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At the end of January, we covered the BBC’s plans to return to the world of gaming, with the iPhone as its main platform of choice.  This news has now been joined by an announcement made at Mobile World Congress currently being held in Barcelona, where the BBC have demoed their future BBC News and BBC Sport iPhone apps.

The BBC News application will feature live updates of breaking news, access to BBC reporter’s blogs and commentary, plus audio and video content.  You’ll also be able to log-in and send your own comments and pictures directly to the BBC news team.

BBC Sport is looking very interesting and will receive a staggered release.  The first version will be out before the World Cup, but will later be updated to include F1 and the 2010/11 UK football season.  Inside the app there will be access to live text commentary or audio commentary from Radio 5 Live, updated scores and results and as with the News app, audio and video too.

There is an interactive demonstration of the impressive UI the BBC has created for the News app available on their blog, so follow the link and give it a try, as we think it looks really great.  Our one question – which applies to many other examples of news service apps too – is that the BBC’s mobile and for that matter, regular, site, look fine in Safari, so was there really a need for an app?  The official release schedule is April for BBC News and May for BBC Sport, when both will be free to download.