Android Development Underway

[r.fairman]

I'm running Bluestacks. Speed seems ok on XP. Problem is i cannot download an app from Market as i do not have an android phone associated with my Google account. Anyway back to topic

[sailias]

I tried bluestacks and you can load an app from your putter. However I did not get it to work at all on XP-SP3 with all requirements.

[manimaul]

Bluestacks looks interesting. I'm using Android-x86 and Virtualbox to make the screencasts. Performance is more like a real device.

W

[READY2GO]

Will we were one of your beta testers. We hve been using it for the last month as we travel down the west coast of Florida. My wife loves using her tablet down below. She follows along from there. It really helps having two people watching whats going on (very shallow around here). It makes her more comfortable to be able to see what is going on and still be below. We will get your app so we can get the updates.

Good job.

[familycruisers]

Didn't think of that. Going to have to put it on the misses EVO as well!

[ehlen000]

I have a asus transformer2 It is available with 3g and it works perfect ! Gps is very quick and reliable. Great tablet for onboard.

The prime will be released soon, but it will not support 3G ! so no need to wait.

[manimaul]

An update on MX Mariner developments this week.

I've been working on adding overzoom technology to MX Mariner and have just about completed the feature. What this will mean is the following:

1. Greater zoom level chart coverage
i. offline charts will be viewable for every zoom-in level

2. Chart regions will be approximately %60 smaller
i. faster initial downloads
ii. less sdcard space required
(example: Pacific Northwest Region is now 125MB compared to 202MB)

3. Higher quality charts
i. charts will appear smoother

You should see these enhancements become available later this week.

To see all of the scheduled enhancements please take a look Release Schedule | MXMariner . Also please feel free to PM or email me with ideas you may have. I've relied on a lot of your feedback for improvements.

Thanks,

Will

[familycruisers]

Should we delete and redownload?

[manimaul]

Originally Posted by familycruisers

Should we delete and redownload?

You will not be required to do anything.

I may push out a chart update for all regions for this next minor release. So, you may choose to update your chart region if you would like to do so at that time. See "Updating chart regions" in the manual. Updating charts is as easy as a single click.

~~~ Updating chart regions ~~~

Menu button --> Settings --> Install Charts
When an updated region file is available for an an installed region, the region will be labeled with an update available tag in yellow
Tap on region to download update







Will

[manimaul]

Overzoom is now available for MX Mariner version 1.1.7. This new feature also reduced our chart region download size by 50%. Chart regions download sizes are now equivalent to the original regions from NOAA. (ex REGION_15 is 109MB on MXM and 101MB virgin from NOAA.) Offline charts, region for region, are now over 300 times smaller than EarthNC's Android app.

The cost of this feature is slightly more RAM is used when over-zoomed and a few milliseconds extra render time. Overall, I think you'll be pleased.

Most importantly , I think this feature now makes MX Mariner a true off-line mobile marine chart plotter for Android.

Will

[manimaul]

I hope everyone has had a good Chistmas. Here is what has been happenning with MX Mariner developments.

Next minor release 1.1.9 will sport the following changes:

A.) Reduced memory usage and perfomance tweaks. Now that we have ovezoom functionality, It's important that we back track a bit and polish up our performance.

B.) In order to reduce our memory usage, we are now including a world overview map with MX Mariner. This also allows us to work 100% offline in Nautical Chart Mode. Version 1.1.9 and later will now have 3 map display modes which can be quickly changed from the Display Dialog:
1 - Nautical Raster Charts - Offline (No internet/data connection required)
2 - Roadmap - Online (Internet/data connection required)
3 - Satellite - Online (Internet/data connection required)

C.) Configurable units of measure including integration of World Magnetic Model for magnetic bearings.
1 - Position formats available in ddd.dddddd, ddd mm.mmmmm, and ddd mm ss.sss
2 - Speed formats kts, mph, kph
3 - Distance formats nautical, statute, metric
4 - Bearin & Course formats: true, magnetic

[chuckbauer]

Manimaul, MX Mariner still looking good. You solidified my tablet buying decision (Toshiba Thrive 10.1 on the way).

A quirk (feature?, bug?) is that Follow mode turns off if the screen is panned or zoomed. With my Thunderbolt phone I am frequently wanting to pan/zoom to see some feature a little farther away. Maybe the bigger table will reduce that need but on the small screen its a bit of an annoyance.

Thanks again.

Chuck Bauer

[familycruisers]

Oh, almost forgot to post. Brought the boat up north from down below Annapolis to the Sassafras river. Forgot they removed the lighted beacons on the Sassafras late in the season. Would have been hairy if not for the EVO and MXMariner. Mucho Grassyass bro!

[manimaul]

Originally Posted by chuckbauer

Manimaul, MX Mariner still looking good. You solidified my tablet buying decision (Toshiba Thrive 10.1 on the way).

A quirk (feature?, bug?) is that Follow mode turns off if the screen is panned or zoomed. With my Thunderbolt phone I am frequently wanting to pan/zoom to see some feature a little farther away. Maybe the bigger table will reduce that need but on the small screen its a bit of an annoyance.

Thanks again.

Chuck Bauer

Chuck,

This is a feature: when panning around on the chart, gps follow needs to be disabled. Otherwise, you could not pan at all.

[manimaul]

Thanks to the effort of a lot of people here with the NGA charts, Linz and the Brazilian Navy, I've been able to add a lot more chart coverage to MX Mariner. These areas are available as free downloads in v1.1.15.

Here is a new map of available chart coverage and some screen shots:

**The rest of the globe (excluding Canada and UK) is also under development.