TheRacingLine - Race Notifications & Calendar

[Adam43]

Probably stupid to say this, but shouldn’t you leave the ads in free. It is income if no one subscribes or there is a high proportion of free only. Free is also, for me at least, a driver to subscribe. I don’t mind paying and it is fine for that to be ads, but if I don’t want them then I chose. The ITV hub model.

I would also make more series in the free, as you suggest, and thing really high profile that is easy peasey to get anyway, albeit in many different places, can be free.

Is it worth having a region selection in case you are a in person type person. What’s on near me this month kind of thing.

Just thoughts. You’ve clearly considered this more than me

[Akrapovic]

Not a stupid thought at all! I'm open to all suggestions!

My thought process on the ads is this -

- To make decent money out of ads you need to use a third party ad hosting service such as iAd or similar. These generate the ads, pay you the money, simples. The downside is they aren't as good for privacy, can be a little complicated to integrate, and you don't control what ads are served. But you will make money doing this.

- I can integrate my own ads (if anyone has the Overcast podcast app, I'm trying to do it that way), but it means I have to manage it all myself. That ups the workload. And it probably earns less, as people won't come to me direct, as the app is too small (currently )

So I think where I'm currently going with it is, is that I dislike ads in general. If using my own system won't do anything significant, then I'm just making the experience worse whilst not earning anything.

My thought process is

- remove the ads, which makes the experience better.
- add some more series for free (say, F1, IndyCar and NASCAR?)
- remove the Bronze and Silver tiers completely
- rename Gold to just "Subscription", and leave it as the only tier
- add a discounted annual subscription (this has been requested a few times)

That should provide a better experience for all the users, including free. Make it simpler for me to develop. And simpler for users to know what they're getting. And it should keep costs down, which is nice. I don't want this being a £10 a month thing. I want it to be cheap - I need it to cover costs and my time and that's it really.

However, I could be wildly off the mark with how I'm doing things

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In terms of features, there's new stuff coming soon (but after I've sorted the subscriptions)

- Events which are TBA will now list as TBA, rather than have a race name
- Events which have a race but don't have confirmed start times will list the start time as TBA

Series that I'll add soon (once subscriptions are sorted.)
- WEC, ERC, WRX, MotoGP, BSB, WSB (these were all requested)
- IMSA Pilot, NASCAR Xfinity, NASCAR Trucks, GTWC America (more users in the US)
- Super GT, Super Formula
- W-Series, Porsche Supercup (F1 support events)
- British GT, German GT

I have made a rookie technical error and boxed myself into a corner where I now have to sort the subscriptions before I can add more series, because if I push the new stuff it'll crash the phones. I did not plan it well. But that's part of learning this stuff

Edit: Oh and edit the name in the store. I think I've found that now! Thanks for the shout Ayse!

[Akrapovic]

I will be submitting an update to the AppStore today - generally takes 48 hours for it to be approved. The main thing is that I've simplified the subscription model, and I've introduced an iPad specific layout, which should solve all the iPad issues you were having, Aysedasi. And make it look a bit prettier! I did quite a lot of work on the backend of it too, to make it easier for me to add series quicker.

Full change list:

- iPad Layout
- macOS Layout
- simplified subscription model
- more free series
- ads removed
- races with no start time now TBA
- races with no venue now TBA
- races with no distance now TBA
- fixed display bug on All Races row heights
- FAQ added
- Version number added to settings.
- Changes to backend to make future development easier

[Craig]

Seems a nice idea but, having spent an hour and a half getting my ipad up to date it won't run as its not new enough! Shame. Looked a good idea.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Craig

Seems a nice idea but, having spent an hour and a half getting my ipad up to date it won't run as its not new enough! Shame. Looked a good idea.

Unfortunately I can only support devices that are iOS14 and above as the framework I used requires it. If I used the previous generation framework then I would've been faced with a rebuild of the app in a year or so, where as the new one will be around for 5-6 years at least.

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App update is pushed. Should roll out to people over the next day or so (or you can delete the app and reinstall if you want it immediately). Big update is iPad version and more accurate race times. Subscription options are much much more simple (Monthly and Annual options, and that's it), and there is more free data. Subscribers get all the series, race start times added, race lengths added, and customisable notifications added.

I'll update all the calendars tomorrow and get settled down for a year of keeping the races up to date.

[Akrapovic]

Since I last posted I have added -

- WRC, ERC and WRX
- NASCAR Xfinity, NASCAR Trucks
- F1 has published the start dates of all races, so those are included now
- FE calendar has had massive changes, so that has changed.

Next actual app update will include -
- Custom notification sounds (and options for what you like!)
- Widgets (these are hard, but working on it!)
- Improved "in X hours" code (it's not as accurate as I'd like yet)

After that -
- I've worked out a way to do weather reports for races for cheap. So I can include that with no cost change, which is ideal.

The app now almost pays for itself (regarding hosting and other costs), but not quite. Oh, and I've made some nice marketing graphics.

[Akrapovic]

Done a lot of work on the app. 1.3 update:

- Widgets - iOS14 widgets. These are beta. They work, but when you first add it, the data may be blank. It will fix itself within the hour and be fine. Still working on that bug
- Sounds - Custom notification sounds, so a race alert does not sound like a text message
- Day of the week has been added to make it clear if a race is Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
- This Week now shows all the events until the end of Sunday only. Resets on Monday
- Improved time zone handling. I hate time zones
- Reworded some settings. I suck at English
- Fixed a bug which caused the app to crash when toggling series visibility

Series Added
- GTWC America
- GTWC Asia
- GTWC Australia
- British GT
- ADAC GT Masters
- W Series
- MotoGP
- World SBK
- British SBK

Currently working on
- Search bar in the "All Races" page
- Weather report for races in that week

Currently investigating
- Android version

[Mike Harte]

Some of us who may be slightly more mature than others do not use their mobile for internet purposes, and I certainly count myself in that group - my mobile is used solely as a telephone, it's original purpose.

Therefore, is there any possibility that you may, time allowing of course, consider expanding the usability of this app, which really sounds useful, so that it could be run on a PC?

[Akrapovic]

Hey Mike. So previously I'd have said 'no', but I also previously said no to an Android version - and yet tonight, I find myself embarking on learning Kotlin so I can build an Android version. So I think it's a case of 'never say never'', but a Windows version is probably unlikely. If you have a Mac then there's a good chance I can make a Mac version as most of the iPhone/iPad code can be repurposed.

The development time itself doesn't bother me, it's more the time taken to learn the different platforms. I've learn Swift, and that lets me build for iPhone, iPad and Mac (Mac needs a bit of extra work, but it's largely the same code base). Android requires a new language (Kotlin), which I'm learning now. For Windows I'd need to look at C# or something.

I've considered a web version that could run in a browser, but it means I'd need to start looking into user accounts, payment processing etc. Apple (and Google, with Android) can take care of all of this for me. For web I'd need to run all that myself.

Never say never, but a Windows/Web version is unlikely at the moment

[Mike Harte]

Thanks for coming back. I do believe that there are programs that are available that enable Android apps to run on Windows possibly emulators, so if you do come up with the Android version, all should not be lost.

Good luck with whatever you do.

[Akrapovic]

Couple more updates

- SuperGT added
- Super Formula added
- DTM added
- Search bar added (so you can search for circuits to find the dates of events)
- Qualifying sessions now supported - F1 session times will included soon

Android update: Getting the Android tools setup has been an adventure. I've roped in someone who knows a bit more about that world than me. I may pay him to build the app, rather than me struggle through it. It's a very very different way of building apps than iOS is.

Full series list currently:

Single Seaters
F1
F2
F3
Formula E
W Series
IndyCar
Super Formula

SportsCars
FIA WEC
IMSA WeatherTech
IMSA Pilot
ELMS
AsLMS
IGTC
GTWC Endurance
GTWC Europe
GTWC America
GTWC Australia
GTWC Asia
Super GT
British GT
ADAC GT Masters
NLS & N24
24H Series

Touring Cars
DTM (Yeah I know it's a GT3 series right now...but whatever lol)
BTCC
Supercars

Stock Cars
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Xfinity
NASCAR Trucks

Dirt
WRC
WRX
ERC

Bikes
MotoGP
World Superbikes
British Superbikes