Quick Update

Things are going slow and steady for the moment. Geopher Lite isn't getting the full attention of my limited spare development at the moment, so the next update will take a bit longer than what has been normal. The amazing lack of feedback with this release means one of two things to me. Either everyone has moved on to other programs or we've hit the "good enough" phase of Geopher Lite's development. I have a few things in the works, I will hopefully post some screenshots later in the week.

In the coming weeks I hope to have an announcement here also. I'll try to post at least once a week.

As always, questions and comments are welcome. I'd particularly like new feedback on the new version and how I would make it more usable. Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

1.0.5 is up! (Yeah, old news)

If you haven't heard or read the comments in my previous post, the new version is out. If you don't have it and you're reading this what are you doing here? Go get it!

A few miscellaneous comments for you.

Since Apple rejected and I had to resubmit my app, there are two other things that got into the release that had been slated for 1.0.6. Not a big deal but here they are anyway:
- Less restrictive URL linking.
- changed status bar to black
- changed buttons on top bar in target to be both black and the names to be "More" and "Return".

As a reminder, the waypoint field is for entering the letter/number codes for an individual geocache. You can find these in the top right portion of the geocaching page on geocaching.com. An example would be something like GC12345.

I have just downloaded the new official 2.1 SDK. It appears that apple has not actually delivered some of the features that were in the early beta with core location. From what I can tell it hasn't changed in any useful way (to us) with 2.1. Because of this I will spend some more time with the compass code and see if I can smooth it out a bit more. I'm a bit disappointed here, but I am still glad I took a wait and see approach to this. Expect more changes here.

I'm planning on revisiting the maps link from within the webpage with 2.1 and see if that is taken care of or if it is still a problem. I'm not hopeful, but it's worth checking out and seeing if Apple has fixed this issue.

As promised, here is the URL scheme for sending coordinates to Geopher Lite:

geopherlite://setTarget;lat=12.345;lon=6.789;waypoint=GC12345

You can actually type something like the above into safari and test it out if you'd like. You can embed links like this in web pages and it will open in Geopher Lite if you are on the iPhone. You can also call Geopher Lite with this URL scheme from other iPhone applications if you're a developer and wondering about that. Go crazy, I'd love to hear what people do with this.

Kai, one of our beta testers, has written up a tutorial that you can see here which will allow you to get a web page set up that redirects from safari to Geopher Lite. I want to note here that he has a jailbroken app do some of the lifting, but I am working with him to see if we can get this information via Geopher Lite instead of having to rely on a jailbroken app. And you can still use this method without jailbreaking your iPhone, you just don't get current coordinate distance. Thanks for the work on this Kai!

As always, post comments, suggestions and feedback here. Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

Still no word from Apple...

I have to say, I was expecting something by today. Maybe I'll get lucky and 1.0.5 will get approved tonight. Not holding my breath.

Rumor has it that iPhone OS 2.1 will be released tomorrow at the apple media event. Here's hoping that happens as well as the 2.1 features that apple has previously pulled from their beta software will be available -- that will mean good things for compass rotation and update calculations. Which, I am hoping, will translate into battery savings. Though at the current rate will not be for a long time in an update. =)

A quick note on my call with groundspeak. I may have more news later, but for now the answer is that the terms of use are in full effect. I'm disappointed, it sure is annoying to have to do that. I'm working on a better solution that is within the terms of use, but everything that has been thought of or suggested is not trivial to make happen. I'll keep you updated on this.

Also, in case anyone missed this the first time, the new version will support URL linking. So that means that if you have a website that has cache information, you can embed links that open up Geopher Lite when clicked. One of our beta testers has a (somewhat complicated) means of making up a website with links that point to Geopher Lite, and it works well. If he's agreeable I may link a tutorial for that here.

Back to the waiting game...

Quick update

I heard back from apple last night. They rejected my latest submission due to the "Action" icon I used in the top right. I changed it and re-submitted within a half hour, so it's back to the waiting game. I'll post here when the update goes through.

Also, I have a phone call with someone at groundspeak tomorrow. No idea what they will say, but it's progress. Wish me luck!

1.0.5

Since we a re waiting for 1.0.5 to be released by Apple I thought I'd post some screenshots and the changelog. Enjoy!

Geopher Lite 1.0.5 Changelog
- Added a preference to turn on and off the compass rotation. (Default is off)
- Added a preference to turn off auto search and added default HTML in it's place.
- Added a preference to keep the GPS on at all times.
- Changed the navigation buttons on the top of the target selection screen and moved them around.
- Changed the FAQ to be a local page instead of loading a website in safari.
- Reorganized the target setup screen buttons and added stop/back buttons.
- Re-Added log button and waypoint entry.
- Added URL linking from other applications.
- GPS Location Updates more frequently.








Per usual, I'd love to hear feedback, problems and suggestions!

Almost Ready...

Hopefully this evening or tomorrow evening I will submit the next update to apple. So give it a week or so.

I've touched up the buttons and such since I posted the last screenshots, I'll post some other screenshots in a couple of days. (Have to have something to do while we wait for the review! =) )

I'm planning on making a preference for continuous updating. (This may or may not make it in this version) It's probably a battery drain, but things seem to be much more responsive when the GPS is sending updates continuously. The currently released version only sends updates every few feet of movement. I think adding the option is a good compromise between battery life and accuracy.

Compass rotation is elusive. I've added a preference to turn this on and off because people keep asking me for that. I want to state that I'm still not in love with it, but I'm not sure I can wait on apple -- who knows when the 2.1 firmware will come out, or what features it will have. We are nearing the end of august and Apple still doesn't have what I would expect in their beta for (presumably) september so I will be interested to see if they keep their september deadline with some of their promised functionality. Anyway. Sorry I'm rambling... Compass rotation will be in the next release, but may not be any better than what is there now. I'll see what I can do, that's my focus for this evening, to smooth that out.

I may also add URL support for Geopher Lite. This won't mean much to you guys probably, but if I do this it would allow other applications to send coordinates to Geopher Lite. For example, clicking on a google maps link in safari will send you to the google maps application. Adding in link support similar to this would allow other developers to send target coordinates to Geopher Lite. I think it could be a good thing for everyone if other developers choose to use it. It ay also be a waste of time, we'll see. =)

Things are coming along. I am already into development of the full version of Geopher and that will gain more and more development time. Geopher Lite is getting to be fairly polished for what it is and I'm pretty happy with it. That doesn't mean it's perfect though -- keep the suggestions and comments coming in!

New pictures

Lately mostly what I've done is hit my head against a brick wall trying to get a makefile compiled library to compile for the iPhone. And I don't know a lot about makefiles, just enough to be dangerous. It's been pretty painful.

However, in my moments of needing a break from that I've managed to change a few things on the target selection screen. I've also added a preference which will allow for turning off the auto-load of the search. The "reply" button in the top right actually rotates through the different kinds of fields. I'l probably change "save" to "done" as the fields auto-save once you are done editing them. I don't like misleading UI.

Here, have some screenshots for illustration.





I changed the top of the bar so that we now have the log button back and can rotate through a few different options.

I'm thinking of adding some additional information in a text field at the bottom, is there anything you would like to have information about that Geopher Lite doesn't currently provide?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and support!