Cord-cutters looking for a device to stream their favorite (out-of-market, of course) sports have no shortage of options. Most gaming consoles have plenty of sports app offerings. Other products like Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast have a lot of overlap in their app choices as well. For most, much of their decision comes down to which ecosystem in which they are already entrenched. Already bought a bunch of stuff on iTunes? Apple TV might be for you. People who use Google Play for a lot of purchases might find Chromecast to be more prudent. Recently, Amazon got into the streaming device game as well, offering the Fire TV that piggybacked on their ever-expanding package of services. Though the original Fire TV came in at a very reasonable $99, Amazon has just released the smaller Fire TV Stick for less than half of that. And if you’re an Amazon Prime member already, you can nab one for an even more enticing number — $19.

The Fire TV Stick and the already established (and well reviewed) Roku stick look a lot alike. While Roku tries to remain platform agnostic, the Fire TV Stick, like it’s predecessor, is heavily tied in to Amazon’s Prime Service, which offers TV and Movie rentals and purchases, free streaming of some content, and a streaming music catalog. The Stick is priced at $39, $4 more than a Chromecast and $11 less than a Roku Streaming Stick, but current Prime members can get it for less than a Jackson. Non-Prime users can even sign up for a 30-day free trial and still get the discount. Users of MLB.TV and NBA League Pass will be able to follow those sports with the respective apps on Fire TV Stick, and the device also offers support for WatchESPN. Of course, other services like Netflix and Hulu are also included.

The streaming device market is a competitive one. For my money, Roku still offers the best selection of sports-streaming apps. But if you’re already tied into the Amazon ecosystem, that tasty price point plus the added ability to watch baseball and basketball might just be enough to sway you.

You may have been able to plop yourself in your favorite couch these past couple days, but those out and about this weekend might not have that luxury. If you’ll be away from the friendly confines of your living room this Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, you won’t be out of luck if you want to catch the World Series.

For the first time ever, MLB.TV will be streaming the FOX broadcast of the World Series. No blackouts, no weird second-screen nonsense, no trying to set up a proxy on your phone. There are (of course) a couple of catches:

• You will need to be a current MLB.TV subscriber. If you aren’t yet, you can pick up a subscription for $9.99. If you pay now, you get a free month of MLB.TV in 2015, for what that’s worth.
• You need to log in with a valid TV provider account through one of: DirecTV, Optimum, Time Warner Cable,Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse TV, COX, Bright House Networks, Buckeye, Arvig, WOW!, Suddenlink, or Consolidated Communications. Comcast/Xfinity is a glaring omission here, though that could possibly be remedied through the Fox Sports Go app.

The need for a cable/satellite login is off-putting, since FOX broadcasts the games for free over the air anyhow. The good news is that anyone with the above providers can access the games without the need to have special channels or packages.

It’s not perfect, but it’s still a better option than what was available the past few years. Cord-cutters are still left in the cold, but those with even the cheapest cable packages will be all set to go to watch the Fall Classic no matter where they are.

Those wanting access to video training and analysis tool Ubersense no longer have to switch platforms, as the company has announced that an Android version of their popular mobile app is now available. Ubersense uses your devices camera to capture high-speed video of your performance for later reviewing. It offers slow-motion playback and drawing tools to break down movement frame by frame and help understand body position and angles. Ubersense claims it’s had over 2.5 million downloads since its inception from athletes in over 50 sports. Ubersense has even been used by US Olympic bobsledders.

The sport independence of Ubersense was always its selling point. While specific tools and apps for golfers and tennis players have been around for some time, Ubsersense doesn’t differentiate. It can be used by baseball players, bowlers, track and field competitors, and even dancers. Anyone who wants to take a look at themselves or their students in a hyper-specific manner can use the app.

Now, Ubersense can also boast platform independence. The Android offering comes in lockstep with their acquisition by Hudl, a similar app that focuses more on the coaching side of the sport.

Ubersense is a free download on either the iOS or Android stores, with a monthly or yearly charge for Ubersense Elite, which offers the ability to upload videos to online storage and sync across multiple devices.

(Photo via Ubersence Facebook)

We’ve been trying to predict baseball since baseball became a thing. Whether its preseason predictions on who would win the divisions or guesses at who win the Series, we love to take a crack at playing fortuneteller. Some people look at recent performances, some look at pitching matchups or bullpen strength. Heck, some might flip a coin. One gaming company tried to leverage their very powerful software to try and pick a World Series winner this year, and the results are really close.

Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) is a simulation-based baseball game for computers and mobile devices. The game doesn’t let you aim a pitch or swing a bat, it instead gives you control over a franchise on a extremely granular level — drafting players, signing free agents, hiring/firing coaches, constructing lineups — at every level of competition from Single-A up. Games can use current MLBers, historical teams, or a pool of randomly-generated players to create a realistic simulations over one season or the course of many seasons. Our own Bradley Woodrum wrote a complete review of the game for NotGraphs in April.

OOTP takes great pride in their simulations software, and they put that software to the test recently. On their official blog, they outline their methodology and results for the five-series simulation.  You can check out the blog for the full rundown — they even provide a nice spreadsheet for quick analysis — but their numbers show the Royals as their favorite by a very slim margin.

To celebrate the upcoming fun, OOTP is also offering a 50% discount on their game during the World Series and offering the mobile version for a buck. If you haven’t picked the game up yet, now’s a great time as OOTP is a perfect remedy for the throws throes of winter. Plus, if you’re not a Giants or Royals fan, you can take a crack at controlling your favorite team and try and get them into the World Series for your own bit of manufactured joy.

A company based in Washington state, i1 Biometrics, is taking a different approach to using sensor tech to detect concussions in football players. Other companies that work in this space, like The Shockbox, rely on sensors placed in the helmet. As Information Week reports, i1 Biometrics is cutting out the middle man, so to speak, and looking to gather data right from the source. They are working on a device that will track collisions from the head itself by using another piece of already-used equipment — the mouthguard.

The reasoning behind this is fairly straightforward. According to CEO Jesse Harper (via Information Week):

“We’re not the first sensor company to enter the space,” […] “One of our main differences is accuracy.” Because the mouthguard is in contact with the skull, “everywhere your upper jaw goes, the mouthpiece goes.”

By comparison, he said, sensors attached to helmets measure the impact to the helmet, not the head.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, and their reasoning for using a different approach not only differentiates them from competitors, but has the potential to do more accurate tracking. i1’s product also utilizes a different communication method to relay the information to the devices that collect the data. i1 doesn’t trust SMS or Bluetooth to be 100% reliable in a stadium full of fans with their own mobile devices. To avoid coverage outages or missed communications, the mouthguard leverages a proprietary radio signal. If the signal is lost, the mouthguard stores the data locally until the link can be restored.

With the increased scrutiny sports like football and hockey are under to ensure player’s safety, technology that captures head trauma data is big business these days. i1 isn’t the only company looking to make players safer while making a profit at the same time. While taking any steps to studying and preventing brain injuries is a good thing, the entire market could come down to which product is most accurate. By getting as close to the brain as possible (without sci-fi implants at least), i1 is trying to get data right from the source.

(Header image via Erik Drost)

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.

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.

If you’ve read Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, you know his theory regarding how a youngster’s birthday can affect their ability to rise in the ranks of hockey. Whether you believe it or not, it’s an interesting, quantitative way to look at exactly how people become successful at the sport. As it happens, scientists in Australia have come to a similar conclusion regarding rugby players, though it has less to do with age, and more to do with geography.

Scientists from Sydney University’s Faculty of Health Sciences recently published an article in the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching stating that Australian players from smaller towns are much more likely to succeed in the later stages of rugby than those from larger cities. According to Dr. Stephen Colby (via Business Insider):

“Our research reveals if you started out as a junior in a small country town the odds are stacked in your favour. Statistically, it’s more likely that you will go on to play at a professional level compared to a junior who starts their participation at a club within a big city.”

The study focuses not on where players live currently, but more on where they played at the junior level within the country. The exact reason has yet to be nailed down, but there appears to be some sort of physical or sociological advantage to playing and training in smaller cities and towns. The study looked at the current rosters of Australian National Rugby League players, and from where the players hailed.

The jury may still be out as to exactly why rural kids have a better shot in the rugby world, but it’s a great example of how researchers and scientists are using datasets to find trends and correlations within sports.

(Header photo via reepy_au)