App Offers More for Soccer than Ever Before

Plenty of apps, analytics software, and similar services exist with the goal of better understanding and applying sports statistics to improve teams and how they play. Now, an app called Soccermetrics soccer data and analytics exists to mathematically ponder and solve problems in statistics that can apply toward a better understanding of soccer as a whole. Its main intent is, according to its creators, to advance the state of the art in applying math, science, and data to soccer. Soccer has been the last of the major sports to witness a data revolution despite advancing technology for technical and cultural reasons, and Soccermetrics is available to aid media organizations, teams, software developers, and leagues. The main difference between this app and other analytics software and apps is the complete dedication to soccer alone as well as its technical complexity. Read more »

The name Hallmark Cards is virtually synonymous with greeting cards, much the way people refer to MP3 players as iPods or inline skates as Rollerblades.  To its credit in the rapidly changing world, Hallmark Cards has worked very hard to keep with the times and it has a robust online presence.  The physical greeting card manufacturer effectively competes against many online digital greeting card sites and Hallmark Cards continues to innovate.  Seeing the intense interest in mobile computing among many of its fans, Hallmark Cards has released the Hallmark Go Cards application! Read more »

With so many digital photography services online, it can be very hard for a new, emerging, or revamped service to effectively sell itself to its target demographic.  Digital photographers have a lot of choices these days, but with the rapidly changing nature of the Internet, recently several online photo editors and storage sites have been shut down, while new ones have sprouted up.  Making your online digital photo service seem fresh, new, and vital can be as much a marketing challenge as it is an issue of programming your service the right way.  For Shutterfly, the challenge of marketing the website and its many services falls to Katelyn Watson. Read more »

Since the founding of the United States, one of the fundamental freedoms of the nation has been Freedom of the Press.  Made possible by Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press was intended to keep the citizenry educated and informed, the theory being that such measures could prevent tyranny.  It is a great theory.  However, over the years, political machinations (yellow journalism), business interests (media consolidation) and sloth have weakened the Fourth Estate of the United States.  The final blow to Freedom of the Press may well come from the tech sector as the tech sector is currently eroding some of the last definitive standards of the mainstream press. Read more »

In the late 1980s, there was a popular game called Laser Tag.  Despite the controversies about it at the time, Laser Tag was remarkably popular with young adults who enjoyed the technology and the physical activity the game required.  As a precursor to paintball, Laser Tag was a safe way for young people to run around shooting one another for live-action play.  Players had a laser sensor and a laser gun.  The object of the game was to shoot your opponent three times (as registered by changing lights on their sensor each time they were “hit”) with the laser gun . . . before they shot you!  Young people played Laser Tag in buildings, woods, and fields, both during the day and at night.   Now, Metalcompass, Ltd. is updating Laser Tag with some new twists with their XAPPR Gun! Read more »

With the proliferation of digital photograph editing programs, a number of new companies have sprouted up.  In order to make these emerging businesses successful, most of the new companies are staffing from established, successful technology companies.  The opportunity to trade the steady, reliable position that a large company offers for the excitement of a small start-up is surprisingly appealing to a number of people in the tech sector.  One person who enthusiastically transitioned from a major firm to a small IT company was Paul Murphy. Read more »

Different corporate philosophies lead companies in different directions when it comes to growth.  In the tech sector, research and development has often been an important component of growth.  Even with cutting-edge tech companies, though, rather than invest in R&D, sometimes a bigger company will simply buy a successfully-developed product from the smaller company that innovated it.  Some of the companies that are cash-heavy, but development-light, have taken to buying up entire companies.  That is the tactic Groupon has been using and for the past four months, it has been rather aggressively buying up smaller businesses. Read more »

Have you ever seen something legitimately newsworthy and wished there was a reporter around to get the facts correct? Do you wish there was a way you could give feedback to companies easily?  Do you love sharing great deals you find with your friends as soon as you encounter them?  Now, there is a smartphone app that meets all of those needs!  That app is Stringfly.

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Hasbro is planning a busy 2012. First, there is the partnership with Zynga, which emulates the Mattel-Angry Birds collaboration. The toy company will be able to bring online games to the real world as well as making toys and accessories based on popular Facebook games like Farmville and Mafia Wars. Now, Hasbro has announced that it is updating some of its classic board games. Read more »

Anyone who has visited a historical site or virtually any tourist destination has seen graffiti.  At many destinations, unsightly graffiti covers most available surface. Often, graffiti is just names and dates from former visitors, but it can be much more than that. Some people even write or carve poems or song lyrics into whatever space they find available. Usually there are several visible layers of the graffiti and more underneath. It can be very tempting to add your own mark to that wall, bench, or tree, but what if there was a better, legal, way to leave a piece of yourself behind? Read more »