Sports

Smartphones Transforming Business Travel

Business traveler Mike Monroe no longer rummages through his bag at the airline counter fishing for his flight ticket or confirmation number.

The consultant from Lakeland, Fla., has gone paperless, thanks to Continental Airlines' electronic boarding passes. Once he checks in online, the carrier e-mails a bar code to his phone. That code is scanned at security checkpoints and gates instead of a boarding pass. "It takes away a lot of annoyances."

Monroe also uses his BlackBerry for airlines' flight-change alerts, routing all calls into one number provided by Google Voice, turn-by-turn driving directions when he's behind the wheel and watching TV on Slingbox when he has downtime. He also carries an iPod Touch -- like an iPhone but without the phone -- to make international calls using Skype, get the latest sports scores and weather from Viigo and access Urbanspoon's reviews of nearby restaurants. "Nothing really cutting edge," Monroe says, "but I'm just trying every day to reduce the stress."

Monroe is a member of a growing army of tech-savvy travelers whose smartphones are transforming their travel habits. Beyond online maps and travel guides, travelers are turning to their phones to look up aircraft seat configuration, track taxis, reply to early hotel check-in requests, order room service and locate nearby colleagues.

Few Americans remain untouched by the effects of the mobile Internet. But the tech industry's core mission of getting people to lead untethered lives inevitably invites road warriors such as Monroe as early adopters of all their bells and whistles. The travel industry has responded with some of the most innovative applications available on smartphones. And more are coming.

Airlines and hotels are refining their mobile Web sites and creating applications, or "apps," for downloading to popular phone models, such as iPhones, BlackBerrys and Google Android phones. Entrepreneurial software developers are rolling out...
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Tech Titans Create Content-Gadget Ecosystems

You may not know it, but your gadgets have a hidden agenda. Think about the electronics you own. No doubt there's a digital music player such as an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune. Then there's a smartphone -- perhaps an iPhone or a Droid that sports the Google-inspired Android operating system. For games, your family may have an Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, or Nintendo Wii. For books, there's the Kindle from Amazon, among others. When the iPad hits stores on Apr. 3, you'll want that, too.

Each device contains its own widening universe of services and applications, many delivered via the Internet. They are designed to keep you wedded to a particular company's ecosystem and set of products.

A battle looms, and it's not about selling new gadgets -- it's about using devices to lock you into a content ecosystem. In an ironic evolution of the World Wide Web that once promised consistent access to all of the globe's information, corporate giants are now striving to wall off sections of content and charge you for access.

Apple's Issue with Adobe's Flash

The Internet is splitting into a series of content portals. The front door is your iPod. Consider some of the current gadget trends:

-- iPad versus Flash. When Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled his sexy tablet in January, it soon was clear that the iPad wouldn't support Adobe Systems Flash software. That might seem a remarkable oversight, since Flash supports most videos on the Web -- until you realize that Jobs might prefer you to pay for videos at his iTunes store.

-- Kindle in Color. On its Lab126 career board, Amazon recently placed ads in search of engineers who have design expertise in color LCD screens and Wi-Fi. The listings suggest Amazon may be planning a color upgrade for...
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Ghana firm turns trash into fashion (Pics)

Empty sachets are tossed to the ground because there’s no comprehensive recycling program and few trash cans. The bags clog storm drains, which leads to flooding and increased risk of diseases like malaria. One solution is to turn the trash into totes — and purses, and sports bags.
Read more [World News from Digg]

Olympic Games Continues Online Journey

After 17 rousing days and the sight of Canadians throughout the Great White North celebrating Sunday's Gold Medal hockey victory and the country's record medal haul, all good things moose-t come to an end. Time to look forward to London, to Sochi, and to Rio. Trade that Molson's for a pint, a shot of vodka, a caipirinha.

As an estimated 3.5 billion viewers in 200 territories did during the worldwide fortnight in Vancouver, it is likely that we'll all be viewing the upcoming Games in England, Russia, and Brazil digitally. Through last Monday night, the NBC Olympics mobile site and iTunes app generated 58.2 million page views, according to the network, up 68 percent from the entire 17-day total of 34.7 million for the Beijing Games. Yahoo! saw 18.1 million unique users and 103 million page views, far outpacing NBCOlympics.com.

Will the 2014 games still be seen on the Peacock Network? According to a Sports Business Journal report, the IOC has not been able to generate significant interest in 2014 and 2016 U.S. TV rights. Of the media outlets that could submit bids, CBS and Fox Sports did not make the trip to Vancouver, Turner Broadcasting still hasn't committed to bidding, and ESPN hinted that its final offer would be less than the $2.1 billion NBC paid for Beijing and Vancouver.

Regardless of which broadcaster ends up with the rights to the Sochi and Rio games, the U.S. appears to be playing much more nicely with the IOC. The Chicago Tribune notes that the IOC seems to be "celebrating the U.S. success." IOC President Jacques Rogge was quoted as saying: "If the U.S. comes first by whatever count, they will claim a victory and that would be good for them and the Olympic movement."

Marketable: Ohno, Vonn, and White

With Team USA's...
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Chinese youth too fat to fight Japanese in a Future War

China must urgently address the physical fitness of the nation's youth or run the risk of raising a generation incapable of fighting the Japanese in a future war, the head of the country's top sports university said Thursday.
Read more [World News from Digg]