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iPhone apps to help you follow the Olympics

Kelly Hodgkins
Contributor
Updated ·2 min read
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The Games of the XXX Olympiad started on Friday with grandiose opening ceremonies in London, England that included a long list of notable English figures like the Queen of England, Mr. Bean and Paul McCartney.

Now that the big kickoff celebration is over, it's time to start the competition -- and we've got a list of apps to help you keep track of the Olympic events on your iOS device.

NBC began its TV coverage of the Olympics, and iOS owners with a cable or satellite subscription can follow the coverage on their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. To watch the events as they happen, you'll need the NBC Olympics Live Extra app, which is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Besides the live events, you can also watch full event replays and simulcasts of Olympic-specific programming from NBC. There's even a DVR function for most live streams and all full event replays. If you're concerned about missing an event, you can setup push notifications and receive an alert before an event is about the begin.

If you don't want to watch the live coverage (or if you don't have a pay TV subscription), NBC is also offering a basic version of its Olympics app that'll keep you apprised of the latest news coming out the summer games. It also includes video highlights, photographs and hometown athlete profiles, which let you follow athletes from your area.

Reuters is also on board with the Olympics and offering its own Reuters Olympics London 2012 app. Available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the Reuters app has stunning photographs and up-to-date coverage of the results. Reuters also includes a section that tracks the medals awarded to each country and the Olympic records broken in each sport.

If you're in the UK, you can check out the BBC Olympics app which provides non-stop coverage of the summer games. The Beeb is streaming up to 24 live videos at a time so you won't miss that important point, goal or race. There is also on-demand video highlights, commentary from BBC journalists and extensive coverage of the results. All content, including the video, is available via WiFi or 3G.

Last but not least is the official London 2012 Results app which has breaking news, schedules and results. It has a strong focus on the athletes and provides performance updates, interviews and more.