Changes in ViewRanger Version 2.7.28
Version 2.7.28 of ViewRanger was released on 7th December 2009. This contains support for the electronic compass in some phones, along with a number of small improvements and fixes. The changes are listed below.
You can access the update using www.viewranger.com/software.
Main changes
The main changes compared to the last main release version 2.7.18 are:
- Support for the magnetic compass contained in some phones.
- A number of changes to make it easier to use the Retrieva tracking collars
- Maps downloaded over the air can be moved to a new phone simply by entering a license key. They do not have to be re-downloaded.
- Finnish, French, German and Swedish language interfaces.
- Kinetic scrolling in lists supported.
A more detailed change list follows.
Compass
Support for the magnetic compass in phones that contain one:
- The compass is displayed on the map.
- If map auto rotate is switched on, then the map rotates by multiples of 90 degrees to best align with north.
- The panorama aligns with the direction the phone is pointing.
- The compass can be displayed in the trip view.
Finnish, French, German and Swedish languages
- Finnish, French, German and Swedish language interfaces added. You can choose not to install these.
For Finnish and Swedish a full translation is provided, including the help files.
For French and German the help files, license agreement and some tracker messages are in English, but everything else in the interface is translated.
If you spot any mis-translations please let us know.
Buddy beacon and trackers
- "Locate now", "Watch / track", "Read inbox - choose" and "Read inbox - 24 hours" are available as short cut options. To configure these go to Options > Settings, then to UI. There are 4 shortcuts, one each for the 3, 7, 9 and 0 keys. On touch screen phones shortcuts are available by tapping the top left of the title bar.
- When the buddy beacon is set to automatically start, it will now only start if a user name has been entered. Previously it would keep asking for a PIN until cancelled.
- When reading a Retrieva tracker message using "Read inbox", the date shown could be wrong; it is now correct.
- When reading 24 hours worth of tracker messages, all relevant messages are now included.
- When reading a Retrieva message with a blank time, this is now shown as "> 12 hours", because a blank time means the position fix is more than 12 hours old.
- When available, the GPS status value from the tracker report is now included in the status message shown at the top of the map view.
- When the tracker reports that it has no position fix, a low battery, or other alert, the alert message is shown with a pink background at the top of the map until another message replaces it.
- Status messages at the top of map view now wrap round to multiple lines rather than truncating
- "Read inbox - 24 hours" now prompts for a number of days to read messages for. The number can be fractional, for example 2.5.
- The maximum number of positions shown as a trail behind the buddy/tracker position is now 10.
Over the air download
- Maps downloaded over the air can be used on a new phone by entering a license key. They no longer have to be re-downloaded.
- In the Downloads list, items which are downloaded using a grid are now shown using a grid icon to the right.
- ViewRanger can unpack zip and vrz files, using Data manager's Options > Import/export > Import ZIP/VRZ
- ViewRanger can import VRX files, used for importing routes, tracks and POIs from licensed sources
Routes and navigation
- Routes can how have their own colour, opacity, width and line style. Arrows can be switched off. These can be set using Properties. The system defaults take precedence until a route's values are changed. These values can also be set in GPX files.
- A blank icon "None" is available for waypoints.
- The arrival alarm distance can be set to zero, in which case the alarm at a waypoint will not be sounded. You'll still be guided via that waypoint.
- When a route is selected or being created its length is shown at the top of the screen. (In v2.7.22 this did not always update correctly, it does update now.)
- Cancelling a route search no longer causes a display problem.
Phone specific changes
- Scrolling lists on phones with kinetic scrolling.
- On the Samsung i8910HD the night display mode could flicker. This is fixed.
- On the Nokia E55 the * and # key now work for zooming
Map display
- When zooming out from viewing 1:50,000 scale maps to 1:250,000 scale maps, the steps are now 50k @ 25%; 250k @ 100%; 250k @ 50%. Previously the 250k @ 100% was skipped.
- Corrected some display problems on 3rd edition phones - odd colours in parts of grid or routes; routes and tracks not using transparency.
- Map tiles are loaded from the centre working outwards.
GPS, tracks and coordinates
- The velocity and direction arrow, shown at the GPS location, is now shown on USA maps.
- Bluetooth GPS - better handling of GLL NMEA sentence for those GPSs which have that enabled (not common).
- Track split time is now constrained to be 10 minutes or larger. Setting it to small values could cause extra tracks to be created unexpectedly.
- Corsica now included in France, removing warning on first GPS fix.
- Satellite drawing improvements. Shows sensor data too on 5th ed phones.
- Options > Phone > SMS/MMS/Email messages would sometimes not contain coordinates.
- Better averaging in speed graphs - when zoomed out the speed shown at a point is the average for that time interval. As you zoom in the maximum speed shown will increase.
- UTM zone letters now displayed, e.g. 32V
- UTM zone 32V for Norway now works correctly.
Miscellaneous
- On some phones ViewRanger would only read gpx files if their file extension was lower case ".gpx", ignoring ".GPX". It now finds both.
- Improvement to speed and searching of POI sets and panorama covering USA.
- Search for the USA now includes states.
- In trial mode search now includes the server by default.
All feedback is very welcome, please contact support.
Prior to this the main release was version 2.7.18.
An intermediate version 2.7.22 was also available, mainly of interest to Finnish, Swedish and E55 users.
