Sports imPULSE

MLB Safety: head gear on the mound

An equipment manufacturer for College Baseball and Little League has devised a prototype for a pitchers helmet, the Boston Globe reports.

According to a press release, "Easton-Bell Sports designed the new helmet prototype to protect pitchers like Gunnar Sandberg, the 17-year old Marin Catholic High School student who suffered life-threatening injuries last March when he was hit in the head by a batted-ball while pitching. Gunnar made a triumphant recovery and is back on the field, but he and his family are now working to improve safety for baseball players to help prevent other families from suffering similar tragedies."

The technology was designed in Scotts Valey, Calif at Easton-Bell's research and development center, titled "The Dome".

SporTracker New iPhone App - Unstrap Your Heart

 

SporTracker has released a new Iphone app which can track your heart rate, calories burned, speed, distance, location and much more through a simple arm-band, rather than being strapped to the chest.

Using built-in iPhone GPS and motion sensors, the SporTracker app takes control over the body parameters allowing its users to concentrate on their sport activities. With the incredible arm sensor that measures heart rate and calories burned and wirelessly transfers body parameters to smartphones.

There is also an emergency button allowing users to send instant messages to a predefined number or posting the picture of the current location on Facebook.

SporTracker 1.0 is available for $4.99  exclusively on the App Store in the Healthcare & Fitness category.

Powdersurf

 

Snowboarding technology has come a long way.  Borrowing technology from skateboarding, surfing and snowboarding, Grassroots Powdersurf has developed what they claim is the ultimate backcountry powder tool.  So, whether you are into busting kickflips and shovits or just wanting to slay some deep powder and drop some cliffs - this board's for you.

No bindings or cheater straps here, just real skate-influenced and surf-influenced powder slashing goodness.

Charles Barkley launches official website

Charles Barkley is not on Twitter. That would be a great platform for his verbosity. The popular NBA TV analyst has however launched a new website, charlesbarkely.com.  The site went live a couple of weeks ago and includes the following features:

 

• Live Chats: Barkley will answer questions from fans during regular live video chats.
• Movie Reviews: Barkley will put his own spin on movie reviews including rankings of “Really Turrible” to “Not Turrible.”
• Rant and Rave: Barkley will provide fans with his colorful opinion on current topics in the news.
• Inside the NBA: Now fans can view their favorite clips and bloopers of Charles from Inside the NBA.
• Video clips: Fans can view the best of Barkley outside the paint from his late night show appearances, charity events and more.
• Weekly Poll/Photo Gallery: Fans can view a photo gallery of Charles throughout his storied career as an NBA All-Star and analyst.
• Spanish Word of the Day: Continuing his quest to master Spanish as a second language, Charles will provide fans a chance to learn with him through his “Spanish Word of the Day.”

But it's still not Twitter.

EMR's - we're finally seeing the value

In one of the most methodologically rigorous studies to date on health information technology, NORC at the University of Chicago has found that Americans favor use of electronic medical records (EMRs) by a wide margin (78 percent). The results of the NORC study are important because they appear to show popular support for initiatives of President George W. Bush in 2004 and President Barack Obama in 2009 to assure that all Americans have EMRs by 2014. The findings were published in the February edition of the journal, HSR: Health Services Research.

Other findings showed that

• 78 percent of Americans believe EMRs could improve care
• 59 percent believe EMRs could reduce health costs
• 72 percent support sharing of health care information among providers
• 80 percent favored use of e-prescribing (sending prescriptions electronically from the physician to the pharmacy)
• 79 percent thought that personal health records (an electronic record designed specifically for consumers to access over the web) would help patients to be better informed about their health.
• Despite the fact that 48 percent of Americans are concerned about the privacy of medical records, fully 64 percent said that the benefits of EMRs outweigh privacy concerns

If NFL uniforms were done soccer style

Designer Jimmy Nutini has an interesting design idea. What would NFL  uniforms look like if they were done "soccer style" complete with overt corporate logos. Without a doubt the current sponsorship agreements would probably double if American sports sponsorship crossed the line into on the uniform advertising but Nutini's do have a unique appeal.

Check out all of the concepts at his blog.

Best Tub Ever

Ok, so you get done with a long run and want to take a hot soak or you just finished another grueling workout and need to juimp in a tub. Nothing beats this design, you will at least be comfortable and able to rock yourself to sleep.

Made from Carbon Fiber, Vessel is not only a work of art but a breath of fresh air in a concept that has not been improved on since its inceptions.

I certainly hope SplinterWorks received a patent for this design.  Very, very cool.  I'll see if I can get one to "try it out"...

We're Baaaaaack!

We apologize for the little (OK, big) hiccup in updating our blog on the latest sports technology.  Had some very weird business issues to deal with.  Not the greatest excuse - we know, we know, but it did take up a lot of time.

Anyway, we're back with the same intense focus on the intersection of sports and technology.  We look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Here we go.......

How To Watch The Olympics LIVE Online (Because NBC Won't Show Them To You)

Are you one of the millions of Americans infuriated that NBC is preventing you from watching the Olympics as they happen?

We are, too. 

Most of the fun of watching live sports events is the suspense of not knowing who won -- and NBC's habit of tape-delaying daytime events is ruining the Olympics for us and millions of other sports fans.

But here's some good news.  NBC owns the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the U.S., but it does not own the right to prevent you from watching the Olympics live (though it's trying its best to make sure that you don't).

Those who have the good fortune to be in other countries during these two exciting weeks can watch all the Olympics live anytime they want, just by turning on their TVs or going online (lucky them!).  And if you're willing to do a bit of technical work, you can do the same.

Sites like this Canadian one stream video of the Olympics live.  Unfortunately, you can't just go to these sites and watch using your local US Internet connection, because NBC's friends have blocked access from US ISPs.  What you can do, however, is access the Canadian site from a Canadian ISP, using a virtual private network.

What is a Virtual Private Network? In this case, it is a virtual connection that routes your entire Internet session through a server somewhere else in the world--allowing you to watch, say, Canadian Olympics broadcasts that are available to people in Canada. And it's perfect for watching the Olympics live, when NBC is refusing to show them to you.

Setting up a VPN

requires some technical work, and you might have to pay a modest amount for it.  But if you're a frustrated sports fan, it's a great way to take matters into your own hands.

Guide to 2010 Winter Olympics Online

The 2010 Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver tonight, and for those of you who can’t be tied to your TV every night to watch the opening and closing ceremonies and competitions, here’s a compilation of sites where you can not only watch video highlights of the events but also see pictures, scores, medal counts and news from the Olympics:

1. NBC Olympics:NBC, which is covering the Olympics on TV, has also set up a site where you can catch the latest scores, news and select video coverage of the competitions (powered by Microsoft Silverlight). You can also see profiles of athletes and streams of Tweets from athletes on the U.S. Olympic teams. Unfortunately, it appears that NBC is severely limiting the streaming of competitions and the ceremonies to the general public, so video will most probably be comprised of short highlights.

2. Vancouver 2010: Sponsored by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the games, this site offers schedule of events, up-to-date results and maps of the various event sites in Vancouver.

3. Google: Google has optimized its mobile search to provide better results for Olympics searches. On Google’s mobile search interface, you can search for the name of your favorite sport, and the engine will give you the latest info about game results, schedules, medal count and more. On Android and iPhone devices, the search engine’s real time search feature will show you the latest updates related to the games within the same search results.

4. Twitter: For real-time updates from the athletes, Twitter has complied a list of verified Olympic athletes. A site called Twitter-Athletes also provides the handles of many of the Olympians at the winter games.

5. Facebook: On Facebook, there is a dedicated page for the Vancouver Games from the Organizing Committee as well as a page from the International Olympics Committee, which will collects Facebook updates from athletes and post up-to-date photos from the various events.

6. Flickr: Flickr has teamed up the International Olympic Committee to create an official photo group on the photo sharing site. The IOC will also use the Flickr group to publish its official event photos, as well as upload images to its own Flickr photo stream.

7. Yahoo Sports: Yahoo Sports has launched a Winter Olympics site that will offer news coverage, photos, videos, medal counts and statistics. This week, Yahoo announced that it has also optimized its search engine for Winter Olympics news and stats.

8. Yahoo Mobile:  Yahoo has also rolled out a mobile web site to allow users to news, event schedules, stats and pictures on the go.

9. iPhone Apps: Apple has recommended several iPhone apps to help you keep up with news, schedules and more, including NBC’s official Olympics App, Canadian TV channel CTV’s Olympics App, push notifications-enabled Vancouver Games, and  Olympic Games news aggregatror Winter Games Grub.