Formula one is not everyone’s cup of tea, but those who like it tend to really like it! Personally I love it. I am always disappointed when companion apps for a sport like this are few in number and generally of a poor quality, that is until you look at the officially licensed F1 Timing app. This app offers something other apps could only dream of offering.
This app is your one stop shop for F1 news, information on drivers, tracks and current world championship standings as well as, most importantly, live timing information and real time GPS position of all the cars during a race. I will go into more details on this in a moment and yes you read it correctly, this app has access to some of the information that the pit walls have during a race including real time information on the positioning for every car during the race. The TV feed can only focus on a few cars (or car) at one time, now you can really see what is going on around the track in real time!
[toggle title=”Pricing” state=”open” ]
The app is not cheap, coming in at £19.99 for the season, but it does offer something that no other app can offer and is a great companion even if your not watching the race live. There is a free ‘basic’ version available offering basic services with an in-app purchase offer to upgrade to the ‘season pass’ if you feel ready.
[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Permissions” state=”close” ]
- NETWORK COMMUNICATIONFULL NETWORK ACCESSAllows the app to create network sockets and use custom network protocols. The browser and other applications provide means to send data to the internet, so this permission is not required to send data to the internet.
- STORAGEMODIFY OR DELETE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR USB STORAGEAllows the app to write to the USB storage.
- YOUR ACCOUNTS
- FIND ACCOUNTS ON THE DEVICEAllows the app to get the list of accounts known by the device. This may include any accounts created by applications you have installed.
- NETWORK COMMUNICATIONVIEW NETWORK CONNECTIONSAllows the app to view information about network connections such as which networks exist and are connected.GOOGLE PLAY LICENSE CHECKGoogle Play license checkRECEIVE DATA FROM INTERNETAllows apps to accept cloud to device messages sent by the app’s service. Using this service will incur data usage. Malicious apps could cause excess data usage.
- SYSTEM TOOLSTEST ACCESS TO PROTECTED STORAGEAllows the app to test a permission for USB storage that will be available on future devices.
- AFFECTS BATTERYPREVENT DEVICE FROM SLEEPINGAllows the app to prevent the device from going to sleep.
[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Walkthrough” state=”open” ]
When you first open the app you will be presented with a reminder of when the next race is taking place. In the background a ‘demo’ will be running showing you what an actual race might look like.
Along the bottom are 4 icons, I will now take them all individually
F1 (Logo)
This is the part of the app that gives you the live races - if you connect on a race weekend it will ask you to download the data for that race, if you are not watching the race live you can tell it what data to download in the settings (and also what session you want show)
The window with the live race can be resized to show you the live timings board, or if you go into landscape you can have both displayed, or split screen. The live timings board can show you lots of information from sector times to tyre choice.
You can pause the feed and fast forward to a certain part if you wish.
Clicking a drive will focus on that one driver.
The screen displays key race information such as overtakes (including attempted overtakes), pit stops etc.
Info (I)
This section displays information such as time until the next dace, latest results, standings, driver information and team information.
News (feed icon)
This section displays latest news and commentary with social network (twitter) links.
Settings
Here you can set which race and session you wish to view, as well as what information you want to be displayed (such as corner numbers and sector times).
[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Conclusion” state=”open” ]
This app is very good, but for that good service you have to pay a premium price. Looking beyond the price this app is truly unique and offers information that no other app can. Seeing the GPS positioning of the cars is a great way to enhance your racing experience and the live timing information is great for any F1 buff.
In an ideal world I would want this app to give greater control over the event when not watching live, at the moment you can start the feed when you want, but you cannot fast forward it, so if you want to use the app with the race you need to watch the whole race from start to finish or the app will not be in sync with what you are watching.
Also I am not a fan of having to pay the £19.99 every year, but we can’t really argue as this is the only app that can do what this does.
All in all I love this app and I would recommend it to anyone, that is, if they can bring themselves to pay the price!
[/toggle]
[toggle title=”App Links” state=”close” ]
[appaware-app pname=’com.softpauer.f1timingapp2013′]
[appaware-app pname=’com.softpauer.f1timingapp2013.basic’]
[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Image Gallery” state=”close” ]
[/toggle]
