SportsDo go Ski Sunday

When you watch Ski Sunday this …er…Sunday and you see Graham Bell and Ed Leigh speeding down the hill you may notice that they’ll have Windows Mobile 5 powered HTC MTeoRs in their pockets running a copy of SportsDo to track their progress.  In fact they’ll be using these throughout the season until the end of February.

If you want a sneek peek you can see the Men’s Downhill at Val Gardena which will be shown this Sunday.  The map you may notice is Virtual Earth 3D so looks rather cool.

Jon and the troops at SportsDo have also added the ability to record heart rate and Graham’s hit 187bpm…over his theoretical max.  Must have been when he passed 90mph.

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Do Sport at Stand 129

If your a skiing or snowboarding nut then you’ll probably find your way to the Metro Ski and Snowboarding Show at Olympia this week…it runs until this coming Sunday 22nd so there is still plenty of time.  If as well as snow based activities you want to know how how far, fast and high you ski my chums at SportsDo have the answer.  Take one Windows Mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC (ok if you insist…phones that can run Java as well) add a GPS unit and copy of the SportsDo smart client and you can record all the telemetrics as you carve up the slopes.  You can then upload to them to the SportsDo web site and share your heroic antics but also get a bunch of more sophisticated mapping tools to show how everyone just how good (or bad) you are.  They’ve have also mapped 51 resorts in America and a growing number in Europe so you can track your mates, find the elusive ‘apres ski’ locations and the slopes you haven’t tried yet. 

It’s also great for lots of other activities too, walking, running, cycling in fact anything where telemetric measurement is important, as such it can be used as a serious training tool.  Now in version 2.1 the boffins at SportsDo have lots more ideas and additions they’re working on…Oh I forgot to say you can upload the photos from the Smartphone as well, it’s well under half the price of say a Garmin and ten times more functional.   Genuis!

Oh England My Lionheart

Our plucky homegrown footballing talent shows it’s easy to earn obscene amounts of money, be adored by millions and turn in performances that would embarrass a sub standard pub team. 

The game last night nailed any doubts that English football is at a low ebb, disappointment at the World Cup and more lately the Macedonian Part Time 3rd Eleven holding them to a draw just being more grist to the footballing mill.  Yes individually on paper they look great, brilliant even, and yes most Saturdays they look great too.  But could this be because they are amongst some of the best overseas talent that TV subscriptions, over priced replica shirts and bungs can buy?  Get them to kick a ball about with fellow Englanders and it all goes ‘Pete Tong’.

The biggest criticism will undoubtedly be aimed at Steve McClaren, and as the man in charge he should sholder some of the blame, but I’d not be so quick condemn him as many have done.  The eleven multi millionaires on the pitch didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory, some of them seemed half asleep, some distracted like they’d left the iron on or like Wayne Rooney in search of their long lost mojo.

This isn’t a problem that’s going to sort itself out over night.  The lack of the all the things McClaren said he wanted to see from his players, “character… pride… passion… attitude… an English performance” is endemic and the causes manyfold.  Until the Premiership is slapped by the hand 0f reformation, the FA grows a spine and players renumeration brought under control, England will contine to be the international footballing standard for under acheivement.