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Smartphone, smartwatch? 94Fifty is a smart basketball

Edward C. Baig
USA TODAY
The 94Fifty basketball and app.
  • Bluetooth basketball has wireless sensors that communicate with iPhone
  • App can %22coach%22 you on ball-handling and shooting
  • Goes on sale exclusively in Apple Stores on Tuesday

NEW YORK — Nobody is ever going to confuse me with LeBron James, much less a bench warmer at some junior high school game. I love watching basketball, but it's not a sport that comes naturally to me as a player.

Still, I'm working to improve my ball-handling and shooting skills just the same, using the hoop in my driveway and a brand new "smart basketball" called 94Fifty, so named because of the dimensions of an NBA or college court (which are 94 feet by 50 feet). Yes, you read right, a smart basketball.

So what makes what appears to be an ordinary round, regulation-size synthetic leather indoor/outdoor basketball "smart"? For starters, wireless Bluetooth technology. Hidden inside the ball are nine sensors that communicate with a companion app on your iPhone or iPad. Six of those sensors can measure the amount of force applied to the ball, says Mike Crowley, founder and CEO of InfoMotion Sports Technologies, the company behind the ball. The three additional sensors serve other functions.

94Fifty lands exclusively in Apple Stores on Tuesday and at Apple Online Stores a week later. Unfortunately, you may need an NBA contract to afford one — the ball fetches about $300, or roughly six times the cost of an equivalent-quality basketball without the smarts.

As you dribble or throw up shots, the app provides instant visual and audio feedback, with a "coach" that pushes you hard. ("Snap that dribble, faster, faster…")

Crowley says there are 17 pre-defined drills in the current app, with difficulty levels that go from Playground to PrepStar to CollegeStar to Pro.

Drills cover such things as your dominant hand speed, weak hand speed, crossover speed and behind-the-back speed. The app can count the number of dribbles, and detect when you've lost control of the ball. In one drill I had to dribble 60 times within 20 seconds while maintaining 80% ball control. I passed, so there's hope for me yet. Then again, I didn't fare as well in a catch-and-shoot drill.

You can choose to work on various skills, or compete head to head against other players through up to 34 different challenges. You can set up the app with four custom players, plus a fifth "guest" player." You enter the height of each person who is competing.

To even things out if you're competing, say, against a much younger person or someone who is at a very different skill level, you can add a handicap to a score. My two small kids were engaged, and they were excited when they improved their scores after repeating dribbling exercises. It was fun for me, too (and I got a decent workout).

On the shooting side, you can see how well you fare firing off shots when you are 15 feet away from the basket and standing still, or 15 feet away and on the move. Since the app has no way of knowing on its own if you actually sink your shots, you do have to manually enter the number of times you make a basket, which is a bit of a drag. But the app can measure other factors automatically, including how fast you get off shots, what kind of backspin you have on your shot, and what kind of arc you have when you throw the ball up toward the hoop.

You bounce the ball against the ground four times to activate it, but the ball goes to sleep to preserve power if you don't use it for a while. And, yes, you can use it just as a plain basketball, if you decide not to use the app.

Crowley explains that basketball weights can vary, with balls used at the college and pro level weighing 580 to 650 grams — this one comes in at 600 grams, making it a full-size regulation basketball.

The company says the app can go about eight hours off a single charge. Charging the app is as simple as placing the ball on a wireless charging pad that comes with it. Added bonus: You can use that wireless pad to juice up a cellphone capable of wireless charging, which I was able to do with a Google Nexus 5. The ball has a one-year warranty. In heavy usage, Crowley says the skin of the ball would likely wear faster than the embedded electronics.

It's basketball and iOS for now, but InfoMotion — which reached its Kickstarter funding goal earlier this year — plans to apply its technology to soccer balls and eventually to also have an Android app.

In the meantime, the pro scouts haven't come calling yet. But I figure if I keep up with 94Fifty, it's only a matter of time.

E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com ; Follow@edbaig on Twitter.

The bottom line

94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball

$299.95, InfoMotion Sports Technologies

www.94fifty.com

Pro. Clever regulation-size Bluetooth basketball can help "coach" you through iPhone/iPad. Wireless charging.

Con. Expensive.

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