I am sort of a stats geek when I watch sports.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the action on the field, but I also love tracking what is going on beyond the action.  Yeah, I am the guy with a scoresheet and stubby pencil at the baseball game.  Yeah, usually my love for stats resides in baseball, a game which is just about designed for a stats geek like me.  But lately, as I have gotten more involved with fantasy football, I have found my love for sports stats traversing that divide into our country’s other national sport.  So, I was pretty intrigued when the folks from Onscreen Science emailed recently to tell me about their latest stats app, QB stats, which they provided me for review.

Let me just start off by talking about what you will not find here.  Specifically, this is not a complete football stats app.  This app is limited only to tracking your quarterback’s performance.  I was a little disappointed by this limitation, since a few small tweaks could have vastly expanded the scope of this app, to include nearly all offensive stats.  Still, it is designed to be limited to your quarterback, so we will look at it in that context.

The main page is…well…pretty ugly.  But then again, that is almost the exact same comment I made when I reviewed OnScreen Science’s Baseball Scorecard.  Ugly though the interface may have been, I was impressed by how simple it was to use, and how accessible it made some difficult stats to keep.

To get started, all you need to do is enter the team name and quarterback for each team.  You can decide whether to keep stats on just one team or both quarterbacks in the game.  One oddity here was that while you can go back and review previous games, you cannot select previously used names.  This means that while you can keep stats for a particular game, there is no way to keep cumulative stats over the course of a season.  This would have been a much better teaching and coaching tool if it would have allowed you to keep stats over multiple games.

Once you have everything set, all you need to do is record your quarterback’s actions.  Tap complete for a complete pass or incomplete if it is not caught.  The app even takes account of various other eventualities, like turnovers, kicks, and penalties.  I did find it odd, however, that rushing yards were contained under the Other Gain button.  There really should have been a separate button for rushing yards.  Likewise, it seemed incongruous that you need to double tap some of the buttons.  I could understand this if a single tap had some other purpose, but it does not.  The double tap really felt inconsistent with the rest of the app, as well as the iPhone interface generally. 

Each time the ball moves down the field, you must record how far it went.  To do so, you need to enter the yard line on which the play ended.  I did find it a bit annoying that you cannot just enter the number of yards advanced (or lost).  Oftentimes I will know how many yards the play netted before I will actually know where the ball ended up.  I will say, though, that the app covered this by including the Check Gain button, which allows you to calculate the number of yards advanced based upon the yard line you entered.

After you enter this information, the app does a fantastic job of tracking the number of passes made/completed, how many passing yards your quarterback achieved, how many touchdowns, and how many interceptions.  It will also track how many yards your quarterback is averaging per attempt.   Tap details, and you will find additional stats, including the quarterback rating.

My biggest criticism of this app is that it simply did not go far enough.  I thought the developers did a fantastic job with what they offered, but for $3.99, I expected more.  For example, they could have tracked how the number of passes/completions at different depths (ie: 0-25 yards, 26-50 yards, and so on.)  Additionally, with a few simple tweaks, they could have allowed you to track nearly all of the offensive stats, such as rushing yards and receiving yards. 

I thought this app had the potential to be a fantastic teaching and coaching tool.  It gives you the ability to instantly show your quarterback how he is performing, even in the middle of a game or practice.  However, it fell just a bit short of that potential by not keeping enough stats, and by not allowing you to record cumulative stats over the course of a season.  Hopefully, the developers will continue adding features to this one.  It is only a few simple tweaks away from being indispensible to football coaches and fans, but it is just not quite there yet.

OnScreen QB Stats was developed by OnScreen Science, Inc.  It is available in the iTunes App Store for $3.99.

In a word, no.  Here’s why…

While dramatic, this 3G map is accurate…

Read More …

If you care about yourself and your car guests, you need a handsfree kit to use your mobile phone while driving. If you will, the Motorola T325 Bluetoth In-Car Speakerphone will serve you faithfully for a long time.

The  Motorola T325 and its charger

The review was made on a loaner that didn’t include retail packaging, and came with the T325 unit and an AC power adapter.

Specifications

The specs reported by Motorola show some of the key features of the device:

Entry On/Exit Off
Automatically turns on when you get into your car and off when you get out.

Who’s Calling
Audibly announces the names of incoming callers from your phonebook-compatible with up to 1500 names.

Favorite Contact List
Intuitively updates and stores your 10-25 most frequently used phone numbers, allowing you to instantly speed dial the people you call most at the touch of a button.

Key features:

• Dedicated power switch slides to the left and right to turn the device on and off
• Wire clip to easily secure to your cars visor; no installation required
• Large call button enables you to place calls easily
• Tri-colored LED for identifying Bluetooth connectivity and mute status
• Centrally located microphone for optimal audio pick-up
• Mute/Phonebook Button helps you silence any conversation and connect with your Favorite Contacts
• Volume buttons with night friendly identification allow you to control the volume of the conversation
• Micro USB

Tech specs:

• Dimensions: 3.26″ X 3.26″ (with tapering thickness of 0.94″ to 0.55″)
• Talk Time: Up to 17 hrs
• Standby Time: Up to 2.5 weeks
• Range: Up to 33 ft

Overview

The T325 is composed of black and gray plastic; the speaker and the black call button are on the front side. Being so big and shiny  you will never miss the call button again!

The power switch button, status light, microphone and mute/favorite contacts button are placed on the top. The volume buttons and charger port are on the right, while a metal wire clip is used to place the speakerphone on the sun visor in the car.

Attaching the speakerphone with the clip was a breeze, with no effects on the sun visor after removing it after the loan period.

Front view: notice the big answer call button

Rear view with the metal wire clip to attach the T325 to the sun visor

Right side view with the charging port (left) and volume buttons (right)

Top view, showing the power switch button (left), status light and microphone (center) and mute/favorite contacts button (right)

The charger

Size comparison with a DVD case (front view)

Size comparison with a DVD case (side view)

In car front view

In car angled view

Voice prompts

As soon as you switch on the device you are welcomed by voice prompts that will let your interaction with the T325 as smooth as possible. As the Motorola H17 Flip BT Headset, the T325 supports voice prompts: the device will give you feedback of its activity and status with a nice voice, in order to help you enjoy the speakerphone.

Voice prompts prove very useful as they alert you about the battery charge and the connection status:

• “Downloading caller ID information”
• “Battery level is high/medium/low”
• “Battery level is very low. Please recharge now”
• “Connected to <phone name>”
• “Connection to <phone name> has been dropped”

where <phone name> is the Bluetooth name you selected to give to your phone.

Automatic On/Off

The T325 has automatic on/off. This feature automatically disconnects the speakerphone and turns it off when your phone is distant for more than 20 seconds. When you return and open the car door, the speakerphone turns on and tries to reconnect (and moving the speakerphone does the trick too). To activate this feature is enough to turn on the speakerphone. Thus, the speakerphone will be on only when needed, thus saving battery.

Thanks to the voice prompts, each time you enter your car the device will prompt you with a voice message on battery status:

• “Battery level is high/medium/low”
• “Battery level is very low. Please recharge now”

so that you will never find yourself without a charged T325.

PBAP and favorite contacts

The speakerphone supports the Phone Book Access Profile (aka PBAP) which allows to download on itself the contacts stored on the phone. When you first pair the T325 to your phone, you will asked to download the contacts stored therein in the speakerphone.

The T325 will then announce the name of known incoming callers or the phone number of unknown ones.

To select a favorite to call, you will have to:

• press the “Mute/Favorite Contacts” button
• press the volume buttons to scroll through the favorite contacts list
• press the call button.

The favorite contacts list is built up on the last calls made with the phone, which are downloaded on the speakerphone the first time you pair them. Then the list will change over time to your most frequently used contacts when connected to the speakerphone.

Regrettably, at the time of this review my phone (a Palm Treo 650) was not supporting PBAP, and I couldn’t try this nice feature.

If the phone doesn’t support the Bluetooth PBAP profile, you can manually send up to 50 phonebook contacts from the phone to the speakerphone. This didn’t work too with my old phone, due to lack of support to v-card contacts.

Buttons

While using an handsfree device you are supposed to interact the less with it it , so buttons need to be placed carefully to be reached without any driving distraction.

In my experience with the device, I had no problems at all with both the call and mute/favorite contacts button, while finding the volume buttons was less natural. However keep in mind that I needed to use them only a few times and I expect this to become instinctive if you will be using the favorite contacts feature.

Call quality

I made calls in different conditions, ranging from a trafficked street to an empty highway, from a relatively quiet to a noisy music car environment. In every case, I was able to hear my caller, and I received no complaints by the other side.

Battery

The device battery is said to give you up to 17 hours of talk time or up to 2.5 weeks of standby time.

During the 20 days of loan, the T325 was in my car attached to the sun visor starting with a fully charged battery. I didn’t took note of standby time, but in car usage was around 10 hours on call and the device prompted me with the “Battery level is low” message the same day the FedEx courier took it back.

Price

Motorola store has the device at $79.99, but you can find it at lower prices.

Summary

Voice prompts, battery life, and favorite contacts (not tested in this review) are huge selling points of the Motorola T325 In-Car Speakerphone. Add a satisfying call quality and its ease of use and this product will appeal you if you are on the market for a handsfree in-car kit.

Pros: voice prompts, battery life, favorite contacts, large call button, satisfying call quality

Cons: it could take some time getting used to the displacement of the volume buttons

Via: Motorola

In the wake of the digital music revolution, it seems that all media has now started moving in the same direction.  This new decade is shaping up to be the end of physical media as we know it, as newspapers, books, and even video have moved past their first steps into a broader digital world.

One of the problems with digital video is that the downloadable video content goes straight to your computer hard drive, taking up enormous amounts of storage space, and requiring you to watch the video on your sub-par computer screen…or tiny mobile device.  Surely there must be a better way…and now there is, thanks to Seagate.  With Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater +, all you need to do is download video content, pictures, and pretty much any other media to your portable FreeAgent Go drive, and connect it into your HDTV using the FreeAgent Theater + HD Media Player.  That’s it.  It is as easy as playing a DVD.  But I am getting a little ahead of myself.  Seagate sent a unit for us to check out, so let’s back up and take a look at exactly what we are talking about.

Right out of the box, I was pretty impressed with this unit.  I have bought far too many computer and stereo accessories which do not include all of the necessary cables.  There is nothing worse than coming home with your new printer, Blu-Ray, scanner, or anything else, only to turn right around and head back to the store to buy the remaining parts you need to hook it up.  So, I was really impressed when I opened the FreeAgent Theater to find, in addition to the unit itself:

• Remote control (3xAAA batteries included)
• Component video cable
• Composite A/V cable
• Ethernet Cable
• Power cable
• Assorted manuals, guides, and software

The only things missing were the HDMI cable, which would have been nice for HD content; and the wireless network adaptor, which is sold separately by Seagate for $59.99.

Normally, at this point in the review, we would take a walk around the device.  To be honest, though, there is not a lot to see here.  I will say that I did find the design to be quite attractive, and its compact size means it will fit just about anywhere in yoru entertainment center.

A door opens from the top, allowing you to open the device, and slide in a FreeAgent Go drive.  The nice thing about this is that FreeAgent go drives can hold an incredible amount of data.  They now come in sizes up to 1TB (yeah, I said Terabytes, which will hold a complete library of movies, videos, pictures, and plenty more.   Plus, since the drive is completely separate, you can even swap to a different FreeAgent Go drive for added capacity.

All of the connections you need to watch your movies are in the back.  Just about every kind of cable you can use is represented here.  The component video cable, which was included in the box connects back here, as does (if you prefer) an optical audio cable, and even HDMI, giving you full 1080p video quality.  I liked the fact that even though Seagate did not include it in the box, they did include the capability to connect via HDMI by making sure the appropriate jack was built into the device.

Additionally, you can connect the FreeAgent Theater to your home network using the included ethernet cable, or by connecting a wireless adaptor to the USB port in the back.  Again, though, you will have to purchase a wireless network adaptor separately.  It would have been nice if this capability had been built into the device.  I would not be surprised at all if Seagate came out with a new model which did include a built in Wi-fi radio.

Before you can play any videos, however, you will need to load them onto your FreeAgent Go drive.  For the most part, especially if you want that HD quality, that means downloading them from the Internet. Unfortunately, this is where digital rights management (DRM) rears its ugly head.  DRM seems to be the bane of digital media’s existence, and nowhere are the problems with DRM more apparent than in digital video.  It seems like every player and provider of content features their own unique DRM format.  Some are compatible with other players, but not all.  The end result is a confusing maze of formats, which weigh around the neck of the FreeAgent Theater like an albatross.

I attempted to download video content from three primary sources: iTunes, The Zune Store, and Amazon.com, only to find that none were compatible with the FreeAgent Theater system.  Fortunately, you can overcome this hurdle by download or streaming content directly from the FreeAgent Theater device (you will need to connect it to your home network using the included ethernet cable or a wireless adaptor).  While this does not make the download process any faster or easier, it does overcome the DRM and formatting related issues by ensuring you are only streaming content which is compatible with the device.   I ended up testing the HD features with some sample HD videos from Microsoft’s website, which while not ideal, worked well enough to show off the HD features of the FreeAgent Theater system.   Though I will say I found the DRM problems and lack of available HD content to be extremely frustrating.

The other way to obtain video content is by streaming the video online.  I did not get to test the streaming video content as much as I would have liked, but what I did get to try worked great.  You can use this option to access any number of online sites with HD video content (including YouTube) or photo sharing sites like Photobucket and Flickr.

OK, that all brings us to the main attraction.  Let’s go ahead and connect the FreeAgent Theater to the TV and see what happens.   One thing I really liked was the simplicity of the main screen.  There are five options here: Movies, Pictures, Music, Internet, and Devices.

The nice thing about the FreeAgent Theater is that there is no need to search your device.  When you connect your FreeAgent Drive, the Theater player will automatically search for appropriate content (even if the format is not compatible) and display it under the correct menu.  This is great because it saves you the trouble of searching through your files and hunting for media.  Then again, if you do wish to hunt through the drive, you can always select that Devices option to open the file explorer.

The downside of this organization, however, is that the player does not maintain your file structure and organization.  Your photos, music, or videos, will be listed alphabetically by title.  While this was fine for my videos, listing 50,000 photos – most of which start with the word IMG or Image followed by a random number – grew a bit tedious.  Since I have long since lost track of naming my photos, it would be nice if I could maintain the organization, or at least search by keywords.

The real attraction of this device for me, though, was the ability to replay videos…and not just any videos, but HD videos.  I downloaded several videos to test this one out with, most of which were recorded in full 1080p HD.  I have to say, despite my problems with DRM formatting, I was really impressed by the convenience and quality of the video.  The image was crisp and clear.

Additionally, with no tape to break, discs to scratch, or other moving parts, the FreeAgent system makes the perfect archival tool as well.  You can shoot all of the home videos or pictures you want and store them on your FreeAgent Go drive for future generations to enjoy…or laugh at your crazy fashion sense…in the same perfect quality you filmed it originally.

The FreeAgent Theater + HD Media Player is available from Seagate for $149.99.  It is also available with a 500 GB FreeAgent drive for $269.99.

What I Liked:

• Compact and attractive design
• Necessary cables are included
• Easy to setup
• Simple menu system makes navigation a breeze
• Automatically finds digital content
• Great video playback quality

What Needs Improvement:

• No included HDMI cable
• No included wireless network adaptor
• DRM incompatibility made it difficult to find compatible HD video content
• Media is organized alphabetically, without regard for organization or folder structure

Mobile World Congress is right around the corner, starting on February 15.  Rumors abound about Microsoft’s plans for the event, though we all anxiously await the much-hyped (and hoped for) Windows Phone 7 announcement.  Let’s face it, Microsoft is pretty much banking their mobile future on this one, so it needs to be better than good.  Whatever Microsoft has in store for us needs to be knock your socks off amazing.  Leading up to the event, it looks like Microsoft has a few leaks, and quite a few rumors have been floating around the Internet in the past 24 hours or so. 

The rumors about the new Windows Phone 7 Operating System include:

· WP7 will be announced at MWC, and there will be a demo, but this will be just the UX
· MIX will have specific developement focus sessions on WP7
· WP7 supports both Sliverlight (out of browser) and XNA
· Silverlight is version 3.0, with elements of 4.0 plus mobile specific features such as sensors etc
· XNA apps can be developed using XNA GameStudio 3.1
· SL apps developed using Expression Blend 3.x and VS2010
· MS will release a mobile version of VS / Expression which will be free, and VS2010 / Expression Pro will have a free add-on
· WP7 will have an equivalent of .NET CF embedded into SL, but no SQL.
· WP7 will have isolated storage which is accessible using LINQ
· The UX of WP7 is based upon a theme called “METRO” and is similar to Zune HD, but with a completely new “Start” screen.
· No multi-tasking (applications will pause when in the background, however they will support notifications using the MS Push Notifications environment)
· No .NET CF backwards compatibility, however a proportion of the data and business logic in .NET CF could be ported
· MS were confident to have devices ready for Sep 2010
· No MS manufactured device, however much tighter control of manufacturing process, so as an example each device has a 3D processing chipset, and MS provide all of the device drivers. So no platform builder. This enables OTA updates and simplified model for ODM’s
· Marketplace will support buy and try before you buy, as well as an API
· ODM / OEM will not be able to modify the “Start” screen, so no more HTC Sense / TouchFlo etc.
· MS are actually ahead of schedule which will surprise the analysts / journalists
· Browsing experience is currently faster / better than iPhone 3G, and they are aiming towards 3GS.
· Browser is based upon desktop IE7 codebase, but with some IE8 functionality
· No in browser Flash or SL
· WP7 has full integration with XBOX Live, and ability to purchase games
· WP7 will use the Zune software for music, videos, photos sync
· WP7 only supports app installation through service based delivery i.e. marketplace, so no side-loading
· MS will provide a hosted push notifications environment

OK.  We have now passed on the rumors we are hearing.  None of this has been confirmed, and it could all be completely false.  I have no idea.  So, we are just going to leave it at that (except to say…no multitasking??? Are you kidding me???), and reserve further comment until Microsoft unveils the new operating system (which is hopefully coming at MWC).  After the official announcement, we should have plenty to say about the new operating system.  Until then, go ahead and check out the rumors again, and take them for what you will. 

via Mobile Tech World and PPC Geeks