Rating: A great way to keep track of your favourite Formula One driver
Here at GoMobile Towers we’re pretty much a bunch of petrolheads and the Formula One Grand Prix is our special favourite. The snag is that currently here in Blighty (the UK), certain races are only shown live on pay-per-view TV. In our case, BSkyB’s Sky F1 channel. Now the normal way for any Brit to deal with such a situation is to go down the pub (bar) and watch F1 on the big screen. The trouble is that the UK is a nation of footie and rugby fans and there’s a Spain versus Italy soccer match right in the middle of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. Trying to sort out this mess, GoMobile News happened to visit Formula One’s mobile friendly web site – http://mobile.formula1.com/ where we noticed the official F1 2012 Timing app. We just had to download it.The app has been created for Formula One by Soft Pauer and is available from the iTunes App Store for iOS; From Google Play for Android; and from the BlackBerry App World.
Sadly, there is no version for Windows Phone 7.5 (W7 Mango), yet. However, if you look at the reviews this app has received – especially on Google Play, the majority aren’t very positive.
That’s because you are looking at the free version of the app which is nothing more than a demo. The real version cost us £19.99 – and not that this only lasts for one season of F1.
What was interesting was that the free version includes the possibility to upgrade through an in-app purchase.
We tried it here at GoMobile News and had problems which were eventually traced back to the credit card details held in our Google Wallet.
The reason it was interesting is that the app’s authors mentioned that you can only save your files from the 2012 season if you actually make the purchase through Google Play – not in-app.
So we went through Google Play.
Bizarrely, the most useful feature we found with this app is its countdown facility. This tells you exactly when the race actually starts – something which you can’t easily detect from the TV coverage times.
The real point of this app is that it enables you to follow an individual driver in real time during the race. That might not sound too useful to outsiders but for avid fans it is a god-send.
GoMobile News remembers being at a British F1 Grand Prix when Gerhard Berger was still racing. Unable to hear the commentary, we could tell whether Berger was in a leading position or a lap behind. This app solves the problem.
It also boasts the usual stuff – such as biog on all of this year’s drivers and teams plus current standings in the championship.
You may be wondering why we aren’t watching F1 on our mobile phone. The answer is we have the wrong kind of Android handset as reported back in March here – only seven Android handset were compatible with the Sky Go service.
Hopefully, Vodafone (which sponsors Maclaren) will take pity on us and loan GoMobile News an Android handset that will work with Sky Go. Pretty, please?
Great App indeed despite the high price. I keep it right next to the TV on my Touchpad CM9 and follow both to the dot.
Also, if you’re looking for a Pulse style news app for F1, try Nuzapp – Drive Thru Penalty on Google Play. Great thing about this is that its optimized for both tabs and phones. Plus it has some really neat technical blogs from commentators.