Messages

Release 1.5.0:

Thank you for all those great new features from test release 1.4.3.3.
One special thank you for implementing across all menues with selectable values, the display of which value currently is chosen. This is extremely useful, since you by a glance can see your settings. Showing the selected value in yellow was really a perfect choice. Very eye catching.

Now to some issues I found (some of these are also reported for 1.4.3.3):
1) Date stamp on recorded tracks incorrectly uses UTC time zone. Should be local time.
2) Date stamp on manually created tracks is completely wrong: is set to 1970-01-01 00:00:00
3) Settings/Miscellaneous/"Track color and transparency": This color settings applies not only to imported and manually created tracks, but also the recorded (finished) tracks. So the small text under this menu headline should be corrected to read something like "Color of stored tracks " or "Color of created or recorded tracks".
4) The transparency control is not completely correct:
     - setting tranparency to 0% (slider all the way to the left): the tracks is still slightly transparent. May be difficult to make it completely non-transparent?
     - setting tranparency to 100% (slider all the way to the right): the tracks becomes invisible. That is the result of 100% transparency, but not useable.
        I suggest having max position (all the way to the right) equal to a meaningful transparency %. I did some testing and found that more than 80% has no meaning.
5) POI alert sound: when choosing your own sound, it can be hard to stop playing. Even if I tap the POI alert command on the right menu and then tap Cancel, it sometimes keeps on playing. Sometimes it stops quickly, sometimes it doesn't care at all. I also noticed that if a move map center closer to POI, it stops playing. I haven't tested this when driving and using GPS, but it should keep playing for at least 15 seconds until I tap the Cancel on the POI alert menu.

Menion, as a general question: do you want this type of reviews here in the "version" category, or do you want me to post one "Trouble and Questions" item for each of the issues above?

@marlar: while recording your track, you may want to remember specific points, e.g. if you are hiking: creeks that were difficult to cross, places where you took a break, places with great views, etc. So on the buttom recording menu, you just hit the 5th button from the left (with the blue + sign) and you have saved the point. Before saving, you can edit the name as you want. All saved points are shown on the track while you are still recording.

After you have finished recording, the track as well as the associated points with their names are shown.

I think this is a great new feature!

More 1.4.3.3 test results:

- "Save actual part", the new command of track recording: works great.

- Incorrect time stamp on created tracks, recorded or merged tracks: you are using the UTC time (Zulu time). That can't be the intention. Should be local time. When I checked back with older recordings, it seems my local time was used.

- Importing gpx tracks: works fine!

In the menu Settings/Localization there are 4 entries for units (length, altitude, speed, angle). Would it be possible to display the selected unit below each entry head line, i.e. replacing the small text line "Choose default display units", "Distance units for height", etc. by the currently chosen unit? Now I have to go into each one just to see what is selected. I have seen this solution in other apps.

- Regarding my point 5) in my previous post: adding a point to a track being recorded. I tried it more this morning and realized how this was intended to be used.
   I think this is an excellent feature, which also works perfectly. If I want to save current position as a separate waypoint, that function is still there.

- In the menu Settings/Miscellaneous/"Track color and transparency" there is a sub text saying: "Color of imported or manually created tracks". However, this color setting is also applied to tracks recorded by Locus.
  So you should correct the text to read "Color of imported/recorded/manually created tracks".

- you new color picker: excellent! I like it very much!

I did some initial testing of 1.4.3.3 today.
1) Please refer my previous post regarding POI alert continues to be enabled if POI is made invisible. Same issue here.
2) Guide On, Guide On reverse, Nearest point, Next point - all that works perfectly in all kind of combinaations and sequences.
3) The color transparency is not working correctly, neither on created tracks nor on recorded tracks. Even if I set transparency to 0 (glider all the way to the left), the track is highly transparent (50% or something like that). Further, if I set transparency to 100% (glider all the way to the right), the tracks becomes invisible. That is not useful. There should be a meaningful max limit.
4) Now color settings for recording tracks and for creating tracks are in two different menues ("Track recording" and "Miscellaneous" respectively). It made more sense to me when they were under the same main menu "Tracks".
5) During track recording I now get the option to save current position. This point seems to be integrated with the recorded track and the only way to see the point is to make the track visible. I didn't find a way to copy that point to a category under "Points". Is it supposed to be like this? I could of course put a new waypoint on top of that recorded point afterwards and in this way "save" it.

This is what I have so far.

Aha, so that is why it looked pretty much as before. I saw your annoncement of completely rewritten guiding software, so I was surprised it looked as before. I thought 1.4.3.1 was the new one. Ok, I will wait for your new test release. I am really curious what you have done this time, because I find the existing implementation perfect, meeting all the requests that have been discuused at the forum recently. So I can't imagine how you can make a perfect solution even better!

Test version 1.4.3.1 is available for download. I did some testing, and it looks solid!

About number of waypoints: if you create a track consisting of e.g. 5 waypoints, the track info says it has 5 waypoints. I do not understand the number you get.

Test version 1.4.3.1: Guiding perfect! Merge Tracks perfect! One small POI alert issue.
I did som testing today.

Guiding is 100% perfect in my opinion. Guiding Nearest, Guiding Reverse, Guiding Next Point, jumping, guiding sounds, - all that is working perfectly now as fas as I have experienced. These are reach features that I never have seen in any other app before.

There is one small improved feature I could think of: there are several apps on the Market, that have one function: to alert you when you approach a waypoint. The only reason I still keep one of these, is that I want to be sure I wake up when by train approaches my target station, and those apps allow me to select an alert tone of my choice. Locus has only one single beep for POI or an optional series of beeps for waypoint. The single POI beep may not wake me up. And when on a train I would prefer so select a ring tone of my choice. Would that be possible? The beep you have is great and the best when out exercising, but may be not that nice when on a bus/train. Just an idea. Not a big deal.

The new feature, Merge Tracks, works flawlessly!

I found a small POI alert issue. The Tools menu says that I will get an alert when close to VISIBLE POIs. Here is what I tried:
 - selected one POI and turned on POI alert. Locus correctly gives me alert when within specified distance
 - I then hided the POI. The POI alert still turn on alert when I move map center closer to the now non-visible POI. I understand this was not supposed to happen, right?
 - If I move map center close to _another_ non-visible POI, I do not get any alert (which is correct, right?)

Excellent work, Menion!!!
Thank you very much!

Are you aware of the fact that you can connect several waypoints together as a track with STRAIGHT lines between the points? I understand this is what you are asking for. On the track creation menu along the bottom: when you have selected all the waypoints you want to follow, tap the green confirmation button - not the button that creates a route between the last two waypoints. Locus now creates a track consisting of STRAIGHT lines between the waypoints. Now enable guiding to this track, and you get the guiding with automatic jumping to next waypoint as to pass the points within the Guiding/"Set next point" distance.This works perfectly! Isn't is what you want?

You are saying that you have CHECKED the 'Zoom Lock' button on map screen (2nd buttom from left at the bottom panel). With "checked", do you mean it is selected, i.e. yellow? It must be unchecked, i.e. black if you want to zoom normally. If it is yellow, you pixel zoom (which is not what you want to do in this case).

Also, Setting/Map/"Double sized resolution" should be unchecked.

What about the following implementation:
- manually create the missing tracks using the existing track creation tool
- in the Tasks list: check the box for the tracks you want to merge.
- then a new command at the bottom: "Merge".

If you think there isn't enough space for a new command button at the bottom, maybe the "Delete" button could be replaced by a more general button with a sub menu (just as you have for the Sort and Filter buttons).  This sub menu could have two commands: Delete and Merge. This approach would allow more options in the future. Just an idea.

Locus Pro, version 1.4.0

The new guiding command "Nearest" incorrectly forces Guiding On Reverse back to Guiding On.

How to recreate the problem:
  - Create a track (straigt lines) with some few points.
  - Select Guide On Reverse.
  - Move map center closer to another point on the track but with a distance > Guiding/"Set next point".
  - Tap the new command "Nearest". Guiding correctly selects the new track point.
  - Next step goes wrong: move map center closer than Guiding/"Set next point". Guiding incorrectly jumps FORWARD to the next point as if Guiding On were active. It should jump BACK since Guiding On Reverse is active.

If you do not use the "Nearest" command, the Guide On Reverse jumps correctly backward on the track as you get within the Guiding/"Set next point" distance. So it is clear that it is the "Nearest" command that forces the guiding to normal (Guide On).

How great! I am glad this was so easy for you to implement. Thank you!

That is certainly a very useful command when you pass a point without jumping and you want the guiding to reselect the closest point. And that is for sure an important command to offer.

However, this doesn't cover the case when you pass a point at a distance too far to make it automatically jump to the next point. You know that you are finished with that point even though you passed at a far distance, and now you want the guiding to guide you to the next point on your track. In this case your new "Nearest" command will only pick the same point again and again until you are halfway to the next point. So I would think we need both your "Nearest" command and my requested "Next" command. Hope you find this meaningful too. Thank you.