I’ve spent the last few days glued to my iPhone watching the grand drama of the Tour de France (or “Tour-DAY-France” if you’re an ex-racer from Oakland named Bob) unfold in Europe via Versus’ Official Tour de France Live app.
Just as with free version of the app, there’s a Tour calendar with stage elevation profiles, Twitter updates from cycling luminaries and pundits, rider profiles, standings and constantly updated live reports (which are in a light grey font that’s annoyingly difficult to read).
In addition to the free stuff, the premium version adds live GPS tracking that shows the positions of the peloton and any breakaways on both the map and stage profiles, video highlights like pre- and post-race interviews from the riders and push notification of major stage events.
But the overriding reason to pop for this app is to watch the race live — or listening to Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett call the race when not able to look at the screen. And it seems to work really well over both wifi and 3G, albeit witha reduced picture quality via 3G. I’ve tested the app in places where either the 3G or wifi signal is somewhat shaky and experienced no significant breaks in the feed.
The only real complaints are that the app will crash from time to time (though it’s never done this while streaming) and the previously mentioned problem with the update’s font. Also, because the audio feed is from Liggett and Sherwen’s booth only, there’s no audio from post-race interviews when the live feed switches to them.
At $15, it seems pretty expensive for an app with a (now two-week) lifespan; but if you’re a cyclaholic like me, about $1 per day isn’t bad for the ability to take the Tour with you on your iPhone — and it’s half the price of the live Versus TDF web feed ($30), which is far less portable.
