Sochi Olympics 2014: 10 Technologies In Spotlight

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games officially get under way in Sochi, Russia, on Friday. The opening ceremony will reach US televisions Friday evening, but real-time information about the games is available all over the web and through smartphone and tablet applications. For up-to-the-minute results, medal counts, and more, here are the tools you need.

For starters, NBC is the official televisor of the games in the US. It has created an online hub that provides everything you might want to know about the games, athletes, teams, and events. NBC's website also offers schedules, videos, interviews, and summaries.

Android

2014 Team USA Road to Sochi
Interested in the 230 individual athletes competing in Team USA? This official app developed by the United States Olympic Committee focuses on the trials and tribulations of the competitors. It offers editorial content about the individual athletes, including links to their social media profiles, in-depth biographies, photos, and video clips. The app also has a "cheer" button that lets you send personal messages to athletes via Facebook and Twitter. It is compatible with most Android devices.

[Slalom, shlalom -- how about some mobile biathlon action? Read IT Pros Winter Olympics: 13 Breathtaking Competitions.]

Sochi 2014 WOW
This app, developed by Samsung, claims to offer the most direct access to the games. It lets you customize your experience and follow the events and athletes that interest you the most. Wireless Olympic Works (WOW) includes medal counts, detailed explanations of each sport, schedules, results, and information about the venues and environs in which the events are taking place. The app has been optimized for Samsung devices, but it works with all Android hardware.

2014 Sochi Winter Games
Though this is an unofficial application, it offers an attractive user interface and plenty of ways to customize your experience. The app lets you follow events and athletes, create lists of favorites, see current standings (medal counts), and browse a schedule of the games and venue maps. One nifty feature: You can import events into your Google calendar.

iPhone

There are plenty of iOS apps, many developed by NBC, that you can use to follow the games on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

NBC Olympics Highlights and Results
This application from NBC offers a general overview of the games and events in Sochi. Like many of the others, it offers athlete profiles, medal counts, event schedules, and a second-screen experience to accompany NBC's nightly TV broadcasts. Most importantly, it offers videos.

Olympic Athletes' Hub
This is a great app for discovering everything you might want to know about individual athletes. Developed by the International Olympic Committee, the app lets you search by athlete, sport, team, and game, making it easy to zero in on the details that interest you. It also offers links to athletes' social media profiles and lets you create a custom news feed to keep up with what's trending throughout the games.

Team USA's Pinsanity
The United States Olympic Committee created this app for social gamers. Integrated with Facebook, the app lets TV viewers collect athlete pins as they watch the games over two weeks. This offers a unique way to follow Team USA as it competes for gold.

Windows Phone
Pickings are rather slim for users of Microsoft's smartphone operating system. The following apps require Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone 7.5.

2014 Sochi Guide
This application from the 2014 Sochi Organizing Committee provides a schedule of competitions and other events for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It lets on-site users purchase tickets and navigate to sporting venues. For the armchair athlete, it provides interactive maps and social media links for sharing details.

2014 Sochi Results
The 2014 Sochi Organizing Committee also created this app, which focuses on the outcome of all the events. It offers competition schedules, real-time results, and medal counts, and it lets users customize the experience by cheering for their home country. Further, users can create their own news feed and set alerts for events and athletes.

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