All the ways smartphones have changed sport
Phones, hey? These days, if your battery runs out during the game it feels weirdly quiet just looking at one screen, and if you're watching on time-delay, you realise it's pretty lonely with just Nisbo and Justin Marshall for company.
It's a far cry from the Olden Days, when a poorly-programmed VCR could ruin your sporting week. I used to call an 0900 number to get English football results on a Sunday morning, and sometimes pick up Shoot magazine, which would eventually turn up from England three months after the fact.
That little buzzing and bleeping lump of plastic and glass in our pocket has made us more up to date than ever and brought us closer to some people and further away from others. Here's what's better and what's worse in the era of The Phone:
What's better
Bantz and lolz - as soon as we figured out those old Nokias could send texts, it was on. There's no better feeling than hitting send on a sick burn to a mate you know will be distraught because the Chiefs just snuck a win over their team. Twitter, Snapchat, What's App etc have only only increased the audience and taken it multimedia. Magic.
Breaking news - is what Twitter is for, if something amazing has happened, you'll know about it straight away and probably get to see it just after that (if you're not using Twitters own app etc).
Riding on buses - game changer. You should probably read more books though.
Just casually watching the game on Sky Go at work - if you'd told 23 year old you that 45 year old you would be able to watch sport RIGHT THERE IN THE OFFICE , he / she would know it would all be worth it.
Getting to know athletes - now, we can see our favs warming up, chilling out, having top bantz with their team mates and enjoying sponsors' products. This new era has been almost all positive, opening up new commercial opportunities for players and making fans feel part of things like never before.
What's worse
Avoiding a result - unless you're hiding in the loo with a non-internet connected music player on your headphones, it's basically impossible. Watching a game delayed even half an hour means you have to avoid texts, breaking news alerts, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of it. You're also a bit out of your social circle for that couple of hours - goes to show why live sport is such a massive driver for TV companies hey?
Actually watching the game - yeah, this suffers. Between catching Twitter, texts and all the rest of it, by the time you look up at the big screen, you've missed most of it. One of the rare times you're grateful for five consecutive scrum resets.
Reading the paper - pulling out the sports section or settling in with the big Sunday edition used to be a lot more of an event. This is obviously a bigger issue than just sport, and innovations in video and multimedia presentation are an exciting pointer to where we're headed.
Apps I like - a couple of recommendations
NZC - alerts, scorecards and video highlights every day.
Strava - if like me, you have an extremely sporadic exercise regime, keep track of how you're travelling and follow your mates, as well as Hamish Bond, Lance Armstrong, etc.
RNZ - the only news app I have breaking news alerts on for. Mike Hosking thinking something is rarely breaking news, team.
Tweetbot - still has a strictly chronological Twitter feed, for now.
Thanks for reading - Richard
The week's best NZ sport writing
No, the All Blacks don't need government funding says Dylan Cleaver. The keeping-players situation may be more complicated than it appears, but there's some serious PR and selling that needs doing before we'll buy this [NZ Herald]
Suzanne McFadden learns about the hard work that's gone into the White Ferns' Jess Watkin's rise to international cricket [Locker Room]
...while Madeleine Chapman says that dividing male and female youth athletes is pointless and doing more harm than good when our youngsters are learning their games [The Spinoff]
And an interesting take from England - John Mitchell's experience as a youth basketballer unleashed modern back play. To be fair, his back threes were pretty spectacular if you don't count semi finals and that [The Guardian]
Video nasty
Just the most amazing table tennis shot you'll see this lifetime.
Long read
Gripping tale of what happens when an extremely aggressive Russian worm virus takes down all the world's largest shipping company's computers [Wired]
Selected weekend fixtures
BOP v Canterbury at 2.35pm Saturday afternoon, North Harbour v Tasman at 7.35pm Saturday night and Hawke's bay v Counties-Manakau on Sunday at 2.05pm are the picks of the Mitre Ten Cup, they're all on SKY
Simon Mannering's 300th game for the Warriors happens tonight at 8pm v the Raiders, hopefully the chaps can secure a decent playoff spot too, it's on SKY
Bring back the gif
When you've got a fantastic contribution for the meeting, but freeze when it's your turn.
