football

You can't do push-ups with your eyeballs, but doctors are discovering there are exercises that can make eyesight stronger.

Professional athletes spend countless hours improving their physical strength, speed, and agility. Now, thanks to new gadgets developed by Nike and optical science company Acuvue, high-performance professionals are working to better their vision without the need for surgery, glasses, or goggles. … Read more

Could a computer replace this era's crop of clownish sportscasters like Dick Vitale or Lee Corso? We can dream--while a Swiss company works on software that could create artificial intelligence systems to call sporting events.

Computer researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland are working on a system that can track multiple athletes on a football field, a basketball court, or a soccer pitch via multiple cameras and advanced scanning algorithms. These days, computers can track human athletes, racing cars, and other sporting elements via GPS. But that's illegal in many sports as the introduction of such technology threatens to overpower the human element of athletics. The EPFL technology uses visual cues instead. … Read more

The CBS Sports College Football crew is the best in the biz.

Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson, Tracy Wolfson, Coordinating Producer Craig Silver, and Director Steve Milton and the troop of dedicated professionals at CBS Sports make it look easy. It's not. It takes technology, teamwork, and talent. Our team is on the road through the Southeastern Conference all fall, bringing the excitement of college football and the Saturday tradition to living rooms across America. "It's really like the circus," says Silver. "We roll our trucks into town. Set up for a few days, do the … Read more

CNET Australia transplant Ty Pendlebury joins the cast of The 404 to talk about the brand-spanking-new GTA V trailer, online sales tax, and Aussie Rules Football.

It's been a while since Rockstar Games even mentioned the Grand Theft Auto franchise, let alone gave details on the next installment in what's widely regarded as the most infamous video game series in history. We'll chat about the new trailer and whether or not it impresses.

Next up we'll talk online sales tax and how it may become a reality for consumers who shop at sites like Amazon.com. We've been enjoying tax-free shopping for years now, but will that soon be coming to an end?… Read more

The Web breeds fantasy.

It lets us become different people. It lets us impress those we never thought we'd ever have a chance of impressing. And it lets us believe that we are just as wily, difficult, and very slightly obnoxious as the most successful people in the world. The New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick, for example.

Yet now that fantasy football has become more prevalent in human minds than, say, learning a foreign language (some say 25 million people will have teams this season), a couple of NFL players have come out and expressed some heartfelt--and not … Read more

It's a sign of the smartphone/tablet times that on the same day EA released Madden NFL 12 for Xbox 360, PS3, and other game consoles (read CNET's First Take), you could also buy it for your Android or iOS phone or tablet--for considerably less money, I might add.

Indeed, with price tags of just $6.99 for iPhone, $7.97 for Android, and $9.99 for iPad, these mobile versions are the Madden NFL 12 deal to beat.

Ah, but is there anything here to entice owners of Madden NFL 11? Or even Madden NFL 10? Those … Read more

New Madden games are like football seasons: each one arrives full of promise and hope, and inevitably it's either disappointment or excitement depending on who you are. Anyone who's even slightly confused, apprehensive, or disinterested in the NFL will find no friendly hand of welcome from Madden: at its heart, this is a game for football fans, not football hopefuls. We start with that observation because, unlike last year's efforts to make Madden 11 more accessible for the newcomer, Madden 12 chooses to deepen the deeper parts of its game instead.

Scott:I'm speaking mainly of Franchise Mode, that perennial way for fans to endlessly play out alternative NFL season histories with obsessive detail. Franchise mode now has a deeper free-agent bidding system, between-game practices, and player attributes beyond mere ratings that flux on a per-game basis like a role-playing game, to name a few. My favorite is the more realistic preseason period, where games now cycle first-, second-, and third-streamers more realistically, and cut-down days make you force hard decisions on your rosters just like a real NFL team, turning your preseason into a mini reality show.… Read more

The unexpected practical uses for iPads seem to be multiplying each day. Earlier this month, United Airlines announced it would be purchasing thousands of the tablets to move toward a paperless flight deck, downloading flight manuals and more onto the iPads.

Then today, we got word that the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers is buying an iPad 2 for each of its players, to be loaded with the team's playbook and game videos to study. Somewhere, loggers and paper companies are surely cursing Steve Jobs while timber forests are enjoying the reprieve.

Traditionally, teams from high school level up to the pros have spent countless hours in darkened rooms watching video from past games and game footage from other teams in preparation for game day. A new tradition may instead involve a roomful of gigantic men staring down at tiny tablet computers.

"It's crazy how much technology has changed the game," second-year safety Cody Grimm told the St. Petersburg Times. "Stuff that we used to come in here to see, we can sit on our couch at home and have access to it 24-7. It's awesome."… Read more

Freekick 2 is a free, ad-supported soccer game that lets you take repeated direct free kicks on a goal.

Freekick 2 looks great, with a photorealistic field and cartoonish players, and it has a fun, easy-to-learn interface that lets you adjust the speed and direction of your shot, including the ability to put a little bend on the ball. You tap arrows to rotate your point of view left and right, and you swipe your finger up an arrow to determine the force and spin of your kick. As you score, the number of defenders rotates between one, two, and … Read more