Real-life Tony Stark — Telsa and SpaceX founder Elon Musk — is in the news again on the merit of a recent and fascinating Aeon Magazine article. The article sums up some of Musk’s recent Mars ambitions, and by way of recap: His original call for an 80,000-person colony has expanded to a 1-million-person civilization. And in case we might suspect the idea is discovery-driven, we should know the emphasis actual orbits the concept of survival.

And, oddly enough, it makes some sense. What he’s saying is:

1. There are no other civilizations networked across the known galaxy;
2. so barring any unknown unknowns, there’s either no life by Earth life or all other single-planet civs died off;
3. so what the hell? Let’s build a second Earth in case we break this one a little earlier than expected.

And since every science fiction movie ever includes Earth either being destroyed or being wasted via pollution, then I’d say we pretty much need to make that Mars colony right now.
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Sure, there are a lot of jokes to be made about the age of the San Antonio Spurs’ three biggest stars. But the fact of the matter is that a very big part of the Spurs’ recent success — including the 2013/14 NBA Championship — has to do with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker. Duncan is 38, Ginobili is 37. And while Tony Parker comes in at a spry 32 years of age, all three players’ ages don’t necessarily reflect how much wear and tear basketball has brought on their bodies. While perhaps not on par with a Willie Nelson or Tom Waits, San Antonio’s Big Three have bodies that are perhaps a little older than their actual ages project — at least in basketball terms. The Spurs have been in the playoffs every year since 1997, Duncan’s first season. They’ve gone all the way to the Finals six times. That’s a lot of playoff games to tack onto the normal 82-game schedule, not to mention the international play that all three have been a part of. That much basketball can certainly take its toll on a player. The Spurs know this, and are hoping to enhance their elder players’ health and performance with a new hire they recently announced.

According to MySanAntonio.com, the Spurs have brought on Xavi Schelling, a PhD in Physical Activity, to serve as their Applied Sports Scientist. NBA teams are already able to do a good amount of player tracking with their SportsVu system, and Schelling’s hiring should play nicely into that as San Antonio is notorious for keeping very close eyes on their players’ minutes and usage throughout the NBA season. While details haven’t been announced (are they ever with the Spurs?), it isn’t hard to envision San Antonio going beyond the simple task of tracking game minutes for a player to looking at how they’re being used, how far they’ve run, how long the’ve spent getting banged around in the post, etc. and cross-referencing that with biometric data. This can not only aid in game strategy, but at looking at how hard eight minutes is on Tim Duncan as opposed to Manu Ginobili.

Windows for success are usually small in sports, though the Spurs have managed to keep theirs open for a remarkably long time. Pairing traditional physical training with quantifiable numbers and statistics could help them squeeze the very best out of an aging team that has been dominant in recent years. Players like Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili aren’t going to be around forever in San Antonio, but it looks like the Spurs are trying to make sure those three spend as many productive minutes on the court as possible, while spending the least amount of time in the trainer’s room.

(Header photo via Katie Haugland)

Here’s something that could potentially be a big thing in sports: the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Cowboys are using microchip technology to collect data for bioanalytics.

The device emits and receives GPS and accelerometer signals, weighs about 1 ounce and is worn under practice jerseys, tucked into a pouch positioned near the top of the spine. The device emits real-time data on accelerations, decelerations, changes of direction and jumping (height and frequency).

Using the data, which Catapult calls “the world’s first bio-analytics platform,” sports teams monitor daily and weekly leg loads and adjust workouts accordingly. The data also helps quantify the progress of players who are rehabbing from injuries.

There’s so much potential for this in sports, especially in monitoring athletes’ health and rehab. It can also improve the data that’s already out there, such as in baseball with Trackman data. Scouting players and analyzing their play could be made easier with an increase in bioanalytic microchip technology within the next 10 years or so. There’d be much more accurate data — with a smaller margin of error — than there is right now, and that is a huge, huge thing for the future.

Of course, because it’s so recent, it may take a while for more teams to adapt this practice. Also, teams don’t necessarily have the same backing of a Mark Cuban-type like the Mavericks and the Cowboys have. Financial backing could, and would, be a problem for a lot of the small-market teams to incorporate. But, this is a start. There are still a lot of teams out there that don’t have the most advanced analytical technology yet, but it’s slowly being incorporated one way or another. Microchip technology could be the next thing.

(Header image via Raymangold22)

The smartphone app Snapchat may seem like it should only appeal to over-sharing tweens and dirty little dirty birds, but the company’s higher-ups are hoping that they can gain further traction with sports, leagues and athletes (pause for Brett Favre jokes) with a recent hire.

According to TechCrunch, Snapchat has recently swooped in and stolen Nike’s global director of digital, Eric Toda. Toda brings experience in social media, licensing, and content syndication, among others. Snapchat is most likely hoping to leverage Toda’s skills into cultivating partnerships in the sports world — to help teams and leagues better engage with fans.

This is all possible with Snapchat’s Our Stories feature. Users have the ability to add snaps to their own individual accounts, allowing their friends to view a 24-hour collection of all they wished to share. Our Stories brings in a bigger sense of community, allowing users to add their content to an event-based story that anyone could see. The recent 2014 World Cup was one such event, and fans could post images and video to that stream from the stands in Brazil or their own living rooms.

If Snapchat can work deals with sports entities, the Our Stories feature could widen to include individual games, playoff rounds/tournaments, or just be a place for fans of a certain team to post all their team-related pictures and videos. Fans could post scenes from their seats at the NCAA basketball tournament, videos from the Super Bowl, or clips of them cheering for their team during Game 7 of the World Series for the whole world to see.

Though it’s easy to speculate, exactly what Toda’s roll at Snapchat will be remains to be seen. But Snapchat would be a modern and fairly unobtrusive way for teams to create and cultivate fan engagement. Snapchat has moved on from naughty pics into big time corporate involvement. Sports seems like a logical next step, and it appears to be one Snapchat is trying to take.

(Header photo via Maurizio Pesce)

It appears 2K Sports’s NHL video game franchise is returning to life via the mobile sphere (h/t Polygon). With an undated title (simply: NHL 2K) it will be 2K’s first NHL game since NHL 2K11. While there is merit to the question “How terrible will the game be?” given that the rival game, so to speak, has been a wasteland of missing features, I think the enduring question is: What future lies ahead for sim sports games on mobile platforms?

And more generally: Are mobile devices becoming viable platforms for simulation sports game?

Madden NFL Mobile (Metascore 66) and the mobile edition for NBA 2K14 (Metascore 59) have shown (by their graphics) that mobile platforms are viable outlets for graphical demands of the simulation video games, but also (by their relatively weak reviews) that mobile platforms need more than just pared down or freemium versions of the platform games.

The mobile platform, to me, seems ripe for a renter model of video game use — a model many companies seem keen on using given the proliferation of MMORPGs over the last decade. Imagine paying — let’s be user-friendly — $5 a month to play an actively updated (with fresh rosters and occasional bigger patches and upgrades) version of MLB The Show. No upfront cost, just $5 a month — tacked onto your phone bill or your XBOX Live / PS Plus bill. You can play it on your mobile device, your home console, your computer. You can save your games to the cloud so your franchise is constantly developing whether you’re on the bus to work, in the bathroom at work, at home, thinking about work, and so on.

Brian Mazique and 2K Sports exec Chris Snyder discuss the new game.

I’m not talking about a freemium game. Because freemium games are not really cut out for simulation gaming and are also kinda the devil. Instead it would be a good game that, over the course of a year, would cost $60, but not expire come the end the season.

This model seems like a win-win to me. I can test out a game for just $5 (or, heck maybe $10) and if I love it, I will never have to buy a replacement and I will have it across all platforms simultaneously. I firmly believe this is what fans of simulation sports games want. Meanwhile, the gaming industry will get a steady income stream for his gold coin pool.

Of course, I could be wrong — maybe no one has an interest in pairing a controller with their iPad or Nexus phone; maybe no one else wants franchise mode in something that has a battery life; maybe there’s no better way to do it than it’s being done now — but maybe it’s time for a developer to find out. And maybe NHL 2K is the first step in that new direction?

(Header illustration via Bradley Woodrum)

The phrase “I have seen the future, and it works” is attributed to Lincoln Steffens, a proto-socialist who thought the USSR would be humanity’s haven for order and beauty. What he saw in the soon-to-be failed state, however, was merely a glimmer of the true light. Here is the true light:

It is a homemade arcade system equipped with every worthy game of our generation; it is the shimmering jewel of the ages, three decades-worth of pixels and magic. According to its assembler, Brian Collette, brother of baseball writer Jason Collette, the device has all you require:

Some of the sports games I do have working are arcade games like NBA Jam, Tecmo Bowl, ‘80s WWF games, Punch Out, Super Dodge Ball, Arch Rivals, Blades of Steel, etc., and some home console games like RBI Baseball 1-3, Baseball Stars, NHLPA ’93, among others.

A hearty giggity goo! A giggity goo to echo across the ages!

The principle of the machine is very simple — it’s basically just an old computer with a MAME emulator inside it. For more info on the parallel beauties and troubles of emulation, check out David Wiers’ excellent emulator article.

The hard part, really, is the hardware. But according to Brian, this is a device you, sir and/or madame, can build too:

• The “arcade cabinet shell” hails from Rec Room Masters
• Brian says the assembly is not taxing and that particular dealer has “lots of cool styles at all price ranges.”
• You will need a two-player joystick and trackball control panel.
• You will need a cheap PC and monitor. Says Brian: “I used a $200 Dell, any old one you’re no longer using would work; doesn’t need much modern power. Add some old computer speakers.”
• And for the cherry atop the castle of techno-awesome, Brian elected to add a coin-operated edifice so as to simulate spending extra money on playing these games. (And though he does not explicit suggest this, it may also work as an excellent power play in the family dynamics. He who controls the quarters controls the universe.) According Brian, this cleverness “only requires some simple wiring setup. They sell them here.”

(NOTE: We and I personally do not get any kickbacks from any of these above-linked business. Of course, if you work for one of those businesses, feel free to send me free stuff.)

And before you assault your loved one with tales of digital valor and majesty — and therefore signify the pressing need for a device such as this in your own home — girdle yourself with this knowledge: Apparently Brian is not the only enthusiast in the house. According to him, it’s a family affair:

My wife and son love it too, there’s nothing like playing a game on a real arcade machine whether it’s Galaga or Street Fighter II. Even Nintendo games like RBI Baseball translate well.

So really, not building one of these babies is like voting no on family values.

Bri-man estimates the total cost in the $500 to $1000 range, depending on what you’ll need to buy fresh. I, for instance, have lobbied to save at minimum two old towers (both of which have smaller processors than my Nexus 5 at this point), so I’d be gravy on that end, but the monitor would need to be acquired — perhaps via prudent garage saling. But can we put a price on awesome? Or, more importantly, can we put a price on the validation we will douse ourselves in when we suddenly have a (moderately) legitimate reason for storing those old computer parts in the baby’s closet?

Some things, I argue, are worth more than money.

The way things change and progress these days, seven years can seem like a lifetime. When viewed through certain filters, 2007 looks like ancient history. Our laptops were huge, our smartphones were pretty dumb, the Bears were good at football. A lot has changed. Our interaction with sports — the ways we observed and learned about our games — have also taken enormous leaps. The level of analysis available to us is at an all-time high. And as recent news suggests, it’s only going to get better. What we take for granted now may have seemed like a pipe dream seven years ago, but it was a technology that came about in 2007 that let us peek into the future.

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I had big hopes for my Pebble smartwatch. I envisioned a time when I could just leave my phone in my pocket or bag, and go hours and hours without having to dig it out. I could be such an engaging tablemate at restaurants. I could ride public transit and smirk at all the suckers who are glued to their devices. I would be free. Free from distraction, free from the rectangular device that has taken over my life.

Don’t get me wrong, my Pebble works just fine. It does exactly what I wanted and even more. But I am still a servant. I’m still always glancing, always clicking. Only it’s at my wrist instead of my phone. While this is an upgrade of sorts, I have learned to accept and embrace my technology overlords. Everything is still coming to me — every email from my fantasy league, every Google chat from my friends, every text from my wife — it’s just coming in a slightly more convenient way. That is, if you assume glancing at your wrist is more convenient than glancing at your phone

The Pebble has a few useful apps, but its main selling point is notifications. It relies on whatever notifications my iPhone sends me. If the phone gets it, the watch gets it. The usual fare is offered — email, text messages, etc. — but it also works with notifications from nearly any other app. When I go to a ballgame, my watch (via my MLB At the Ballpark app) welcomes me to the field. When a player on my fantasy roster has been put on the DL, my watch (via my fantasy apps) alerts me. When my beloved Astros are about to take the field, my wrist vibrates. The same goes for when they take or give up the lead. It goes on and on. This may sound annoying, but I wouldn’t be honest if I said I didn’t love it. The sports fan in me loves the updates, and the tech geek in me loves that it’s happening on my watch.

But the Pebble is a one-way street for the most part. There’s no communicating back to it. If I miss the scoring alert of the Astros game, I need to pull out my phone. If I want to check my roster to make sure my matchups are correct, out comes the phone. It’s passive. It’s a message from a carrier pigeon. It’s a fortune cookie.

Which is why the news surrounding the new round of wearable devices is so encouraging as a sports fan. Earlier this year, Google announced Android Wear, a platform for running Android apps on third-party wearable hardware, which may be getting a significant update soon. Samsung just announced their line of Gear S watches, which offers both voice and teeny-tiny keyboard input. And, of course, Apple is expected to announce their own line of wearable tech next week. The details are still fuzzy on this device, but the ability to run current iOS apps (or at least modded versions of them) isn’t out of the question. All these devices offer a good deal more of interaction. Finally, there will be a tin can on the other end of the string.

Android Wear can already offer some help for sports fans. The integration with voice search allows the user to just simply ask their watch what the score of the Giants game is. If Apple integrates Siri with it’s watches, it should allow this functionality as well. Android Wear offers pushed notifications much like the Pebble, as well. As wearable technology becomes more common, it’s easy to see tighter integration with fantasy apps, news apps from ESPN or CBS Sports, even the ability to simply pull up scores from across the league without the need for pushed alerts. The ability to change a fantasy roster from your wrist, or send your friend a taunting text after seeing his favorite team’s latest score without the need for digging a phone out of a pocket or purse is on the horizon. Who wouldn’t want to see a towering Giancarlo Stanton home run pushed to their wrist? An injury report from their favorite team at the ready with their phone still tucked away? Is MLB.tv and Sunday Ticket streaming video on a watch that far down the road?

I may be getting carried away, or I could be just scratching the surface. Pebble’s Kickstarter ended in May of 2012. A little over two years later, we’re ready to accept the next great swarm of wearable tech into (and onto) our arms. If things play out more or less as expected, I’ll still have my phone in my bag. That familiar blue glow will be coming from from wrist instead.

(Header photo via Maurizio Pesce)