NBC to offer Rio Olympics coverage in virtual reality

NBC plan to offer over 85 hours of sports programming in virtual reality, for the first time in Olympic history.

The American network announced on Thursday that footage captured by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and supplied to NBC Olympics will be made available exclusively to Samsung smartphone owners through Gear VR and the NBC Sports app. Users have to authenticate through their pay TV provider.

NBC said footage will include the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, men’s basketball — including the semi-finals and final — gymnastics, track and field, beach volleyball, diving, boxing, and fencing, as well as highlight packages of those sports.

Helmet provides heart rate data of cyclists

Meet LifeBEAM, a ‘smart helmet’ that collects data while you ride. This revolutionary piece of wearable technology not only protects your head, but also monitors your heart rate, calories, and an accurate analysis of your performance.

The helmet – initially developed to monitor the vital signs of pilots and astronauts – has an electro-optical sensor which gathers information and sends it to a connected Android, Windows, iOS Smartphone.

From “fan sensor” shirts to bluetooth-enabled swimming caps, wearable tech is rivaling Virtual Reality to be the most talked about innovation in sport this year.

Wimbledon coffee machine uses printing technology to add selfies to cappuccinos

Wimbledon has created some incredible innovations at this year’s Championships. The All England Club has now partnered with Lavazza to deliver cups of coffee with selfies and messages on the foam.

The activation – in collaboration with agency Amplify – is making use of the ‘Ripple Maker’, technology that prints detailed photographs or written messages straight onto the foam of cappuccinos and lattes.

A @judmoo themed cappuccino? @Lavazza are serving up coffee with a twist in #TheQueue pic.twitter.com/BNaQb9J9s3

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 29, 2016

Man United don’t announce Zlatan. Zlatan announces Man United.

In typical Ibrahimovic fashion, the Swedish striker announced his move to MUFC before the club themselves. Zlatan arrived at Carrington for his medical this afternoon, but shared his next destination with the world yesterday. Obviously.

Time to let the world know. My next destination is @ManUtd pic.twitter.com/DAK7iYlrCq

— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) June 30, 2016

With clubs continuously creating exciting and innovative ways of announcing signings, many may say this was a wasted opportunity for Manchester United’s digital team. Zlatan’s post has received 215,000 retweets, 1 million likes on Instagram and 1.3 million likes on Facebook in 24 hours, with still no word from the club. And unless their announcement features a 200ft high statue of the man himself, United’s official reveal of Ibra will struggle to be anything but underwhelming.