Mobile technology has reached a level in the past 4 years which means that London 2012 will be the first truly mobile Olympics. We will be able to watch the events, tweet about them, share photos and videos over social networks and use our phones and tablets to plan out our entire visits. Or will we?
Read the following from The Guardian- “Fans in the crowd won’t be allowed to upload snippets of the day’s action to YouTube – or even, potentially, to post their snaps from inside the Olympic Village on Facebook. And a crack team of branding “police”, the Games organisers Locog have acknowledged, will be checking every bathroom in every Olympic venue – with the power to remove or tape over manufacturers’ logos even on soap dispensers, wash basins and toilets.
With just a little more than three months to go until the opening of the London 2012 Games, attention is increasingly turning to what many legal experts consider to be the most stringent restrictions ever put in place to protect sponsors’ brands and broadcasting rights, affecting every athlete, Olympics ticket holder and business in the UK.”
So, if we ignore all of that because there will be no way they can police what we do with our smartphones and concentrate on what we will be able to do, it is clear that an Olympic visit without a smartphone will be much more difficult.
If you have an Android phone, you will want to take a look at London 2012 Olympic Schedule, which details all of the events and when they are happening. It is quite crowded, but also very detailed and will help anyone who is lucky enough to be attending.
In fact, a quick search for Android apps that will help you get through the Olympic ordeal brings up a multitude of options of which many are free.
iPhone users are very well catered for as well with LDN 2012 a good example of how to keep up with everything that is happening in each event. Like Android, there are countless apps that are designed to relate to the Olympics, but you need to think wider to use your smartphone even more effectively.
Tube apps are common place as are train timetablers and even apps that will let you know exactly where you train is at any time. UK Train Times is one of the best examples and covers every train going to the capital and many more.
There are scores of athletics and Olympics flavoured games to enjoy and some quick searching will let you emulate your heroes as they do the business in real life.
Don’t forget staple offerings like Google Navigation, Google Maps and any other GPS solution which can make all of the difference as you travel from event to event. Hotels, flights, taxis and so much more are a couple of finger taps away with apps that let you plan and book your entire Olympic trip and there really is nothing missing.
And then there are those special moments that you will want to capture forever to prove that you were there. You will need your smartphone camera to capture snaps and videos, the voice recorder to capture the anthems and included solutions like HTC’s Footprints or a journally app to detail every moment of your Olympic trips.
Whether the authorities will be able to limit what we can share or not, we will still be able to capture the moment, get to the events and plan every aspect of our own London 2012. We are extremely proud to host the Olympics in the UK and the fact that millions of people will be able to share their special moments with so many others makes it even more special.
About Shaun McGill