Don’t Even Think About Watching Another Game Without These Apps!

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Football season has just started and your favorite team is probably tied for first or last place by now. Whatever place your team is in, you can enjoy this season even more with two new apps designed for sports fans. Both solve problems you didn’t even know you had and make watching games much more enjoyable.

If you’re the type of fan who likes to sit alone at home on your sofa and watch commercials without interruption, then move along there’s nothing for you to see here. But if you enjoy watching games with fellow fans and taking breaks during the commercials, then check out GameGuy and Fanatic.

Also see, Get Ready for the Football with Tech

GameGuy

GameGuy is a new app that tells you when an NFL game comes back on after a commercial break. Set your game and then the app will alert you every time a commercial break is over for that game. During commercial breaks you can check out other games, see what’s in the fridge, take a bathroom break, get another beer, or change a tire without fear of missing a play.

Here’s a video showing how GameGuy works:

You can set GameGuy up to alert you via sound, push notification, vibration or Full Screen. With Full Screen alert, the entire screen glows red when the game comes back on, so everyone in the room can see it. The developer suggests using Full Screen alert on an iPad that you can set near the TV when you’re watching with a group of people and switching between games.

You can also customize your notification sounds and choose from tones ranging from Howitzer to Oops.

The app is free to use for the first quarter of every NFL game this season. If you want to use the app beyond the first quarter, you can pay $4.99 which will give you access to GameGuy for the entire 2013 NFL season. The developer plans to add more sports in the future.

GameGuy is available for:

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch from the iTunes App Store

Fanatic

If you’re a displaced NFL fan, you probably have a difficult time finding sports bars showing games for your favorite team. Fanatic is an app that tells you which sports bars are showing your team’s game.

Here’s a video showing you how much more fun you’ll have watching games when you use Fanatic:

http://youtu.be/VNi8RIEF8ro

Sign up for a Fanatic account and then tell the app which are your favorite teams. Fanatic works not just with NFL but also with college football, college and pro basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey.

The app will show you a list of upcoming games. Tap one you want to watch to find out which local bars will be playing the game. You can use the app to invite your friends to join you there to watch the game. If you’re watching at home, you can use the app to invite your friends over to your place.

The app has a gaming element, you earn points for inviting friend, checking in with the app when you’re watching games, and for sharing your activity on Facebook. No word on what those points actually do for you other than give you bragging rights among your friends, but hey, that’s something, right?

The app has a built in map so you can see the location of the suggested venues or you can see them in a list.

Fanatic is free for:

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store
Android devices at Google Play

The app wasn’t perfect, it was a bit buggy when I tried it, but overall it worked well in showing me local places to watch upcoming games.

Bottom Line

Are you a sports fan? Have you ever missed an important play because you returned to a game too late after a commercial break? Are you a displaced fan? Do you like finding fun places to watch your favorite teams? Which other sports would you like GameGuy to cover? Let us know in the Comments section below!

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* Football picture courtesy of Flickr.