By Graham K. Rogers

This being Sunday morning, and the race day for the Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix at Barcelona, I will be using the MotoGP Live Experience Full app later. While the race is running, I am able to check on timings using the same feeds as the teams are able to access. I run this on both the iPad and the iPhone.

When this app first came out in April, from Dorna Sports S. L., replacing the one from Soft Pauer I reviewed it and was rather critical of certain aspects: particularly design and content. The overall design is not likely to change, so I will live with that.

One of the omissions from the first version of the app was the inclusion of the excellent Dorna commentary. While this is available on the TV transmissions, the TV transmissions may not always be available here. The heavy rainstorms in this part of the world are notorious for cutting the satellite signals.

While following a race using time screens and the map display only are feasible (with a little imagination), the commentary makes the difference. As a child of the 1950s, I can remember many famous sporting events that were only available via radio (including the Henry Cooper v Mohammed Ali fight) and they were no less real for that.

The app is now up to version 1.5 and a couple of the early criticisms I had, have now been addressed, including audio. This is synchronous with the live displays in the app which are transmitted/received 5 seconds ahead of the TV images and commentary.

This latest update is unusual in that it arrives in the middle of a race weekend. The information shown in the iTunes display page for the update tells users that there are "Audio streaming fixes".

Dorna is improving the app as the season progresses.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.