The 2012 Summer Olympic Games from London, England are upon us, and the difference in time between the United States—even on the east coast—and England will present us with challenges to watch live events and stay on top of the coverage of the games.

Fortunately, several mobile app developers rose to the occasion and developed a wide range of apps for smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices designed to keep you on top of the Olympics in real time.

Here’s a look at some of the best apps to catch the complete coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

NBC Olympics

NBC will deliver the 2012 Summer Games on every medium, including HDTV over-the-air and cable television, the World Wide Web, and of course on mobile devices ranging from smartphones to tablets.

The NBC Olympics app from NBC Universal, Inc. will bring every Olympic event to your Android smartphones and tablets, or your iPads and iPhones. Get video and photo coverage, schedules, live events, and access to every athlete on Team USA.

Users will also be able to interact with other fans on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, sharing in all the big wins and near misses every day of the Summer Games.

NBC Olympics “Live Extra” App

Select devices with larger screens and faster streaming capabilities will have an advantage with the “Live Extra” experience from NBC. Like the NBC Olympic app, users will have access to schedules and athletes in every Olympic event, and will also enjoy live streams and full replay for all the 302 events!

The app is free for subscribers to satellite and cable TV programming that also includes CNBC and MSNBC as part of the package of channels. A quick verification and compatible devices are all that’s required for unprecedented mobile access to the Olympic Games.

London 2012 Official Results App

The London 2012 Official Results app is a complete package. Athlete profiles, daily schedules, results, live coverage, and access to a massive library of audio and video replay. It has it all.

View every event across all 36 sports, and choose to follow the competitions you want to see. Alarms and notifications can be set up for each event, ensuring you’ll never miss a second of the action in London.

The app is free for Android smartphones and tablets, as well as for iOS on the iPad and iPhone.

TVCatchup for iPad

This excellent little app will transform your iPad into an English television set. TVCatchup for iPad brings more than 40 free-to-air British television channels broadcasting Olympic events so that you can watch live events.

Users will see a list of channels, what events are currently being shown and which are due to be aired next. Watch both Olympic and Paralympic games with TVCatchup for iPad.

BBC Olympics

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has committed to air 5,000 hours of the Official Olympic and Paralympic Games across its platform of all digital channels.

Free for Android smartphones, one of the great features of this app is the ability to download content for offline viewing. For anyone with limits on the amount of data you can transfer each month through your cellular service provider, this feature will save you big money by getting you online quickly, downloading the data you desire to your smartphone, and getting you offline in a timely manner.

Watch the official UK broadcast of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games from London, England with this app from BBC.

What apps do you plan to use to keep up with this summer’s Olympic action?

About the author

Justin is a sports, marketing and tech enthusiast. When not in the stands watching University of Utah football, you can find him writing and blogging for USDirect.

Image credit: Betsyweber (via Flickr – cc).