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The Sports Issue OCTOBER 2011

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Letter

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 1

Welcome To The October Issue It’s Why We Play The Game As we closed this issue of Pivot, Sebastian Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders kicked a last second, game-winning 63-yard a toeless Tom Dempsey.

None of us had seen the game live, but, thanks to technology, we marveled at this feat as though we were in the stadium.

Huddled around a computer screen, we basked in the glory of sport, feeling both humbled and exalted.

The idea of sport means different things to different people. But in a world where almost everything is scripted, sports

But, hopefully, along the way we learn a few things about ourselves.

These, of course, are the intangibles of sports—the lessons about teamwork, the way watching live sports inspire community, the challenges they pose to our basic assumptions about human achievement (did she really just do that on a balance beam?).

Do sports challenge any of your assumptions? There are plenty of TouchPad apps in this issue that enable this (and other) indulgences, including Ian Beck’s TapNote, Sports Illustrated, Pennant and Jason Robitaille’s ComicShelf HD. And, if we’ve done our jobs correctly, you might just feel that same sense of exhilaration we felt watching that recordtying kick.

Thanks for your continuing support. And if you have questions or comments drop a line to Pivot@HP.com or follow us on Twitter: @webOSPivot

provide us with a needed dose of uncertainty and authentic drama. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. (Sorry, Cubs fans.)

Sincerely, The webOS App Catalog Team

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 2

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Primer

HOW TO USE PIVOT For an index of every app mentioned in this issue, navigate to the last three pages (the section called Apps In This Issue).

Return to the Table of Contents by tapping here.

Touch any headline to access the first page of that story.

Add an app to your Saved list by tapping the Bookmark icon.

Press the dark oval button on the surface of your TouchPad to return home.

Swipe right and left to navigate through the issue.

To launch an app that you’ve already downloaded, press the Launch button.

To purchase or download an app, press the green price (or Free) button.

Turn—or pivot—your TouchPad to see the layout change from vertical to horizontal, revealing new content.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 3

Pivot / The Sports Issue / Table of Contents

Glass half full? Page 21

THE LETTER 01

Month at a Glance Six events, and apps, to occupy October

Welcome to the Sports Issue THE PRIMER 02

What it Feels Like A goalie, a striker, a penalty kick

How to Use Pivot

THE COLUMN 13

THE FRONT 05

Team Player A fantasy baseball buff’s rediscovery

Opening Shot

By Betsy Thomas. Illustration by Joakin Lundin

Call Out

THE TREND REPORT 15

A golf ball can travel that fast?

Five Bands About to Break Big

Spotlight Q&A

THE FEATURE 21

A developer with a simple ambition

Sound Advice

Sporting Chance

A relief pitcher’s head-banging secret weapon

An American football fan and a European soccer nutter find common ground.

What’s on Our Kindle

By Brian O’Connor. Photographs by Brian Finke

Gripping reads about sport and adventure

Data Points The world’s top beer drinking countries

THE DEVELOPERS, THE FEATURE , THE CLOSER , AND THE APPS IN THIS ISSUE

Pivot / The Sports Issue / Table of Contents

THE APPRAISALS 28

Glimpse The Swiss Army knife of apps

FlightPredictor HD An end to flight delay frustration

Pennant Relive America’s pastime

BeamOut HD A lively diversion for the casual gamer

THE DEVELOPERS 38

Northern Exposure Meet the Stephen King of homebrew

THE CARE CENTER 39

Farewell to Worries THE LINKS 40 Staff picks from around the web

THE CLOSER 41

Character Study The Climber

APPS IN THIS ISSUE 42

IN THE NEXT ISSUE 45

What’s amazing and incredible.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 4

Opening Shot “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”

Jack Dempsey

300,000,000 Golf balls lost and discarded annually in the U.S.

Fore!

130 1.680 Minimum legal diameter of a golf ball, in inches

Speed, in miles per hour, that a golf ball reaches when leaving the face of a driver

Mark Twain called golf “a good walk spoiled,” but he didn’t have access to Tour Tempo Total Game, an app that teaches you how to integrate tempo into your swing. Get ready to lord over the ball with great skill, facts.

6 Tour Tempo Total Game Tour Tempo

FREE

$74.95

Average lifespan of a golf ball on the PGA tour, in terms of holes played

Dollars for a dozen Dixon “Fire” golf balls— the most expensive on the market—in U.S. dollars Illustration byElliot Blanchard

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 7

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Front

Write On Ian Beck developed the TapNote app to jot down ideas for his

What’s the sexy aspect to developing apps?

Believe it or not, meeting user needs. I love getting feedback, and I especially love to hear problems. Someone wrote to me and said he was using TapNote, but he found it really annoying to have to enter the date and time.

So I issued an update.

Can TapNote change the world?

Who knows? I’m hearing that people are using it to take notes in business meetings, or after a phone call to assist in their follow-up with a client. So, it might change the corporate world…

What if Thomas Pynchon had access to TapNote? He’d be writing shorter novels, because scrolling through long-form prose in TapNote is currently kind of painful. But great writing happens when distractions are out of the way, and one of my main goals with TapNote was to have only as much interface as is needed to get text into and out of the program; I’ve tried to keep it a blank canvas to bring the focus back to what matters, which is writing.

TapNote

One Crayon

FREE

Illustration by Michael Marsicano

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Front

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 8

Chin Music tunes with the 7digital MP3 Music app.

7digital MP3 Music 7digital Limited

FREE

MARIANO RIVERA New York Yankees “Enter Sandman” by Metallica Future Hall of Famer meets current [Rock and Roll] Hall of Famers.

JONATHAN PAPELBON Boston Red Sox “I’m Shipping up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys Scruffy Irish-American band hits a promotional home run.

JOSE VALVERDE Detroit Tigers “End of the Line” by Metallica He can’t come up with a Motor City tune?

Pivot Illustration by Pavel Pavlov

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 9

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Front

What’s on Our Kindle?

Amazon Kindle Beta

Capturing the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on the page represents the pinnacle of sportswriting. With the Amazon Kindle app, explore the commitment required of athletes, all from the comfort of your armchair.

Amazon

FREE FREE

Born to Run (2010)

Open (2010)

By Christopher McDougall

By Andre Agassi

A Voyage For Madmen (2001)

By Peter Nichols

While exploring the running habits of Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians, fitness journalist McDougall uncovered the secret of the world’s greatest distance runners, discovering that we’re all capable of outrunning horses and cheetahs— but not the IRS.

A must-read for tennis fans (and anyone who’s experienced hair loss), and also for those with a passing interest in the price paid for ambition, as Agassi details in unvarnished prose his struggle for self-identity, on and off the court, and finds where the true fault lies.

In 1968, nine men entered a contest to sail around the world, alone, without stopping.

Nichols deftly chronicles this battle of men against the sea, and their own maddening mindsets. This tale had our stomach in knots.

Illustration by John Park

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Front

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 10

Beer Here Can’t be in Munich for Oktoberfest? Belly up with vorlauf, a social networking app that allows you to check buddies. And if you’re traveling, this global ranking of beer consumption may be handy. vorlauf

guarracino.org

FREE Illustration by Bryce Wymer

Pivot for more beery facts

Month at a Glance Six events—and apps—worth exploring in October

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée...

CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival

San Francisco, CA

New York, NY

Inflation Calculator HD says a $1 million Picasso in 1961 is now worth $12 million

Snap a shot of Pearl Jam with FreeCam for TouchPad

FREE

Jack Daniel’s 23rd Invitational Barbecue Lynchburg, TN Determine the alcoholic content of your marinade with PopupCalc

FREE

MLB World Series Detroit? Philadelphia?

Divine a prayer for your favorite team from BibleZ HD

FREE

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

FREE

Halloween

Talladega, FL Stay updated with the ESPN ScoreCenter app for your webOS phone.

FREE

Keep dry while trick-or-treating with AccuWeather for HP TouchPad

FREE

Stress Test Think your job gives you pressure?

Dan Kennedy tells us how he deals with his job pressure—stopping a penalty kick as a Major League Soccer goalie for Club Chivas USA. Sports Illustrated –Tablet Time Inc.

FREE

I take my time; kick the grass, pace a bit before I assume my stance. Freeze the kicker. The pressure is on him—he’s the shooter, and he knows he has to make the shot.

How is he lining up? If he approaches the ball real quick, I know he’s made his mind up where he’s going, left or right. If he hesitates, then I know he’s trying to freeze me, hoping I’ll show him which way I’m going. But I won’t. I’m the more stubborn one.

I’ve blocked out the crowd; I’m not hearing anything. Is he opening his hips? If he is I know he’s going right.

I keep it simple; don’t overthink. I see one thing: When the ball lands in my hand, it’s going to be a big lift to my team, as important as scoring a goal.

Pivot Pivot for an alternate take

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 13

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Column

TEAM PLAYER Can a fantasy baseball devotee rediscover her pure, unadulterated

For years, I propagated the myth that less time-consuming, because of the advent of technology. It’s so easy now!

There’s no more snail mailing your rosters or waiting the next day for the

love of the game?

By Betsy Thomas. Illustration by Joakim Lundin

for Chrissakes!

“You have a fantasy baseball team?”

Today I manage my various teams from my phone, my laptop, and my tablet. And I can do it anywhere. Literally. I recently traveled to Europe, and not one of my pitchers missed a start. Sparky Anderson, in his “Restore the Roar” prime, never

I’m a sports nerd.

“Yes,” I reply. “I’ve had one since I was a freshman in college.”

At that point, they try to disguise their shock, due to their preconceived notions about women and sports.

“Doesn’t that take up a lot of time for a working mother?” They often ask, uncertain as to what to make of me.

“No,” I’d answer.

However, as the relationship between sports and technology has deepened, fantasy sports have actually become more time-consuming and complicated. Making trades, being on top of immediate injuries, following the never-ending stream of sports news and speculation—who’s going to take over while Brian Wilson’s out?

How long does Verlander’s seemingly

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Column

invincible elbow really have?—has become a full time job.

And it’s not just baseball. Recently, the National Football League started to require teams to post fantasy statistics in their stadiums during games to encourage people to, you know, watch the live-action the point where we’re willing to spend two hundred bucks for a ticket to a Packers game, only to stare at our phones the entire time.

We’ve forgotten why we got involved in born out of a desire to have more of what we loved in an era when we didn’t have every single game available through our televisions, computers, and phones. But now it has replaced real sports.

As a kid growing up in suburban Detroit I spent my childhood listening to Ernie Harwell call Tigers games on the radio while I drew in my baseball coloring book.

I traded Topps cards with my brothers.

I hung on every pitch, the complicated duel between the pitcher and the batter, the excitement of a close play or an inside the park home run. I’d wish for extra innings and develop deep crushes on that game’s unlikely hero.

But somewhere along the way, things changed.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 14

This July, my husband and I were in got tickets to the Brewers-Reds game.

It was a chance to experience the retro charm of Miller Park, which replaced tantly, it would be our four year-old son’s notion of sharing America’s pastime with my wide-eyed son on a warm summer night in a great Midwestern town, I bought tickets online, sparing no expense.

But as we headed to the stadium, I panicked. I’d almost forgotten one of the most crucial items in our repertoire. Not the tickets. Not our Tiger’s caps. Not our binoculars. And not our wallets, which would allow our son to experience the pleasures of peanuts and hot dogs and Cracker Jack.

No, what I’d nearly forgotten was my above the Brewer’s dugout, I signed into my fantasy baseball league, and made a quick transaction, picking up the Red’s starting pitcher, Homer Bailey.

The game was about to start, and I needed a reason to care.

Betsy Thomas is the creator of the television show “My Boys,” which aired from 2006 to 2010. She is currently the executive producer of “Whitney” on NBC. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Trend Report

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 15

As David Bowie once said, “too much is never enough.”

He was talking about good music, of course. To help bolster your global playlist, we found five bands on the verge of breaking big, representing New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Sydney.

To hear more from these bands, and thousands of others, tune in to Internet Radio HD Pro.

Internet Radio HD Pro

Casey Broome - L337Tech.com

FREE

NEW YORK CITY NAME Ra Ra Riot HOME BASE Williamsburg, Brooklyn (with Syracuse, NY roots)

LOOK & LISTEN

LABEL Barsuk Records SOUNDS LIKE Weezer wrestling with Crosby, Stills & Nash on the floor of an indie rock dive bar HIGH POINT Finding a champion in David Letterman (the band played his show in December of 2010)

Photo courtesy of Ra Ra Riot

LONDON NAME Emika HOME BASE London and Berlin LABEL Ninja Tune SOUNDS LIKE Bass-heavy electronica with a singularity evoking Bjรถrk HIGH POINT Working with cutting-edge dance artists like Kyle Hall and Brandt Bauer Frick

Photo by Liz Eve, courtesy of Ninja Tune

LOOK & LISTEN

PARIS NAME Da Brasilians HOME BASE Saint Lô, Manche in Normandy LABEL Underdog Records SOUNDS LIKE A sunset ride with the Beach Boys on the back of America’s horse (with no name) HIGH POINT Playing live on the famous French show “Ce soir ou Jamais”

Photo courtesy of Grégory Moricet

LOOK & LISTEN

SYDNEY NAME Bleeding Knees Club HOME BASE Gold Coast, Australia LABEL Iamsound SOUNDS LIKE The Ramones, had they been surf punks from Venice Beach, California HIGH POINT Recording their debut album with Dev Hynes (aka Lightspeed Champion)

Photo courtesy of Alex Wall

LOOK & LISTEN

HONG KONG NAME Noughts and Exes HOME BASE Sheung Wan, Hong Kong LABEL Spectra Records SOUNDS LIKE The love child of Sufjan Stevens and The Postal Service HIGH POINT Being named one of Time magazine’s Top 5 Asia Bands for 2011

Photo courtesy of Virginia Speilman

LOOK & LISTEN

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Feature

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 21

A SPORTING

CHANCE CAN AN AMERICAN FOOTBALL FANBOY

AND A EUROPEAN SOCCER NUTTER FIND

COMMON GROUND? BEER FOR BREAKFAST DOESN’T HURT THEIR CHANCES…

By Brian O’Connor Photography by Brian Finke and Illustration by Johan Barrett

Man United vs.

New York Jets

Two fans come to grips

W

alk into any international soccer bar in New York City on a Saturday morning in September and be sure to check your expectations for rational behavior at the door. or the smell of beer loitering like stale bankers, admen, and marketing execs by day—shrouded in various team jerseys, hurling lager-fueled exhortations toward the dozen TVs on the walls, erupting in sing-along choruses like a beery Viking glee club.

No, rather, to an American football fan like myself, it was the spectacle staring behavior.

I’ve come to the Mad Hatter in Manhattan—which was broadcasting a handful of English Premier League matches, as well as German and Spanish league games—to meet Liam, a friend of a friend whose devotion to Manchester United and all things soccer runs deep in the marrow of his lanky, 6’ 4” Englishman’s bones.

Besides our mutual friend, Liam and I also share distaste for the other’s national sport: He thinks American football lacks beauty, and I think European football lacks scoring.

Because he’s such a Man United fanatic, I knew I’d be defenseless at our sporting man’s face-off if I didn’t sharpen my woefully dull English Premier League IQ. But after a few taps of the app on my TouchPad—a newsfeed for world

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Feature

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 24

football—I came to understand that today’s Man United vs. Bolton game expected to be as evenly matched as Manny Paquiao taking on Betty White after a few martinis.

the action like it does every few minutes in American football, where they have to talk about the play, do the play, then stop, go to commercial break and sit around and talk about it again.”

“Hi mate,” said Liam cordially, pint in hand, emerging from a swarm of red-shirted Man United fans. “Charmed to see you’ve come to absorb some of the beautiful game.”

“The American adverts do pay the players’ salaries,” I replied.

“And they have to pay for their pads, and their helmets, and body armor,” Liam retorted. “You don’t see any of that in English football.”

“AH, NIL-NIL,” I SAID, SIPPING MY SECOND PINT OF THE MORNING. “LOOKS LIKE WE’RE ON OUR WAY TO SOME THRILLING DRAWS. WHAT IS THE OBJECTION TO WINNING? WAS CHURCHILL OK WITH THIS?”

games currently on the TV screens, all but one of which gasped along in scoreless ties.

“Ah, nil-nil,” I said, sipping my second pint of the morning. “Looks like we’re on our way to some thrilling draws. What is the objection to winning? Was Churchill OK with this?”

Liam laughed. “That’s OK, mate, but be prepared to watch a game, as in ongoing movement, no play stoppage save for halftime—not a bunch of adverts interrupting

Just then, an Arsenal player collapsed to the ground and issued an open-mouth howl as he grabbed his shin. A gaggle of Arsenal fans in the bar convulsed. I looked at Liam. “In Hollywood they call that ‘eating up’ a scene,” I said.

“We call it creative persuasion,” Liam replied.

As the morning games concluded, patrons Hatter prepped for the day’s marquee match—Man United vs. Bolton. After

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 25

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Feature

Liam and I assumed a spot at a table, on the big screen the camera captured the Man United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, adjusting his tie. I turned to Liam: “Hard to believe he’s been at it for 25 years…”

Seizing the moment, I reeled off some facts about United’s training facility, the construction of which Ferguson oversaw more than a decade ago. “You know, it’s enclosed by nearly two miles of high wire fencing, electronic surveillance, and signed as an impenetrable fortress to discourage spying from opposing teams.

No one gets in without Sir Alex knowing about it.” rowed, bushy brow, wondering where I’d read that.

I didn’t tell him that for the prior week I’d been saving articles about Man United on my laptop to the Paper Mache app,

which works with Instapaper, allowing me to read them in bed on my TouchPad. The game had hardly begun when Man United scored, and then quickly scored again, from the foot of their star striker, Wayne Rooney.

The Viking chorus sent vibrations through the bar: “Roon-Ay! “Roon-Ay! The Bolton side indeed looked overmatched, and it seemed like being down by two goals to Man United—the league’s best team this year, in keeping with its imperial aura—was an insurmountable lead. I joked to Liam that perhaps Bolton should be relegated—at halftime.

Liam pointed out that his team was merely doing what a good team does.

“It requires team work, fast breaks, long overlap,” he told me. “There is no separate team for offense and defense.

Offside? Bollocks!

Goooaalll!

Players spread out and create room to You don’t need twenty coaches with headsets telling the guys what to do. If you need that much coaching, the players are just human chessman. Where’s the individualism there?”

I replied that European football is old can football is better suited for the modern age. “When you mention roles in soccer,” I said, “That’s the key difference with job, some players aren’t allowed to touch the ball. It’s about specialization, and accountability.”

“So your problem with the European if you don’t win,” Liam shot back. “You

Americans have confused accountability with the idea of sport.”

We were holding our respective ground.

I said his sport lacks logic. “Did the English create the game as a kind of lark?”

I asked. “Kicking the ball seems like a snub at the gift of opposable thumbs.

I’ve seen elephants play the game.”

“Any sport where you need the TV announcers to tell you what’s just happened is not sport.”

Just then, Rooney scored yet another goal, prompting the Viking glee club to roar a sing-along—“That’s why we are champions! That’s why we are champions!”

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 27

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Feature

The TV camera then cut to a man in the stands at Bolton’s stadium. He looked his eyes, and he was holding a sleeping infant to his shoulder, in a Bolton baby jersey. This took the edge off the roar inside the Mad Hatter, as if the room had slow leak of a collective Awwwwwwww…

I agreed, and told Liam that my dad also took my brother and I to see the New York Jets at the old Shea Stadium when we were kids.

“The Jets were the laughing stock of the National Football League,” I said, “Their ineptitude was legendary, and my dad could think of no better way to introduce his sons to the idea of humility.”

A few awkward moments of silence followed, as if estrogen had seeped into the Spartan WAYNE ROONEY’S warrior water supply.

SCISSOR KICK Liam then told me that his father had been a Man Liam and his brother to games when they were kids, and he’d discourse on the history of the team, about eight members of the squad died in a plane crash.

“Because of that I think my father saw football as a sport that had its own life cycle, a continuity, with vulnerability and tragedy, and he wanted to pass that on to us.”

Nothing but net

We both got a chuckle and began telling stories of games we’d attended. Just then, Man United scored again. Shortly my Sports Live! HD app had alerted me of the updated

After talking to Liam I saw we had more in common than I thought. I was even willing to concede that a sport where the players must put a ball in the opponent’s net without carrying it could be entertaining.

“Really?” asked Liam.

“Sure,” I said, “If that sport was called ‘basketball.’”

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 28

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Feature

A STAGGERINGLY ABBREVIATED & INCREDIBLY ILLUSTRATED VIEW OF TWO OPPOSING ATHLETIC ENDEAVORS

Modern soccer created at Freemasons’ Tavern in London.

1863

Penalty kick introduced.

1888

Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman brings massage therapists to locker room.

13 teams compete for first World Cup, in Uruguay.

Edison Arantes do Nascimento—a.k.a. Pelé— born in Brazil.

1869

1892

Professional football born when player paid $500

1906

Forward pass legalized

1920

1930

1940 1959

Illustration by Johan Barrett

Rutgers plays Princeton in first inter collegiate football game.

Vince Lombardi named head coach of the Green Bay Packers

Super Bowl I played

1967

U.S. soccer goalie Shep Messing poses nude in Viva magazine

1974

Ohio State coach Woody Hayes punches an opposing player in the throat

1978

Brandi Chastain scores “historic” penalty kick in Women’s World Cup..

1999

David Beckham signs five-year, $32 million deal with Los Angeles Galaxy

2007

Pittsburgh Steelers win sixth Super Bowl title

2009

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mierv79567oaiup FREE Eligibility Requirements: US-based HP employees, HP reseller partners, HP customers and HP webOS developer partners are eligible to use the Weekly below will expire on 10/1/11. Promo codes are available for as long as inventories last. To redeem this offer select the desired app for purchase in the HP App catalog and when prompted enter the promo code. No charges will be made against your credit card, but you will receive a receipt. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Third-party software available separately. Within wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost. Not all apps available on all devices. Within wireless coverage area only. Actual speeds may vary. Email, mobile number, and related be available. All screen images simulated.

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

Pane Management The Swiss Army knife of TouchPad productivity apps

by Matt Gunn

Say you want to watch a video on your TouchPad while taking notes, or maybe check the stock market while using the calculator (or poorly) your portfolio is performing.

That means jumping from one app to the next and then back—a waste of tools on one dashboard.

You need Glimpse.

The Basics Glimpse works its multitasking magic by dividing the TouchPad’s screen

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 30

Glimpse Inglorious Apps

FREE

each one running a different widget—utilities like a calculator, notepad, web browser, Twitter client, RSS reader, task manager, and stock market tracker, etc.

Glimpse’s setup—one two smaller ones on either side—allows you to alter the layout. You want to watch a YouTube video on the main pane, type notes in a notepad, and check the weather forecast for the week ahead, all at once? Glimpse won’t slow you down.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 31

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

The Assessment Glimpse combines solid design and a friendly user experience with a number of useful widgets, and in doing so, fully unlocks the TouchPad’s multitasking prowess. It brings together the basics—a browser, notepad, calculator and RSS—and mixes it with useful features like a task manager, Twitter, YouTube and full-featured calendar.

Put simply, for the $5 cost, it’s hard to beat its pure functionality.

Although it does lack a full-function word processor and spreadsheet, hopefully these features will

appear as the developer adds the ability to download new widgets.

The Skinny Ease of Use Well-designed and easy to use.

Who Benefits Most multitasking, single-screen devotees.

Recommended Settings Set the refresh frequencies according to your information needs.

Wishlist A word processor and maybe a couple games (Minesweeper, anyone?).

The Verdict A multitasking powerhouse that makes the TouchPad an even better mobile tool for web browsing, researching and entertaining.

Glimpse Category Productivity Developer Inglorious Apps www.ingloriousapps.com FREE

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

Waiting Game Get advance notice about airline delays

Here’s a dirty little aviation

by Michael Rovner

airlines wait until the last possible minute to announce a new departure time. Why? Once they do announce it, they can’t move the time up, otherwise passengers might miss FlightPredictor HD lets the genie out of the bottle, alerting you minutes to an hour before your airline will.

And given the choice, wouldn’t you rather spend a couple extra hours at home as opposed to sitting in a terminal, waiting for reading some tawdry weekly magazine?

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 32

FlightPredictor HD gregstoll.com

FREE

The Basics You can engage this app in multiple ways. You can choose to “browse airport maps” or “show airport delays.” Alternatively, you number or route. The app automatically checks every thirty minutes, but you can minutes and it doesn’t begin monitoring your journey until six hours prior to departure in order to maximize battery life.

It also features detailed maps of nearly two dozen of the largest domestic airports, displaying food and shopping options, gate locations, and ground transportation.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 33

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

The Assessment With twenty percent of we found this app to be an invaluable way of alleviating travel frustration, letting you process information in real time and enabling you to spend less of your trip in the airport. It also allows you or relatives, which is helpful for people who are nice enough to pick up travelers at the airport.

And while the app is only applicable to domestic to expand the offering in a future update.

The Skinny Ease of Use As easy as pressing a button.

Who Benefits Most Frequent travelers and anyone who dislikes long waits in the airport.

Recommended Settings “Look up Airport” is your most valuable button.

Wishlist Real time tracking of airplane location once it has taken off.

The Verdict If you value your time, this app will reward you repeatedly.

FlightPredictor HD Category Productivity Developer gregstoll.com www.gregstoll.com FREE

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

Play Ball!

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 34

Pennant Vargatron

FREE

Relive America’s Pastime

by Matt Gunn

Just how dominant were kees? And which game of decided by a Kirk Gibson walk-off (or limp-off) home run? Did Stan Musial get

Unless you’re Bill James, or some other wonky statistician, the answers to these questions will likely be out of your range. Thankfully, there’s an app called Pennant.

The Basics Pennant mines sixty years’ worth of Major League Baseball box scores and

turns them into a game-bygame narrative. Every team, every game, every hit, RBI and home run that’s been recorded since dynamic display of graphic cards.

The Assessment We love baseball stats—the contests among individual players to win a batting or home run title provides a thrilling subplot to the quest for a championship.

But Pennant doesn’t go there. That is, you won’t use the app to recall Barry Bonds’ remarkable

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 35

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

But Pennant, more interested in the team than the individual player, can help Giants fans do something Bonds never did: go through every game of San Francisco’s magical run to

The Skinny

Wishlist

Ease of Use Requires a little bit of toying around to get accustomed to the nontraditional way of displaying information.

records that reach further

championship.

To do this, Pennant organizes data and team history into a visual feast of infographics, maps and charts, depicting daily lineups, every at bat, wins, losses, titles and team records, and it looks great doing it.

Who Benefits Most Anyone with a deep respect for America’s pastime.

Recommended Settings Tap “View Seasons” and then “View Games” to access a season’s bat-by-bat sequence.

The Verdict A beautiful, informationrich app that looks great on the TouchPad, Pennant has hit a home run. Well worth the cost of admission.

Pennant Category Sports Developer Vargatron www.vargatron.com FREE

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 36

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

Steer Clear

BeamOut HD Under Clouds Games

FREE

A lively diversion for the casual gamer

While your friends’ updates

by Michael Rovner

Twitter in an endless stream on your TouchPad, you’re tweaking Dropbox and answering e-mails.

You are “TouchPad busy,” and a distraction would be welcome.

Still, you’d like to avoid turning into a pasty-faced shut-in whose enthusiasm for gaming requires a three-hour daily com mitment, quitting your job and being perpetually single.

BeamOut HD, the latest iteration on a

genre that’s come a long way since Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak created Breakout for Atari nearly forty years ago, can provide the thrills—without the gaming ills.

The Basics In this futuristic take on the arcade classic, your spaceship has landed on your mission, should you accept it, is to earn points by collecting energy blocks and sheep. In this space race against the clock, you advance, 3D-style, through thirty levels across three backdrops, all rendered graphics.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 37

THE APPRAISALS

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Appraisals

BeamOut HD’s gamechanger is the TouchPad’s accelerometer, which liberates you from directional tapping, and turns your TouchPad into a steering device, enabling you to maneuver around bombs, lasers and other enemies without decimating your protective shields. Bonus points are awarded for speed.

some body language to help your spaceship

The Assessment We found the strategic challenge of this game to be feverish, in part due to its hypnotic soundtrack by Atomicon. But even the most casual of gamers should prepare to get a jolt as you give the TouchPad

Who Benefits Most Casuals with time to kill—aliens!

immersive environment can be addictive.

Wishlist Vibration response to onscreen impact.

The Skinny

The Verdict The go-to game for casual gamers.

Ease of Use Practice makes perfect, but the challenge is to avoid oversteering. Tip: drive it like a bumper car.

BeamOut HD Category Games Developer Under Clouds Games www.underclouds.com

Recommended Settings Go to “Controls Style” in preferences to calibrate tilt.

FREE

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Developers

Northern Exposure

wunderdkind gets called up to the big leagues of the App Catalog.

ComicShelf HD Canuck Coding

FREE

“People loved it,” he says of his first homebrew creation. “I like the ability to change the TouchPad to make it more personal, and that’s what first attracted me to the homebrew community.”

AGE HOMETOWN FAVORITE APP NOT HIS OWN TWITTER

23 Winnipeg Kalemsoft Media Player @jaycanuck

Here at Pivot, we call him the Stephen King of webOS, because he’s so prolific. Indeed, few developers have taken advantage of the open source nature of webOS like Jason Robitaille, who has created some 60 app enhancements, known as “patches.”

It all started with his Quick Install, an app that allowed webOS users to import these tweaks to their devices.

Two years later, Robitaille, a baby-faced computer science major at the University of Manitoba, stands unrivaled atop the webOS homebrew heap in terms of creative output. Now, he’s migrated to the App Catalog, first with ComicShelf HD and then with Canuck TV. “Everybody I know loves comics, and to have your whole comics collection on one device is amazing, and the TouchPad is the perfect form for them.”

His advice to would-be homebrewers: “Overclock your TouchPad. Go wild with your new toy. You have to push the limits.”

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 39

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Links

Web Savvy The TouchPad is great for browsing all sorts of varied content. Check out these links, selected by the webOS App Catalog Team.

History Class

The Eagle Has Landed

Step into the past with your TouchPad on Shorpy. com, an immense library of vintage hi-res photographs, from the 1850s to the 1950s, focusing mainly on urban settings, architecture and people of yore.

We Choose The Moon was created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 11, which was the first manned landing on the moon. The site offers a re-creation of the event, blending archive video, audio feeds from mission control and photos.

The Great One

Beyond Oz

In this original College Humor video, former NHL great Wayne Gretzky shows off his amazing puck handling skills, and his sense of humor. No one ever said Canadians aren’t funny.

In a twisted update of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a leather-clad sorceress named Azkadellia has scorched the once-beautiful land of OZ. Check the Tin Man site and be drawn into a series of 3-D screens.

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 40

Pivot / The Sports Issue / The Care Center

Farewell to Worries Your TouchPad is like a speedy new vehicle.

Here’s how to keep it running smoothly.

We’ve Got You Covered Work and play without the worry, knowing you’re covered by HP Care Pack services. Every HP Care Pack includes telephone support that goes beyond the standard, complimentary 90-day period.

You can also add a second year to your manufacturer’s warranty, and/or cover your device in the event of an accident with accidental damage protection (ADP) if purchased within 30 days of device activation—a particularly attractive solution for the TouchPad that gets passed around like Hemingway CliffsNotes in a dorm room.

Find The Right Support Resource Do you need help setting up your TouchPad? Have questions about things like setting up email, loading contacts or connecting to Wi-Fi? Try the HP webOS Butler Service for setup assistance. It’s free for 90 days from your date of purchase.*

If you want to speak to a customer care representative directly you can call them toll free at 1-866-945-7256.

Reach Out And Touch Someone At Pivot If you have questions, feedback or story ideas feel free to email the editors of Pivot (Pivot@HP.com). You can also get in touch with us via Twitter (@webOSPivot), for those who prefer the 140-character method.

If your letter strikes a chord we may run it in a future issue. *After 90 days, standard phone support fees apply.

HP Care Pack HP

FREE

Character Study The Rock Climber

Photographs by Dominic Nietz

Every Marathon Jeff Linwood

Tracks local road and trail races to keep in top climbing shape

FREE

Words Arkanster

Gets inspired by the Exhibition mode quotes and quips of famous historical figures

FREE Flivr—Explore Flickr Christian

Enjoys an endless stream of Flickr photos (once she reaches the summit)

FREE

CBS Sports CBS Interactive

Follows the World Series while on the mountain

FREE

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 42

Pivot / The Sports Issue / Apps in This Issue

Apps in This Issue

1/3

Amazon Kindle Beta

ComicShelf HD

Category Books Developer Amazon

Category Books Developer Canuck Coding

FREE

FREE

AccuWeather for HP TouchPad

ESPN ScoreCenter

Category Weather Developer AccuWeather, Inc.

Category Sports Developer ESPN

FREE

FREE

BeamOut HD

Every Marathon

Category Games Developer Under Clouds Games

Category Health & Fitness Developer Jeff Linwood

FREE

FREE

BibleZ HD

fifaNow

Category Productivity & Utilities Developer zefanjas

Category Sports Developer Blanco

FREE

FREE

CBS Sports

FlightPredictor HD

Category Sports Developer CBS Interactive

Category Travel Developer gregstoll.com

FREE

FREE

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 43

Pivot / The Sports Issue / Apps in This Issue

Apps in This Issue

2/3

Flivr – Explore Flickr

Internet Radio HD Pro

Category Entertainment Developer Christian

Category Music Developer Casey Broome – L337Tech.com

FREE

FREE

FreeCam for TouchPad

Paper Mache

Category Photography Developer NuttyBunny

Category News Developer Ryan Watkins

FREE

FREE

Glimpse

Pennant

Category Productivity & Utilities Developer Inglorious Apps

Category Sports Developer Vargatron

FREE

FREE

HP Care Park

PopupCalc

Category Productivity & Utilities Developer HP

Category Productivity & Utilities Developer Hominid Software

FREE

FREE

Inflation Calculator HD

Sports Illustrated - Tablet

Category Finance Developer Doramjan

Category Sports Developer Time Inc.

FREE

FREE

OCTOBER 2011 / Page 44

Pivot / The Sports Issue / Apps in This Issue

Apps in This Issue

3/3

Sports Live! HD

vorlauf

Category Sports Developer More Solutions, LLC

Category Social Networking Developer guarracino.org

FREE

FREE

TapNote

Words

Category Productivity & Utilities Developer One Crayon

Category Entertainment Developer Akanster

FREE

FREE

Tour Tempo Total Game

7digital MP3 Music

Category Sports Developer Tour Tempo

Category Music Developer 7digital Limited

FREE

FREE

In the November Issue

The Amazing Issue Apps. They are the lifeblood of the TouchPad, and they bring the webOS platform to life, enabling all manner of joy, discovery, and wonder. They inspire some pretty amazing things, which just happens to be the theme of the November issue.

The Most Amazing Haunted Hotel Room In America Legend tells of a haunted inn beside the sea in Provincetown, Massachusetts, home to an oddball roster of ghosts (including a sea captain, an electrician and a cook). Our writer spends a weekend there, using his TouchPad to entertain the ghosts and enjoy the otherworldly pleasures of a haunted hotel.

The Wonder Of It All How will you fare on our amazing “Is it an element on the periodic table or a heavy metal band name” challenge? Do you know the most amazing hidden album tracks of all time? What are the amazing ways to trick out your TouchPad? We’ll cover all of this (and more) in the next issue, and we’ll do it amazingly.

Have questions, comments or feedback?

Feel free to send an email to Pivot@hp.com or follow us on Twitter: @webOSPivot