How I Stay Connected With My Favorite Team: Atlanta Braves

Spring has sprung and it’s time for baseball.

The regular season for Major League Baseball (MLB) is played from April through October, and that’s not counting spring training and the World Series. That’s a lot of games to watch, and MLB is ahead of the competition when it comes to allowing their fans to stay connected with their favorite teams. New technology allows the fans to watch Atlanta Braves games on their laptop or tablet.

The MLB offers a subscription package to watch out-of-market games via the MLB.tv website and the MLBatBat mobile app, which is ideal if your favorite team isn’t located where you live. Also, cable television sports packages are still the ideal source for you to watch most of the Braves games from your easy chair.

Each package guarantees the subscriber the opportunity to watch nearly every game on just about any device (television, laptop, tablet and mobile phone), including gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation. A cable television subscription through AT&T Atlanta will allow you to watch Braves games on all of these devices and your service provider’s website or their on-the-go mobile app.

All of the games are broadcast in high definition, as you have the ability to pause and rewind all disputed plays. Also, viewers have the capacity to watch multiple games simultaneously with the picture-in-picture feature. The MLBatBat mobile app provides subscribers live audio broadcast of every game, which is ideal for long car drives.

If you own a Roku box or Apple TV, you’re close to watching Atlanta Braves games. You’ll still need an MLB.tv subscription to stream live games on your television using a reliable Internet connection.

If you can’t watch every inning of every game, your best source is to download the ESPN SportsCenter app for your tablet and mobile phone device. You can create an Atlanta Braves team window that shows the latest news, current player statistics and game highlights from the previous night’s action.

Before purchasing a package, you must take into consideration the MLB blackout rules. The league is upfront about their blackout policy, so fans aren’t surprised with their coverage. Games that are blackout are based on where you are rather than where you live. Your mobile app will take a few minutes to verify if your location is within the blackout zone before beginning the game’s broadcast.

No matter which choice you make, the game of baseball is just a click away digitally.

Apple Watch, Deal or Dud?

For those of you techies and high-tech gadget lovers out there, you may be reeling from the long awaited release of Apple’s smart watch on April 24, 2015. However, if you’re not an avid Apple consumer (who are known to buy blindly) you may be wondering what the rave is about these certain watches when there are already smart watches out on the market. So why the big fuss?

Different generations of smartwatches have existed since the 1970’s, but with the turn of the century a new evolution of watches took place emphasizing utility and other features. Within the past few years, companies like Pebble and Samsung have led the wave of popularity for smartwatches. Let’s see how some of these companies’ smartwatches measure up to Apple’s claims.

Pebble’s highly rated Pebble Steel smartwatch boasts of a classic look along with the added benefits of being waterproof and sunlight-readable. Once charged, this watch provides up to a complete week of battery life and will give you access to all of your emails, texts, and other notifications that your phone usually handles. Listen to your favorite music on your morning jog or catch up on emails before heading out to work. You can even choose from a myriad of different watch faces. This device is compatible with both Android and iOS and has a relatively cheap price tag. Though it has been mentioned that the customer service isn’t the best and that you may only run 8 apps at a time, Pebble Steel still offers some serious competition.

Samsung’s Gear Live offers a stylish alternative to Pebble’s standard look and is available in many different colors. This smartwatch is also customizable and doesn’t seem to have any operational lags based on reviews. While compatible with non-Samsung devices, this device is not waterproof but it water-resistant. This smartwatch is an honorable mention but it doesn’t quite stack up to Pebble’s list of features for those of you who have a tendency of dropping phones in water.

Lastly, let’s take a look at what Apple says they will provide with their next-generation smartwatch. Apple is known for their branding and with an arrogant claim of being the “only smartwatch with significance” we can only hope that they deliver on that promise. Apple claims that the way their watch functions is more efficient than the other competitors who “haven’t thought it through.” The watch is claimed to have most of the standard features that Samsung and Pebble perform, but like Samsung it is only water resistant. On top of that, the Apple Watch only provides an 18-hour battery life. And wait til you hear about the price! With a starting price above their competitors at $349, Apple’s watches vary from simple to luxurious at a whopping $17,000!

All in all, there are plenty of options for people out there in the smartwatch realm. From what we’ve seen of Apple’s claims, there is yet to be enough evidence to prove their claims true. Until enough of us get our hands on those fancy watches, we’ll have to wait with breath that is baited to see if they can compare to their competitors.

Hackers May Be Able to Access Avionic System through Wifi

It was nearly seven years ago when wireless internet was first introduced on a commercial plane. The Boeing Dreamliner plane was crafted with a Wi-Fi design which, unfortunately, made the aircraft open to hackers to take over. And now, according to a government report from the Federal Aviation Administration, planes may still be vulnerable to hacking through the in-flight Wi-Fi system.

Not only do the Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets have Wi-Fi capabilities but the Airbus A380 and A350planes do as well. Their Wi-Fi networks are on the same network that the plane’s avionics system is on which is concerning. Because the two share a network, according to the report by the US Government Accountability Office, it is believed that hackers may be able to access the avionics system and gain control of the navigation system or even be able to commandeer the plane.

The network does have a firewall separating the Wi-Fi and avionics system however, firewalls are not impenetrable. If a firewall has been misconfigured by the installer, then hackers may be able to get through it. Security experts for years have been recommending that planes should introduce an air gap system which will actually separate the two systems and not leave the avionics system vulnerable to hacking. Experts are worried that hackers may take advantage of the bridge between the two networks to gain access to the avionics system. If a passenger using the Wi-Fi system introduces a virus to the network, it could leave an opening for anyone to gain access into the in-flight system.

When addressing the FAA’s concerns, Boeing has said in the past that their planes have more than one navigational system which pilots can access in case of an issue arising. Any changes to a set flight plan would need to be reviewed by the pilot first and then approved as well. Airbus had released a statement as well saying that the company is constantly revising the architecture of their systems and products in order to maintain the highest level of security and safety for their aircrafts.

For the full story, check it out on Wired.com.