Four years ago ESPN’s coverage sucked hard, and I had to resort to Univision for the majority of the games. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because the GOLLLLLLL guy is on the channel. This year, however, I can follow the play-by-play as well as listen and watch all the games from the comfort of my iPhone and all for under $20.
That’s right, thanks to my iPhone and iPad I can keep up with all the action. I don’t need a bunch of apps. And, I don’t need to be in them all the time either. Download, install, configure, and blammo. Instant World Cup iAwesomeness.
ESPN FIFA World Cup 2010. This past year I played fantasy football using ESPN’s app. Boy what a let down. That thing was always broken. I’ve given the sports network a get out of jail free card after using their World Cup app. It is honestly nothing short of fantastic.
The app features:
- Live scores
- Tournament schedule, stats and tables, and the WC bracket
- Extensive profiles of all 32 teams, groups and top players
- Personalization to select your teams and a Fantasy Bracket Predictor
And, for a single in-app purchase of $7.99, you can get:
- Live ESPN radio streams of all 64 matches
- In-game video highlights delivered in near real-time, including goals, shots, saves, bookings, and other key events for all 64 matches
- Video recaps and studio analysis
- Customizable push notifications for breaking news, match starts, scoring plays, penalties, subs, and halftime and final scores
- Live play-by-play commentary from ESPN’s editorial team, detailed stats, and field visualizations of every game
Seriously, the app is saweet with a capital awesome!
MobiTV. If you’ve been watching the World Cup you’ve probably heard (1,000 times) that you can watch the matches on TV, online, and on your phone. The first refers to ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC coverage of the games. The second is available only to a select few via ESPN3. And, the third is a combination of ESPN and the iPhone app MobiTV. Available as a free download in the app store, you need to make another in-app purchase of $9.99 for a month of MobiTV’s streaming vid service. Since the World Cup is a month long, you’re paying $10 for all 65 games.
Does it work? I mean, AT&T isn’t exactly synonymous with good service. No, they aren’t, but the app works beautifully on both WiFi and (dare I say this) 3G. What about Edge? Good question. I haven’t tested it on Edge, but I can’t imagine you’d be happy. Why do they even have Edge? It’s awful.
Vuvuzela. Yes, I find them annoying. But, as they say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” And by join ‘em I don’t mean go out and buy a vuvuzela. That’d be a waste of plastic and dollars. Nope, I’m suggesting you go out and download the free vuvuzela app. It has all the annoyances as the real thing only it fits in your pocked. Oh, one more thing on this one. Be sure to annoy everyone as often as you can.
Argentina Fan. If you’re a fan of Argentine soccer or you are from the South American country you’ll be happy to hear there is an app dedicated to the chants sung by your fellow fans. Vamos! Vamos! is my personal favorite. Even better, while this app works on all iDevices, there is an iPad specific version ($1.99) that lets you click on the fans in the stands to hear the chants. Truly awesome!
*A quick heads up, all the above mentioned apps work on the iPad except MobiTV. I don’t know why (because it’s listed in the online app store as being iPad compatible) but it doesn’t. Perhaps sometime in the future the people at MobiTV will get their s**t together and give iPad users access.
So, there you have it. All the apps you need to watch, listen, and enjoy the remaining World Cup 2010 matches. Vamos!
Have any World Cup app favorites? Tell me about ‘em below or send me an e-mail at TiTy@y2kemo.com
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