Rich content, location-based technologies, social streams, this app's got it all (plus it's pretty)
Last week, we wrote up a review of NBC's official app on the App Store, appropriately called "NBC Olympics on AT&T."
Well, that's not the only one.
Apparently, NBC isn't the only company with an official app. The officially official Olympics app dons quite the title: "2010Guide - Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games: The Official Mobile Spectator Guide." While NBC's effort may have been modest in appearance, the list of features it boasted--schedules, headlines, photos, social streams--certainly made it worth the free download for any casual Olympics fan. The same is true of 2010Guide, which may have the upperhand with its cleaner and more attractive interface.
After a short splash screen, 2010Guide takes the user to an immediately comprehensible schedule page with each event labeled, complete with stylized custom icons for each event, the time of the event, and even some details about the event (e.g. length of race, women's or men's).
Other tabs in the app allow the user to navigate by particular event or by specific venue (only useful to actual attendees). Users can also peruse all the latest headlines, keep tabs on which country has the most medals, and follow the latest conversations happening on Twitter.
2010Guide also has some added perks. If location-enabled, it won't need a connection to keep the user informed about event times. For attendees to the actual games, the app actually will help you navigate from event to event, and even lets you find celebration sites, non-sports events taking place all around the city.
The one advantage NBC's app may have is the ability to easily share content from headline stories and events with friends through Facebook and Twitter.
Besides this app and the NBC version, the App Store actually features a ton of Olympics apps, which range from the useful to the fun and silly, like Ski Jump, a game that lets you participate in one of the most popular winter events with a little arcade game.
Steven Loeb
