25 best Olympics apps
Whether you want to watch the Olympians or get fighting fit yourself, we've got you covered with our 25 best Olympics apps
These apps come with the Olympic seal of approval – perfect for getting around the Games and getting the latest info.
Official apps – London 2012 Join In
£Free (App Store, Google, Play, BlackBerry, App World)
This Swiss army knife of Olympic apps lets you see what’s on and where, before offering advise for different routes to ensure your journey goes smoothly. Trying to meet your friends among the hordes of sport fanatics? No problem, just share a pin with your current location on a shared map and they’ll spot you in no time. With interactive and searchable maps of all the venues, it’ll be a valuable companion during those much-needed toilet breaks.
Official London 2012 Results
£Free (App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World, Windows Phone Marketplace)
Doing exactly what it says on the tin, this official results app will beam the latest news, fixtures and results to your phone ensuring that you don’t miss a single hop, skip, jump or vault throughout the entire games. You’ll even get medal tables to see which country’s currently on top as well as athlete profiles to see how they stack up against each other.
London 2012 Olympic Games Official Programme
£Free + £10 (App Store)
This portal to London 2012’s official programmes will let keen spectators pore over a daily 68-page programme – from Stuff.tv’s publisher Haymarket – jam-packed with interviews and previews as well as providing a unique insight into the games themselves (£50 subscription bundle). A 190-page Official Programme (£10) with interviews introductory letters from Her Majesty, David Cameron and Mayor Boris Johnson make this ideal app for the Olympic-obsessed gadgeteers and sports fanatics alike.
Official London 2012 Mobile Game
69p, (Google Play, App Store)
Surely an officially-sanctioned Olympics game can’t be any fun? Can it? Well, maybe its nine Olympic events (track and field, swimming, kayak, shooting and archery) are diverting enough, but your 69p also buys you exclusive access to authentic London 2012 venues. Only virtually, of course – 69p wouldn’t cover a portion of the official chip vendor’s famous fries.
Games – Samsung: Take Part 2012
£Free (Google Play)
Samsung’s collection of 3D and augmented reality games should ensure you’ve got something to keep you occupied in between heats as the athletes warm up their super-human muscles. With 100m sprint, 110m hurldes, 100m freestyle swimming and double-trap shooting on offer as well as AR-powered penalty shootouts and archery, you’ll be challenging yourself in no time. The best part? You won’t even break a sweat. Let’s leave that to the professionals, shall we?
Atari’s Greatest Hits (with Video Olympics)
£Free + 69p, (App Store)
Video Olympics was one of the nine original launch titles for the Atari 2600 and, despite eight Olympic Games being held in the interim (not to mention a couple of advances in computer graphics), it’s still going on the iPhone as a buy-in game through the Atari’s Greatest Hits app.
Tom Daley Dive 2012
Free, (App Store)
Take part in the Olympics hosted in Barcelona, Beijing and London as Tom Daley. Just don’t expect your inelegant belly flops to be transformed into graceful manoeuvres when you next take on the high board at your local lido.
Stickman BMX
69p, (App Store)
Okay, so it’s not a stiffly regimented Olympic sport, but Stickman BMX is the ultimate tonic to all that po-faced judging and split-second timing. Jumps and rails abound, but we’ve yet to find the last word in earning your urban BMX cred: illegally riding in the Olympic lane.
ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection (Frank Bruno’s Boxing)
£2.99, (App Store)
Admittedly, it’s not the same without physical buttons to smash at while you rearrange your virtual opponent’s dental layout, but for a ringside seat at the retro games you can’t get a better hit than Frank Bruno’s Boxing on this ace little iOS ZX emulator.
Social – BBC Olympics
£Free (App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World)
With the Beeb’s Olympics app in your hands, you can make sure you’re on top of the games wherever you are, thanks to streaming support for 3G as well as Wi-Fi. With a whopping 24 live streams of content on offer, daily live text commentaries, interviews with athletes and more, BBC Olympics app will be invaluable for spectators and non-ticket holders alike.
Zeebox
£Free (App Store, Google Play)
With zeebox fired up on your iPad or Android tablet, all your favourite athletes will strat popping up as zeetags while you’re kicking back to watch the Beeb’s comprehensive footage. This “TV sidekick” app will search the web for stats, schedules and extra video plus if you’ve got an internet connected smart TV it’ll work as a remote too. You can also see what your mates are watching, switch over to their sport and instant chat right from the app.
Twitscoop
£1.50 (App Store)
Twitter’s a couple of steps ahead of breaking news these days so if you can’t catch a livestream at work, an app like Twitscoop is your best bet of sifting through the nonsense to get to Olympics results and gossip. Though Twitter is free, it’s worth the pennies for setting up multi-tab search terms and finding out what’s “buzzing” at a glance.
Whatsapp Messenger
From £free (App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Marketplace, BlackBerry App World)
Your usual WhatsApp stream of drunken SMS screenshots and wish-list superhero merchandise might well be replaced by videos of medal-winning performances and Olympic Park shenanigans for a good few weeks. WhatsApp Messenger is the easiest way to share photos and video clips with select groups of mates and it’s the one everyone you know will already have on their homescreens.
£Free (App Store, Google Play)
Still the loveliest way to get your morning digest of news, Flipboard’s image heavy app brings in feeds from social networks like Facebook and Twitter and makes them all magazine-like and just really, really good-looking. Try Flipboard on your tablet for an enviable couch-bound sports news fix.
Capture – Vyclone
£Free (App Store)
Vyclone was made for huge events like the Olympics – it’s a collaborative video app that gives you access to other people’s footage of the same event. Vyclone does the hard work of syncing and editing everyone’s clips together, though – or you can tweak the different angles into a short sports montage yourself.
8mm Vintage Camera
£1.19 (App Store)
If you consider yourself hip, as a regular Hipstamatic user, and want those classy, age-tinted snaps to be accompanied by videos, 8mm Vintage Camera is for you. The less versatile, more budget Super 8 (59p, App Store) is another option for the more fiscally restricted.
Adobe Photoshop Touch
£7 (App Store)
At £643 less than the desktop version, Adobe Photoshop Touch crams in an amazing number of features. With layer support and a bunch of editing tools you can even make complicated hair masks straight from snaps using the iPad’s camera.
FiLMiC Pro
£1.99 (App Store)
Turn your iPhone into a pro video camera with FiLMiC Pro’s myriad features. With the ability to control focus and exposure separately, lockable options, selectable frame rates, white balance lock, colour bars and even a slate, there’s no excuse for anything but Chris Nolan quality shots.
Luma
£Free (App Store)
Unless you have a medical cupboard full of diazepam, holding your hands still enough to stop all wobble while filming on an iPhone is near impossible. Well, it was – but using the free Luma app you can enjoy real-time video stabilisation with rolling shutter correction. Buttery smooth.
Fast Burst Camera
£3.45 (Google Play)
If action shots are your thing then Fast Burst Camera’s aptly named effort should please you with a staggering 30 photos per second. Just press and hold shoot, and with zero shutter lag, you’ve got yourself the makings of a time-lapse video instantly. There’s also a Lite version for free which manages the same rate.
Fitness – Nike+ Running
£Free (App Store, Google Play)
Want to know exactly how far you’re going on your runs? The Nike+ Running app syncs up with a Nike+ tracker in your shoes and tracks your distance, speed and time. You can also set up PowerSongs to inspire you, Chariots of Fire-style. It’ll also compare your run to the last seven attempts, and let you know when Nike reckons you’re due for a new pair of shoes.
Adidas miCoach Football
£Free (App Store)
This footy-focused app turns training into a game – sync it up with a miCoach Speed Cell and it’ll gather your stats as you play football. The clever bit? The app also features an iPhone football game in which your character’s stats improve as you get fitter.
100 Pushups
£1.49 (App Store, Google Play)
This app features a six-week training program that’s designed to get you from zero to a hundred consecutive pushups. Simple, but it gets to the point. You’ll be working out like Bruce Wayne in no time.
Couch-to-5K
£1.50 (App Store)
If you need a little motivation, this running app will gently nudge you from your first faltering steps towards your five-kilometre goal by whispering sweet nothings in your ear. Naturally you can also log your workouts to see how well you’re doing.
Zombies, Run!
£5.49 (App Store, Google Play)
There is literally nothing that can’t be improved by the addition of zombies. And that includes exercise. This fitness game puts you in the shoes of a survivor gathering supplies and avoiding the zombie horde – by running. If you hate the idea of exercise, this might just be the incentive you need – after all, there’s nothing like the flesh-eating undead to get you on your feet.
Stephen Graves
Online Deputy Editor 
