It’s that magical showcase time once again. The mega-event where nations are judged not by their military or economic might, but by how a handful of their representatives can jump, run and swim! Yes, the Olympics are here, but most of us will have to content ourselves with watching the spectacle on television. Still, if you’d like to soak in the Olympic spirit, here’s my pick of apps and resources that can carry a torch throughout the games.

Games: Of course, for the Olympic enthusiast who’s a gamer, there’s the London 2012 Office Mobile game for iOS and Android. You get nine events your athlete can compete in, including the 100m dash, pole vault, kayaking and more. The game is quality stuff, but the graphics and characters are very reminiscent of the casual sports gaming popularised by the Nintendo Wii console.

Serious gamers should look at the London 2012: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games which features over 30 events with an immense amount of gameplay variety and true-to-life graphics. Each game is played slightly differently with the game controllers, and given the number of events, it’s pretty handy that the game developers have included a helpful tutorial before the start of every new event. Go on, go do India proud, even if it is on your PS3!

Apps: Even if you’re not attending the Olympics in person, the official Join In app lets you access detailed maps for all the venues, a full listing of the various activities happening in and around the sites, and it even lets you pull together a customised schedule of events that you’d like to check out. Of course, if you’re more concerned with who’s taking home the most hardware and how the medals tally is looking, the London 2012 Results app would be your best bet.

The Results app, available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, includes live scoring, and the latest news, photos and background infor-mation on each athlete. The London 2012 (iOS), London Olympics Ultimate (Android) and 2012 Olympic News (WP7) apps are worth checking out too.

Watch’em live: If you’re away from the TV, there’s no reason you should miss out on all the action. Just head over to YouTube where the IOC is broadcasting live coverage of the Games free-of-charge to 64 countries (yes, India is one of them!). Happy viewing!

Power performer

Drat! Has the power gone yet again?” If you don’t want to catch yourself saying this during the Olympics broadcast, invest in a good power backup. The APC BackUPS Pro 1000 is about as good a bet as they come. This is a UPS with the smarts — not only does it perform the regular duties of surge protection and power backup, it also does intelligent power management by shutting down idle peripherals like printers, etc. The neat little LCD display gives you important information like the load, estimated runtime, input voltage, etc. Finally, one doesn’t have to decipher what the alarm signals emanating from the UPS mean.If you want, you can even use the PowerChute software that comes with the UPS to safely shut your computer or laptop down in case of an extended power outage.

Rating: 8/10
Price: Rs 11,000 for the 1 KVA variant
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