Despite — or in some cases because of — Google’s insistence on pushing forward with new web browsing technologies, the tech giant continues to dominate the browser demographics for desktops as well as mobile phones and tablets. Not only has Chrome been on the rise for people at home, but also on the go. Via numbers from StatCounter Global Stats for mobile and tablets, only Chrome and to a much lesser extent the Android-based UC Browser and IE Mobile have increased their market shares since December 2012, the first month of collected data (click to embiggen).

For fellow computer users, and where many concerns stem from as Google phases out older technology, Chrome is even more dominant than on the mobile market. Again according to StatCounter GC, Chrome holds a remarkable 52.96% of the desktop browser market share. The gap between Chrome and everyone else has been widening since May of 2012, however Microsoft’s newest browser, Edge is looking to change things provided you’re running a Windows 10 machine.

Edge doesn’t yet have a release date, but it something I’m eager to check out. It is seemingly looking to streamline the web, something I can get behind as separate tabs and locations for things like favorites, recently visited, current downloads and my reading list are all found in different areas in Chrome. Edge’s “Hub” will place them all in one easy to access area, however it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows with Microsoft’s latest browser. While the company is promising support for existing Chrome and Firefox extensions, that support will not be arriving until a later date. No official word on Silverlight being compatible with Edge, though recent history suggests it would be as all Windows 8 devices, including the tablet Surface Pro 3, are. It would be a stunning (though in my opinion welcome) reversal if Windows 10 and by extension Edge, was not Silverlight compatible. An introduction video to Edge can be found on YouTube.

Already some sports fans are finding themselves caught in the crossfire of the browser battles, specifically those looking to watch games on Sky TV, the preeminent broadcast of English Premier League soccer games in the United Kingdom. Sky — working with BT Sports — recently negotiated a new cable deal where Sky holds broadcast rights to 126 EPL matches per season, three times as many games as BT Sports will broadcast. On the Sky Go page there is a message regarding the incompatibility:

Until Edge is officially released — and probably for some time after — Chrome remains the undisputed browser champion. If Microsoft really does aim to “blur the line between consumption and creation” as the Edge preview video suggests, Windows 10 and Edge will drop Silverlight support and force broadcast companies to update to new and better technologies. What I don’t want to see is Edge allowing massive companies to sit on their hands at the cost of time and frustration for customers.

(Header image via Microsoft)

The live-stream app Meerkat went live on the Android market today. It’s still in Beta form, so things may not be perfect just yet, however as TechGraphs overlord David Temple explained over a month ago, Meerkat — and Periscope — both offer a new way to broadcast video.

Meerkat’s rules page doesn’t clearly define what you can or can’t stream as it is more of an outline of features.

Once you jump into the legal area of their terms of use one can see the company strictly prohibits broadcasting copyrighted material — as do the content creators. HBO has already sent out takedown notices to people streaming the new Game of Thrones season via Meerkat, though perhaps the company is in the takedown notice mood. Other creative minds have gone the opposite way and are embracing Meerkat. Entertainers such as Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg and Jim Gaffigan are sprinkled among Meerkat’s leader-board in order for them to be easily found. If you are so inclined to follow them on Meerkat, expect a push notification when they begin a new broadcast.

Within each cast there is a chat room for interaction between viewers and the broadcaster. One of the pillars of Meerkat is the ability to cast in the here and now, however the company has also added ability to schedule a future broadcast. The quality of the available casts seems to be dependent on the the strength of the caster’s internet connection. In my brief experiences those doing in an office or home setting have had a quality better than Vines — even with their new 720p broadcasts — however what I assumed to be 4G/LTE connections stuttered and froze from to time. Part of it could be the app is still in Beta or it could be that the heavy bandwidth required to stream is too taxing on user’s non-WiFi networks.

These are urky broadcasting rights waters we’ve waded into. From takedown notices, muted streams on Twitch.tv due to music rights to being wary of narcs taking you down in person for an illegally stream boxing match, the gap between producers and end-users appears to be widening.

(Header image via Meerkat)

As we lead in to tomorrow night’s fight of the century and the most expensive pay-per-view ever, HBO and Showtime – the premium cable companies that joined forces to produce the event – are kissing their biceps following their jab-hook combination that knocked online streaming sites to the mat.

Yesterday a federal judge granted HBO and Showtime a temporary restraining order against boxinghd.net and sportship.org, two sites which advertised unauthorized free online streaming of the bout, but have since removed all related content.

Deciding Judge George Wu wrote:

“Plaintiffs have established that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of immediate relief. Among other things, Defendants’ threatened infringement would strip Plaintiffs of the critical right of first transmission and publication of an extremely valuable live sporting event, would interfere with Plaintiffs’ relationships with third parties, is likely to damage Plaintiffs’ goodwill among consumers, and will deprive Plaintiffs of revenue that will be difficult or impossible to calculate, but is likely far in excess of any amount that Defendants could repay to Plaintiffs in damages even if the amount could be calculated.”

At time of publication, both sites are unavailable. Deadline.com reported on Wednesday that “where big splashy photo of the two boxers and a ‘click here’ to watch the weekend fight, now there is pretty much nothing.”

The mega fight will cost viewers $100 to watch in HD ($90 in standard definition). According to Forbes, the fight is expected to earn $300 million in PPV revenue or more.

Online streaming sites aren’t the only ones being watched. The Guardian ran a piece Tuesday which brought light to the existence of pay-per-view cops.

On the night of the big fight, the PPV cops – who are not real police, though one company says many former law-enforcement officers are in their ranks – will attempt to find bars showing the fight without having paid licensing fees. If they help promoters nail establishments that have not paid, the companies say they can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The cost for a bar or restaurant to purchase a license depends on the occupancy of the building. But for many establishments, it’s costing about $5000. The bigger the occupancy, the higher the cost. And many bars have decided it’s simply too expensive to carry the fight.

Meanwhile, other bars certainly will try to fly under the radar. These PPV cops are searching for those that duck the expensive license and purchase the residential PPV charge of $100 to show the fight illegally.

One firm’s ad offers $250 for every illegal location found for these enforcers. Another firm advertised on Craigslist. And it’s not all just show.

From The Guardian:

A bar in Lake Elsinore, California, shut down after paying a $23,000 fine for illegally showing a Mayweather fight. J&J Sports Promotions, which licenses fights and has partnered with G&G, has also filed more than 1,600 lawsuits against businesses illegally showing PPV events since 2010. In 2009 it won a $112,800 default judgment against a bar in Arkansas. It settled for $50,000 with a bar that showed the Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight in 2011. “I’m not in business to sue people,” the J&J president Joseph Gagliardi told the Los Angeles Times. “But I’ve got to do it for one reason: to protect the clientele who are doing it right.”

Fight night piracy is down for the count. Bloodied and brawled, this one looks like a loss.

(Image courtesy of Justin Matthew)

The landscape of television programming availability is constantly shifting. Though some networks and cable providers have been giving end users a difficult time, NBC is shifting more freedom towards their cable subscribers. The broadcast giant has now made their NBC Sports Live Extra app available on both AppleTV and Roku boxes, allowing those with qualified cable plans to view NBC covered sports ranging from the PGA Tour to English Premier League action.

Allison Moore, general manager and executive vice-president of TV Everywhere (NBC Universal) was quoted:

“This launch demonstrates NBC Sports’ ongoing commitment to provide added value to loyal fans who can now have more access to the live sporting events they love. Customers love our Apps on iPhone and iPad and we can’t wait for them to experience what we can offer on Apple TV.”

On the Roku side of things, Moore went on to say:

“As we have seen with the success of the NFL and the Olympic Games, real-time sports programming with a cross-device reach is a crown jewel in NBCUniversal’s ever-expanding TV Everywhere initiative.”

While these moves fail to address cord cutters, at least a major content provider is paying attention to the desires of their existing customers. It may not bring anyone who has already parted ways with their cable bill, but it just might keep a few more sports fans in the NBC fold. With other traditional content companies attempting to embrace new broadcast media, namely Cablevision’s recent partnerships with Hulu and HBO Now, it appears as though the old dogs are trying to learn new tricks.

(Header image via Roku)

Appearances have proven true, with ESPN filing suit against Verizon in New York Supreme Court yesterday. Details of the suit are scarce, as ESPN hasn’t yet filed a complaint, but the summons (shown below via Ars Technica) indicates they will be seeking injunctive relief and damages based on their breach of contract claims.

Without seeing the agreement between ESPN and Verizon or ESPN’s soon-to-be-filed complaint, we can only speculate as to what ESPN’s breach of contract argument will be. What is clear is that ESPN (as well as 21st Century Fox and NBCUniversal) sees Verizon’s new FiOS cable packages that move their programming to optional tiers as a threat to their current business model, which is based on their programming appearing on all basic cable packages, bringing in hefty subscriber fees.

ESPN, in a statement provided to Ars Technica, said, “ESPN is at the forefront of embracing innovative ways to deliver high-quality content and value to consumers on multiple platforms, but that must be done in compliance with our agreements. We simply ask that Verizon abide by the terms of our contracts.”

Deirdre Hart, a spokeswoman for Verizon, responded to ESPN’s statement, saying, “Consumers have spoken loud and clear that they want choice, and the industry should be focused on giving consumers what they want. We are well within our rights under our agreements to offer our customers these choices.”

ESPN’s position in their suit might be that their agreement with Verizon stipulated that their channels would appear on all basic cable packages, thus FiOS’s optional packages are a breach of contract, while Verizon’s defense could  be that Verizon FiOS is a distinct offering featuring new fiber optic technology that isn’t bound by the original agreement.

According to The Washington Post, an ESPN spokesperson added “that the disagreement was not primarily about money, but about sending a message that cable partners can’t ‘unilaterally change deals’ without permission.” Which is of course, nonsense. As Deep Throat said in All The President’s Men, “Follow the money.”

ESPN has over 100 million cable subscribers via the major cable companies who each pay ESPN about $6.10 per subscriber. According to Michael Nathanson of MoffetNathanson Research, if ESPN went fully a la carte, their users would have to pay $36.30 per month. If cable operators are able to shift ESPN to option tiers, their subscriber base would surely fall, hurting their bargaining position when their current agreements expire. In addition, ESPN doesn’t have an opportunity to negotiate higher subscriber fees for these optional tiers, which must have been part of the year long negotiation between ESPN and Dish Network regarding their new streaming service SlingTV.

I would be surprised if this suit went to judgment, as ESPN has already set a precedent with Dish Network for new streaming cable service agreements. It may take a year or so for the lawyers involved in this matter to be satisfied with their billings, but I suspect we’ll see a new agreement between ESPN and Verizon that will account for FiOS and allow ESPN to inflate the sports cable bubble for years to come.

The NFL has been gracious enough to stream the draft itself for the past few years and 2015 is no different. The stream for the draft is an NFL.com exclusive and they are boasting a record setting 53 hours of coverage between April 30 – May 2, though not all of their content is available online. Owners of an XBox One can access the draft through the app, however authentication is required. On the NFL Youtube channel, the first round picks will be uploaded, but if you’re looking for more information before the first pick is announced, there is no shortage of other sources.

For standard coverage such as pre-draft boards and predictions, the normal Sports Illustrated, Fox, ESPN, Yahoo! and CBS sites do the job, however for someone who is looking to put something on in the background, 120 Sports is the place to go. We’ve taken a look at 120 Sports in the past, however they warrant another go with their impressive schedule of events. The 120 Sports site is already indexed with videos of player information, evaluations and look-ins. Their full press release can be found here, though the following are some of the highlights.

– Beginning on Sunday, April 26 a mock draft sets the tone for the rest of the week as the four-hour event will have insight from former players, scouts and experts.

– The next event isn’t until Wednesday, April 28, however it should be worth the wait as at least five NFL prospects will have exclusive interviews. Some of the scheduled interviews are projected first-rounder Dorial Green-Beckham as well as Ameer Abdullah and Devin Gardner.

– Once the actual draft kicks off, 120 Sports continues to offer programming as a second screen to the NFL.com broadcast. Pre-draft as well as backstage interviews with players are on the docket throughout the three day event as are fan interviews.

Available on mobile for iOS and AppleTV as well as Android and Chromecast, 120 Sports offers plenty of ways to stay up to date on the draft for those without a cable subscription. Seeing such an extensive amount of programming from a non-TV entity is perfect for cable cutters. Hopefully they’ll do the same with the upcoming MLB draft.

I don’t play fantasy baseball. Baseball simulations are more my thing. In 1998 I started a Strat-O-Matic league which grew to a league of 24 of us that play each other online. I’m completely in on Out of the Park Baseball, trying to lead my 2017 Miami Marlins – sans Jose Fernandez, Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Santana (acquired) following season-ending injuries – in my second season as general manager/manager after starting my career managing the Pawtucket Red Sox. For whatever reasons, fantasy baseball just never caught on with me.

Then came advertising for Draft Kings and FanDuel. Lots and lots and lots and lots of it. My curiosity grew and finally, after a year of brain washing, the mad men won. Yesterday I threw down a whopping $10 and signed up for Draft Kings to see what the big deal was. It was a fact-finding mission, mostly. But a part of me, say my right pinky toe, wanted it to become a source of income for my beer fund. After my first 25 cent game, I realized that beer fund was going to stay dry.

And now I bring the experience to you, the TechGraphs readers. Learn from me, what and what not, to do.

Grab a promo code

Before you sign up for an account, make sure you have a promo code. It’s free money. I Googled and ran with the first bigger-looking site that didn’t seem sketchy. It promised a matching bonus up to $600 for the first deposit. The one I signed up for isn’t free money, though. It’s contingent upon me earning Frequent Player Points. I earned one point for my one game, and only have 99 left points left before my bonus kicks in. Geesh. So, search around a bit, see if you can find a better deal.

PayPal?!? YES

I wanted a royalty-related username, since the site is about kings and such, and discovered that landgrave is a German title. My last name is quite German, so you can find me at LandgraveK on the site. My wallet sits in the glove compartment of my car, because I roll dangerously. Fortunately PayPal is an option to make a deposit, as are major credit cards. Otherwise I would’ve had to walk outside … where there are people … that might want to wave or talk to me.

Take a deep breath

I was anxious to find a game once they had my money. I landed in the lobby, skimmed my options, and felt completely overwhelmed. It was like walking in to a major casino for the first time. Bright, bold colors illuminated a dark background. My eyes fixated on the big ads. I gathered my over-stimulated self and decided to proceed cautiously.

Slugfest, Perfect Game, Moonshot, Gold Glove. What is going on here? Guaranteed, Qualifiers, Head-to-Head, 50/50 Leagues, Multipliers, Steps. And then I found it. My peoples. The Beginner games.

The lowest entry fee was a dollar. I’m stupid cheap and looked around for quarter games. In my search, I found some free games that may appeal to those that want to try it out and keep a buck. One I came across sported a $10 prize spread among five players, so $2 winning each.

Bam. Quarter Arcade. This is where I belong. I joined a game that maxed out at 14,100 players. The first place prize was $150, a 500 percent return. With a $3,000 prize pool, those that finished in the top 2,800 would minimally double their entry fee, or better. Optimism warmed my belly.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

Things started off well, actually. Fellow TechGraphs writer David Wiers is a Draft Kings boss and Tweeted a tip.

I love Haren in #DFS today. Only 7K on DK, 7.6k on FanDuel. Up against a scuffling Phillies side

— David Wiers (@davidwiers) April 21, 2015

Dan Haren was my first pick. And then things went totally wrong. I analyzed the pitching match ups, looking for the worst pitchers to draft a lineup against. Trevor Cahill’s a bum, so I drafted Kevin Plawecki in his major league debut and Lucas Duda. For fun I took Mike Trout, because I’m a huge homer, and Jose Bautista. A handy tool is that after each pick, it calculates the cost for average player remaining. For example, if I had five slots left to fill and $24,000 remaining (my funds started at $50,000), then I had an average of $4800 to spend on each player. I filled the rest of my roster utilizing this tool, my own instincts and figuring out best matchups. Without analytics.

Our brethren over at RotoGraphs do a fantastic job providing readers with quality research to help you select players for traditional and daily fantasy sports. Roto Riteup, which Wiers contributes to, and The Daily Grind are daily musts if you want to make educated decisions with your lineup. Or you can trust your guts and guile, like I did, and have Brett Anderson whiff in your face.

Pick your crew

Selecting players to add to your lineup is as easy as clicking a plus button. Each day’s games are listed with starting time and weather. If lineups have been officially announced, a check mark appears next to the player’s name. It’s no fun picking Buster Posey if it’s his off day. Each player’s profile features stats, updates and analysis for easy-access info.

Once you’ve set your lineup, you get the option of joining other games with that same lineup, which is handy if you’re looser with your pocket change than I am, or join other contests with a different lineup.

So how’d I do?

I was dreadful. I finished 11,527 out of those 14,100 players with a final score of 75.9. The aforementioned Anderson went negative on me against a crap Giants offense for -2.4. The Wiers pick, Haren, netted 15.3 points and was only bested by Bautista’s 16. I don’t believe he earned me any extra machismo points, however, after Tuesday night’s game.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that I downloaded the DraftKings iOS app, which performed as I’d hoped.

So what say you, TechGraph readers? Do you play? Are you curious? Comment below. All tips/tricks/advice are appreciated as well.

The tale of two mobile carriers could be at an end. For years Verizon and AT&T have flip-flopped between the being the largest domestic carrier, though not for lack of competition. Soon, perhaps today, Google will announce they’re joining the ranks, but it seems they will be partnered with existing carriers T-Mobile and Sprint. For now it seems as though the Google service will have data priced based on pure usage rather than paying for a set data plan. Still just a rumor at this point and limited to the Nexus 6 phone on T-Mobile and Sprint, Google appears set to dip their toes in the wireless provider market.

For example, the alleged data plan would not require agreeing to anything resembling current 3GB data plans where if you were to go over said agreed data plan, you’d be hit with overages. Both AT&T and Verizon offer data calculators, however  watching five hours of video (maybe two baseball games) with no emails, tweets etc. account for almost 2 GB. Verizon is partnered with NFL Mobile, but on their calculator the same 300 minutes of streaming the NFL Mobile is counted at 625 MB, barely one third the data usage of the 1750 MB 300 minutes of 4G usage tallies.

In select AT&T and Verizon plans a $15 overage for as little as 250 MB can be applied to your monthly bill. If price is a concern in for your next phone, and it is for just about everyone these days, you may want to avoid Verizon as they don’t even want your business. According to Bloomberg and chief financial officer Francis Shammo, Verizon lost about 138,000 postpaid accounts — a standard account and not prepaid — over the past three months, but Shammo didn’t pull any punches on his thoughts during the quarterly earnings call:

“If the customer who is just price-sensitive and does not care about the quality of the network—or is sufficient with just paying a lower price—that’s probably the customer we’re not going to be able to keep.”

Give how well poorly Verizon’s attempt at a tech blog went, the big red telcom could be out of touch with much of its user base. Perhaps if robots were penning the stories, something Verizon apparently wanted due to strict limitations of news coverage, the site would still be up. Whether they’re alienating their consumers or not, as recently as Q4 2013 Verizon was the biggest carrier in the US, though the latest numbers have them tied with AT&T at 34% of the market each. The table below, powered by Statista, displays carrier market share as far back as the first quarter of 2011.

Google is pushing, or more accurately in some cases dragging, the web as their extensions will soon no longer be compatible with older website designs and now YouTube apps are no longer compatible with many older devices. The advances Google is bounding forward on in web development will hopefully be mirrored on the wireless phone service side of things.

Everyone involved with cable television knows that a la carte programming is coming, but it appears ESPN, the network most responsible for inflating sports cable bubble, isn’t going down without a fight.

Verizon FiOS, a new fiber optic television and internet offering from Verizon, made their cable packages available to the customers yesterday, which included pared down options that makes ESPN’s channels an option, rather than a necessary part of the pay television experience.

Their basic package includes major broadcasters and other basic cable channels like CNN and AMC, but makes ESPN and ESPN 2 part of a separate “sports” tier. The Walt Disney Company, who owns ESPN, made statement last Friday stating:  “Media reports about Verizon’s new contemplated bundles describe packages that would not be authorized by our existing agreements. Among other issues, our contracts clearly provide that neither ESPN nor ESPN2 may be distributed in a separate sports package.”

The reason why Disney is protesting Verizon’s new offering is because ESPN makes $6.5 billion, roughly two-thirds of their revenue, from cable and satellite affiliate fees. If ESPN begins to be relegated to optional tiers by cable companies, those fees would undoubtedly decrease the next time they meet at the negotiating table. This is a position ESPN can ill afford to end up in as they have billions of dollars in rights fees guaranteed to most of the major US pro sports leagues for years to come.

With cord-cutting slowly gaining steam and many Millennials not even buying into cable television at all, cable operators are grudgingly realizing that changing their business model is the only way to retain the next generation of television viewers, hence Dish Networks’s Sling TV and now Verizon FiOS.

However, the deflation of the sports bubble will probably take years to begin deflating, as ESPN has over 100 million subscribers via cable providers and cord-cutting isn’t increasing at the rates initially projected. Most likely, it will come, as Hemingway wrote in The Sun Also Rises, “Two ways, gradually and then suddenly.” Consider these new cable offerings the first shot across the bow.

HBO, despite attempts to draw a larger consumer base via the still-new HBO Now streaming platform, seem set on alienating some of those very same new consumers. As stated in the terms of service, HBO NOW is available and designed strictly for United States residents, though numerous Canadians, European countries and Australia have circumvented the geo-locking HBO has placed on their product. At least until a few days ago, when The Sydney Morning Herald reported receiving emails from HBO warning of the potential for service to be cut off as soon as tomorrow. Rather than get payment in exchange for a service — a pretty basic concept — HBO seems to prefer receiving nothing.

From the above link, the following is an email sent to an Australian HBO Now user:

Using a virtual private network (VPN) to trick the HBO NOW service into believing the the customer is located within the U.S. is apparently akin to pirating. If HBO is threatening to punish people who already pay for their service, it is curious to see them complain about online leaks when they take away a viable option for people to lawfully watch their shows.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Netflix, who also has strict terms of service regarding location, but is yet to actively target consumers. The streaming giant did limit the mobile — specifically Android — based geo-locking tricks, however Netflix spokesman Cliff Edwards said as long as the consumer can be verified in the correct location, they company will not block legitimate VPN usage. In an email Edwards wrote “There’s been no change to our VPN policy.” In a separate appearance, Edwards claimed “Detecting VPN usage is like playing a game of whack-a-mole.By their very nature, it’s difficult to tell how many people are bypassing geofilters.”

HBO NOW’s launch was disappointing even before this with their initial exclusive Apple partnership, but to see them go after paying customers, despite being out of the country, is shocking. If a foreign cord cutter isn’t allowed to pay for the standalone HBO programming, only one option remains and it involves the consumer getting what they want with HBO receiving zero payment.

(Image via HBO)