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If you’re not a fan or motor sport and specifically that cavalcade of howling V8s, prima donna drivers, politics and general lunacy that is Formula 1 then this weeks app is not for you. Formula1.com Formula1.com View the chaos on the pit lane (left) while you track the laps (right) If you are, the Formula1.com app relays …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    F1 giving something away for free?

    Theres got to be a catch somewhere!

    1. Elmer Phud

      Free?

      If it goes to Sky it won't be free anymore.

      Rupert 'paywall' Murdoch will see to it.

      1. tath

        Murdoch = Devil Incarnate

        This won't happen hopefully, one of the conditions of the Concorde Agreement is that it must be free to air in major regions, purely because the team money comes in large from sponsorship and if you slash the audience then the sponsors will bail.

        I refuse to give Murdoch money.

  2. Cosmo
    Thumb Up

    It's bloody good I tell thee

    As per title

    1. Dapprman

      can be a little buggy

      has hung a few times for me - but I've found killing it through a task manager and then restarting it normally fixes things.

  3. nyelvmark
    Thumb Down

    Another web app

    Of course, you can get exactly the same thing by going to f1.com with any java-enabled browser. The official race videos are pretty cool, too, although they're quite short and sometimes focus more on the pit babes than the racing.

  4. 68K

    Can't log in - silly login behaviour

    So I registered on F1.com, but the app (a) forces the password characters to be entered in upper-case, and (b) shows the characters.

    Also appears that the app won't let you enter numbers as part of the password either. Unless something is really odd with my Android keyboard (SlideIT)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Numbers in passwords....

      ...work fine for me. I'm not forced to use upper case either...

    2. Dapprman

      never has for me

      and I have had to reset mine a few times as I keep forgetting what I've used or what ransom one it's given me

  5. Dan Price
    Trollface

    Looks good...

    ...but can it make the racing interesting?

    1. JaimieV

      It would if it had a

      "Make it rain" button.

    2. tamar1n47

      asdf

      not interesting? have you even seen any F1 this century?

    3. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Interesting?

      Watch some of this year's races. It's a cracker season.

  6. RichyS
    Thumb Down

    First on Android

    Was this app really first available on Android? It seems bloody odd then that it's an exact facsimile of an iPhone app.

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Boffin

      Twonk

      It is just possible, I suppose, that the iPhone app is an exact facsimile of the Android app. Had this not occurred to you?

      GJC

    2. David Neil

      Or...

      They built this first then built the iPhone app using the same look and feel.

      Been using it since the start of the season, pretty good app.

      1. CaptainSnapz

        Catch-up

        The iPhone App was available for LAST season, it looks like it has just now been available on Android, still catching up.

      2. Perspyro

        Or...

        The app came out at least a year ago on iPhone but was also available on Symbian handsets (worked on my c902 no probs). Not sure if Vodafone was delaying the deployment of the Android version as it took a long time to come and apps that tried to use the same info in Android were given the cease and desist. At the time, Vodafone was heaviliy promoting the iPhondle.

        Haven't checked for a while, but there's no native iPad version which is a shame as it could do alot on that form factor. But things may have changed!

        Anyway, we all have it now. Handy when you can't have access to a pc and launch the java live timing app while watching the race/qualy.

    3. Shades

      I've got news for all of you...

      ...Its been available for Windows Mobile for at least the last 3 seasons, that I know of, with the exact same look and feel.

      Its also been available for many other phones (even "dumb" phones) for the same amount of time, which is not surprising as it is, with the exception of the iOS version, actually a JAVA app.

      Oddly the developers dropped the version for the HTC HD2 this season yet retained versions for other Windows Mobile devices. Bastards! Online Java version it is for me now... Thank god for Wi-Fi and mobile tethering!

    4. CaptainSnapz

      Catch-up

      The iPhone App was available for LAST season

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not first

      First from the rear.

      Java, Symbian, iOS then Android IIRC

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Why do I have to register?

    Who is harvesting my email address?

    Just to get information I shouldn't have to give away my email address to register...

    LiveSports24 F1 Racing gives F1 information without registration!

  9. Flugal

    Gap?

    This still doesn't appear (as far as I can see) to show stats for the gap between drivers - same prob with official F1 app for iPhone.

    Knowing laps times and positions is important, but knowing the gap is equally so.

    1. Dapprman

      Think it does in landscape

      But can't remember.

      TBH it's a good app, but I still set up my laptop in front of me and use the main website during the race - and fortunately I also remember not to if I'm watching a recorded race (I do know a couple of people at least who've logged as they've started to watch the race a few hours later

    2. derek burns

      Gap..

      The Lap Time can be changed to show gap behind leader or interval to the car in front..

      Now they need to give us pit stop/pit lane times also!

      Been using this since the start of the season, can't live without it now!

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. JonRussell
      Thumb Up

      It does ...

      ... just touch/click the column headings. If you touch the "lap time" heading it cycles through "Lap time" "Gap" and "Interval". Same feature on the sector column. And if you turn the phone sideways in landscape the sectors expand...

      I've been using it religiously since the start of the season. It’s a great app. Very useful if you can’t be in front of a TV at the time the race is on.

    5. JonRussell

      yes there is...

      ... just touch/click the column headings. If you touch the "lap time" heading it cycles through "Lap time" "Gap" and "Interval". Same feature on the sector column. And if you turn the phone sideways in landscape the sectors expand...

      I've been using it religiously since the start of the season. It’s a great app. Very useful if you can’t be in front of a TV at the time the race is on.

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Android First?

    Formula 1 release a version of this every year, this is the 2011 version. It most definitely appeared on iOS first - three years ago - which is why it look like an iPhone app. Not that it matters. It's a great app and a great free alternative to the £20 (per season) F1 Timings app which has pretty graphics and a better driver tracker.

  12. Al Taylor
    Alert

    @ Flugal

    If you tap the top of the Lap Time column it shows the gap between ech car and the leader on the last completed lap. Tap it a second time and it shows the gap between each car and the one immediately ahead of it.

  13. Gulfie
    Thumb Up

    Push alerts...

    Push alerts for third party Android apps are technically still in beta. I'm pretty sure that F1.com would run up against the usage limits too.

    Although still beta, the push does work very well though. As does the F1 app on my Galaxy Tab 10.1...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    If only...

    ...this had some way of giving David Coulthard an electric shock when I pressed a button on the screen. That way, every time he pronounced Nick Heidfeld's name incorrectly, I could reach for the lightening bolt and send a few volts up his jacksy... that would wipe the smug smile off his face (to be fair, I'd be even more smug if I was him and had achieved as much as he had and was as rich as he is).

    There could also be buttons that do unpleasant things to Eddie Jordan and that bloke with the iPad whenever they talk bollocks.

    In all seriousness, though, after reading this review I think I'm gonna download this one. Thanks for the recommendation, El Reg.

  15. Richard Lloyd

    Live timing on www.formula1.com preferable...

    Having both an Android phone with the official F1 app installed and a Linux netbook with the Java-based live timing app loaded from www.formula1.com using Firefox, the latter is the clear winner.

    This is mainly because the "large" window on the Java timing app contains everything I need to see neatly in one screen, whereas the Android app, by necessity, is cramped and involves you constantly switching screens to find the info you need.

    Even with my 8.9" netbook screen, a quick F11 for full screen allows the large Java window to fit perfectly and I just glance occasionally at it whilst watching the race without having to press any key/screen at all. The *only* reason I'd ever use the Android app is if I couldn't see the race on TV and I didn't have my netbook with me, which would be highly frustrating (and unlikely) on both counts anyway!

    Trivia point: Has anyone noticed that the BBC F1 coverage on Freeview (SD or HD) is often 5-6 seconds behind the formula1.com live timing? Very noticeable in free practice and qualifying where you can compare the TV's session countdown clock with the one on the live timing. It does mean I can shout out fastest laps and pit stops before they get mentioned on TV though :-)

  16. Chris 171

    In Symbian^3 flavour also.

    Works fine on my N8, coupled with the driver tracker from the BBC (tho for how much longer remains to be seen) on the Laptop & Im fully geared up to watch the race.

    For a true departure in new media, F1 should hook up properly with Kangaroo/FanVision to offer their output for home use not just at the track. I'd buy that for a £.

  17. Jim Bob
    Facepalm

    @GJC

    Yeah, the iApp is a copy of the 'droid one. Let's just ignore that this is a v2.0 app, with the v1.0 being available on the iPhone for the 2010 season, eh?

    Had "doing some research" not occured to you?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    relative gap

    The iPhone app does show gaps, I think. I've only just downloaded it so I'm looking at historical data mind. Go to the timing view and tap the "Lap Time" column heading, it then cycles through various types of data for that column, one of which is "Gap". Don't have Android kit to test if the same is true for that platform.

  19. Jim 15

    I like it, but...

    I Like it, but it does keep freezing up and generally misbehaving. Its at its best when being used during a race - I particularly like that it gives the sector times, and I see that data and who is in pit and out on track a split second before the commentators tell us and before the BBC feed updates on the telly. But it did freeze multiple times during the Canadian race and at one point the data was just wrong!

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Official apps are for wimps...

    Of course if you truly are a petrol head geek you'll work out the data stream protocol that FOM supply and write your own app to display it (like what I did for a homebrew project). You just need a formula1.com account to authenticate against their back end servers and then scrape the data down into your app.

    That way you can display/process/crunch it anyway you like on whatever device you prefer

  21. Jay 2
    Pint

    Blackberry too

    It's also available on Blackberry devices. Though I'm not so sure if it has as many features as the Android version.

    Though for the races I usually use the online one on my EEE 701, along with monitoring various tweets to see what the teams are up to.

  22. 10bottlesofbleach
    FAIL

    such fun

    As I have had downvoting the n00bs. @Richard Lloyd: From "Linux netbook with the Java-based live timing app " onwards of a paragraph, you claim top Downvote.

    1. Shades

      So you're...

      ...one of the dicks that seems to arbitrarily downvote perfectly reasonable posts. Shouldn't you be hanging round an Apple story with the rest of them?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Data transmitted by transponder? WTF?

    C'mon Reg - all the transponder does is to constantly transmit a signal identifying the car as it crosses each timing loop buried in the track. There's a pile of hardware that works out time, position, gap etc.

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