NFL welcomes startup ideas for the future of football

Tomorrow, the biggest event in football will take place in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. But today, a group of technology entrepeneurs gathered in an auditorium at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business to be involved in football’s future. They were there as part of 1st and Future, a startup competition hosted jointly by TechCrunch and the NFL in order to find the best football-related tech in three areas: the home viewing experience, tech for athletes and improving the stadium of the future.

Each area had four finalists make the cut, and a winner was picked from each category. The winners are awarded $50,000 each, a meeting with NFL executives as well as two tickets to tomorrow’s Super Bowl. While a total 12 competitors pitched their product, only three emerged victorious. The first is LiveLike, which recreates the experience of watching a game in a VIP suite through virtual reality. You can even pick out which camera angles you want as well as watch a game with your friend even if he or she is across the country.

Next is the Kenzen Echo Patch, a smart body patch that measures vital signs and sweat analysis to check your hydration and ion levels. This, Kenzen says, is important because low hydration can lead to injury on the field. Going forward, Kenzen wants its biosensors to also measure calories and energy consumption plus your cognitive and focus abilities. Right now Kenzen is mostly targeting athletes — that’s why its patch is fairly pricey at $200 each — but it hopes have a more affordable version for consumers once they can manufacture at scale. It’s already filed 11 patents and has partnered with the 49ers and FC Dallas. After a query from one of the judges, who happens to be former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the company said that the patch could potentially be used with children and seniors too.

Last but not least is HYP3R, a location-based engagement platform for stadiums and teams. What it essentially does is establish a sort of social media geofence at certain sports venues. It sits on top of the firehose of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and filters out location-related posts regardless if it has a hashtag or not, thus allowing the stadium or team to engage with their fans.

Several of these startups have already been around for awhile; Kenzen, for example, ran an unsuccessful Indiegogo campaign last year while LiveLike already has partnerships with events like the French Open. Still, for many, having a chance to meet with NFL execs is a big deal. “It feels incredible,” said Carlos Garcia, HYP3R’s CEO. “They’re the ideal audience for us.”

The NFL has a pretty good track record of embracing technology. It’s actively encouraging the use of Microsoft’s Surface tablets for plays and is now experimenting with HoloLens as a way for fans to fully immerse themselves in the game from the comfort of their homes. Indeed, technology was part of the reason the organization was keen to have the Super Bowl in the Bay Area. “Silicon Valley is the heart of innovation,” said Roger Goodell, NFL’s Commissioner at the event. “That’s why we’re here.”

6 gadgets that clean the world’s oceans

By Cat DiStasio

In grade school, most children learn about the fragility of our ocean ecosystems. Despite this, the world’s vast waters have become a de facto dumping ground for toxic chemicals, agricultural runoff and plastic trash. With ocean pollution at an all-time high, the question of how to turn it around weighs heavily on the minds of many environmentalists and engineers. So far they’ve come up with everything from oil-cleaning magic wands to massive floating cleanup arrays, but it’s a race to see which method will most effectively reverse the damage humans have wrought. Which of these amazing gadgets do you think has the best shot at cleaning up our oceans?

Review: Data Boy is a proficient, all-in-one USB tool

There are sure some awesome tech gadgets out here on the Internet. Be it some super crazy invention, or a device that does some magic, you can never NOT be surprised by what comes out. When I saw the DECEC Data Boy, it quickly fell into the “must check out” category. There is really no specific function or title for Data Boy, as it is several things at once. Think of it as the tech version of the Swiss Army knife.

Taking the basic shape of a memory stick, it offers different tiers of storage integrated into a tool that can be used as USB OTG, a charger between two devices, a data ‘cable’ and a memory stick.

It may advertise all the bells and whistles, but how does it stand up and, most importantly, is it worth your money?

Design

Because nothing like it has ever been made before, Data Boy shows off a unique design. Comprising mostly of (strong) plastics, the tool doesn’t exactly shout out poor quality, but rather, feels sturdy. The rubber arms aren’t very agile however, and appear to want to pop out their sockets. Fortunately, they can actually move quite a bit and are well anchored. This main piece also houses the USB which you plug into computers.

On the arms, you’ll find two male connections on each tip. Depending on your configuration, you could have either MicroUSB/MicroUSB or MicroUSB/Lightning.

The top has a neat Zinc-alloy ring which allows you to conveniently attach it to a keyring. There’s also a smile-shaped line that lights up when the product is successfully connected to something.

It’s small, neat and easy to use – just like it should be. Slightly bigger than a memory stick, which means you can take it anywhere.

 Everyday Usage

This is where Data Boy has the opportunity to shine the most. Due to the nature of the product, you could use it all day for various things. DECEC wants it to replace your memory stick, USB OTG dongle and even your data cable in some situations.

Using a specially made processing chip, dubbed “Intelligent Chip”, it automatically detects what you want to use it for. Say you’re using it as a USB OTG dongle, but you then want to charge your Bluetooth earphones. Once you plug them in on the receiving side, the OTG function is switched off and the charging commences.

Let’s break it all down and see how it performs.

Memory Stick

As you can imagine, a memory stick is a memory stick. There’s quite simply not much to say here. I would however like to mention a thing or two. Firstly, you won’t experience the usual gripe of inserting it correctly into the USB port, as the design means the smiley face is always facing upwards. Secondly, the transfer speed is probably not as fast as you’ll like it to be. Slightly slower than USB 2.0, it takes noticeably more time to transfer even just a few photos. This is likely due to the fact that it’s not exactly your standard data transfer and may have to go through the Intelligent Chip. Not a big deal, but could be better.

USB OTG Dongle

What I’d say is the main function of Data Boy, the USB OTG feature works how you’d expect it to, granted that your phone supports it. Again it suffers from sluggish transfer rates, although it is stable and works without a hitch. To access it, you simply just open the File Manager and use “USB Storage”. It shares the same storage module that your computer writes to, meaning that you can basically plug your memory stick into your phone and access the same documents. Which is, kind of how you’ll expect it to work.

The transfer rate is definitely fast enough to watch movies and video. I do think this is due to the fact that it is only reading from the storage and not writing to it, which takes longer.

You cannot, however, transfer files larger than 4GB. This is a restriction placed on the FAT32 format, which is basically a way of storing data on hard drives. Your Android also uses this and it would unfair to criticize DECEC for using this as Android is designed for FAT32. This may also explain the slower data transfer rates as this format is known for being slow.

Of the two, only one connection supports USB OTG.

Data Cable

When plugged into a PC port, Data Boy is a memory stick. Upon connecting your phone to the opposite end, it acts like a data cable, giving you the ability to transfer files from the phone storage to the PC via MTP, and vice versa. Likewise, it will also charge your phone at the same time. It worked superbly, and gave me faster transfer speeds as compared to when accessing the internal Data Boy storage.

You can, if you’re desperate, connect your Data Boy to your wall charger and charge up to two devices through it at the same time. It charged my G4 at the same speed as the standard data cable. It is however awkward to use as it is very short and not very flexible, as I pointed out earlier.

Transfer battery power

This is the one feature which is likely the most handy, although only if properly utilized. Connecting two devices on each arm of the Data Boy will initiate a power transfer. The phone on the OTG side will charge the device on the opposing side. Do not expect to swap charge between two phones, though. There simply isn’t enough power available to do so. It may take very long to charge even a little, even if a phone detects incoming power. You can only really charge items with small batteries, like a Bluetooth headset. You could also plug a power bank in the other side, which would effectively make it a data cable again.

 Is it worth it?

If it will help you on a daily basis, then it certainly is. There is no competition on the market as there is nothing else like it. For $25, you can get the 16GB MicroUSB/MicroUSB version, and for $30, you can get the 16GB MicroUSB/Lightning version. It is a quality product that should last through many occasions.

Conclusion

DECEC’s Data Boy is an awesome, feature-filled USB utility. Extremely portable, it can be used virtually anywhere and can reduce the number of items you carry around to just one. The reliability, quality and usefulness of it makes up for the slow data transfers and limitations. It shall not disappoint you.

Currently, DECEC has a flexible goal offer on Indiegogo. If you’re interested in getting one, supporting a perk will guarantee you your chosen version of Data Boy, whether the target is reached or not. You can get yours on their page here.

The post Review: Data Boy is a proficient, all-in-one USB tool appeared first on AndroidGuys.