The 2010 Winter Olympics are just a stone’s throw away. And while taking the new Skytrain for the first time from Vancouver’s International Airport to downtown and taking in the sights, it’s hard not to notice there’s not even a hint of snow to be seen. Picking up the iPhone to check out the long-term forecast, I turned to searching for any apps even remotely dedicated to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Not surprising, the search engine indicated no shortage of new iPhone apps to help you stay informed, regardless as to whether you’ll be here in person or watching from afar. Some applications cover the entire Winter Games, others cover one or more sports or some simply offer information for visitors to Vancouver. Prices range from free and up. All apps mentioned here are available through the Canadian iTunes App Store and require iPhone OS 3.0 unless otherwise specified.
CTV Olympics 1.5.1 ($free) - This is the official application from CTV- the official Canadian Olympics channel. Recently updated, it features news, headlines, events, venues, athlete profiles and results as well as a photo gallery.
2010 Guide – Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games: The Official Guide 1.0 ($free) - Presented by Bell as the official Mobile Spectator Guide, it features a comprehensive listing of events -with full descriptions, by date and time as well as events by sport. You can easily get the directions you need to a specific venue. It even has a culture category guide that includes the literary arts and music.
Winter Games Grub 2.0.2 ($free) – It features FaceBook format news aggregation on events, athletes and blogs. It also includes an event schedule as well as a tool to upload your own news.
SportLogik 1.5 ($free) – Touting itself as a library, it features Olympic news and a list of participating nations with their respective abbreviations or country codes. Olympic newbies can easily check on all the rules for Winter Games events and demystify the terminology by selecting its glossary of Olympic terms. Requires iPhone OS 3.1.2.
ChicWalks Vancouver 1.0.4 ($free) – A shopping app aimed at women. It features a city guide, shopping walks, Chic Gifts and a catalogue.
Vancouver 2010 Hockey 2.1 ($0.99) – A new app dedicated to a single sport – Hockey. It features a schedule of all games at all levels including the preliminary round, qualification and playoff games. It offers full stats on each team – wins, losses, goals etc., and is updated at the end of each game. You can see stats for all teams or select a specific team to follow.
Vancouver Sights 1.2 ($0.99) – While not specifically Olympics related, it features most major points of interest it assumes tourists would want to see during their visit to the Winter Games overlaid over a map of Vancouver. Points of interest include contact info and the application is GPS aware.
Cowbell 2010 1.1 ($0.99) – It’s a combination of an information provider and a noisemaker – so you can cheer and ring the bell for your favorite athlete while making yourself heard with your gloves on. At the same time you can select and wave the virtual flag t of the country of your choice. Its practical features include a full event schedule with a favourites folder; Real time medal tally, live wall for FaceBook users and a Twitter feed that follows many athletes.
Vancouver 2010 Full Calendar 1.0 ($0.99) – Full calendar of events (available in several languages) by day and by event, showing medal events in bold. It also includes IOC country codes.
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics 1.0 ($2.99)- 2010 Guide to the Olympic (Feb 12-29) and Paralympic Games (March 12-21). Created by a local skier and navigator, it features a guide to 15 Olympic and 5 Paralympic events as well as how to get to them. It also has extras like B.C’s liquor laws, tips for entering into Canada and an overview of the attractions to see accompanied by stunning photographs as well as uncovering the best places to eat.
VAN2010 by MSK Software 2.1 ($2.99) – It calls itself an on-line portal to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Featuring event information, competition schedules, Olympic news and a destination guide. It also includes links to a number of websites.
This is just some of the iPhone and iPod Touch Olympic or Vancouver related apps and their features. For more info, either click on the links to see a preview in iTunes or visit the app store on your iPhone.
The 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver begin Friday February 12th, 2010.
GO CANADA!
Tags: 2010 Olympics, apple, apps, Gadget Guy, gadgetguy, iphone, itunes, Olympics, Vancouver 2010
Man, I wish I was going to be in Vancouver, but I’ll still be cheering for the Olympians using the fun Cowbell2010 App. (My 5 year old loves to shake the iPhone to make the bell clamor!) Looking forward to checking out your other recommendations, Greg. Thanks!
Great list – already have Cowbell2010 on my iPhone but will check out the others just for fun.
NBC has an official Olympics app that was released recently.
Great list… but did you know you can get the complete Vancouver 2010 Olympic Event Schedule for free by using VancouverEventsCalendar.com. The site also includes a comprehensive list of free olympic events, is mobile enabled and offers language translation too.
The site also offers a lot of other useful Vancouver 2010 information.
Did you know you can get the complete Vancouver 2010 Olympic Schedule for free by using VancouverEventsCalendar.com. It also includes a complete list of free Olympic events, is mobile enabled and offers language translation as well.
Me. too! Wish I could be there. Was in Vancouver recently, but alas, a little early!
If your 5 year old is shaking your iPhone, make sure it has a good solid case in case it decides to go for a ride.
Just can’t get enough Cowbell!!! You’d think disco would have done it
Robert!
Thanks for the heads-up. How does it display on a mobile browser?
Thanks Bernie for the additional detail!
Hi,
You should add “Vancouver Cheers” free apps to your list http://www.vancouvercheers.com.
Go see my blog : http://www.olympicappsreviews.com.
Hi Greg,
This Vancouver Events website has mobile detection software that will detect users are mobile browsing and should deliver a mobile friendly display for them.
Oh boy! I won’t have to miss one minute of the Olympic coverage. My biggest challenge will be convincing the boss that all the time I”m spending with the iPhone is work related. Thanks for this list Greg.
Chuck, You’re not the first person to have this challenge! Someone else has already thought of this:
http://www.markturner.net/2009/12/08/cheap-thoughts-the-boss-is-coming-screensaver/
Enjoy the Olympics!
you may be interested to know that the lack of snow in Vancouver is not unusual. the lack of rain is strange, and admittedly we’ve had a slightly warmer winter than usual. but we don’t normally get snow. there’s never snow on the ground and when it does snow (once or twice a year, at the very most) the entire city shuts down, aeroplanes don’t take off, people stay home from work and school and buses slide all over the place. i’m astounded at the number of people who expected to find Vancouver snowed under upon arrival. where did you think you were going?
Here’s a cool Iphone app we just built for the Olympics. It gives realtime weather and venue info-
Vancouver 2010 Weather & Venues-
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/2010-vancouver-weather-venues/id353292569?mt=8
Dear Greg,
Thank you for your list of iphone apps. I wanted to comment on your statement “it’s hard not to notice there’s not even a hint of snow to be seen.” If you would have researched the weather in Vancouver, BC you would have known that it really doesn’t snow in Van City proper. It snows in the mountains. Vancouver is usually green all year round with a possible one day snowfall in December that the city is not equipped to handle because we have no snowplows. The reason why we have the winter Olympics is because we have a world class ski hill in the mountains called Whistler. As I said before, there is snow here, but it is in the mountains. Please, next time you write a nice article like this, make sure you are aware of the city you are writing about.
Thank you,
Local Vancouverite.
Thanks for your comment. I’m fully aware of Vancouver weather and have actually been in your fine city when there was snow on the ground.
I do see your point. However, the comment was more of an observation that when traveling to a city where the “Winter” Olympics were to take place (the promotions say “Vancouver 2010″, not “Whistler 2010″) that one would be able to at least see some resemblance of Winter.
You can see my comment below with regards to Winter -but think about it. Do you expect everyone around the world to know that there may be absolutely no snow in Vancouver? “Snowed under” may be pushing it for a mild coastal port city, but I can also recall watching Global TV showing the damage of all the ice and snow in Stanley Park.
The Chicwalks shopping app is great, I’ve used a couple of the digital coupons already, great way to save!
My wife and I have this app and there’s some good stuff for guys too. I like the coupons.
Will the Bell app (or any other) stream live video or audio? I am going to Whistler to watch the downhill and hope to be able to know who is coming down.
Vancouver Games is a great app for push notifications for all the events! It has better options than the other big Network apps.