Today’s featured stories MLB partners with Amazon Web Services to predict pitches and analyze live games with robots Agent 007 James Bond’s next ride? Flying cars grab Farnborough Airshow’s spotlight Safety over privacy? RealNetworks to offer free facial recognition technology to K-12 schools Subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube. [Editor’s Note: TLDR is GeekWire’s tech news rundown show, hosted by Starla Sampaco. Watch today’s update above, subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube, check back weekday afternoons for more, and sign up for TLDR email updates below.]
Deeper stats, predicted pitches, and live commentary produced by robots in the voice of iconic announcers — it could all be coming to Major League Baseball broadcasts soon. MLB re-upped its partnership with Amazon Web Services on Tuesday. It will continue using machine learning and artificial intelligence to gather data and provide more information to fans. MLB and AWS, the cloud computing arm of Amazon that posted $5.4 billion in revenue last quarter, have worked together since 2014. Amazon helps power Statcast, the high-tech player tracking system that measures every play during a baseball game and produces stats like pitching velocity,… Read More
TAYLOR’S TAKE ON THE WEEK IN SPORTS TECH: It took t-shirts, bagels, placards, hashtags, autographs, coffee, gift cards, videos, photos, and a lot of sore thumbs. But an all-out marketing blitz by the Seattle Mariners baseball team this week to help get infielder Jean Segura into the All-Star Game was a home run. Segura on Sunday was named a finalist for the American League’s Final Vote competition, which put five players up for a fan vote to fill the remaining All-Star roster spot. Segura, ranked second in MLB for total hits this season, earned 13.6 million votes and on Thursday was named… Read More
Nike is going high-tech with its newest retail store concept that opened today in Los Angeles. But don’t expect it to be anything like Amazon Go, another innovative take on brick-and-mortar shopping being rolled out by Amazon that removes cashiers and registers from the physical retail experience. “We are a very emotional brand — we are about human connection and human potential,” Nike Chief Digital Officer Adam Sussman said during a phone interview from Los Angeles on Wednesday. “We don’t want to remove connection with other humans.” Big retailers are using technology in various ways to improve the shopping experience at… Read More
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson appears to be planning something with China e-commerce giant Alibaba, chief rival to Amazon, the tech titan in Wilson’s hometown. Wilson tweeted a video from Alibaba’s China headquarters suggesting “ground breaking things” are in the works. “We can’t wait to see what things we’re going to do,” Wilson said. “It’s going to be exciting. Big things coming your way.” China! It's been real & amazing! Thanks @AlibabaGroup Can't wait to do some ground breaking things! @Ciara & @West2EastEmpire pic.twitter.com/5Npf5jAlpm — Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) July 6, 2018 In a separate video tweeted by Alibaba, Wilson and… Read More
