The Olympic Games, held in London, England this year, will certainly be the highlight of the sporting calendar. Despite Wimbledon, EURO 2012 and many other big sporting events currently in full flow, none will quite live up to the glorious, diverse, and immensely entertaining Olympics. Living in London, the media has talked about little else over the past year, and as exciting as it is for us on a national level, most of the world will – in one event or another – be tuned in to a chunk of the coverage.
To mark the occasion and prepare your mobile loving specimens for the big event, we’ve compiled a list of a couple of our favorite apps for following the games live, or otherwise.
iOS:
London 2012
This aptly named, iPhone-only app offers a rich experience to those downloading it. If you want to stay up-to-date with the big winners throughout the games, you needn’t look much further than this $0.99 app. Features include a regularly-updated medal tally, second-by-second countdown leading to the opening ceremony, an in-depth schedule of the entire 19 day event, as well as a news feed which is continually refreshed with new content.
London 2012 Information
This app offers a comprehensive overview of the games, with countdown, schedule, and a handy breakdown of each and every sporting event, where it will be held, and what time. It doesn’t really fall short in any particular area, although I did find the interface to be a tad scruffy. Then again, this, and most of the other apps will be disposable after the Olympics, so I would urge you to think more about content and usability than pretty aesthetics.
Olympic 2012 Medal For Notification Center tweak
Jailbreak only, this handy Notification Center add-on allows you to keep track of your country’s medals haul throughout the games. Simply use the Settings app to activate, and you can designate the nation of your choice. Whenever you pull down the Notification Center pane, a simple refresh will offer an accurate number of total medals up until that point. (Costs two bucks over at the Modmyi repo).
London 2012 (Summer Games)
This app by developer Vishal Shah is arguably the pick of the bunch. It presents you with everything you’ll need to stay in the loop with every event as it happens, and as well as country by country coverage, there’s plenty of trivia to keep you going when the athletes are not competing. Personally, this is my very favorite app, and I highly recommend you head over to the iTunes Store and give it a whirl. Since it’s free, there’s no risk, and I have a sneaking suspicion you won’t regret your decision.
Android:
London 2012 Olympics Wallpaper
While you’re waiting for the proverbial games to begin, you could always enhance your home screen with the help of an Olympics-themed wallpaper. There are fifteen to choose from, and most of them look really nice behind those Android widgets – particularly if your device boasts a high resolution display. It’s absolutely free to download, and will undoubtedly get you in the mood for the opening ceremony.
London Olympics 2012
This nifty app supports an impressive 8 different languages, which is very significant given the multinational nature of the Olympics. Free of charge, it packs in a schedule, as well as information regarding venues, news, interviews and more. It keeps a tally of medals so you can keep checking up on which nation is commanding the largest haul, and you can check up on specific countries by simply tapping on them. It’s designed for devices running Android 2.2 or higher, and is absolutely free of charge.
For following the event live on your iOS and Android device:
BBC Olympics App
BBC is one of the most widely-recognized broadcasters, and it’s only right we kick things off with its very own app tailor-made for the Olympics. Yes, it is largely a dressed up version of the mobile web service, but nevertheless, it does a good job, and offers every feature a fan of the Games could possibly want. Available for both iOS and Android devices, it’s an absolutely free app and a must-have companion for your Olympics need. Did we mention that the app allows you to follow the whole event live from the comfort of your device? It does.
NBC Olympics App
Another well-known broadcaster, NBC requires no introduction, and similarly to the BBC app, gives you plenty of coverage, news, reviews, and highlights of each and every event. With a total of 3,500 hours worth of video content, you’re not going to miss a thing with NBC’s offering, available for both iOS and Android. But wait, the fun doesn’t end here, the app allows you to follow the whole even tin real-time, you read that right, real-time!
Official London 2012 Join In And Results App(s)
Apart from all of the apps we’ve mentioned above, any official offering trumps the third-party apps we may encounter. The official London 2012 Join In and the London 2012 Results apps are the ones which should be on your iOS and Android device if you want to get into the Olympics action from the very beginning. The Results app is self-explanatory, it displays all the outcomes of the games happening in the course of time of the Olympic games themselves, and the Join In app is more like a planner, and helps you “plan, enjoy and share your Games experience”.
Be sure to check out our Android Apps gallery to explore more apps for your Android device, and also have a gander at our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
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