2012 Olympics: TV, apps, streaming, Twitter and Facebook provide complete coverage, participation

Rewind four years to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, and you'll understand how this year's marquee sporting event, which opens Friday, will be unlike anything ever before.

Back then, there was no such thing as an iPad, smartphones were just starting to roll out, and Twitter had fewer than a million users.

Fast-forward to the Olympics in London, where for the first time every event will be streamed live, athletes will be able to tweet every little thing they do, and Facebook users will be able to instantly debate a botched call. It will be the most connected sporting event of all time.

So how do fans keep up with it all? Here's a guide to the parade of mobile applications to stay on top of the Olympics 24/7 no matter where you are.

OFFICIAL APPS

To start, the two official apps of the London 2012 Games are available free on several devices at London2012.com/mobileapps.

The Official London 2012 Join In app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones lets you connect with everything that's going on in and around the Olympics, with maps, schedules and guides, plus information on cash machine locations, ticketing issues, wheelchair access and more. You can also follow the torch as it wends its way to the Olympic Stadium. It requires a Wi-Fi or cellular connection to download content from the Internet.

The Official London 2012 Results app for iPhone, Android, Windows and BlackBerry offers news, schedules, medal tables and athlete profiles across all Olympic and Paralympic sports. Users also can follow specific countries for customized updates.

FROM NBC

NBC, the exclusive broadcaster of the Games in the United States, recently released a couple of free apps for Apple and some Android phones.

One app, NBC Olympics Live Extra, will stream every second of sweat and skill, and you can access it if you are a pay-TV subscriber with a package that includes CNBC and MSNBC. The other, NBC Olympics, will offer highlights; no pay TV subscription is required.

Another NBC iPhone app, Universal Sports Network, offers coverage of Olympic sports beyond the few weeks of spotlighted competition, with sortable video highlights from "the world of Olympic sports."

They are available for download at NBColympics.com/on-the-go.

If you plan to watch a lot of streaming video, keep an eye on your data usage, particularly if there's a cap. The overage fee can get hefty for some wireless carriers.

FROM THE BBC

We probably can expect NBC's coverage to be colored with red, white and blue. For a potentially more worldly perspective, the free BBC Olympics app for iOS and Android devices will give you headlines about your national team based on your location. It also has video features, schedules and details about every sport, country and competitor.

Some national teams have individual apps, such as Team USA (called 2012 Team USA Road to London), Team Ireland (Olympic Council of Ireland's Team IRL) and Team Slovenia (Team Slovenia). Many others have a Facebook or Twitter presence. You can get the American team's app in Apple's App Store and in the Google Play app store.

ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

This year more than before, social media will be well woven into the experience of the Games, from the coverage and the people covering it to the viewers and the athletes, something Twitter CEO Dick Costolo called an "inside-out view."

Although Twitter won't go into detail on how it plans to highlight Olympics-related tweets, it is expecting huge traffic. In fact, there were more tweets about the Olympics on a single day in July than during the entire 2008 Beijing Summer Games, according to a Twitter spokesperson.

Facebook also will light up with activity. In addition to millions of users posting and cheering on their teams, NBCOlympics.com can connect to users' Facebook Timelines to show off what they're reading, watching or voting on. And the broadcaster's coverage will integrate discussions and data from a Talk Meter. So even if you don't have a Facebook account but watch TV, you'll be part of the conversation as NBC turns Olympic chatter online into on-the-air stories.

This story was originally published July 26, 2012 at 9:03 AM.