Hasta La Gadget!

So your fantasy football team just clinched its spot in the virtual Super Bowl. There’s now a better way to rub it in everyone’s noses than snarky message board posts: Google has just teamed with the NFL to integrate Google+ Hangouts across the league’s fantasy football pages. The multi-person video chat is now just a step away, whether you’re trading players or checking the latest results. Google is even bending the rules slightly to allow for a full league’s dozen players in one session, instead of the usual 10, and will help host talks between commentators and league participants. Hangouts at the NFL pages are already up and running — that gives us just enough weeks to hem and haw over linebacker choices before the real NFL’s schedule gets going.

Filed under: Internet

NFL adds Google+ Hangouts to fantasy football leagues for extra-personal trash talking originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today was yet another marvelous day for football buffs everywhere, as Adidas and MLS have announced Major League Soccer will be the first intelligent circuit on the globe. Having already planned an official debut for the German company’s Elite System, now the pair’s made it known that the wearable technology is going to be expanding well beyond next week’s All-Star Game and into the MLS 2013 season. To refresh your mind a bit, the miCoach Elite System tracks an array of instrumental player data, such as speed (even if painfully slow like the Rio Ferdinand of late), acceleration, position, heartbeat and even the intensity of play — which is then pushed instantly to, you guessed it, a coach’s miCoach-equipped iPad. Adidas didn’t mention when, or if, the Elite System will be adapted elsewhere, so we’ll have to wait and see how long it takes others to join the “smart soccer” fun.

Continue reading Adidas miCoach Elite System set to equip all MLS teams in 2013, creates world’s first ‘smart league’

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables

Adidas miCoach Elite System set to equip all MLS teams in 2013, creates world’s first ‘smart league’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today’s high tech football kit may be magnitudes more protective than the bits of molded cow skin you see here but they’re not nearly as intimidating. Our friends at Oobject have assembled 12 early examples of these bad ass cranial caretakers. More »

For years and years now, football (soccer) fans have been asking themselves when FIFA would finally realize the “beautiful game” needed to start implementing some sort of tech to help referees with decision-making during major tournaments and in every-day matches. Well, that time is now. After a few months of putting the so-called goal-line technology through intensive and rigorous testing, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has once and for all approved the use of such tech in official footie games. What this means is FIFA will utilize a couple of methods, one dubbed “GoalRef” and the other “Hawk-Eye,” to assist refs in any controversial calls that may take place throughout the 90 minutes (or more if there’s extra-time) on either goal. The first of these uses electromagnetic antennas around the goal posts and crossbar to transmit a signal to a referee’s watch as soon as the entire ball crosses the line; meanwhile, the latter requires six to eight high-speed cameras — that shoot at 500 fps — to grab multiple images of the match ball and quickly process them to identify if it indeed crossed the line completely — this is also helped by black-colored dots on each goal post which aid the cameras gain a better overall precision.

What’s best, though, these new systems are set to take their first legitimate runs as soon as the FIFA Club World Cup takes place in December, with the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil also said to have the goal-line technology ready to be used in all of its 64 global glory-seeking matches.

Continue reading IFAB gives goal-line technology the nod, first official run will be at this year’s FIFA Club World Cup

IFAB gives goal-line technology the nod, first official run will be at this year’s FIFA Club World Cup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even in the offseason we’re still football crazy, and some news has leaked out that will adjust how we watch the NFL. Most recently, the Wall Street Journal reports the league has officially relaxed local blackout requirements, which reduces the chance broadcasts are turned off in a team’s home area if they don’t sell enough tickets. The new rules passed by team owners allow for local broadcasts even with ticket sales at just 85 percent, and while each team can set its own minimum, if it sells more tickets it will have to share more of the revenue with other clubs. Plans to get more fans in the stadium include free WiFi, plus mobile apps (those may cost) with game highlights and the ability to listen in on the sound from field level.

Another change affects doubleheaders, as Fox and CBS will now start their second game ten minutes later than last year at 4:25 PM ET, hopefully avoiding interference with the end of earlier games. Finally, the league has revealed its NFL Game Rewind online replay package (available on Android and iOS tablets for the first time this year) will expand to offer previously restricted angles with its coaches Film feature. Now fans can see the game tape coaches use to evaluate their teams with the “eye in the sky” All-22 view that shows all of the players and end zone cameras. We’ll see if a different viewpoint makes callers into sports talk radio any more knowledgeable about the game, but that seems doubtful.

[Thanks, @RobZuber]

Continue reading Next season NFL will release All-22 game tape, relax blackout rules and start doubleheaders later

Next season NFL will release All-22 game tape, relax blackout rules and start doubleheaders later originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 08:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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