Derby Gear Review - Jam Timer App

Format - iPhone/iPod(with OS 4.2+ installed)
Publisher - Fearless Code
Price - £1.19 on iTunes appstore

So, a new derby app hits the virtual shelves.  This is the second iPhone app for derby by Fearless code and this one again will be a useful addition to any NSOs arsenal. Fearless Codes first app was Penalty Timer(which I'll review later on) and that was a big hit among leagues that can't get a whole posse of NSOs to their practice sessions.  This app is also going to be a big hit and here's why.

The interface is nice and clear with the period clock ticking down at the top of the screen and the jam clock at the bottom.  There are nice big Start Jam and Stop Jam buttons as well as a Start Timeout button.  It clearly displays the jam number which is something a Jam Timer normally wouldn't need to know but is useful for other NSOs to check on.

It will automatically switch into the Jam Interval timer as soon as the jam is stopped and there is an option for it to auto start the next jam when that time runs out.
Pressing the Start Timeout button will give you the option of a team timeout or an official timeout.

All of the timings can be pre-defined and saved as game types (it comes already configured with standard WFTDA and WORD timing sets) so you can change all aspects such as number of periods, period length, halftime length, jam length, jam interval, timeout length and a few others.

I think there will be the usual concerns by Head Refs all over that the iPhone/iPod shouldn't be used for actual bouts as they aren't designed for timing.
My only concern is that my stopwatches(and this is probably true of 99.9999% of stopwatches in the world) have lanyards attached already so I can't drop them.  Also sports stopwatches are generally designed to be given a hard time and so are going to be much more resilient that the fragile iPhone/iPod.

This unlike the Penalty Timer app is never going to be able to do the majority of the jam timer NSO role as you still need to blow the whistle and judge the pack distances etc so you still need to know the rules and be a comptetent jam timer, but it certainly takes the juggling of watches and whistles out of the picture.

I would have liked it more if it tracked the number of timeouts each team has taken but that is something for the next version I suppose.

Overall a nice little app and one that will be handy for scrimmages and practice sessions but maybe not for full open bouts where a dropped iPhone could cause problems.

P.S.  I should probably say that if I was a Head Ref and someone was wanting to use this I would be insisting that the iPhone is switched into flight mode for the entire duration of the bout.  Last thing you want is a phone call or text in the middle of a jam...