Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

There's an Olympic- and World Cup-focused iPhone App called "'iCheer – Country," which hit the No. 3 spot of the top paid apps in the Sports category on iTunes.

 

The purpose of the App is to allow fans to cheer for their country "whether they are at an Olympic event, a World Cup event like the FIFA World Cup, or just at a local pub cheering for their country." At home, you're evidently on your own.

 

"Have you ever been to a game and forgot your jersey, or heaven forbid your face paint?" the vendor's site asks, hopefully rhetorically. "Not to worry, you always have your phone" Nobody'd ever forget that! "Use 'iCheer!' to cheer on your countries athletes or team!"

Okay. Sounds good. How?

 

Well, for starters, the app's creators say it has "flags for 106 countries. At the moment this is to support the countries participating in Vancouver and the World Cup in South Africa. More flags to come in later versions."

 

So, you punch up your country's flag on your iPhone (News - Alert) and wave it around the pub. That's it? No, it also has "cheering sounds," since obviously those will be in short supply at a pub or game. "A bunch of great sounds to make some noise with! Save your voice and use 'iCheer!' to make all the noise you need. All you need to do is pick a favorite sound, crank it up and shake it! From whistles to cow bells to car horns. Everything you need to make some serious noise!"

 

We'd need to ask everybody else to be quiet so they could hear it, but leather-lunged pub rowdies wouldn't have a problem with that, we're sure.

 

Last week, TMCnet reported that after being "blown away" by the amount of mobile Web traffic NBC Universal (News - Alert) received during the Beijing Olympics, NBC officials said the network is "investing even more heavily in mobile for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics."