Applications for mobile devices.

[Giblet]

Hello devout and astute fans of the technical side of Formula 1.

Last year I had a pretty horrific injury to my arm, which sidelined me from my day job for a few months. It also got me a small reward due to some permanent, albeit minor damage.

If you hate Apple to the point of getting angry, then I suggest you back away from this post now as I don't want your input.
This disclaimer is from past experience

Being an iPhone owner, and aware of the popularity of the device, I have decided to go balls out and buy a Mac with the sole purpose of using it as a development machine. Now when I want to game, I just do it on my 360. I also paid the money to enroll in the developers program at Apple, and for 8 or so hours a day, I read books, try tutorials, participate on discussion forums, and download sample code. I have registered my phone as development device which allows me to compile and test my own code into apps to be run on the iPhone.

So I do have some limited but varied programming experience, and am aware that learning Objective>C on the Mac is not a small task, but at the same time it is not impossible. My past experience however is quite outdated and not all as object oriented as it is today.

I have reached the point where I can write a simple view based application that loads, displays a button or to, and fills some text fields, a glorified "hello world" application. This is in fact a LOT harder than it sounds, as there are amny concepts and frameworks that need to be understood before you can make your first working code.

I obviously want to do this to make scads of cash, but I'm also being realistic and working part time to support my new daily learning habit.

Anything you want to be successful, especially a business or product, needs to have some personal interest vested in it.

My goal is to build a _free_ application for the iPhone for F1 nerds. Not fans, NERDS. This will do a few things:

1 - Continue helping me learn to code
2 - Get my company name out there with a free application on the app store that is simply well made and free
3 - Use the minor built up reputation to build a 2nd more complicated app (concept already thought of)
4 - rinse and repeat.

Now what I want is iPhone/programming/F1 nerds on this sight to give me insight into what should be in an application like this.

What online databases of F1 data should I implement or approach to implement?
Should I try to get F1 live timing on there? If it's popular enough, it might be doable later on.
Ideas for things in the application like fuel and pit stop calculators, global television schedules, etc?

Now I really hope this is not construed as some sort of spam. I'm actually here to try to write a program for people like you and I that are interested in F1 past the point of just a team affiliation. I want to harness my passion to help me with my new labor (of love? we'll see...) that is programming, and take your input to make it a quality release.

Thanks,

Mark

[Callum]

how about some kindof all in one f1 data sheet...

A calender of upcoming GP's with your own countries start time.

A full list of constructors and drivers points standings.

Bookies odds on the drivers winning the next GP.

Drive press conferences?

Live timing sounds good,


Just a few ideas, goodluck:D

Edit: If only i could get it for my samgsung pixon...

[leomax]

I do not mean to discourage you ,but why would you restrict yourself to iphone.
go with html and maybe a bit ajax,in other words create a web application which will offer more freedom and compatibility across a lot of devies.
Then Perhaps you create a simple front end for iphone from it.

[Carlos]

How about a world clock showing the race start time in major cities and a link ( sorry I forgot the site but some forum member will remember it)to that site which shows each GP as a diagram with each car live time position circulating around the track, pit stops, retirements as the race is run, but as a diagram. I believe it also can play back each race as the season progresses. Just the app for F1 iphone owners who can't watch the race live on TV when they are at work or out running family errands. Maybe that would be a program that is simple to write and an app that would attract some attention and a following. I don't know Is any program easy to write? It's great to see you moving in a new direction.

[Giblet]

@leomax.

I own a Mac, the development kit is free, and the language is called Objective>C, which is a superset of C.

Apple has provided us with a tool to deliver our apps to over 17,000,000 registered iPhones, each phone capable of buying an applicaiton for cheap in just a couple of touches, and 800,000,000 million downloads in 2008. This doesn't even vount all the iPod touches that are out there too.

HTML is a markup language, not a programming language. Learning Java would be more applicable.

Your answer is the kind I want to keep out of my thread. BTW, when I learn Objective>C thoroughly I will also be able to program any app for the Mac, and it will be much easier to backtrack and learn C. Anyone who can code in C can pick up other languages pretty easily. Your discouragement is not welcome.

If you have any ideas FOR THE APP they would be greatly appreciated. You can use C to write other operating systems. This is the difference between 'scripting' and 'programming'. I've been toiling in HTML for years, and it bores me. This excites me.

BTW, the main reason that this is not for other devices, as I don't want to have to market and sell my software, I'll let the appstore and merit do that. Converting a mobile application to Java down the road is easier out of C then HTML any day.

As well, apple owners generally have more disposable income, making apps easier to sell down the road.

As a programmer, if you don't get it, you haven't researched.

Maybe if RIM gets their appstore working properly and releases a FREE software development kit, with an on screen simulator for everyone version of every one of their devices, I'll check it out.

So..... THE IDEA>...

Calum

- GP event calendar with local time converter
- WDC WCC Standings
- Bookies odds
- Press conference minutes
- Live Timing (hopefully)

Carlos

- World race clock
- real time positioning ( m might be able to do a 'fake' version that upadets drivers on the track realative to their sector times.
- Focus on features for people who can't watch the race live but want to follow it still.

@Carlos - yeah thanks, it's a big leap. I still have my contracting work to keep me 'in school'

Keep in mind folks, this project I want to be a labor of love, my money making ideas are in the back of my head until I have the skills to implement them.

I hope our mighty leaders "Villeneuve Helmet" and "Smurfette" will consider allowing me to portal the tech blog down the road.

[andartop]

I don't know exactly how much or how little you could incorporate into this sort of thing, so I'll just speak out my thoughts risking ridiculing myself! Just take this as feedback from a consumer's point of view!
I'd definitely be MUCH more interested in quali rather than the actual race, as being a fan I'm much more likely to miss quali if I have to, but I'll do anything to watch the race: so, live timing is a must, anything else extra but welcome. I'd be more than happy with an f1live.com-style format, with the current order and times in the main window and some comments about what is actually going on on-track by the side. Some graphics would be nice (ie a small pixelated version of the Brawn GP car with JB initials next to it to indicate the pole-sitter, instead of "Jenson Button"). Live updates would also be nice AFTER the main thing is over, ie Kimi Raikonnen receives 5-place grid penalty for changing failed gearbox, AGAIN, etc.
For the actual race I'd go for a format that attempts to follow the TV broadcast format as closely as possible. And by that I mean that you could have a "general venue info"-style package first, with details about the country and track, past records, maybe a virtual lap tour (?) or videos of interesting things that happened in the past. Then a "news update"-style package with the quali results, any last minute news on weather forecast, latest Lewis-McLaren punishments etc. And finally for the race I'd love to have live timing again and as much info as possible about what's going on. Maybe a virtual GPS-style live on-track positioning thingy if possible, it would be greatly appreciated. And last but not least, the post-race press conference, and again any updates of possible post-race classification changes due to penalties!!!

[OTMC_1995]

I think an other idea (although not entirely focused on the racing) might be too do 360 degree pinch and zoom images of each of the cars and also possibly a comparison between each other or last years models (appearances and lap times?)
Although this might not appeal to the hardcore racing fans who know the cars inside and out, it may appeal to the more recreational viewers who are interested but not completely obsessed, therefore opening up another branch of the app market possibly causing your company/app to become more well known?
Best of luck, I'm looking forward to getting it already!!

[beelsebob]

Giblet, you may be interested in my app F1Pad – https://github.com/beelsebob/F1Pad. Feel free to contribute code if you like it

[raymondu999]

Always great to see entrepreneurs who are willing to actually step up and do something about what they want to do. Too many wantrepreneurs nowadays. I used to code a long while back so that does warm my heartstrings a bit too.

Right now the Soft Pauer F1 app does me fine - but if your app is geared towards F1 nerds - how about kind of a "reverse calculation" thing to show people what kind of fuel loads (based on their qualifying laptimes) people were running in FP? Would be interesting to see the programs they've run. Beelsebob - what does your app do? Is it just a live timer? I read the description; but it didn't exactly give away too much

If you can somehow get a model up that can see how the long run pace is - based on FP - I'd love to see a fantasy "strategy calculator" where you could kind of try combinations out and it would tell you (on that specific track and weekend) what was the quickest, and how many seconds each different strategy would yield/lose. I'm thinking along the lines of something like the F1 2011 game's strategy selection if you play that - stopping on lap X for tyre Y, for however many pitstops.

Sky's new iPad app seems intriguing too: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/44837/s ... d-pictures

[muz]

A lot of what people haveasked for the officail F1 ap does, it covers races, times, standings, practice/qualy/race laptimes and live updates

There is a Maxis ap I downloaded which would be worth you taking a look at- it has news stories, standings, team biogs, profiles, race circuit guides etc -it's very good.

What they both lack is historical data, the ability to look at older information to help settle arguments etc ?

Edit. The maxis ap does have historical info, hall of fame and results right back to 50s.