Bunni,
Now that is some fantastic support. Ok - I'm a fairly advanced techy, but I'm struggling with this so far. On HTC Hero Unlocked.
1) I'm launching the app with data connectivity turned on, but GPS turned off (I'm inside anyway). 1st screen says it is ad supported, 2nd screen says that the nearest available resort is: (nothing). Okay, nothing surprising there. Then I am immediately at the "Features" menu.
2) Selecting either "Piste Map" or "Weather" results in a "Loading for" status screen and I am immediately brought back to the "Features" list. Note, the "Loading for:" status screen does not have any thing after it. I would expect that normally has a ski area name or something.
3) I think I have successfully updated the resort list.
4) Next I turned on the GPS and relaunched the app. It told me the nearest resort is Val-d-allos. When I then clicked on "Piste Map" it told me it was Loading for Val-d-allos. Then I got a Web page not available message. Same issue for weather. That gave the "The requested URL /resorts/val-d-allos.html was not found on this server"
5) Now that I have the "browser" open with the URL not found error, I am able to press the menu button and select the resorts. It is worth noting that right after I loaded the app I could only see 4 resorts. I assume that it was the forced resort update that lets now see the full list.
6) Now that I was able to manually select Via Lattea, I can see the piste map. I see what you mean by the quality - as that is about as good as I could find previously on the Internet. However, I think that quality be good enough. I'll check to see how some of the other resorts look. What would you say is a good one?
7) I need you to clarify what the GPS capabilities of this program are. I don't think that Piste Map you have loaded is calibrated right? I mean, I would not be able to exactly see where I am on that right? It is basically a static map?
8) Whoops, just got a force close while trying to zoom in / out
9) So - it looks like when you are looking at piste maps, there are zoom in and zoom out buttons at the bottom of the screen. There are also some crossed arrows that let you zoom in to specific areas. However, those crossed arrows are actually almost on top of the zoom button (the +).
10) I'm certainly not opposed to going pro, but I need a little more information about exactly what the programs capabilities are and for some of the bugs to be ironed out. Even the "warning" screen when I first installed the app indicated that you should not be using the app for navigation.
thanks!
Clobber,
Thanks for the feedback, let me try and answer your questions below:
1-3).
We are releasing a fix version on Wednesday/Thurs, so keep an eye on the app and make sure you update it when its ready. Hopefully this will resolve some of the stability issues.
4). Val-d-Allos will be fixed by tomorrow morning - its one of a couple of resorts that has issues
5). We have been unable to reproduce the issues with only 4 resorts showing, however the fix release for Wed/Thur should resolve any such issue for new users. Existing users will be unaffected.
6). Sadly official piste maps are restricted by the publishers quality. This is one reason why we see OSM mapping (more later in post) as the best way forward.
7). You are correct about the Piste Maps, these are static - and just for reference. You will only see your tracks and current location on the 'Satelitte' maps, which are available within the GPS tracking section. OSM (OpenStreetMap) piste maps are being added for the PRO version - which will display your location on a scaled map.
- There are a couple of reasons for not using 'Official Piste Maps' to show you location.
1. There is a possible breach of copyright by manipulating published piste maps for use in this context.
2. Piste Maps are for a general overview of what runs and lifts are where, and are 3D in 2D. They do not show runs/areas to scale.
3. Our end goal here is to have scale overhead piste maps on both 'Satelitte' and blank backgrounds. We are making one step in this direction through the use of OSM piste maps in the PRO version.
To summarise the current version, you can view piste maps and weather for the listed locations. You can track your ski activity throughout your day, with statistics, satelitte map and current piste information (if available from OpenStreetMap). You tracks are saved back enriched with piste information (if it was available). You can export these tracks to .gpx files on your SD card or review at any time on the device.
With the upcoming fix version we will release a help section with full details on this.
10). The disclaimer screen is just that - to tell you that you device and the software is unlikely to be perfect. Therefore we always reccomend that you carry manual navigation equipment with you at all times. Please remember that this is a free app with limited development resources (and also a 1st version!)
One note on piste recognition: We source our data from OSM (Open Street Map) which means we get a large volume of data that has been sumbitted by contributors - this is an expanding body of data that will we hope eventually be complete - but some resorts may not have a full data set (even if we have the piste map)
For example here is the rendered OSM map for Sunday River USA:
OpenStreetMap
We can also cache these maps on the device unlike google satelitte images.
I hope I have answered some of your questions, thanks for your feedback and please get back to us if you have more questions.
skieagle@sionc.biz