With the football World Cup 2010 (eh, what, is something happening today?) starting this evening and going on for all eternity a month, you'll be wondering how you can keep track of the goings on in South Africa on your smartphone. Whether out and about or on the sofa, there are plenty of options to keep you informed and entertained. Read on for some suggestions.

Native and homescreen

Soccer Time shown below, shows the three upcoming matches in countdown style on the home screen of the N97. In full-screen mode, ten matches are shown, plus a Detail window with further info, like venues. The basic software is compatible with all Nokia S60 5th edition phones. Note that the app is offline, so there are no match results.

Java portal

Snaptu, the popular Java-based online information portal, has oodles of World Cup content, both in its existing 'Live Football Scores' module and in the "Sports Campus" module, as shown below, including upcoming matches, text previews, team rundowns and group statistics. You can get Snaptu from the Nokia Ovi Store or by going to snaptu.com in Web on your phone.

Flash Lite

AP 2010 World Cup Coverage is a Flash Lite mini-app, shown below, offering "a feature-rich multimedia experience", with live game scores, schedules, standings, star player profiles, photos and videos, venue information. 

Java app

Final Whistle World Cup 2010 is another Java title but one which is very polished and works well on both traditional and touchscreen phones. 

The good old 'Beeb

A focussed way of getting World Cup news straight off the web without having to actually browse much is to bookmark (and then homescreen-shortcut) this URL: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/mobile/football/world_cup_2010/default.stm in your phone's Web browser. If you can't be bothered to type this in, use the shorter: tinyurl.com/aasworldcup and this will resolve to the same place. Then bookmark it etc. As usual, the BBC's coverage is comprehensive and definitive. My favourite option on this page!

Twitter

If you're a Twitter-a-holic as well as into your football, try following the FIFAWorldCupTM account in Twitter, bringing goals, team news, photo links and much more right into your Twitter feed.

Game

EA Sports 2010 FIFA World Cup is, as you might expect, the 'official' phone game of the cup, should you wish to take matters into your own hands. A variant on the usual EA FIFA football titles, you get to captain any of 105 countries and then manage and lead them on the field to victory in the World Cup.

Theme

Or you can just get a World Cup theme for your phone, for the month, to give that little bit of extra football ambience? This one, World Cup 2010, is by Larsson, famous in the Symbian world for topical and yet quality themes.

So, welcome to a month of football, wall to wall, screen to screen and most definitely on your smartphone!

Steve Litchfield, AAS, 11 June 2010