Blog


Release 1.41 - UI tweaks

Release 1.41 was focused on UI tweaks. For instance, the tabs are now at the bottom which is far more user-friendly if you imagine holding and using the device with one hand. 

SC20120204-121852


Also this new version adds a new tab 'graphs' which contains a nifty graph of your travels:

SC20120205-133731

And also, the app is much faster now.

We're working hard on the next version already. It will feature exciting functions such as time range selection and cell tower tracking. 

Release 1.33 and more

Release 1.33 has been out for a while and has been doing great so far. We're working on new features all the time. There is a massive update ahead so things are a bit quiet at the moment. We are aware that there are some slowdowns on older phones. The next maintenance release will address these issues.

Working on new features

Lots of new features are in the pipeline. While the dev-team is hard at work, our marketing department has been working on a new mascot. 

We thought we'd show our current favorite mascot: loctrak

picsay-1321544427

The colors are warm and cozy, supporting the beautiful and friendly loctrak mascot which invokes feelings of trust and optimism.

And it has a minimal impact on battery life!

Release 1.29 live!

The new version has been uploaded a couple of minutes ago. Get it while it's still warm. 1.29 needs two new permissions:

  • RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED: used to start service if device has been restarted.
  • WAKE_LOCK: We need to hold a wake lock to reliably track in the background.

This will make the location tracker far more reliable! Also added: German, French, Italian, Hungarian and Polish.

Unfortunately, only German has been translated by a German speaking monkey. The other languages have been google translated, but they are under review and hopefully we can soon update those languages with less offending translations.

There are lots of other improvements as well in this release, too many to go into here. Give it a try and click the 'contact us' link in case you have feedback.

This is *by far* the best release ever!

Some more news

The next release will turn out to be bigger than originally planned. It turns out that the tracking service didn't always run as expected (depending on the device used), therefore the automatic tracker has received a major revamp.

Release 1.25 is scheduled to be published soon, together with German and possibly some other languages. Please get in touch if you'd like your language covered. We're currently working on French, Italian, Polish, Hungarian and Japanese.

What's next?

It's clear from the feedback we got that the biggest issues currently is the lack of localization. While the app is only available in english, distances are shown in metric units. This is currently the focus. The next release will:

  - offer an option to show units in imperial/US units

  - use the device's locale to display dates

  - use localized strings which will enable us to easily offer the app in other languages. German will be the first language to be added, other languages are being worked on.

Additionally the app will be compatible with Android 2.1 devices. (Currently only 2.2+ is supported.)

Release 1.23 live!

This latest release was such a resounding success with our test team that they walked up to the marketing guys and demanded that it immediately be distributed to the public. We all agree: This is the best version ever… supersmooth, and the new features are absolutely breathtaking.

As previously announced, there are new map types available. You can access these using the menu button and get new insight into your live.

Release 1.21 live!

The latest release fixes some stability issues and improves the statistics screen, which now contains a selectable list of top places. This annoucement is a bit late, as 1.21 has been out for 2 days already.

There are very exciting new features in the pipeline and 1.23 is being tested while you're reading this. Upcoming features include many more options to visualize your stored locations. 1.23 will be fantastic, but until then, enjoy 1.21!

Release 1.19 live!

An exciting new feature has been added: The heat map. Finally the map screen has become useful:

SC20111028-213203

This will show you how much time you've spent in each square. As you zoom in or out, the heat map will adjust according to the locations shown. Give it a try, it's a lot of fun to explore.

Release 1.14 live!

The new release was just uploaded to the market! I'm very excitied about this one, as it finally fixes quite a lot of outstanding bugs which I didn't have the time to investigate before. The new release is far more stable, more accurate and faster.

One major change is the way the location tracker works. Until now, an alarm was used, which is quite different from a service because an alarm doesn't have to run all the time. There was a problem with the way it was implemented: android would choose to kill off the tracker sometimes too early.

The tracker has now been changed to a alarm-service setup: The alarm is still triggered, which then starts a foreground service to do the tracking. This turns out to be far more reliable.

Next thing in the pipeline is the map screen: So far, that screen has no useful purpose, This is going to change big time. Stay tuned!


©Softbork.com 2011