I have spent a lot of time with coding in the last weeks and today I made another short and rough preview video about NaviComputer for Windows Phone.

It shows how NaviComputer for WP7 together with the corresponding PC application NaviMapper can easily synchronize and transfer files between the Phone and a desktop PC. Compared to Windows Mobile 6 with WP7 it is not possible to copy files to the phone using the windows explorer, so I had to find a different solution to get maps and track files from the PC onto the phone. Using NaviMapper on the PC I found a solution which, in my opinion, is really convient. Connected to the PC via Wifi network or USB cable you can simply drag and drop gpx or nmap files to the phone in NaviMapper. After hitting a single button in NaviComputer you get all the files transfered to the phone. Whenever you record and save a new trip in NaviComputer, it will automatically be copied to your PC when you synchronisze it the next time.

Take a look at the video below and feel free to add your comments!

Click here to view the embedded video.

as you might already know I am working on NaviComputer for Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

Since I would like to get as much feedback as possible in an early stage from potential users, today I recorded a short screen video of my actual userinterface prototype. Of course there are still a lot of things and features missing. This video is only intended to give an impression of the basic userinterface concept. As I want to optimize NaviComputer for the best user experience any feedback is highly appreciated.

Basically NaviComputer starts with a panorama Page in WP7 Metro style. By swiping the screen to the right and left you can access all the basic functions like viewing the map, starting to record a track and see its duration, distance etc. By tapping the appropriate screens you will get to a more detailed view, for example to the fullscreen map or to advanced track statistics/diagrams and so on.

The whole application will adapt it's color schemas to the user's theme settings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to support my work please use the following Paypal link or contact me via Email.

 Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

HTC Titan hardware

The HTC Titan is of really good quality, good materials and feels very solid. Compared to other devices it is pretty heavy but it's not a problem for me.

The size of the HTC Titan is perfect in my opinion. Of course when you are used to other devices it seems really big at the beginning but you get used to that size very quickly. The 4,7 inch screen is fantastic and it has one of the best screen-to-housing-size-ratios I can still operate it with one hand.

The display is good, even if it's no Amoled and the resolution is "only" 800x480 pixels. Of course amoled displays have better black color, but on the other hand the HTC Titans's displays shows colors much more naturally then any Amoled screen. The display is very bright and even in sunlight conditions you can see everything pretty well.

The GPS module (import for NaviComputer users!) is very very good. I always get a sat fix immediately, and it is very precise...A thousand times better than my old Samsung Omnia I8000.

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango

First of all I have to say I am really surprised. After having read all those negatives and articels about bad market shares I am surprised how good Windows Phone 7.5 Mango actually is.

There are a lot of things which are in fact much better than on Android or iPhone. Of course there are also some cons compared to those other operating systems like some settings and things I miss.

Everything feels so smooth and there is really no lag at all. Coming from Windows mobile it's a new dimension and you cannot imagine how you could work with that old WM6.5 device in the past. But even compared to the latest dualcore Android phones the HTC Titan with its singlecore cpu is at least on the same level in terms of responsiveness.

I really like how many things are integrated in the operating system without the need of an additional app. You can scan barcodes, detect the name of a song in the radio and many other things without even installing an additional app. Also the facebook integration is very cool: Simply add your facebook account and all your contacts will automatically conneted to your facebook friends, synchronizing the profile photo etc...

The synchronization of the calender and contacts works very well if you have them online at google or Microsoft/Hotmail or alike. I previously didn't have my calender online but now I created a google calender and sync everything between my thunderbird on the PC, google online and my windows phone. Works perfectly! If you have a problem with hosting your calender online you will probably have a problem with synchronizing windows phone, keep that in mind!

Let me add just a few words about the marketplace: Yes, there are not as many apps available as there are in the Android or Iphone app stores. But until now I always found what I was looking for. The good thing about it: Almost all apps have their user interfaces designed according to Microsofts UI guidelines which brings a consistent look and feel and once you are familiar with those concepts you will find most apps very intuitive. In my opinion much better than on Android, where you are always searching for those hidden functions because each app has its own UI concept.

All in all my recommendation is: Don't be blinded by the success of Android and the bad market share of Windows Phone 7 and don't be blinded by hardware specification numbers. Go try and compare it yourself to see which device and operating system fits your needs best. Personally I really like my HTC Titan with WP7.5 and would change neither any Android nor an iPhone against it.

Windows Phone for Developers:

Let's start with the bad things: Before being able to transfer your own apps to your own phone you have to pay 99$ per year for a developer account. No matter if you don't even want to publish your app or you want to publish only freeware: You have to pay that fee.

That's somehow weird in my opinion. And that's not enough: It does not only cost money, it also costs lots of nerves to sign up as a developer at Microsoft. They have made the whole procedure very complicated and there are some bugs in the system which for example took me a few days until they finally accepted my credit card...

Now the good things: Once I was used to the new way how you design your userinterfaces in Windows phone and sorted out some problems I really love it. All those things which were so difficult in WM6 (like transparency, animations) are pretty simple now. XNA which can be combined with Silverlight apps since the Mango update offers additional possibilities. Great!

What about NaviComputer for Windows Phone?

I have already been working on NaviComputer for Windows Phone for many hours and days.

I can say that I have already sorted out most major migration problems. Of course there are still some problems so solve and much work to do but if not something strange happens there will be a NaviComputer for WP!

What are the next steps? I will publish some screenshots and/or a video of my idea of the new UserInterface very soon. It will be completely different from the UI of NaviComputer on WM6. I hope to get as much feedback and suggestions as possible once it is published.

Once I have all the basic functions implemented I will release a beta version which will be made public for all registered NaviComputer users (users who have already donated or will donate anything).

When it is proven to be stable it will be made public to everyone in the marketplace and more advanced features will be added step by step.

That was a lot of text, thanks for reading.

If you want to support my work please use the following Paypal link or contact me via Email.

these days I was thinking about replacing my Samsung Omnia I8000 Windows Mobile 6.5 phone by something new. It looks like I will have to change to Android or WP7 and I guess the same will happen to most NaviComputer users one day.

I already checked the marketplaces for offroad map/tracking apps and found some interesting and powerfull applications, however, I feel like there is nothing as simple and straight forward as NaviComputer is.

I already installed the development tools for android and WP7 on my computer and I think those platforms offer some possibilities for NaviComputer. I am thinking about some extended functionality without loosing the focus on the NaviComputer main benefits: Simplicity and ease of use. However, there are already so many apps around I am not sure if anybody will benefit of NaviComputer on android/WP7. Now I need your opinion, please vote!

They have some serious problems with the traffic on their tile servers caused by applications like NaviComputer/NaviMapper.  In fact, it looks like NaviComputer is one of the applications with the most requests to the openstreemap server.

As you probably know, the openstreetmap project is a non-commercial project and it depends on the servers donated by universities. To keep the servers alive and accessible for NaviComputer, I am asking all NaviComputer users for assistance:

• Please download only map parts which you really need. Please keep the map areas as small as possible.
• Please download only zoomlevels which you really need and avoid zoom levels higher than 15/16. Even for slow activities like hiking you usually don't need higher zoomlevels. For use in a car, level 14 should be adequate in most cases. Please keep in mind that the map size / server traffic are increasing exponentially with the zoom level!
• Please use alternative map sources / servers whenever it is possible to split the traffic. There are lots of alternatives available. Please refer to the post Additional map sources and the FAQ section about editing the Mapsources.xml file. To mention only one example, please check out the Mapquest map which offers the same content like OSM with a very nice rendering.

Please think about it whenever you are downloading maps and help to keep this great project Openstreetmap usable with NaviComputer. It's in our all interest.

Thanks and best regards,

NaviComputer Developer

after a long time of waiting I am glad to announce a new version of navicomputer. Go to download page.

Well, honestly it's not a big update but at least it comes up with two improvements which many user had requested.

Many users wanted to have shorter trackpoint intervalls in recorded tracks, especially important when moving fast by bike or car. The previous version was limited to a min intervall of 5sec. Another limitation was the track displayed in the map view: If a track had more than 600 trackpoints, only every second point was displayed in the track. Both limitations were made to keep the performance high on all kind of smartphones and to save batterie power. Now I decided to create a file with 'expert settings' where the user himself can specify the limits so everyone can adapt it to his/her needs and device performance.

This is what I came up with:

By default, the program still comes with a trackpoint intervall of 5sec and tracks are displayed with max 1000 points. After running the program the first time, you will find a file named 'expert.config' in the NaviComputer program directory. This file is in xml format and can be opened and edited with a texteditor. It looks like following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ExpertSettings xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<RecordingIntervall>5</RecordingIntervall>
<MaxDisplayTrackpoints>1000</MaxDisplayTrackpoints>
</ExpertSettings>

You can simply change the values to your needs (use only integer values).

Finally the complete changelog:

NaviComputer:

• Fix: Error in GPX file header
• New: Adjustable recording trackpoint intervall (expert.config)
• New: Maximum trackpoints of a track displayed in map view is adjustable (expert.config)

I have just uploaded a new NaviComputer version with some small extended features.

The compass view can now display the selected POI and shows its bearing in relation to the direction you are moving. Simply click on a POI on the map to select it and it will be shown in the compass view.

Additionally I have added the total climb and total descent height to the track statistic. It will be displayed for the actual track as well as for  tracks in GPX files. The total climb and descent value is calculated with a slight filter in order to compensate small deviations caused by the imprecise GPS elevation data.

NaviMapper has also been slightly improved. Many users had complained about the fixed window size - now NaviMapper can be resized and maximized.

You can download the new version from the downloads page.

I hope you will enjoy NaviComputer v0.95

Changelog:

NaviMapper:

• New: Possibility to resize / maximize the NaviMappper Window

NaviComputer:

• New: Display total climb and total descend height
• New: Display selected POI in Compass View

The most important change is the new GPS Compass display. A nice needle compass will point to north and show the heading of your actual movement in degrees.

Please note that the compass is based on GPS information, so it will only work when GPS is fixed and you are moving.

You can download the new version from the downloads page.

ChangeLog:

NaviMapper:

• Fix: OpenPisteMap map source

NaviComputer:

• New: GPS Compass
• New: Possibility to switch between GPX, Maps and Bookmarks lists by tapping the arrows (without sliding)
• Fix: Possible crash when deleting a gpx file
• Fix: OpenPisteMap map source

finally the updated NaviComputer Samsung Omnia II Special Edition is available on the Samsung Application Store.

(NaviComputer at SamsungApps.com)

It is now based on the latest Version 0.93 and has an graphically improved magnetic compass visualization.

(NaviComputer Samsung Omnia 2 Edition)

Please understand that I have to ask for a small fee at Samsung App Store. The reason is that it is not allowed to encourage donations at Samsung App Store. Owners of an Omnia II who already donated will of course get the Samsung version for free. Just send me a short email.

If you can't use the Samsung App Store or Kies, simply donate a few bucks via Paypal and add a remark about the Samsung Edition. I will send you the application via email then.

But there are also some small new things included: By tapping on a POI marker on the map, the name of the POI will be shown on the map. Your current distance and bearing to the POI will be displayed in the top bar.

By tapping the topbar, it is possible to switch between different display modes (Altitude/Speed --> Location(Lat/Lng) --> POI distance/bearing)

ChangeLog:

NaviMapper:

• Fix: OpenStreetMap map source

NaviComputer:

• New: Possibility to select a POI on the map and display its name
• New: Possibility to display distance and bearing to the selected POI in the top bar
• New: Possibility to display current GPS location (Lat/Long) in the top bar
• Fix: OpenStreetmap map source

Please Note: Unfortunately the OCM server administrator asked me to remove OpenCycleMap from the MapSources.xml. Too much traffic was caused by NaviComputer/NaviMapper.