By KI MAE HEUSSNER
Feb. 23, 2010

Cowbell 2010 Lets You Cheer From Your Living Room

If you really want to feel like you’re slopeside at Whistler, take a look at Cowbell 2010.

The new iPhone application turns your phone into a clamoring cowbell, just like the ones cheering on Olympic alpine skiers.

Launched by Boulder, Colo.-based Rage Digital, the 99-cent app has been downloaded more than 20,000 times by people in 34 countries and is the second most popular paid sports application in Apple’s App Store.

“The cowbell is such a vibrant tradition of the Olympics and the iPhone, with the accelerometer, has the ability to detect movement,” said Tom Guggenheim, CEO of Rage Digital and the app’s creator. “[It] was the perfect platform to create a cowbell.”

He said the cowbell tradition originated in Switzerland, where cowherders would ring their bells from pastures to encourage the athletes.

Users can personalize the app with the national flag of their choice, access an event schedule, read athlete tweets and post their own messages and photos to Facebook.

After the Vancouver Games, he said his company plans to re-design the bell for the World Cup in June.

(Full Story)