Sports

ConnectU founders falter in Olympic rowing heat

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins who went from a legal spat with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to a berth on the Olympic rowing team, didn't do so well in Beijing on Saturday. In the preliminary heat for their event, the men's pair (M2-), they placed fifth out of five boats.

In the 2000-meter course, the twins came in with a time of 7:13.64, behind the fourth-place Polish team with a time of 7:01.90. The top three places were taken by the French, Italian, and Canadian teams respectively.

They were in a tough … Read more

Google brings Olympics updates to mobile phones

Google is making it easier to check up on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing from your mobile phone.

Searching for any Olympic sport on Google's mobile Web site will bring up, in addition to the regular search results that Google would normally offer, a timetable of Olympic schedules and results for that event. The search also works in 35 other languages, and Google has created an additional mobile Web site as a general repository of Olympic information.

When results start to come in, mobile searches for things like "swimming medals" and "French medal count" … Read more

How to watch the ConnectU founders row in the Olympics

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have been in the press a lot recently for being "those guys who sued Facebook." As two of the three founders of ConnectU, they had accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of intellectual property theft long before he was Silicon Valley's youngest billionaire. Unfortunately, courts didn't tend to side with the brothers Winklevoss, largely because the dorm-room start-up didn't have formal paperwork to prove a breach of contract.

That case has been settled (though ConnectU has contested it), and the Winklevosses--a pair of six-foot, five-inch identical twins with a penchant for wearing … Read more

Jeter, Manning join $8.6 million Weplay round

Big-name professional athletes are known for throwing money around almost as much as they throw balls, but it's not every day you hear about them investing in a social-networking site. Youth sports network Weplay, however, is an exception: Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, and LeBron James have joined its $8.6 million Series B funding round, announced Tuesday.

The round was led by Deep Fork Capital, which has invested recently in mobile networking start-up Moblyng and visual search site SearchMe. In addition to the well-moneyed jocks, existing investor FirstMark Capital contributed.

Weplay's Series A round, announced earlier this year, … Read more

ScoreMobile's iPhone app is a sports fan's savior

Have you ever been forced away from watching your favorite sports team because of some prior obligation, only to find yourself sneaking away to the nearest TV to check on the score? Well, then ScoreMobile's new iPhone app is for you. Essentially, ScoreMobile has taken its already killer iPhone web app and translated it over to a nice downloadable package. Right now, ScoreMobile offers real-time scores and stats for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAAF, NCAAB, and even CFL for our Canadian readers.

Even though I have dropped a lot of jaws by showing off the instantaneous video highlights that … Read more

Virtual reality treadmill: Run with a view

With games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, the concept of combining workout and play is nothing new. But the University of Tsukuba in Japan is pushing the envelope by throwing in a 270-degree wraparound projection screen for an added sense of realism.

Conceived as a physiotherapy waking tool for stroke and related aliment patients, the system comprises three overhead projectors and companion dome mirrors to stitch together an awesome panoramic visual.

The virtual reality treadmill is still in development stage, but we can foresee many more tangible applications once it's materialized--say, military training, home entertainment, and even extreme … Read more

The one question Mark Cuban should have to answer if he wants to buy the Chicago Cubs

Those nice people at ESPN reported this week that Mark Cuban, who I am told, was given a lot of money by Yahoo for some gizmoid or other, is one of the finalists in the bidding to buy baseball's most charming, unlucky, losersome team, the Chicago Cubs.

There will be those on the waggy side of humorous who will claim that he is the perfect person to own the Cubs as his Dallas Mavericks team is one of the most charming, unlucky, losersome teams in the NBA.

(My prejudices. One, I have Golden State Warriors hats and shirts and … Read more

Spleak expands its microcontent portfolio

Spleak Media Network, the San Francisco-based start-up focused on creating "interactive content communities," announced Tuesday morning that it would be moving into three new content categories: fashion, television, and games.

Spleak's concept is a bit unusual: users read, rate, and create content entirely via instant messaging platforms (AIM, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk), though there's also an opportunity to embed a Spleak widget into your MySpace or Facebook page. The content--in 250 characters or less--comes from readers and from Spleak's official content partners, such as CosmoGirl and Fox Sports. Users can vote each element up … Read more

What was missing from the Nintendo E3 press conference

The Nintendo press conference at E3 2008 just ended and we're left scratching our heads. While we were glad to see the announcement of titles like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party, hardcore gamers loyal to the Nintendo brand were completely left in the dust. There was no talk of any first-party Nintendo games beyond the Wii-branded Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music. There was absolutely no mention of new franchises like Kid Icarus or even anything from the Zelda or Mario camp. This has everyone in the office wondering, "Where are the … Read more