F1 News 2010

[sleaver]

Hi, I have read the guildlines so I hope this is OK as it's my first post in this section and as a developer.

Anyway, I have developed a F1 News app and would like your thoughts on what you think and how it can be improved. OK, so F1 may not be a hot topic in the US (if you are from there) but the app isn't just limited to one genra of sport. The feeds can be changed to say NASCAR or Indy Car!

So, the description, well part of it!

Formula One news, Tweets, track conditions, and championship standings? There's an app for that - this app. The No.1 unofficial source for F1 news. Not a Lite version, but free for the rest of the season!

"Simple to use, quick to update - F1 News 2010”
“A great resource for all F1 fans”
“Easy to get to all the best Formula 1 sites without using Google”
“Awesome alongside the office F1 timing apps”

F1 News contains the best in motor racing from Formula One news, driver and constructor championship standings, to weather and more. No need to scan dozens of newspapers, driver's Twitter feeds, team web sites and fan sites, it's all here brought together in one app. Read the views of Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher as well as all the happenings at Ferrari, McLaren Mercedes, Renault, Williams, Red Bull and EVERY other team.

From FIA rulings and the latest pit wall chatter on team orders to the rain showers at Spa Francorchamps and Jenson Button's holiday plans, this app has it covered.

Features:
- The best in Formula 1 news.
- Driver and Constructors standings.
- Race calendar.
- Track weather.
- Switch news on or off as desired.
- View each story in the app or via the website.
- Email your friends stories that they will find interesting.
- Sections to purchase F1 merchandise from Amazon.

The link to my site about the app is: http://inewsapps.wordpress.com/f1-news/

The link to the app on iTunes is: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/f1-news-2010/id394203728?mt=8#

I haven't included any promo codes as the app is free, but if I do need to include them even though it's free please let me know!

So, please let me know how it can be improved. This is my first App Store app so I'm not pretending to be good at it but feedback and ideas is the key!

 

[yoose]

Just downloaded and have been exploring it for 10-15 min so these are just initial thoughts. You say read the story in the app or go to the website, but the app only has an excerpt, sometimes only one sentence, and does not contain the full story. is this a copyright issue? its a bit annoying to have to go to the website to read every article in full.

is there a way to sort articles by date instead of source?

It is not race weekend so I am not sure, but does/will the weather include specific track weather? it seems like its just general local weather from a website which is not as useful. It would be nice to have actual track temperature and weather radar for the track area instead of the whole city/region.

Would be nice to have a table of results for each race.

is there a way to add a custom source?

Stuff that I do like: lots of sources to choose from. ability to turn on/off and reorder sources.

overall i think its good. it consolidates a lot of sources which is good, but i do wish it contained the full article without having to go an extra step. good job and keep up the good work.

 

[sleaver]

Just downloaded and have been exploring it for 10-15 min so these are just initial thoughts. You say read the story in the app or go to the website, but the app only has an excerpt, sometimes only one sentence, and does not contain the full story. is this a copyright issue? its a bit annoying to have to go to the website to read every article in full.

is there a way to sort articles by date instead of source?

It is not race weekend so I am not sure, but does/will the weather include specific track weather? it seems like its just general local weather from a website which is not as useful. It would be nice to have actual track temperature and weather radar for the track area instead of the whole city/region.

Would be nice to have a table of results for each race.

is there a way to add a custom source?

Stuff that I do like: lots of sources to choose from. ability to turn on/off and reorder sources.

overall i think its good. it consolidates a lot of sources which is good, but i do wish it contained the full article without having to go an extra step. good job and keep up the good work.

Thanks for the feedback, it's really useful.

As you probably noticed some sources gave more content than others so really I'm at the mercy of what ever the site decides to put in their feeds (RSS). Obviously you can use public feeds but at the end of the day the site still want's to drive traffic to it and if they put in the full story people wouldn't go to the site. From that is there anything you suggest on a way to get around it?

Sorting by date instead of source - in the version for next season there will be something like a unified list where you can select something like 5 favorite feeds and then it will display articles from those 5 in date/time order.

The weather is sourced from the closet possible place to the circuit. For the build up of the race in Singapore everyone was saying it's raining all of the time and so was the app, but of course it ended up as a dry race! So it's the local weather closest to the track but isn't just specific to a race weekend. I'll also have a look at your suggestion for actual track specific stuff

Results for each race - Again, coming for next season.

The code is in the app to add a custom source but it was disabled for the initial release. However it will be coming as an option. If you have a specific one in mind and if it will be useful for everyone then let me know

Again, thanks for the feedback and please let me know if you have any further thoughts on the article content