FIFA's World Cup fever has hit and many devotees will travel to South Africa to watch the games. For those of us stranded in Australia, Computerworld presents four free mobile phone apps in the first of our weekly series, that will help you keep track events.
iSouthAfrica 2010 Free for iPhone by El Patagonauta
This iPhone app retains a complete schedule of all the matches, which can be organised by day, stage or city and downloads the information from the matches as they are played. The app also has a comprehensive encyclopaedia of stadium characteristics as well as information on the host city. It is has data on the composition of the match groups and each of the playing teams right down to the names and positions of each player. Navigation is a bit tricky though, as you will have to scroll down to the bottom of each page to reach the back button. Those users irritated by the app's banner advertisements, can buy the full-featured version that removes the advertising.
Pros:
- Streamlined,
- Contains plenty of information.
- Live scores.
- Spanish/English interface can be jarring.
- Advertising on every page.
- Tricky navigation.
World Cup Countdown for iPhone by Chilli X
If you're counting down to the opening of the games, this app is for you. It counts down the days, minutes, hours and seconds until the kick-off of the 2010 World Cup against a moving backdrop of FIFA posters and pictures of South Africa. It is available on the iTunes store for free, which makes it a sweet deal.
Pros:
- Nice interface - lots of eye candy with picture scrolling and video downloads.
- Doesn't really do very much
Goal Mobile for Blackberry by Handmark
Love news? Then you will love Goal Mobile for the Blackberry. The free app gives users access to football news from US based website Goal.com. It is simple to navigate, has a personalised feed building feature and enables users to tweet articles. But lacks access to live scores and the news is strongly skewed towards Goal.com's US/UK audience. Still, the app's usability extends beyond the World Cup to other soccer leagues, which more than makes up for its lack of features.
Pros:
- Easy to navigate.
- Personalised feeds.
- Twitter enabled.
- Useable beyond the World Cup.
- Strong US/UK bias.
- No live scores.
World Cup Essentials for Android by 2ThumbsApp
World Cup Essentials is a comprehensive guide to the games. The app includes a calendar of events, complete with a countdown timer to the opening ceremony, and the first and final matches. For the information junkie, the app also includes World Cup history, details on the stadiums and even the history of games mascots. The match results lists are cumbersome to navigate, but really there are few cons to this app.
Pros:
- Easy to navigate
- Loads and loads of features.
- Too much scrolling.