Imagine the scene: the Patriots have a 21-17 lead with just over three minutes left on the clock in a late-November game at the Meadowlands. The Jets have a third-and-six at their own 38-yard line as Mark Sanchez goes to the shotgun with a single back and trips right, with the Pats cheating left and prepared to blitz Sanchez’ blind side before he can get the ball out.
As any fan does, you’re not only watching the game on TV, you’re also following it online, where you have your fantasy matchups on one monitor and Twitter open on the other, just in case there’s any insight that you might not be getting from the TV guys. Sanchez barks out signals, each of which can be heard clearly over the silence of the nearly 100,000 fans. The Patriots shift at the line, and Jerod Mayo calls out of the blitz when he senses a screen. You take a swig of your beer, hoping that whatever’s about to happen doesn’t cause you to spit it out. As the ball is snapped, your timeline refreshes and you see something you weren’t prepared for: a tweet from Chad Ochocinco, who’s very much active and in uniform, and very much on the sideline at this game. Sanchez barely makes it to his fifth step before a charging Patrick Chung sends him to the ground, forcing a fumble which Mayo recovers and returns for a touchdown. The Patriots tack on one more touchdown as Devin McCourty is the beneficiary of a pick-six tossed up by Sanchez, and win the game, 35-17. But the highlight, not surprisingly, involved Ochocinco. “Everybody wants special and inside treatment, so content from the dugout or the sidelines or in the locker room is valuable,” says Lou Imbriano, founder of TrinityONE and former VP of Marketing for the Patriots, and owner of four Super Bowl rings himself. “Teams should find a way to monetize that content, to get that content out to consumers to make them feel connected.” It may be a bit unrealistic to expect Ocho to be the one to break the barrier, and according to Imbriano, a baseball player is more likely to tweet from the dugout than any football player ever would be from the sideline. “Let’s say a Sox player is in the dugout and there’s a new cap coming out, and they say they want to turn it into a rally-cap and if you want to buy it, you can click here,” Imbriano continued. Of course, there are regulations in place that keep players from tweeting from a certain time before the games start until after postgame press conferences end. But those regulations can only last so long, Imbriano notes. “The players need to do something for the players, and the League needs to do something for the League, and they need to come up with a strategy that takes everybody’s goals into account and create a plan that achieves all those goals,” he continued, reminding that it doesn’t need to be a PR nightmare, because anything players say in a press conference will spread just as quickly as what they say in a tweet will. Tweeting from the sidelines or from the dugout isn’t something that’s going to reveal strategy, it’s not something that players will use to talk trash – we learned from Kevin Garnett and Charlie Villanueva that that stays on the playing field. But it is something that will further engage fans and consumers of the product, which is what teams and leagues should be after. Sure, social media on the sidelines could be a distraction. Sure, it could be a legal issue for leagues. But assuming no legal ramifications, assuming that players are entrusted to send out a few tweets here and there, it’s hard to see a way in which supplementing traditional coverage with an in-game approach wouldn’t take off. “There’s enough engagement that everyone can get a piece,” Imbriano concluded, reminding me that they aren’t called teams for no reason at all. “They need to find out how they’re more powerful together than alone.”
Looking to crank out some work, build a website or start a company? A solid workspace is on the top of your list. Your couch may be comfy, but it’s an easy way to get sucked into a Jersey Shore marathon. While coffee shops generally promote a working environment, sometimes the constant smell of caffeine and sound of cash registers just doesn’t cut it. When you’re really looking to get down to business, check out these 12 coworking spaces to help you get started. For more coworking spaces around the city you can check out Greenhorn Connect‘s comprehensive list.
Bocoup Loft 355 Congress St., Boston Brickyard Collaboration Space (BCS) 86 Sherman St., Cambridge 617-576-1280 Cambridge Co-Working Center (C3) One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge 617-401-3300 Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge 617-758-4100 Design Annex 66-70 Union Square, Somerville 617-955-0080 Dogpatch Labs 1 Cambridge Center, 6th Floor, Cambridge Geek Offices 1035 Cambridge St., Suite 1, Cambridge 617-539-6999 Space with a Soul 281 Summer St., Boston 617-744-9336 Tech Superpowers’ Digital Lounge 252 Newbury St., Boston 617-267-9716 The Venture Café One Broadway, 4th floor, Cambridge 617-758-4128 Venture Development Center at UMass Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd., Wheatley Hall, Floor 3, Boston 617-287-6070 Workbar 711 Atlantic Ave, Lower Level, Boston 617-861-4940 In addition to these spaces, sites like Open Office Space allow you find office space, by posting your needs directly to their database. Have space to share? They’ve got an option for that, too. Now you have excuse not to get to work!
Good morning and welcome to the BostInno morning beat. As always, there has been a lot of action in the tech scene already today and we want to make sure we keep you in the know. These are the hot stories that we are tracking this morning so you don’t have to. Grab a cup of coffee and check out what’s hot. I have also included a round up of posts, just in case you missed one.
YC NYC: Paul Graham Shares The Antidote To Startup Poison The antidote is a high concentration of smart, driven people who are interested in entrepreneurship and technology, and the likelihood of bumping into someone who can help you increases drastically. Facebook to Launch iPad App at Apple’s iPhone 5 Event [EXCLUSIVE] Not that I am doubting Mashable, ok I am doubting Mashable a little here. So many thoughts are running through my head… Apple snubbed Facebook this year with the iOS 5 deep Twitter integration. The two companies do have a strained relationship, but maybe they are looking to mend that? Although, having Facebook launch its LONG awaited iPad app during the HUGE iPhone 5 event, just sounds crazy. Apple likes the spotlight, we know that. But, Steve Jobs IS gone, maybe Apple is turning over a new lead and cozy-ing up with the big players to beat Google. Time will tell. On Wednesday, Amazon Will Unveil The “Kindle Fire” On Wednesday morning in New York City, Amazon will unveil the Kindle Fire. Yes, this is the name Amazon has settled on, to help differentiate the product from the e-ink Kindles, which will still be very much alive and for sale. And while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will show off the Fire on stage, it won’t be ready to ship until the second week of November. Quora Gets Threaded Comments, Comment Voting, Editing And Images I’m sorry are people still using Quora? Google Plus Traffic Went Up 1269% Last Week I’m sorry are people still using Google Plus? Is New York’s Tech Boom Sustainable? “The truth is that I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “Hubs tend to stay hubs.” With its Standout tag, Google News is giving publishers a new incentive to credit the competition Google is giving a little more control to publishers when it comes to ranking the most valuable news content. Yesterday’s RoundupBostInno Sports Beat: The Trouble in Foxboro Edition What it Costs to Hire & Train a New Employee [Infographic] DataXu Launches DX Social to Drive Deeper Engagement Across Digital Media Channels Prom Trauma: Wasted Youth – Upcoming Tech Prom Video World Premiere BostInno Approved: What to do this week 9/26/11 Zeo Launches Mobile Sleep Manager, Scores Distribution Deal with Best Buy Student Steals of the Week: Ghosts, Witch Trials, Plasma Watches & More What We Learned: Patriots vs. Bills Wellesley, Babson & Olin College Collaborate on a Sustainability Program 10 Hot New Restaurants Opening Their Doors This Fall BusinessWeek Top 25 Under 25: 3 Boston Area Founders Honored as America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs Harvard Overheard: Why the Cambridge University is the Most Buzzed About University Online How Secure is Your Twitter Password? When Good Twitter Accounts Go Bad [Infographic] What & Where Exactly is Boston’s West End? Get Down & Break A Sweat: 5 Fun Ways to Beat the Freshman 15

At the present time, flying unmanned drone aircraft requires a skilled operator and a lot of equipment. Engineers at the Boeing Company and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology want to change all of that and make it possible for regular people to control aircraft from a handheld device like an iPhone.
In the Boeing video shown below, an operator in Seattle is tapping and swiping on the screen of an iPhone and flying a tethered drone on a baseball field at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The idea of the experiment is not to have iPhone owners wage war, but to "allow drones to be used more effectively for tasks that are dirty or dangerous, as well as for missions that may be too long and tedious to have a human be continuously at the controls."
The experimental app features two modes of operation. The first lets the operator set a path for the drone to follow by tapping waypoints on a map displayed on the iPhone screen, while the second mode uses a camera on the drone and "nudge controls" to send the aircraft in the desired direction.
The project is a collaboration between the aerospace giant and MIT, and a fascinating look at how iPhone apps are being developed for use by the military.
iPhone app controls drone aircraft 3,000 miles away originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Three weeks ago we told you about a new product launching that aims at simplifying email for salespeople. That company, Yesware, has just announced a $1 million funding round from Google Ventures, Foundry Group, Golden Venture Partners, Geoffrey Hyatt, Colby Wood, Mike Baker, David Cohen, Mike Dornbrook and Will Herman. Yesware is suite of productivity services – available for Gmail and smartphones – that provides email analytics, customizable templates and CRM integration to help salespeople close deals faster. Because salespeople are already familiar with CRM’s the new product works in conjunction with leading CRM platforms including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle CRM, Highrise and others.
“Salespeople have huge goals, but no time. Yesware helps sales communicate more effectively and efficiently with their customers right from where they work – their email. And, by providing one-to-one email analytics, Yesware shows salespeople exactly how their messages are resonating in the marketplace,” said CEO Matthew Bellow in a previous interview. The analytics is a sticking point for this service, as salespeople spend an inordinate amount of time racking their brains on segmented sales campaigns. Now, the sales team can see what’s actually working. Key features that are part of Yesware’s initial rollout include: Integrated Sales Templates — Customizable email templates for every stage of the sales process — from prospecting to closing the deal — help salespeople communicate better and faster with customers. Sales managers can use Yesware’s template system to provide their teams with clear, consistent messages so the right language is always used when communicating with customers. Compared with retyping common email messages, salespeople using Yesware can save an hour or more of sales time every day. Automatic Synchronization between Email and CRM Systems — Yesware makes it easy to update the salesperson’s CRM. When toggled on, Yesware automatically saves all outbound email into any leading CRM system. Entering customer replies into the CRM takes only two mouse clicks. Using Yesware, CRM compliance increases and enterprise data improves. Activity-Based Reporting™ – Yesware’s Activity-Based Reporting provides objective metrics on how individual salespeople build rapport with customers, how their communications resonate in the marketplace, and how each member of the sales team spends their time. Sales teams gain valuable insights on customer interest and objections, and on ways to improve the sales processes. Email Tracking — With Yesware’s Email Tracking feature, salespeople can monitor the activity around their emails, including when and where they were opened and which device was used to open them. This gives the sales team crucial insights on the effectiveness of their message. Yesware for Mobile Phones – Key Yesware reports, including Tracking, Activity, Priority and Team reports, are available on modern smartphones. Salespeople away from the office can see exactly when prospects open their emails. For salespeople with Android phones, Yesware offers a mobile application that allows users to send sales templates right from their handset. Yesware for Gmail is free to individual salespeople. For sales teams, Yesware for Gmail is available on a per-seat subscription basis. Yesware for Android is available for a one-time purchase price of $4.99 via the Android Market.
tekgoblin writes "Netflix has signed an exclusive deal with Dreamworks Animation which will allow them to stream content from the studio to Netflix. The deal will allow Netflix to stream content from Dreamworks which previously supplied content to HBO. The contract was negotiated at approximately $30 million per Dreamworks film title."

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Virtualization has long been important for Mac users, especially those who have to manage multiple platforms for their work. With Apple’s small share of the desktop market, virtual machines are a necessity for Mac users who can’t get by without access to Windows applications.
While virtual machine products from the likes of VMware, Parallels, and VirtualBox provide convenient ways to run Windows and other operating systems on your Mac, Apple’s recent upgrade to OS X Lion has the software makers scrambling to ship updates. VMware and Parallels have both released new versions that let Windows applications integrate with Lion-specific features such as Launchpad and Mission Control, and take advantage of Apple’s decision to let users run additional instances of Lion in virtual machines.

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Amazon Prime members will soon have access to a selection of Fox’s movies and TV shows as part of Amazon’s Prime instant video service.
Later this fall, Amazon Prime members will be able to stream TV shows like The Wonder Years, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 24 for free. Amazon will also be adding film titles like Mrs. Doubtfire, Office Space, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Since launching Prime Instant Video in February, Amazon says it has doubled its content library, now offering members access to over 11,000 movies and TV shows. Amazon Prime membership is $79 a year and includes free two-day shipping with no minimums, in addition to access to the Instant Video library.
Amazon has signed licensing deals with CBS, NBC, Sony, Warner Bros. and others. The additional Fox titles bring the Amazon Prime to closer parity with the catalog offerings from competitors Hulu Plus and Netflix. Netflix and Hulu continue to sign partnerships — with Netflix recently inking a deal with DreamWorks Animation.
Amazon is expected to announce its long-rumored tablet Wednesday in New York City. A key differentiator between the Amazon tablet and competitors like the iPad could be support for Amazon’s library of audio and video content. Although users can access Prime Instant Video from a Mac, PC, Roku, TiVo and assorted TV and Blu-ray players, the service is not accessible via the iPad or other Android tablets.
Right now, Amazon’s offering is one of the best values in the space. For less than $7 a month, users get access to thousands of movies and TV shows AND free shipping on all their Amazon.com purchases. For users interested in catalog content, it’s a great value.
Let us know what you think about the new content offerings in the comments.
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