Tag Archives: you’re
Rams WR Tavon Austin learns that everyone wants your money when you’re in the NFL
The adjustment process when one moves from high-caliber college player to NFL prospect trying to fit in is generally a tough one. With a few notable exceptions, even the best collegiate players need a settling-in period, and that has as much to do with the off-field stuff as it does with what Mr. Hot Shot will bring to his NFL team on game day.
Former West Virginia receiver Tavon Austin, perhaps the NCAA’s most dynamic offensive player in 2012, is learning that the NFL brings a few interesting realities to light. Specifically, the fact that money brings problems in the form of people wanting money … and we’re not talking about agents and the IRS.
“Everybody expects a lot of things from you as far as money.” Austin recently told the Rams’ official website. “Everybody wants to be around you. My phone doesn’t stop ringing now. It feels like they’re counting my bank account now. So that’s probably the hardest thing for me right now, just people.
“I’ve got a lot of cousins now. The whole [city of] Baltimore is my cousin now. We’re going to just try to keep focused and let my mother and all of them handle it.”
Si.com’s Peter King spent draft weekend in the Rams’ war room, and he reported in his latest Monday Morning Quarterback that while Austin was admired for bypassing the temptations he encountered on the mean streets of Baltimore, there was some concern in NFL circles that Austin’s past, in the form of “hangers-on,” might follow him to the pros, and even increase their presence once the money started to roll in. That’s not a knock on Austin, who is a great kid by all accounts — it’s a simple truth for young NFL players. Once the cash piles up, you’re going to receive “heartfelt” communiqués from people you hardly know.
Draft pick salaries are slotted for the most part per the current Collective Bargaining Agreement and the numbers change a bit from year to year, but Austin will be moving up quite a few tax brackets when the numbers come out.
The Rams traded with the Buffalo Bills to move up to the eighth overall slot to select Austin. Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill, last year’s No. 8 pick, signed a four-year, $ 12.668 million contract with $ 7.653 million guaranteed in the form of a signing bonus. Tannehill made $ 480,000 plus a $ 484,841 roster bonus in his rookie year, and he’ll rake in about $ 1.5 million this year between base salary and bonuses. Austin should expect to see similar numbers, and for him, it’s all about getting his family out of his childhood home and into a better life.
“The goal was to get my mother and my grandmother out of the city,” Austin told the Charleston Daily Mail on Apr. 28. “I don’t know if they want to leave, but I’ll definitely get them a better house so they don’t have to worry about living in the hood. That was my No. 1 goal and that’s happening now.
“I’m definitely going to move them to a nice place outside in the county, Harford County, or something like that, where it’s a gated community and I pretty much know they’re comfortable while I’m here working and they’re back there just waiting for my game days on Sunday.”
Sounds like Austin has his priorities in order, even if some around him don’t seem to. As the noted philosopher Notorious B.I.G. once opined, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”
Archos ChefPad tablet: Now you’re cooking with Android
It's like a much quieter Gordon Ramsey.
(Credit: Archos)
My poor iPad has survived flour, oil, lemon juice, and countless other kitchen mishaps. Maybe it’s time I look a little more seriously at a dedicated kitchen computer. My options have just expanded with the arrival of the Archos ChefPad, an Android tablet built to handle the rigors of the cooking life.
The ChefPad is a full-blown 10-inch Android tablet running Jelly Bean with a 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM behind it. There are the usual front and back cameras, in case you want to launch your own online cooking show. What makes it kitchen-specific are the preloaded cooking apps and easy-to-clean case.
The silicone case adds a layer of protection from flying butter and splashes of scrambled eggs. What’s a little more unique is a selection of vetted cooking apps called Chef App. It filters through all the top options available from Google Play and delivers them in one spot. Think of it as a launchpad for all your recipes, tools, drink concoctions, how-to videos, and shopping apps.
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Microsoft’s Switch to Windows Phone app for Android attempts to prove you’re not missing out
Ever since its launch, Windows Phone has faced criticism for lacking a broad app selection compared with its main mobile OS competitors. Microsoft is out to convince users otherwise, and in a rather cheeky move, has launched the Switch to Windows Phone app for Android. Available now on the Google Play store, the app takes note of all the software currently on your Android handset and sends those details to SkyDrive. Add that SkyDrive account on a WP8 device, and you’ll be offered the official WP8 apps which correspond to the ones it found on your Android phone, or apps that match up best if official versions aren’t available. Microsoft has also taken this opportunity launched a new ad campaign (embedded after the break) pumping itself up as a sensible alternative to the Android / iOS battles, timed perfectly to arrive with this app. Assuming you have the requisite devices handy, hit the source links to install the software and let us know how good it is at finding a match.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft
Source: Google Play, Windows Phone Store
Hope you’re ready developers, the Pebble smartwatch SDK is here
After a delay, the software development kit (SDK) for the Pebble smartwatch is now live. On Friday, the watch maker publicly released the SDK and documentation, which was originally scheduled for when the watches started shipping. This means that owners of the Pebble watch — one of the hottest KickStarter projects in 2012 with more than 68,000 backers — can soon look forward to applications for their timepiece.
In case you’re not familiar with the Pebble, here’s a quick description from the SDK page:’
“Pebble is a customizable, Bluetooth-enabled smartwatch that connects to iPhone and Android smartphones. It features a 144×168 1-bit display, a 3-axis accelerometer and a Cortex-M3 ARM microprocessor. Pebble can be customized by installing new apps developed with its Software Development Kit. The SDK allows developers of all experience levels to build Pebble-enabled applications using a number of popular programming languages and technologies.”
Developers should be able to tap into the Pebble accelerometer for their apps while also taking advantage of the sensors and data on a paired iPhone or Android device.
RunKeeper was previously reported to be one of the first applications to work with the unique smartwatch, perhaps allowing for runners to glance at their wrist for pace, time and distance information, for example. So let’s go developers: It’s time for some Pebble apps!
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- Analyzing the wearable computing market
- GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
- Podcast: Mobile winners and losers in 2012 and what to expect in 2013
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LivesOn: Twitter ghost keeps tweeting when you’re dead
The salmon mousse: Monty Python imagined the Grim Reaper at a dinner party. Does Death do social media?
(Credit: Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET)
Death is never popular, even in social media: the poor guy behind @death on Twitter has zero followers.
You might think your online fans will lose interest when you kick the bucket, but an upcoming app says it will let you keep tweeting from beyond the grave.
LivesOn will host Twitter accounts that continue to post updates when users shed this mortal coil.
Developers claim the app’s artificial-intelligence engine will analyze your Twitter feed, learn your likes and syntax, and then post tweets in a similar vein when you’re gone.
You’ll become an AI construct, a proverbial ghost in the machine.
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Your smartphone knows which side of the brain you’re using
Some people use the left, some the right, but which side of the brain do you primarily use for language? It may seem like a trivial question, but for one thing, if you ever have to undergo any type of brain surgery, the answer can help avoid damage to speech areas.
While lab tests can provide the answer, an app that involves a few minutes of concentration works just as well, according to a study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Josef Bless of the University of Bergen expects to see more psychological testing via smartphones.
(Credit: Eivind Senneset/University of Bergen)
Furthermore, a version of the app for patients with schizophrenia trains them to improve their focus so that when they hear voices (so-called “auditory hallucinations”) they can tune them out.
These findings suggest that “smartphones can be used as a tool for psychological testing, opening up a wealth of exciting new possibilities,” says Norwegian psychology researcher Josef Bless, who first came up with the idea of a brain test app a few years ago while listening to music on his phone.
The language app, called … [Read more]
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Pro Bowl viewing guide: Five things to watch (you know you’re gonna watch it)
Ask around about the Pro Bowl, and you’ll hear a lot of, “Who would watch that game? I never watch it.” Many of the people who tell you that are lying.
The Pro Bowl does monster ratings. Someone has to be watching the NFL’s all-star game. The Pro Bowl got a 7.9 rating last year, which dwarfs the NBA All-Star Game’s 5.4 rating last year and makes NHL Stanley Cup Finals’ ratings look like a 2 a.m. infomercial.
So, you don’t have to admit you watch, but we’re here for you. Here are five things to look for in the Pro Bowl, which could actually be the last Pro Bowl ever if the players don’t care as much as those millions of viewers who will turn it on:
The final game of Jeff Saturday’s career: Wait, you’re not excited to watch a center who didn’t deserve to be in this Pro Bowl? Fine, we’ll find some better reasons. But Saturday has had a great career, and he is retiring after the Pro Bowl.
[Related: Trent Williams hurt in brawl, will not play in the Pro Bowl]
Will the players play hard?: The game that nobody admits to watching but everyone tunes in to see might be going away. There have been threats this week that if the players don’t play hard, this Pro Bowl could be the last one. Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning implored the players to play hard to save the game. Houston running back Arian Foster was honest: Football is a physical game and players aren’t going to go 100 percent in an all-star exhibition.
“This isn’t basketball – you can’t go play a pickup game of football,” Foster said, according to the Associated Press. “I think it’s an honor and a tradition, but for you to expect the best athletes in the NFL to come out and play a game 100 percent when you can’t game plan, you can’t blitz, you can’t do all these things, it’s not going to be competitive like everybody wants it to be.”
So it might be better than last year’s debacle, but don’t expect too much.
The players might want to think about their annual free vacation to Hawaii when they decide how hard to play. The best guess is they play just hard enough for the NFL to justify bringing it back. Think of it this way, how many times has a television network wanted to get rid of a show with those kinds of ratings? The TV partners would likely try to convince the league to keep the game going.
Larry Fitzgerald gets to play with a real quarterback!: Everyone misses Larry Fitzgerald. Still in his prime at age 29, Fitzgerald had 798 yards and four touchdowns this season. Arizona’s front office should be convicted for stealing Fitzgerald from us. He is one of the NFL’s best players, but has become an afterthought because nobody can get him the ball. Fitzgerald spent a season catching passes from guys like Ryan Lindley, but for one afternoon he gets to play with Drew Brees, Eli Manning and Russell Wilson. You know Fitzgerald will be playing hard. He might sob with joy over the rediscovered feeling of trying to catch a pass that isn’t thrown four yards behind him.
[Also: Ray Lewis, a polarizing figure, is the Ravens' driving force]
Peyton Manning, J.J. Watt, and Adrian Peterson are there: Arguably the three best players in the NFL this season didn’t drop out of the game, and they might be too competitive to take it easy. Manning already has implored the other players to play hard, so you know he’ll be serious. Watt, the Texans’ defensive end who had a dominant season and should be the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who is capable of going half speed. And Peterson, the Vikings 2,000-yard back who is one of two legitimate MVP candidates along with Manning, already said he’ll play hard.
“When you play down, you put yourself in jeopardy of getting hurt going through the motions. So I won’t be playing down,” Peterson said earlier this month, according to Associated Press. “I’m going to play hard.”
The greatest players are wired with a certain competitive streak, and while they’re not going to be playing at the same level as their playoff games this month, if they’re playing to win, it’s worth tuning in to see them.
It’s football: The 2013 season is probably going to kick off on Sept. 5. Once the Super Bowl’s final gun sounds next week, we have more than seven months before another game that counts. While most of the Pro Bowl players are going to play hard enough to fool us into thinking the outcome matters to them, you’re going to miss football when it’s gone after next Sunday. It’s OK to tune in – we won’t tell anyone you did.
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Amiigo fitness bracelet knows what exercise you’re doing
(Credit: Indiegogo)
We’ve seen fitness trackers before, but here’s one with impressive smarts. The Amiigo can automatically identify more than 100 activities with custom algorithms.
Amiigo is a waterproof bracelet and shoe clip that not only counts how many bicep curls or golf swings you do, but monitors your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, activity level, and the number of calories burned, according to the gadget’s crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
Sensors and machine-learning algorithms identify the exercise you’re performing, and store the data in the device before uploading it to your mobile device. The tech can discriminate between running on the treadmill, for instance, and exercising on an elliptical machine.
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Apple iPad mini event to be livestreamed (but only if you’re an Apple user)
Apple has confirmed that it will be livestreaming its special iPad mini event via its website, though you’ll need an Apple device in order to actually watch it. The livestreamed video will kick off at 10AM PT (1PM ET), though according to the site it will only be available to those running Safari either on OS X or iOS, or with an Apple TV.
If you’re looking to watch on a Mac, you’ll need Safari 4 or later and to be running OS X v10.6 or above. On an iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad, however, you’ll need iOS 4.2 or later. Apple TV access demands either a second- or third-generation box, running software 5.0.2 or later.
Streaming events is a rare decision for Apple, which normally waits until after the show has been completed to post a full, edited video of the whole thing. It’s unclear whether this will be the status quo moving forward, or another one-off.
Believed to be on the agenda today is the new iPad mini, with a 7.85-inch display, and a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. It’s also expected to feature an updated Mac mini and iMac, as well as new software.
Apple iPad mini event to be livestreamed (but only if you’re an Apple user) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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