Hasta La Gadget!

Remember last month when we showed you Facebook data of NFL fans across the US? It’s back again, only this time it’s all about the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that just started yesterday. The data is from over 1 million Facebook users who have “liked” a fan page of one of the 68 teams in the tournament.

Just like the NFL fan map from last month, the data from the NCAA tournament is quite interesting. One of the biggest things you’ll notice is that fans are very state-loyal, especially in the midwest, where almost all counties in a state are rooting for one team, even if that state has multiple teams in the tournament. Indiana, for example, is completely rooting for Indiana University, who is a number one seed this year. Other Indiana teams include Notre Dame and Butler, the latter of which made it to the championship game last year.

It’s interesting to see the states that have multiple teams in the tournament, such as Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Florida. Some states are split in the middle as far as what home team they’re rooting for, but some states are almost 100% loyal to a single team, including Michigan and North Carolina, both of which are rooting for the Michigan Wolverines and the North Carolina Tar Heels, respectively.

What’s perhaps more interesting, however, is that there are 17 teams in the field of 68 where zero counties were rooting for them (one of them being Indiana’s Notre Dame). Furthermore, there are regions of the US that are pretty much scattered as to who they’re ultimately rooting for, Texas being the most obvious, which is just one of the states that don’t have a home team in the tournament this year.

[via Deadspin]

Facebook data shows NCAA tournament fan statistics in the US is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Basketball is a complicated sport. It’s got fewer traditional positions than any other team sport, but no less specialization, and far more fluid movement than many others. Two “point guards” can play drastically differently and still play the same basic position. Muthu Alagappan’s research makes some sense of that. More »

When Real Racing 3 launched last month, it took a bit of heat over its new freemium model that Electronic Arts implemented for the first time in the game’s series. While you can get the game for free this time around, you could end up paying a ton of money for in-game upgrades and faster repairs. However, that doesn’t seem to be stopping most gamers.

It turns out that gamers have been spending a combined 14 million hours playing Real Racing 3 since it’s launch late last month. That’s a lot of game time, and more importantly, that’s a lot of batteries drained. According to EA, that’s 25 minutes per person per day on average, give or take a few minutes…or hours.

The game has hundreds of different events that you can compete in, and since launch, gamers have competed in a whopping 350 million races combined, with 25 million races being completed every day. That’s certainly a lot of races, as well as a lot of virtual fuel burned. Then again, we can’t say we’re too surprised anyway.

Currently, Real Racing 3 is the number one free app in the iTunes App Store in 90 countries. The game features “Time-Shifted Multiplayer,” in which gamers can go up against other gamers in the game, but they don’t necessarily have to compete against each other in real time. Instead, the game records your race and uses it for other races as a ghost of sorts.

Thanks, Seth

Real Racing 3 sees 14 million hours of gameplay since launch is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Anybody who has done some fishing probably thought at some point: “Hmmm… Are there really any fish here?” With Thanko’s new waterproof infrared camera/monitor for fishing, you can attach the monitor to the grip of your fishing pole, scan the water and see with an actual camera if there are fish around you.
The monitor is 3.5 inches with built-in battery that allows you to use it for 2-4 hours straight. Even in murky water or dark ocean, it’s usable because of the …

Panasonic is releasing a hands-free wearable compact camera “HX-A100″ on May 1.
Take action videos or still images of all your activities.
The camera part and body part are 2 separate units. The camera is a light 30g and by using the attached ear hook you can take handsfree movies or photos from the direction of your eyes. The body part can be attached to your arm using the armband case.
It is compatible with Wi-Fi, so broadcast your cycling activity live through Ustream, or …