GLOBAL – We’re less than a week from the arrival of the full-on football mania that is the World Cup. The event will bring together people from across the world in a common cause – albeit for just 90 minutes at a time over a one-month period. The first match takes place this Friday and for every second until the opening whistle, true fans will be shaking with anticipation. This week’s Ovi Store app roundup covers some of the mobile essentials for the dedicated fan.
[This is a guest post from Juan Carlos Anez, who runs the Latin American version of this site, Nokia Conversaciones. JC knows much more about football than the pasty-faced geeks on the rest of the team – especially myself – and so was a natural choice for the job of selecting these apps! Ian]
This soccer World Cup will be experienced more vividly than ever before, thanks to our modern devices and the remote web access they provide. In order to fully experience what happens in South Africa wherever you are, we present three must-have apps: Real Football 2010, Nokia Goal and AP 2010 World Cup.
Let’s start with real training. Real Football 2010 is a Gameloft development that will help you get in the mood for midfield strategies and rekindle your passion for goals. In the game, you get 245 teams from eight different leagues to choose from. On touch devices, the user interface allows you to move the players and pass the ball by tapping on the field. There are several different game modes, such as training, league mode, friendly match and penalty shooting. And you also can select “Legend” mode to choose a player and helping him get to pro stardom.
There’s a demo version available at Ovi Store that lets you try before purchasing the full thing, but also take a look at this video that shows a little more of the game’s possibilities:
The next app to consider is Nokia Goal, a Java-based resource that brings all the football info you need to the palm of your hand. Nokia Goal presents info from European tournaments (Spain, France, Italy, UK and Germany) and Latin American soccer leagues. The free version offers you championship calendars, info about results and relevant news for all fans. A premium version adds “live” coverage of selected matches, allowing you to personalise goal-based beep-alerts to make you jump with happiness or hang your head in sorrow depending on how much you bet on your favourite team.
Finally, Associated Press (one of the largest sources of news since 1846 and winner of 49 Pulitzer prizes) has developed AP 2010 World Cup, as a resource for information on the forthcoming South African events. This Flash app offers the latest news, images and videos feeds directly on your mobile. Also, for must-have info, there are profiles of teams, players and stadiums. And if you feel in need of a conversation starter, you can use the results of the online polls on different World Cup-related topics.
How will you be connected to this year’s soccer World Cup? Will you wait for the news in the press, be glued to your TV, or will mobile apps play a big part in feeding your addiction?