Smart sports equipment turns phones into coaches

CNN

What if you have just won the match and walking proudly out of the court and meet the other person, who has just lost the match. You think he will also storm out of the court in anger and grab his water bottle but, instead you find him picking up his phone and checking in the mistakes that he had made during the match.

New discovery

Now we have new range of tools available in market which will allow you to check on the speed of a pitch, the arch of a basketball toss, the quality of a serve and the speed of a pitch, the strength of a putt. These tools are not meant for professional players or even touring golfers. These professional level tools are meant for using as part of the casual sports, starting from a beginner’s level to league level. So what makes this gadget so unique? It is the technology behind these tools which is mainly the amalgamation of increasingly affordable and small sensors such as gyroscopes and accelerometers. Every smartphone is loaded with these sensors giving boost to the developing fitness tracker industry. These sensors have already the total experience biking and running by coming up with different apps like Strava and other wearable apps like Fitbit. Now, companies are installing these unique sensors in different kinds of existing sports equipments like running shoes, tennis rackets, golf clubs and basketballs.

Similar technology is being used by Babolat, which has been making tennis rackets for nearly 20 years. Year 2013 saw a completely new kind of racket being launched, which was priced at $ 399 called Pure play drive. This was the very first kind of connected racker having a trio of sensors hidden in the hollow handle of the racket which has the ability of tracking down the vibrations and the movements of the user. The sensors have the unique ability to track the exact spot where the ball touched the racket, the spin was given by the players and the force it hit the racket.

All these statistics are sent to smart phone app that will reflect this through easy diagrams. The app has been equipped to track even the length of the game and even the total shots, misses and hits. Similar types of tools are coming up for different range of sports. Another example will be the 94Fifty Basketball even though looks like real ball, it has the ability to measure the intensity of dribble, the arch of each shot, and the speed as well. Adidas has also developed football which has the ability to collect information about every kick. But the main point to remember is that these sensors are meant for practice matches are not for the team games.

Professional athletes have always relied on the phone camera and now even the beginners are starting to depend on the smart phone cameras for a quick slow motion replay. One of the biggest challenges is that these sensors need to turn the raw data into understandable information. Well now people can expect every action of their sports activities to be tracked with the increasing usage of sensors.

Privacy Apps for Online Anonymity

With the increasing usage of internet and reliability on the web, privacy is the first concern in anyone’s mind. When they get online they want to ensure that they have complete privacy. With the smart phones coming up with apps offering anonymous messaging service, the latest attraction is the privacy protection technology, which is claiming to provide expression, location-based confession, and anonymous discussion platforms. Apart from the advantages these apps are offering, there are some serious issues like bullying platform as well as a false sense of anonymity security


Whisper, Yik Yak or Secret, anonymising social media apps like this are basically identifying all your personal data through the platform they run on. Almost all the apps available require accessing a considerable amount of your personal details as well as location information.

These data are often used for geo-locating the user for location sensitive data and post, but it also tracks you as the unique user of the apps through unique identifiers associated with your posts and data. These unique identifiers are specific to the device like the IP address, usage pattern and the phone’s IMEI number.

These unique identifiers can be easily used for blocking any abusive user, tracking software errors, sending push notifications and enable other features of the phones. On the flip side, we can clearly see that the so called anonymity is nowhere available. The service company of the user can be asked for handing over the user data if required by government or law enforcement. The fact is that all the above mentioned anonymous apps have this information mentioned in their privacy statements.


Contrary to some other apps which make no such claims, apps like Whisper who have claimed to provide anonymity is simply incorrect. These companies can, however lure a person based on their security statements and may cause damage which can come back to haunt the user. The truth is that these apps can’t provide the anonymity that you are looking for. The true meaning of anonymity lies in complete identity and technical anonymity.

Anonymity should be something which doesn’t allow the user to be tracked through geo-location, their IP address, usage patterns and other forms of phone identification. This can be achieved through robust usage of technologies like Tor properly.

Till this is achieved, what one should receive is the pseudonymity through which the app developers promise data accessibility harder than before. Lack of anonymity can certainly help and increase the use of bullying. These apps are targeted towards young people and school going children who are particularly susceptible to bullying.

App like Yik Yak has been working out on ways to tackle bullying by blocking the users who use abusive or offensive language and posts. They have been constantly removing negatively rated posts, but still there is a considerable amount of bullying problem.


The Society is looking for apps which will ensure that their children and young people are safe from bullying by building safeguards in the social media technology. Anonymity is very difficult and today’s society is shaping up technology, which shapes up the society in turn. Users need to be aware of the potential problems before trusting any app offering complete anonymity.

Windows 8.1 Lets you Stay Healthier with Fitbit App

Windows Phones in the Market

Windows Phone is one of the most revolutionary merchandise that dominates the whole mobile phone market. While Android has been leading the market for quite a long time, the whole range of Windows Phones seem to take a good lead in this competition as well.

Importance of Apps

Applications or rather Apps have always had a special place in today's smartphones. Likewise, Microsoft too understanding this fact is keeping up to date with the most recent and most important Apps. The much-awaited release of Window 8.1 also is loaded with a whole lot of Apps.

One such App, which is confirmed to be given along with the Windows 8.1 version, is the Fitbit App. Especially for all those who are really health conscious and love to stay fit no matter what may come, this App is quite beneficial. In its essence, it is basically a health management service. This App actually monitors the regular activities of any person. As for example, it tracks the sleeps of one and also about that person's respective weight.

Windows phones users can now easily maintain a healthy body. For using this App, the user must have a Fitbit account and if one does not have that he or she needs to sign up which has been kept free by the Fitbit Company. Having an account will not only let the user use the App as per his or her needs and requirements, but will also enable him or her to use the other Fitbit devices as well.

Features Users can Avail

This useful healthy App includes such important tools and information that will be able to synchronize the life of any one. It provides daily historical graphs, that lets the user to understand of his or her steps, calorie burn as well as floor climbing patterns.

Also it provides a BMI trend graphing. Basically it tracks the daily activities that any normal person faces in real life. Knowing all about the daily processes, any person is liable to know what is right or wrong for health, following which the proper activities can be taken into account.

Moreover, since they are coming with a Windows 8.1 combination, things become simply smoother and faster. One can track the daily activities on the go, no matter which place is it or what time is it. Also with the help of this App, users can measure themselves against the present Fitbit friends.

A Wise Decision

The introduction of the Fitbit App is really useful as well as important in order to stay ahead in the competition. Like in Android and IOS phones, Microsoft in order to hold an important and competitive rank in the smartphones market, needed to take this step.

In each aspect, this step taken by Microsoft is indeed a wise one. It breaks free from the conventional Apps that are generally presented by the Windows, like Xbox games and social networking applications. Microsoft like always thus is successful again to present a literally “healthy” competition.