TAYLOR’S TAKE ON THE WEEK IN SPORTS TECH: Hey, Yinzers! I’ve been having fun living and working in Pittsburgh for the past week as part of our GeekWire HQ2 initiative. On Friday I experienced my first NHL game in person as Sidney Crosby’s Penguins hosted Alexander Ovechkin’s Capitals at PPG Paints Arena. Loved the fast-paced action of live hockey with few in-game interruptions. I can see why it appeals to a younger crowd, as Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee told me last month. Sports tech note: Pretty cool watching coaches use iPads to review video of past plays during the game.… Read More
New England Patriots QB Tom Brady and his coach Bill Belichick are going after their sixth NFL championship, but Jeff Bezos may very well be the subject of Monday water-cooler talk following next month’s Super Bowl Sunday. The Amazon CEO stars in the Seattle tech giant’s new Super Bowl ad, which was teased Friday in a 30-second preview clip. The ad, titled “Did Alexa Lose Her Voice?” features a woman in her bathroom asking Alexa — Amazon’s popular voice assistant — about the weather in Austin, Texas, (which just happens to be a final-20 candidate for Amazon’s second headquarters). Alexa… Read More
Outgoing Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called leaving the online travel company to take over as Uber CEO one of the toughest decisions of his life this week. His words in an email to employees had us remembering another tough call, and one that Khosrowshahi himself wrote about back in 2015. After the Seattle Seahawks and head coach Pete Carroll shocked the sports world in Super Bowl XLIX, by attempting a pass at the goal line instead of running Marshawn Lynch for a chance to beat the New England Patriots, Khosrowshahi, like many fans, woke up the next morning and tried to make… Read More
Embed from Getty Images Football fans are increasingly utilizing live streams online to watch the Super Bowl. FOX said today that its Super Bowl Live stream, distributed via its Fox Sports Go platform, averaged 1.72 million viewers per minute during New England’s 34-28 win over Atlanta on Sunday. #SB51 attracts 113.7 million viewers combined on @FOXTV, #FOXSportsGO & @FOXDeportes, according to @Nielsen Fast Nationals: pic.twitter.com/f394a9di2k — FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 6, 2017 Last year, an average of 1.4 million people per minute streamed the Super Bowl — so that’s a spike of 3 million viewers. Many people on Sunday complained… Read More
Update: The drones — 300 of them — were indeed from Intel. The company collaborated with Lady Gaga and supplied the 280-gram quadcopters, which can create more than 4 billion color combinations. The drones created a red and blue moving star formation; an American flag; and a Pepsi logo followed by Intel’s logo at the end of the show. You can watch the drones here. Update No. 2: As Wired notes, the drones weren’t actually flying in real-time — Intel pre-recorded the show earlier in the week. “Lady Gaga and the Super Bowl creative team wanted to pull off something that had never… Read More
