In today’s increasingly digital world, technology is becoming an integral part of sports at all levels. iPads are one of the biggest technologies to have made an impact in the sporting world, making tasks that were once monotonous both entertaining and interactive.
With Apple’s recent release of the new iPads which are now lighter than ever, it’s a perfect time to see how various teams, brands, and organizations are using iPads in sports settings. Highlighted below are various uses that iPads have in sports.
Basketball and Football Playbooks
Almost every professional team (and a lot of colleges, too) now use iPads as their official playbooks. Why waste paper printing playbooks with hundreds of pages when you can have an iPad? The iPad also allows coaches to easily send out playbook updates which players can then effortlessly sync to their individual iPad.
Check out this video from PlaybookBball (iPad) on a demo of iPad basketball playbook software:
Video Editing
It’s not all about being able to watch film and studying plays. Some firms, such as XOS, provide iPad software that allows coaches to drop in football-type data (down, formation, distance, etc.) into game film that helps themselves and players create game plans. Check out more about XOS by clicking here.
Second Screen Utilization
By now, we’ve all heard the term “second screen.” A large percentage of sports fans now watch games while also following social conversation on a smart phone, tablet, or laptop computer. With Twitter and Facebook both inking deals to provide real-time highlights in-steam, second screen utilization by sports fans is sure to only to increase. A new iPad with a better-than-ever display and faster processing system means better utilization by sports fans everywhere as a second screen.
Check out some of the more technical new features of the iPad Air:
High Quality Retina Display
One of Apple’s big announcements at the new revealing this week was the improved retina display on the iPad Air. The screen (a 9.7 inch LED-backlit multi-touch IPS display) checks in with a resolution of 2,048 x 1,546 pixels, meaning it can be classified as Retina. This means you cannot see individual pixels when you hold the tablet at a normal viewing distance.
Sports application: Live streaming services such as Watch ESPN are consistently among the most used apps in the iPad app marketplace, and streaming video is continuing to grow on the Internet. With fans able to watch games on a clearer-than-ever screen, the iPad Air provides a unique mobile sports watching experience.
Lighter and Faster
The new iPad Air weighs just 469 grams, compared to 652 grams for the iPad 4. It gives the iPad a much sleeker and more modern look. With its outer coat made from aluminum, meaning it’s tough and rugged. That’s great news for sports, as athletes, coaches and traveling sports business professionals can often put a great deal of wear and tear on the device.
Sports application: With increased processing speeds and a lighter frame, the iPad air is optimized more than ever for work on the go. For sports teams and players that are consistently on the move, this provides a mobile hub for the most important documents and information.
What did Apple miss? Fingerprint ID.
The biggest feature missing from Apple Air’s technology is the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. This technology was first introduced with the Apple iPhone 5S allowing for unprecedented security by users. Had it been included on the new iPad sports organizations and players could have used it to more securely store data on their tablets that contain game plans and play books.
Sports application: With fingerprint ID technology, the iPad Air would allow teams to have the comfort of security in a new way. It could give teams, organizations, and players an increased comfort level with sharing sensitive documents on the mobile iPad technology. Perhaps in the future this could lead to increased sharing amongst teams and leagues resulting in increased performance on and off the field.
iPads have already revolutionized the sports world and will continue to do so. As technology continues to grow, it will be interesting to see what the next big step is. With wearable technology (GoPro cameras, Google glasses, Samsung smart watches) seeming to emerge, how will the iPad—and Apple—keep up?