The 2010 Winter Olympics kicked off this weekend. It was hard to find the time to watch everything even on the weekend. Now with the work week, it’s hard to take it all in.

Fortunately in today’s digital world, there are options besides sitting in front of TV and watching the Vancouver Winter Olympics on NBC. Besides TV, NBC has videos, articles and more on nbcolympics.com.

There’s a site that lists streaming video of the Winter Olympics. I haven’t checked it yet at a time when anything was live so I’m not sure how well it works.

Twitter is a great way to follow live events. Athletes and spectators along with those watching from home are tweeting about what is happening. There is a list of verified Olympic athletes on twitter.

Winter Olympics Mobile Apps

With the popularity of smartphones, apps have been developed for the Winter Olympics. I have tried out 4 of them on my iPhone.

• 

  2010 Winter Sports Lite – The 2010 Winter Sports Lite is the best one that I’ve tried. It also costs the most but is still only $1.99. There’s also a Premium Edition that is $4.99 for a limited time with a regular price of $9.99.

  The home screen shows the top 3 news stories, photo highlights and the medal count. There are separate tabs for News, Schedule and Medals. A More tab gives access to the Photo Gallery, Winter Olympics History, Venue and app settings. The history section has a nice summary of each of the past Winter Olympics. The premium version adds videos, live results, push notifications and a hall of fame.

• Winter Sports Live – Handmark’s Winter Sports Live is available for Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile in addition to the iPhone and is free. It has news and photos but that’s it. It doesn’t have a medal count or venue information. It also has a tab with the paid apps made my Handmark.
• 

  Cowbell2010 – The Cowbell2010 iPhone and iPod Touch app gets it’s name from having a cowbell to cheer on the athletes whether there spectating or watching from a distance. The cowbell rings when you shake the iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s cool but sounds tinny like the bear bell app. You can choose which flag is shown on the cowbell and the labels on the tabs changes to that country’s language.

  Cowbell2010 uses social media for it’s news. It has a twitter feed of Olympic athletes and media. It also has a Live Wall that lets fans with the app post their thoughts on the Games and you can choose to also have it post to twitter and Facebook. With the twitter feed and Live Wall, the Cowbell2010 app is cool but I really wish it had a news feed of articles.

  Cowbell2010 also has a real time medal count and a schedule that adjusts to your timezone.

• 2010Guide – I’ve also installed the 2010Guide – Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games: The Official Mobile Spectator Guide. As it’s name says, it’s a spectator guide. It has good schedule and venue information. The app is tied into the iPhone’s GPS to help you get to the venues. It does have headlines and medal count but doesn’t provide the amount of news that the other apps provide

I’m sure there are other good sites and mobile apps for keeping up with the Winter Olympics. What is the best site or app that you’ve found?

– UltraRob

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