles. Many writers and analysts use GIFs to help show pitching mechanics, football plays, and any other subjects that can benefit from some video evidence. It’s a useful tool, but one that’s around two decades old. Technology has better offerings now, and one of the bigger players in the GIF game is making a big change. Online hosting giant Imgur has made their intentions clear: it’s time to move on from the GIF.

The demand for higher quality and longer GIFs have surpassed the ability for the file type to keep up with us. Instead of constantly relying on the older GIF — technology has improved a bit since the 1980’s where it was first introduced — Imgur has decided to alter course and go with a much newer technology, MP4s. The media hosting site announced plans to convert all old GIFs to HTML5 compatible MP4 videos, labeling the files as the all new GIFV file type.

The new files are smaller, creating less strain on Imgur, load faster on mobile devices and are able to viewed on any platform. Another hosting site, Gfycat, has been using HTML 5 for months now and their home page even sports how much bandwidth they’ve saved using HTML 5 rather than GIFs. There is a worthy debate going on as to why Imgur decided to go with the MP4 format rather than WebM and the probable answer is compatibility. At the time of writing. WebM is not available on any iOS version without downloading a free video player, unless you choose to jailbreak your device. Rather than force a large user base to download compatibility apps, Imgur has taken a shorter and faster route to replace the GIF.

For a comparison of GIF vs HTML 5, look no further than Gfycat’s FAQ page. The length and quality — not to mention the ability to pause, rewind or view frame by frame, it’s an MP4 video, remember? — are identical and the HTLM 5 is much smaller than the GIF.

Don’t expect GIFs to disappear overnight, they’re too well established for that, but anticipate more and more websites moving to the MP4 or GIFVs. They’re superior to GIFs in every way and are compatible on all devices. If WebM becomes the new standard video type then perhaps Imgur will once again change, but for now their strides to replace the GIF are already underway.

The NHL offers a product similar to MLB.tv called NHL GameCenter LIVE. For $16o (or $20 a month for eight months), hockey fans can watch any out-of-market game on their computer or a bevy of connected devices. This includes major gaming devices, Android and iOS devices, and a choice group of connected boxes for the TV such as Apple TV and Roku. But some Roko owners are getting a rude awakening when trying to fire up NHL games through GameCenter LIVE this year.

As Timothy Burke points out on Deadspin, older Roku boxes are now (unexpectedly) not compatible with this year’s version of the app. Roku does throw a bone in the way of a $15 credit toward a new box, but the sudden new requirement can certainly leave customers blindsided. A five-day cancellation period is in play, but as Timothy notes, many people could have purchased their GameCenter LIVE subscription prior to October 3rd. This means they would not even know their Roku was not compatible until it was too late.

The Roku is a great and well-priced device, but being forced to buy a new one without warning is a pretty shady move. As noted in the comments of the Deadspin article, there are also different versions of the Roku 1 and Roku 2, which can cause further confusion among customers. I would imagine NHL would aqueous a little were a bamboozled customer to call in, but someone who doesn’t have an issue dropping $160 to watch hockey might just go out and by a new Roku for $50. Burke claims that the older-style Rokus should have no issue streaming this year’s GameCenter LIVE content. So, is the forced change really due to hardware/software constrictions, or is it just a cash grab? Either way, I can’t imagine too many people were happy when they tried to watch their favorite team on a suddenly-deemed-incompatible Roku yesterday.

(Header image via Mike Mozart)

One of the bigger problems with diagnosing concussions, especially during an actual game, is that symptoms present themselves differently for every person. When a player goes limp, becomes dizzy, or loses consciousness, a concussion becomes easier to diagnose. But often times a concussion can occur without presenting such harsh symptoms. A player may experience a concussion without severe side-effects, or even without knowing it.

The Canadian company Shockbox is striving to create an easier way to treat and prevent concussions with the help of sensors placed in the helmet. The sensors go for $179.99, and can last up to three years with periodic charging. After the sensors are secured in the helmet, they are paired with a smartphone or tablet. Up to 125 sensors can be paired with any given device, so even an entire team can be monitored at once. Any significant impact will send data to the device, and alerts can be set up to notify coaches or parents of a specifically hard hit so that the player can be removed immediately for further testing or rest. Shockbox also offers a cloud service (for Android platforms only at the moment, though an iOS platform is in developement), so that multiple days/games worth of data can be stored for research or to keep tabs on a player’s history.

Shockbox’s CEO and CTO, Danny Crossman, started the company in 2010 after transitioning from developing the same type of technology for the military. His company now has six full-time employees and is gaining partnerships with multiple youth leagues and college teams. Crossman noted that all of the manufacturing is done in North America, with no contracting going overseas. Sensors are sold throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. Shockbox offers sensors fitted for many types of helmets, including football, hockey, lacrosse, skiing/snowboarding, and biking.

Scalability is what makes Shockbox’s product so appealing. While it’s feasible that an entire team or league can be outfitted with sensors, sometimes that just isn’t an option. However, concerned parents of young athletes can purchase a sensor individually and pair it with their own phone or tablet to keep tabs on their child’s impacts with realtime monitoring, allowing them to pull their child from competition if they suffer a significant blow. It’s just as Shockbox’s motto states: Know When a Hit is Too Hard.

As we know more about concussions and how they happen, devices like Shockbox will become even more valuable. Crossman himself admitted that by the time his sensors reach end-of-life after about three years of use, the technology will surely have changed. Nevertheless, Shockbox offers an easy and reasonably-priced way to help ensure player safety. Undoubtedly, as the dangers of head injuries continue to rise in visibility within the public, more and more teams and organizations will adopt this kind of technology on a sweeping scale. That’s good not just for Shockbox’s bottom line, but for parents, coaches, and players everywhere.

(Header image via Elliot Connor Photography)

NBA 2K15 launched today, and with it came a bunch of new features and tweaks. The 2K series hasn’t been without its flaws, but it has a long track record of being a very popular and polished game in the sports space for quite some time. I personally think it peaked with 2K13, but I haven’t spent much time with the latest iteration yet. Beyond the updated rosters and souped-up graphics, 2K Studios added a new feature to the already-excellent MyCareer subset of the game. MyCareer, as the name suggests, allows the gamer to create their own NBA player and simulate a career with said character. In the past, MyCareer basically ensured your player would get drafted. No longer. 2K15 makes you work for it, hustling for 10-day contracts as you try and make your way through the lowest ranks of the NBA. The game also added the option of uploading your own face to your player to give the process a bit of hyperrealism. Anyone who has the camera accessory for the Xbox One or PS4 can perform a facial scan and graft that scan onto a virtual body. It’s a pretty cool idea, but early trials have been a bit hit-and-miss.

Fans who picked up the game today have been uploading their attempts at facial scanning to Twitter, and the results have been fairly horrifying. I don’t mean that in an “if my ex saw me on the street dressed like this, I’d be horrified” type of way. I mean it in a full-on nightmare fuel, call-your-doctor-for-a-refill-of-Xanax kind of way. While some attempts turned out down-right goofy, others looked like they came straight from the set of The Walking Dead. 

This is the problem inherent in releasing a new version of a sports video game every year. Games are expensive, and developers are constantly looking for ways to differentiate between versions so as to not seem like just a roster update. They succeed in many ways. The defensive upgrades in this year’s version of the Madden franchise is just one recent standout (NHL15 failed pretty hard in their release, but that’s a different story). As it happens, even the process of facial scanning can be frustrating. A viewing of Owen S. Good’s attempts for Polygon is a short introduction to a man descending into madness.

NBA 2K15 has already sent along some steps for getting successful scans, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some patches coming in the not-so-distant future. In the meantime, enjoy dominating the NBA as a soulless member of the army of undead. If your character manages to overtake LeBron and snack on his tasty brains, feel free to link a video in the comments.

Given the success of MLB.tv and MLS Live, it was only a matter of time before another major sport followed suit with an all new online streaming service. With a clear shift in how people prefer to receive their sports services — so called cord-cutters are dropping television service in favor of online streaming — the NBA announced a deal yesterday that could see a major change in how fans watch games.

The nine-year TV agreement between the league, ESPN/ABC, TNT and Time Warner won’t officially start with the 2016-17 season, but it could include some good news for those who want to stream games without a cable/satellite package. Per the Wall Street Journal:

As part of its deal, ESPN negotiated a package of games for the online video service. The NBA’s “League Pass” offering already allows users to stream live regular-season games that aren’t televised nationally and aren’t available in their home market.

But ESPN has been cautious about letting its most valuable content—live professional sports games—outside the walls of pay television. Its streaming app WatchESPN is only available to pay-TV customers, so the new online service represents a shift in approach….

It isn’t clear whether the online service will be a subscription offering or a “transactional” one in which people will pay for individual games. The parties are considering licensing the package to wireless carriers such as Verizon that are building online video services, one of the people familiar with the matter said. The number of games that will be made available for the online service is still being decided.

The significance of being able to view games without a cable or satellite plan cannot be understated. The existing NBA League Pass allows one to stream out of market games online for 149.99 for the strictly streaming version — including mobile — or 199.99 for the stream + television package. On the worldwide leader side, WatchESPN requires an existing paid TV subscription to view games, so this new service must be something built from the ground up.

Curiously rather than the NBA buying out its own streaming services, NBA League Pass and NBA TV, the online games continues to be handled by the Turner Broadcasting Company. To outsource something as big as this and still not maintain full, top-down control is a questionable move, especially when considering past criticisms of NBA League Pass.

Assuming ESPN’s streaming service has nothing to do with the previous frustrations with League Pass, this could usher in a new era of free streaming sports for internet-only subscribers. ESPN has a solid history of online services, as ESPN 360/ESPN 3 were stable platforms, and given their renewed partnership with the NBA, ESPN should  invest considerable resources to their NBA centered streaming service.

(Header photo via Keith Allison)