10 iPhone Apps to Bring Home Olympic Gold in 2010

by Nathan Eddy

Follow all the action with live real-time updates from every event in Vancouver, including Olympics clips and highlights, news stories for every sport, results, schedules, and updated medal counts. Plus, you can follow your favorite nations, sports and athletes on Facebook and Twitter.

This Lonely Planet travel guide to Vancouver offers a list of top city sights (70 in all), fun facts, location-based navigation and integrated Google Maps. The travel guide company also offers a full-fledged guide to the city. The updated version also includes click-to-dial phone numbers.

Whistler 3D GPS Guide ($0.99)This is your 3D map guide to one of the largest and most visited ski resorts in North America, Whistler Blackcomb. The app provides highly detailed maps of all the areas trails, lodges, lifts and 2010 events embedded on your iPhone. A geo-coded photo feature is also there, letting you share your shredding adventures with others.

This official Winter Games app offers a location-aware schedule detailing more than 2,000 sport and cultural events taking place over 17 days. The app includes real-time results for every sport and includes a “Whats On Now” feature that directs Olympic visitors to the nearest sporting event.

Cheer for Team USA as if you were in Vancouver! This app lets you play sounds like cowbells or air horns right on your iPhone, and the app lets you play special sounds by shaking the phone or blowing into the microphone. The app also lets you create and record your own anthems and listen to winter sports sounds.

This guide features more than 10 adventures through the city, with directions, pictures and zoom maps, and includes an Olympic events calendar with information on the citys celebrations. A restaurant guide and shopping guide cover less-athletic pursuits, and an Internet connection is not required to access the apps information.

Winter Olympics obsessives can get their fix with this guide to all the medals attributed at every Winter Game since 1924 in Chamonix, France. Medals are displayed with additional information, such as the result (time or points) and an indicator if this result was a new world or Olympic record at the time.

One of the most dramatic and graceful events at any Winter Olympics is the ski jump competition; this gaming app allows you to test your own skills, albeit more safely. Time your jump, and then use the tilt controls to maximize lift, and then lean forward to land. It features two game modes with three difficulty levels each and a battle mode that allows you to compete with three local challengers.

Dash through the (virtual) ice with this bobsled simulator that allows you to race against the clock on an Olympic track. The game employs the iPhones tilt function in gameplay and offers Facebook and Twitter integration, as well as friends lists and an awards system. Jamaican bobsled team not included.

An encyclopedia of sports terms covering 70 sports can help you figure out the difference between skeleton and curling and boasts Olympic records for every Summer and Winter games ever held. A Winter Olympics tab brings you to the action at hand, with sports and cultural news as well as locations and an event schedule.