When the brands Apple and Microsoft are invoked, it tends to get one's attention, as it has in the case of GolfSense, a 3D swing analysis device that attaches to a golfer's glove and provides instant feedback to an iPhone or iPad.

GolfSense is the brainchild of Robin Han, who once worked on software and sensors for Microsoft Research Asia and has a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics from Bejing University. The device, which retails for $129.99, is now available at all Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada.

The information it provides includes clubhead speed, estimated carry distance, swing path, swing plane, tempo and even tips on how to fix what might be wrong with your swing.

"We've been working with a couple different professionals, one of them Brett Taylor in the Sacramento area," said Jason Fass, CEO of the company. "We view our role in this relationship as providing you with the data and high-level tips: 'We notice this, you should look at the following things.'"

The device weighs only 17 grams and attaches to the back of the golf glove. It is equipped with four motion sensors that relay information via a bluetooth connection to an iPhone or iPad that has the free app installed on it.

-- John Strege

In 2006, a Chicago-area attorney, Angelo Papadourakis, attended the PGA Championship at Medinah and noticed Thomas Bjorn, after a particularly poor round, working with his instructor, who was taking his club and phsyically maneuvering it into the proper positions, "like the first time he was playing the game," Papadourakis said.

"I thought, 'if he needs instruction like this, how is it that we as amateurs think we can go out to the range and hit 50 buckets of balls and get better?' We amateurs needed a feedback loop."

So he went to work on a device that evolved into the SwingSmart, a small lightweight (19 grams) sensor that attaches to the shaft just below the grip and provides instant feedback to your iPhone or iPad via a Bluetooth connection. Swing speed, tempo, face angle, angle of attack and a 3-D swing view are all provided.

The SwingSmart was developed with input from noted instructor Peter Kostis, who also is a spokesman for the product.

"Our original concept is, we measure the club," Papadourakis said. 'We wanted to find somebody I considered a proponent of golf motion and the motion of the club. Peter was the number one guy. I see his analysis every week on CBS. I like the fact that he's a neutral observer of the golf swing, that he wasn't necessarily a system guy. Peter saw the value in it immediately, which is great."

Kostis was helpful in the SwingSmart containing only the most useful information to keep it simplified. "He really narrowed it down for us, to keep it simple for everybody," Papadourakis said. "We made sure that as a golfer you want to be able to set your iPhone on your bag, look up and see the information. We don't want you to have to play with it. We made it simple on purpose."

One of its features is the ability to use what you would consider your best swing as the model with which to compare the rest of your swings.

"What you can do with this is use your own best swing as your swing model to pursue," Kostis said in a promotional video. "If you hit one just the way you'd like to hit it the rest of your life you push save on your [iPhone or iPad] and that swing now becomes your swing model."

The SwingSmart ($299) will be available later this spring through its website. The company also will have an infomercial with Kostis airing on the Golf Channel.

-- John Strege
Follow me on Twitter @JohnStrege

Have you ever bemoaned the fact that when you wanted the beverage cart it was nowhere to be found? Stan Van Meter has, and he elected to do something about it.

"About three years ago, I was out with some of my customers playing in a scramble," Van Meter said. "We were just out there to have fun and tip a few back with old friends and customers. They got frustrated."

This was the genesis of Scan4Beer, a novel way to send a food or drink order to and summon the beverage cart using only your smart phone. It is accomplished with a bar code attached to the golf cart and an smart phone app that permits you to scan the bar code. A menu pops up on your smart phone and you place the order. Among the information the beverage cart attendant receives is your cart number, location on the course, and the most efficient route to get there.

"It's a win win for everybody," Van Meter, the CEO of Scan4Beer, said. "Better food and beverage sales for golf courses, less frustration for golfers, and better tips for the cart girls."

The app is free. Meanwhile, Scan4Beer will license its product to individual courses or groups of courses. It recently began a soft launch of the product, testing it on six courses, while expecting a full launch in February. Reaction suggests the company is onto something, Van Meter said.

Below is an animated video showing how it works.

-- John Strege

When this royal and ancient game mixes with 21st-century innovation, the result is often an interesting new product, one of them Mosoro's new Bluetooth device for your golf equipment.

Mosoro is a Golden, Colo., company that by its own definition "creates Bluetooth accessory solutions, also know as Appcessories, for smartphones." On Tuesday, it introduced its 3D-Sport device for licensing and co-branding, with expectations to bring the product to market in the spring.

The 3D-Sport is a small, lightweight Bluetooth device that attaches to a golf club near the grip and communicates with your smart phone. "When you take a swing, it measures 100 times a second how the club moves in three dimensions," Mike Stemple, Mosoro founder, said. The device features a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a magnetometer and a Bluetooth LE (low energy).

Its capabilities include showing your swing path and whether you clubface is open or closed at impact and will provide the feedback instantaneously to assist in analyzing your swing.

"One of the exciting things we're building into it," Stemple said, "is that once you put all that data onto your smart phone, probably for a small fee you can send it to your golf pro and he can use Face Time [on an iPhone] to tell you how to improve your swing.

"We're pretty excited about it. The core technology is being adapted to tennis, baseball, hockey and lacrosse."

The 3D-Sport, which also can be used on your putter, will sell for under $100 dollars, Stemple said.

-- John Strege

Are you planning a golf trip to, say, Doral on the second weekend in February, 2012? Better check the weather first.

The cynic might wonder why, given that forecasters aren't necessarily successful predicting the weather tomorrow, much less next week or next month. The cynic would be surprised to learn that there is a company that specializes in long-range forecasting with enough accuracy that companies like WalMart and Target employ it to help with their seasonal buying decisions.

Weather Trends International has now brought its expertise to the consumer with an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that it is marketing it to golfers under the name WeatherTrends360.

"January in Florida we have warm and dry," said Bill Kirk, CEO of WeatherTrends360. "In February, we have cold and wet." Maybe you should forgo that trip to Doral and head to Pebble Beach in February, Kirk said. "We have Pebble Beach warm and dry in February."

Convincing the cynic is "our biggest challenge," Kirk said. His response is that "Fortune 500 companies pay us, 50, a hundred, $200,000," he said. "They're not going to pay us a nickel if we're not accurate."

WeatherTrends360 uses statistics math and climate cycles, among other data, in an algorithm to produce its forecasts in 195 countries and 42,000 zip codes in the U.S. It claims 80 percent accuary, a number it said is confirmed through an independent auditing firm.

"This weather pattern today is a mirror image of the 1970s," Kirk said. "Everything we see happening today -- floods, tornados, snow, drought in Texas -- it all happened in the '70s."

The app sells for 99 cents.

-- John Strege

Spencer Leu found out the easy way that professional golf was not going to be a career choice. Leu played golf at the University of Washington and was a freshman when Phil Mickelson was a senior at Arizona State and was a senior when Tiger Woods was a freshman at Stanford. "After playing with those guys I got my resume ready," he said.

He earned an MBA from Pepperdine and became an investment advisor, who found out the hard way that that wasn't going to work, either. The economy crashed. "I got yelled at for a year-and-a-half," he said.

Meanwhile, he was trying relaxation techniques developed by a friend, Rick Nanda, to help him cope with the stress of angry clients. "The technique helped me in my everyday life," he said. "

Today, Leu is a partner in a new venture, Visulax Golf, an app for the iPhone and Android that took those relaxation techniques and combined them with golf visualization techniques, Leu providing the golf expertise.

"It's pretty simple, "Leu said. "It's a recording. The first part of is the relaxation portion, general relaxation. Then once you're relaxed, the golf visualization starts. You'll visualize yourself playing a hole. I'm training you how to think. There are a couple of things about staying calm and helping you relax and dealing with anger."

The app sells for $6.99 and also comes with a sleep option to help those having problems sleeping.

-- John Strege

Weather Central has been in business 36 years, operating entirely behind the scenes by providing its weather expertise to broadcast media. Now Weather Central is making its expertise available via a new website, MyWeather.com, and two apps, My Weather and PinPoint Lightning 2011, that can be personalized and useful for golfers.

"What's really cool for golfers is that alerts are built right into it, within a one-kilometer radius, essentially the size of a golf course," Kyle Giunta, MyWeather.com public relations spokesman, said. "Severe weather alerts or lightning alerts pop right up."

Thunderstorms, of course, are incompatible with golf. PinPoint Lightning 2011 provides the time and distance of lightning strikes from your location. Alerts can be set to notify you of strikes within 15, 20 or 30 miles of your location, determined via the GPS on your mobile device. It also will provide a lightning loop, animating each lightning strike on a map with the time of the strike, enabling the user to follow the direction in which the strikes are going.

The My Weather app provides hourly forecasts for temperature, precipitation and wind for your current location, while MyWeather.com is a full suite website.

The My Weather app is free, while the PinPoint Lightning 2011 app is $5.99. They are available for both the iPhone and Android devices.

-- John Strege