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The Olympics have come and gone, leaving nearly everyone in a temporary state of "What the heck am I going to watch on TV right now?" Besides old reruns of Golden Girls, but that goes without saying.

I say temporary because we're not too far away from the start of the new fall TV season, and even though the networks' decades old paradigm is becoming increasingly obsolete, there's no question that the seasonal concept still carries a lot of weight because of all the new and returning shows that will flood at us in fairly short order.

To prepare for the deluge, you're going to want to be able to watch as many ways as possible. That means apps, and while this isn't a true guide to cord-cutting -- because taking in live TV still requires a cable subscription sometimes -- it can at least help untether yourself from your living room this fall.

With the 2012 Summer Olympics headed to London starting July 27th, it's night time we took a look at some great apps to use to watch and keep track of the happenings in the UK this year. Today, we'll take a gander at five useful apps that will help you do just that.

2012 Team USA Road To London
Here's the official app of the United States Olympic Committee, providing information about the US olympic team and their experience before and during the games in London. The app will include daily updates of which athletes make the team, daily editorial content on the specific sports and athletes involved in the Olympics, and a "cheer" button to let you send messages to athletes via Facebook and Twitter. You can also donate to Team USA or buy official gear directly from the app.

NBC Olympics
NBC is the official US network of the 2012 Olympic games, and their app will provide pre-game content including news, videos, photos and athlete information. During the games, the app will allow you to follow every event from London, including real-time results & schedules, medal counts and TV & Online listings. Plus, it will function as a second-screen experience during the nightly recap on NBC.

NBC Olympics Live Extra
Want to actually watch the Olympics live while it happens? Use this app from NBC. It will let you watch all the live coverage, as well as on-demand replays and alternate camera views. The app includes archival video of the Beijing Olympic Games, too, so you won't run out of content any time soon. If you have a new iPad, you'll be able to watch the videos in HD resolution as well.

BBC Olympics
Follow the Olympics with a decidedly welcome non-US flavor with direct coverage of the 2012 Games by the BBC, Britain's own boradcast network. There will be daily live text commentary, breaking news, and headlines that reflect your own national team based on your location. You'll also be able to share stories and videos via Facebook and Twitter, and customize the app to just show the sports and teams you are most interested in.

London 2012: Official Results App for the Olympic and Paralympic Games
Just want to follow the results of all 36 sports in the Olympic Games? This may be your go-to app, with just-the-facts-quality coverage of all the results, live updates, calendar schedule, details of sports, medal tables and athlete profiles you can handle, brought to you by The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited, the official body for the summer games.

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It's less than two weeks until the Summer Olympics begin in London, UK, and the Olympic tie-in apps are out in force.

The BBC in the UK and NBC in the USA have released apps that offer all the latest news, stats and schedules. The BBC Olympics app promises catch-up highlights on demand for UK based users, while NBC's provides live streaming video for those with a cable or satellite subscription.

BBC Olympics offers up to 24 live streams of action, alongside medal tables and information on every sport. NBC Olympics comes with similar, along with information about London and a Twitter Tracker feature.

NBC Olympics Live Extra provides the live experience for subscribers with footage viewable from multiple camera angles and plenty of highlight reels to check out.

All three apps are available now in their respective countries. Kick off your Olympic viewing now and prepare for a fantastic sports based spectacle.

When it comes to news these days, at least here in America, the upcoming presidential election is the big story. Today though, politics can be so crazy that keeping up with it all is next to impossible. That’s why NBC is delivering its powerful political reporting on-the-go with the new NBC Politics app.

With NBC Politics, users can get all sorts of information in all sorts of different ways. Users can read text stories, flip through photo slideshows and view clips from NBC shows like “Meet The Press with David Gregory”, “Andrea Mitchell Reports” and “Morning Joe.” On the more interactive end, users can share stories through Facebook and Twitter using the app and watch election results unfold in real-time. On the iPad, users can even make their own predictions and test them against the experts on the Battleground Map.

Indecision 2012 is just around the corner. Wait, wrong network. NBC Politics is available now for free on the App Store.

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iOS users with a Sprint subscription are in for a treat as the company has just launched SprintTV, a new way to stream television content right to your iPhone or iPad. The app offers free episodes of TV shows like 30 Rock, NCIS, Access Hollywood, and more, as well as live sports from ESPN Mobile and breaking news from ABC and NBC.

The basic service is free to all Sprint subscribers, with options to purchase additional packs for a monthly fee. Channels, such as Nickelodeon, Lifetime, Discovery and more are available, and Sprint offers a number of packages for folks who would rather watch their TV on a tablet than at home.

Sprint's appearance marks another entrant into a marketplace featuring apps from ESPN, ABC, HBO and others. It seems we're quickly marching towards a future where nearly all of our entertainment is available not only through our home TVs and cable boxes, but via smartphones and tablets as well. Seems that the day when we may be able to cut cable and live a life free of the service providers could be fast approaching.

This week at 148Apps.com, iOS helped all of us come just a little closer to cutting the omnipresent power of our cable companies, as TNT, TBS and NBC released full-length versions of many of their shows via iOS apps. Rob LeFebvre writes, "While (the TNT and TBS apps) may not be as earth shattering as the news from NBC, you can bet that we are witnessing a new paradigm in television viewing. Apparently, being able to create and control their own portal to their own television content has these companies, and no doubt others to soon follow suit, creating the cable-cord-free future we have all wanted from the outset. While the TNT and TBS offerings still require at least a financial link to cable television companies, the NBC announcement leaves no doubt that TV as we know it is changing forever."

Read more about the future of premium TV content on 148Apps.com.

Over at our sister site GiggleApps, reviewer Amy Solomon took a closer look at Arthur and Charles Present Create & Play, a collection of virtual toys for children. Solomon states, "Four sections are offered in this app, my personal favorite being Face Creator, where the player builds wonderfully whimsical cartoon faces from the 178 parts offered arranged into such categories that go beyond the obvious hair/eyes/nose/mouth choices including eyewear, headwear and extras. According to the developers, over 400 billion different characters can be created and after playing with the plethora of options offered, I believe it."

Read about the rest of the toys in this new collection at GiggleApps.

And finally, AndroidRundown stalwart writer Carter Dotson reported on what it takes to transition a top-grossing iOS game to the Android platform. Dotson says, "Tap Zoo has been one of the biggest successes on iOS that hasn’t really been talked about. In the past year since its release, the game has been on the top 10 of the iOS App Store’s Top Grossing charts for 48 of those 52 weeks. Now, the game is making the big jump to other platforms, and first on the list of non-iOS platforms? Android, of course! As one could probably infer, this means that Tap Zoo is now on Android!"

Read more about the transition at AndroidRundown.com.

And with that, we end our weekly wrap-up. But fear not; there's always all sorts of new content appearing across all of the 148Apps network of sites. Keep track of all the latest happenings (and participate in a giveaway and contest or two) by following us on Twitter and Facebook. See you next week!

Last week, NBC announced that their NBC app for the iPad now offers full episodes to, in effect, mirror the functionality of the NBC.com website. In addition, new features such as watching video clips, playing games and scrolling through photos were added to their companion iOS application, NBC Live. The company hopes to bring the social viewing experience to its fans through, obviously, a company branded app.

"We are thrilled to offer our fans full episodes via our NBC.com app. Now the app truly reflects the deep fan experience that we have created online at NBC.com," said Vivi Zigler, President, NBCUniversal Digital Entertainment. "And our fans are going to love the latest update to the NBC Live app which now offers them more content, better access and a unique social television experience."

The NBC app and NBC Live app are available for free from the App Store.

Not to be outdone, both TNT and TBS have also added support for full episodes, though they still are tied to app users needing to authenticate as cable subscribers. The apps, for both iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch, offer

- Full Episodes of TBS/TNT Series (after authenticating)
- Series Episode Guides
- Clips and Behind-the-Scenes Video
- Show Schedules with Reminders
- GetGlue, Facebook and Twitter Integration

While this may not be as earth shattering as the news from NBC, you can bet that we are witnessing a new paradigm in television viewing. Apparently, being able to create and control their own portal to their own television content has these companies, and no doubt others to soon follow suit, creating the cable-cord-free future we have all wanted from the outset. While the TNT and TBS offerings still require at least a financial link to cable television companies, the NBC announcement leaves no doubt that TV as we know it is changing forever.

[Source: MacRumors]

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So in the grand old country of the United Kingdom of Britain or just plain old Britain as Brits such as I prefer to call it, the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton is extremely imminent.

Indeed, it's next Friday! Feels like only yesterday that the date was announced and a good friend of mine cursed the fact that they're marrying on the same weekend as Them (my friend's getting hitched two days afterwards). Us Brits will be enjoying a day off to enjoy watching the Royal people wander around and mingle. Plus we, as well as the rest of the world, can enjoy The Royal Wedding app courtesy of NBC News.

It's a free download that works for all iOS devices. It comes with over 300 photos and more than 40 NBC News royal reports, both new and archive footage from the NBC News Archives. Latest news is also included. On a lighter note, there's an interactive royal family tree so you can learn plenty of facts about the key members of the family and the app even comes with ideas for how to host your own Royal Wedding tea party and what appropriate food you could prepare.

Get downloading now and revel in your Royalist side in time for the Wedding next week.

MobiTV has been around for years on other mobile platforms. And the technology behind it has powered the NCAA March Madness app the last two years and also the NBA and UFC video apps. But the MobiTV client, at least until now, hasn't been available on the iPhone.

MobiTV is a streaming video application that let's you watch both live TV and on-demand programming. For free, you can try out the app and stream the ABC News Now channel to test the speed and the picture quality.

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With a monthly subscription to the MobiTV service, there's a greater selection of channels you can watch such as MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC, CNBC, and Fox Business. You also get access to 30 channels of on-demand such as MTV shows, ABC, CBC, SyFy, NBC, etc. The service costs $9.99 per month with slight discounts for pre-purchasing multiple months either 3 or 6 month packages.

MobiTV is available in the App Store now and it's free, but to really get anything out of it, you will need the subscription. Oddly, MobiTV hasn't changed much since I first tried it out on my Palm Treo all those many years ago. The number of channels hasn't grown, if anything, it's shrunk a little. This, of course, limits is usefulness and makes the $10/month fee seem a little crazy.