Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

Old-fashioned paper playbooks may become a thing of the past. With high-definition instant replay and in-helmet communications systems, the NFL has made tremendous strides in setting itself apart from other sport leagues. 

Transitioning away from paper playbooks, to streamlining the flow of information (with iPads) will save teams 5,000 printed pages each game. In a recent report, a Dallas Cowboys official says his squad and a couple other teams are looking into using iPads rather than playbooks.

Although the reality of “iPlaybooks,” hitting the league would be beyond cool, there isn’t any official announcement on such a change. If iPad playbooks were added to each team, coaches would no longer need to tap soon-to-be-cut players on the shoulder and ask them to bring their playbooks into the office. To eliminate the time and hassle, coaches could remotely wipe the iPlaybooks instead.

In related news, Loquendo (News - Alert), a global speech technology provider, and tbox apps, an alternative and augmentative communications aid provider, announced a new AAC app for the iPad called PredictAble. PredictAble helps people to communicate with those around them by means of Loquendo’s expressive and fluent text to speech; users simply key in their message and press “Speak.”

This app is perfect for users who have a hard time expressing themselves verbally; it comes with nine male and female Loquendo voices in U.S., U.K. and Australian English. It uses a sophisticated word prediction engine, which speeds up message writing by suggesting commonly used words and word sequences, while the Phrase Bank enables frequently used messages to be stored and retrieved easily, including the option to save them onto another computer.