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More NFL Players Attack Microsoft's $400M Surface Deal With The NFL (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader writes;
"These tablets always malfunction," complained one NFL offensive lineman in January, foreshadowing a growing backlash to Microsoft's $400 million deal with the NFL to use Surface tablets. Friday the coach of the San Francisco 49ers and their controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick both complained they've also experienced problems, with Kaepernick saying the screen freezes "every once in a while and they have to reboot it."
Friday Microsoft called their tablet "the center of the debate on the role of technology in the NFL," saying they deeply respect NFL teams "and the IT pro's who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help them succeed." It included quotes from NFL quarterbacks -- for example, "Every second counts and having Microsoft Surface technology on sidelines allows players and coaches to analyze what our opponents are trying to do in almost real time." But Yahoo Finance wrote that "The quotes read like they were written by the Microsoft public relations team," arguing that Microsoft's NFL deal "has been a disaster... The tablets failed to work during a crucial AFC Championship game last January -- again for the New England Patriots... sports media interpreted that the malfunction benefited the Broncos on the field, giving the team an unfair advantage -- the very last thing Microsoft's tablets, meant to aid coaches in their play calling, should be doing."
The NFL issued a statement calling Microsoft "an integral, strategic partner of the NFL," adding "Within our complex environment, many factors can affect the performance of a particular technology either related to or outside of our partner's solutions."
Friday Microsoft called their tablet "the center of the debate on the role of technology in the NFL," saying they deeply respect NFL teams "and the IT pro's who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help them succeed." It included quotes from NFL quarterbacks -- for example, "Every second counts and having Microsoft Surface technology on sidelines allows players and coaches to analyze what our opponents are trying to do in almost real time." But Yahoo Finance wrote that "The quotes read like they were written by the Microsoft public relations team," arguing that Microsoft's NFL deal "has been a disaster... The tablets failed to work during a crucial AFC Championship game last January -- again for the New England Patriots... sports media interpreted that the malfunction benefited the Broncos on the field, giving the team an unfair advantage -- the very last thing Microsoft's tablets, meant to aid coaches in their play calling, should be doing."
The NFL issued a statement calling Microsoft "an integral, strategic partner of the NFL," adding "Within our complex environment, many factors can affect the performance of a particular technology either related to or outside of our partner's solutions."
the rate as our iPads, I believe that. Of course, they're real computers and more complicated, but sixty times more is just killing our IT department.
It's a product placement, not an actual solution.The NFL is counting it as advertising revenue. Therefore, no one cares what the end users and support staff think about it.
It's all about $$$, is Apple willing to shell $400m for such privilege?
Apple doesn't need to, their devices have mindshare.
MS is incapable of marketing effectively to end users (except XBox), so they must buy their mindshare.
I used to be a football fan. I used to go to games. Then it slowly dawned on me that my favorite team wasn't owned by people who cared about winning. It was all about money.
Yeah, call me naive for not figuring that out sooner.
The labor disputes weren't enough for me, but when the owner started threatening to move to Florida I started getting turned off. They didn't move to Florida, but they did move to Tennessee.
The only good thing about sports in my opinion for the last 15-20 years is when there's a good scandal and NFL coaches turning on a major sponsor ranks right up there.
They can't give teams their choice of technology because of sponsors who bought the whole league. They can't give teams full control of their devices because there are too many cheaters. They make billions annually but even partnered with Microsoft they cannot satisfy their coaches with their technology.
Hearing stuff like the announcers referred to their Microsoft Surfaces as iPads for the first couple of seasons is just icing on the cake.
Some have said it's just problems with wireless connectivity and thousands of fans in the same place all using their cell phones but couldn't they overcome that if it is what the problem really is?
It's not hardware and Windows is not solid -- at all.
My mouse stops working. I remove it and put it back and it works again. The hardware has not stopped, the mouse didn't overheat. It's just the OS that decided not to see it anymore.
Now, it's on the back of the CPU, so I decide to connect it to front USB ports -- just to make testing easier.
It doesn't work. A balloon states it is searching for a driver for the mouse. What for? Does Windows have different drivers for the same mouse if we plug it on different USBs? Why the f*? I do it at home in Linux all the time, I can connect the mouse to any of the USB ports. It works instantly. Why not in Windows (which idiots say it's easier)?
After some time I get tired of waiting for the driver to install, because the minutes go away and nothing happens. I look at the screen and there's a message inside the balloon: "Click here for more info". OK, please tell me because I may be stupid since I'm not able to use the fine Microsoft software: how can I click on anything without a mouse?
Well, I kinda feel the OS has won and put the mouse back on the same port it was connected to. Then it works and I quickly click on the balloon -- only to learn that there's an explanation about Windows not being able to get a mouse driver (online or from Windows Update, AFAIR).
Duh, we have security standards, of course the PC won't reach Microsoft. The IT people cannot allow that. But how would I know if I didn't click on the balloon? And no, I can't do it without a mouse! Nobody can!
And you know what? There's a message asking if I want to quit retrieving the mouse driver from Windows Update? Well, that won't work, so only a stupid user would insist on that (oh, wait, this is Windows, stupid user is the standard). So I click on quit or cancel or whatever, thinking I'll have the opportunity to locate the very same driver that is in use to see the mouse at the back of the CPU tower. (I did that before, it's not cool to look for a needed piece of software in your own machine -- the OS should know where it is... but... *sigh*).
Except no. You say you don't want Windows to get the driver from some online repo and that's it. End of story, no further dialog. You just stay there looking at the screen -- without a mouse pointer!
Because their computers, you know, actually work.