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While the big news today was definitely the official launch of Windows Phone 8, Nokia was able to slide in an update to their ESPN app over the weekend.  The update mainly deals with increasing how you can be notified on scoring and news updates through the Live tile and toast notifications.

The update adds the ability to save and pin your favorite teams and sports to your Windows Phone Start Screen, customize the Live Tile score updates and you can now receive toast notifications for news and score updates.

The Windows Phone ESPN Radio app was promoted alongside other platform solutions in a recent Mike & Mike programme episode. The app itself launched on the platform last month for all Windows Phones to download and enjoy, and it's good to see it get recognised on a network programme. 

NFL season is just around the corner and in just the nick of time, the ESPN Fantasy Football app has passed Marketplace certification and is headed to the Nokia Collection. The fantasy football app will be an exclusive for the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone lineup and should be live on the Marketplace in the next day or two.

ESPN Fantasy Football allows you to manage your fantasy teams and monitor player performance from multiple teams and leagues. You have the capability of following teams on game day with real-time FantasyCast scores and news.

We’re not too sure what to make of this but here’s the deal: there’s a seemingly very official ESPN Radio app now in the Windows Phone Marketplace and you can download it to any Windows Phone not just a Nokia.

We mention that because it was only Friday that Nokia came out with the news that an ESPN Radio app should be in the Nokia Marketplace within the next day or two. Well, here we are two days later and there is a very nice ESPN Radio app but it will also load on any Windows Phone. Accident? On purpose? Does Nokia have a ‘special edition’ of the app coming out very soon too? We just don’t know…

If you're into ESPN's fantasy football, you will be pleased to hear that the ESPN Fantasy Football app is headed to the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Not much is known on the details but the app will feature fantasy team management, live scoring, news from the NFL, tweets from fantasy experts, and messaging boards.

This will be the first year ESPN's Fantasy Football app will be offered for Windows Phone and expected release is mid-August. Once we spot the app in the Marketplace, we'll let you know.

Source: tvbythenumbers; Thanks, Ken, for the tip!

Although Nokia's ESPN app available in the Nokia Collection gets some mixed reviews partially because it relies on Internet Explorer for some advanced stats, overall fans seem to like the co-branded offering.

One feature that was missing however was a Live Tile for sports score updates and now that has been addressed with version 2.1. The new update came out in the last 24-hours and users seem to be quite happy so far with the ability to just glance-and-go with the app on their Start screen.

No other tweaks or fixes are known with version 2.1 but needless to say, if you follow sports, like ESPN and love your Lumia than you'll want to grab this app ASAP. Pick it up here in the Windows Phone Marketplace but only if you're on Nokia.

Read our review of the Nokia ESPN app here.

Today, Nokia announced not only the Lumia 900 but also some exclusive apps. While Nokia Drive is well known, the ESPN and CNN apps are much more new and less detailed in media coverage.

Perhaps not surprisingly, both apps are quite nice. Well designed, Metro-influenced and delivering what looks to be considerable content, the apps look to increase the value of the phone. And while we don't think an "exclusive" ESPN and CNN app suite will convert many folks, as news junkies ourselves, we're more than happy to have it on board. Furthermore, the CNN iReport feature (being able to natively use the phone to submit reports) is certainly a novel idea.

Anyways, enjoy this quick look at these two new apps.

We mentioned a few days ago about ESPN Goals making its way to the UK Marketplace. That day has arrived and you can now grab it to begin the new football season. Though we haven't tried the app yet ourselves, from what we've heard, it's pretty nice. From the app description:

"The complete Barclays Premier League video App! This season football fans can watch video clips of all the goals* from every Barclays Premier League match – completely free on the ESPN Goals app. The ultimate Barclays Premier league app includes live scores, video highlights and clips of every goal, for all 380 games – within just minutes of it taking place*."

• The essential football app for fans of the Barclays Premier League will feature:
• Video of goals and match action from every Barclays Premier League match all season long
• Live scores and match stats
• Fixtures and results from around the league
• Additional video including match previews and weekend round-ups
• Video alerts: Alerts for goal videos, match highlight clips and Weekend roundup clips
• In-match Clips

Sounds fairly comprehensive to us and the app looks well designed as you can see from above. If its something you think you'll want to pick up, you can get it for free here in the Marketplace. [Not available in the US]

Thanks, Damien H. and Dale B., for the tip!

Fan of football or what we like to call soccer? Then you may be excited about ESPN's Goals app coming soon to Windows Phone 7 (as well as every other mobile OS). From the app description:

"This season football fans can watch video clips of all the goals* from every Barclays Premier League match – completely free on the ESPN Goals app. The ultimate Barclays Premier league app includes live scores, video highlights and clips of every goal, for all 380 games – within just minutes of it taking place."

• The essential football app for fans of the Barclays Premier League will feature:
• Video of goals and match action from every Barclays Premier League match all season long
• Live scores and match stats
• Fixtures and results from around the league
• Additional video including match previews and weekend round-ups
• Video alerts: Alerts for goal videos, match highlight clips and Weekend roundup clips.

We're not too familiar with any of that but we're going to guess that some of our UK friends will enjoy getting this as soon as it hits. The service which we're told normally goes £30 but will free for the season, which seems like a good deal no matter where you're from. Might as well pick up Pro Evolution Soccer while you're at it.

Source: ESPN; Thanks, Tahiti Bob for the tip!