AppDate: FIFA app frenzy

With the FIFA World Cup kicking off this week, SEAN BACHER highlights a few of the apps available to keep users up to date on the game’s progress.

Official FIFA App

The Official FIFA App lets users keep up to date with the games without having to scour the Internet every time they want to see the game’s progress. Users are able to flag teams or players they want to pay close attention to, and on-the-fly notifications will be sent to their mobile device. The app also lets users view stadium information, FIFA history and information about Brazil. Users have the option of viewing videos and highlights from the games too.

Platform: iOS, Windows Phone and Android.

Expect to pay: A free download.

Stockists: www.fifa.com or visit the store linked to you device.

FIFA 2014 by EA Sports

If the team you are rooting for is kicked out in the first few stages of the games and you have no reason to carry on watching the World Cup, all is not lost. The FIFA 2014 game by EA Sports a great alternative. Players are able to set up their own custom teams by trading good players from team to team. Once the new team is set up, get ready to start your own FIFA World Cup. The game’s sounds are great and its high-definition graphics render face expressions, football fields and player’s uniforms in great detail. All this does come at a price though, and that is in the form of a 1.8GB download.

Platform: iOS, Windows Phone and Android.

Expect to pay: A free download, but with in-app purchases.

Stockists: Visit the store linked to your device.

Onefootball Brasil

Onefootball Brasil offers users play-by-play match commentary, the latest news and game schedules that can be added to your phone’s calendar to remind you before a game kicks off. Game results can also be viewed and users can tease and joke around with other football fanatics at the end of a game through the dedicated chat feature. The app is well laid out and is designed to take advantage of the live tiles on Nokia Lumias running Windows Phone 8.

Platform: Nokia Lumias running Windows Phone.

Expect to pay: A free download.

Stockists: Select the Nokia Collections option when in the Windows Phone Store.

Travel Portuguese Futebol Edition

For those English speaking soccer fans lucky enough to be traveling to Brazil to watch the games, you are going to have to brush up on your Portuguese. This app will help by offering eight lesson in which you will learn basic greetings, translations on how to order food and transport and of course, all the Portuguese football lingo. The app also includes speech recognition technology, meaning you can say the English word and it will repeat the Portuguese equivalent. The entire app is designed around a soccer-themed interface to keep you in the FIFA spirit.

* Sean Bacher is editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @SeanBacher