Well, we have had a little break to do other things (in my case: becoming a dad, hurray :), but here's a little update: The NavXS web site is now multi-lingual. Thanks a lot to Yaroslav Shkvorets who provided us with the Russian translation.

Our website (navxs.com) is currently in English only. This is something we'd like to change. Now, some translations (German, Spanish, Norwegian) we should be able to manage ourselves. Others, like Russian, Turkish, Polish, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi, Japanese, Singalese, Bantu, Mandarin, Malay, Thai, Esparanto, Koptic, Demotic, Klingon and Linear-A, just to name a few, we are probably not going to get around to in the near future.

So if you are a fluent speaker of one or more non-english languages, and would like to help us out, please do let us know: support@navxs.com.

When the NavXS client loads map tiles from the Internet, it will, when file system access is enabled, save the loaded tiles locally on the phone file system (e.g. Memory card). Nokia users may have noticed that the NavXS Java Mobile client keeps asking whether or not this is OK, over and over again. This is because the NavXS application has been deemed "untrusted" by the Nokia application installer. And Nokia phones do not let untrusted applications read or write to the phones file system without having the user explicitly grant every single read/write operation.

In general, all Java applications are untrusted, as long as they do not contain a digital signature from a well-known and trusted source. For this purpose we have submitted the NavXS Java Mobile client to javaverified.com, which has rigorously tested it on a Nokia N95.

The application passed the test, so now we have an edition containing a digital signature that is accepted by the Nokia application installer. Nokia users can get it here: http://navxs.com/en/nokia.html.

Note that in order to dispose of the file access security prompt you will have to, after having installed NavXS, change the following settings from the Nokia main menu:

Tools > App. mgr > NavXS > Open > "Read User Data" and "Edit User Data".

These are set to "Ask every time" as default. Change to "Ask first time" or "Always allowed" and the security prompts are gone :-)

There is a lot of buzz around global warming these days. So much in fact that we have decided jump on the green wagon too. As a result we have re-desigend the website from scratch, using peacful green colors on a global background. The new site also has less content and is a lot simpler than the old one, which means that you don't spend so much CO2-producing efforts reading through it all :-)

Oh, and there are new Java clients as well (v0.3.2). Get them here: http://navxs.com/en/java.html

It's time for some bug fixes and an update to the new version of google maps.



Follow this link to get the new windows mobile navxs client (v0.2.1) for your smartphone or PPC.

Java clients 0.3.1 are out. New here is a little more positioning info, including vertical and horizontal accuracy, fix quality and number of satellites in view. The latter may not be available on all devices. The horizontal accuracy is also displayed on the map as four little dashes around the current position marker.

Download here: http://navxs.com/download/java/index.aspx

Java Clients v0.3.0 are out.

These fixes a few more bugs, the most significant being the course and speed information that has been missing for some time due to something wrong that was not right...

Also this version has some minor design changes prompted by the Nokia N95 now being the prime test device (see previous post). Among other things, the file system access has been simplified. In the prior versions several read operations were performed per map tile while loading from the file system, to make sure the maximum disk usage limit was not exceeded. In phones who only grant one-shot file system access to untrusted MIDlets (such as most Nokias), this meant that using file system cache was almost impossible. Now, maximum disk usage is no longer monitored, and only one security prompt per tile is required when loading from cache (plus one when loading an uncached tile from the net and writing it to the file system). While it is still annoying, requiring 9 clicks to load a full map from the file system (assuming 240x320 display), it is at least almost bearable. The proper fix is to go through a verification program, obtaining a security signature, giving the NavXS MIDlet status as trusted and thus dispensing with the security prompts altogether. This is not an option for a development beta-versions such as the current, but as things are starting to come together nicely, maybe it's about time to make a final release...

Anyhoo: the new clients can be downloaded here: http://navxs.com/download/java/index.aspx

PS for Nokia N95 users: Make sure you configure the file system to cache tiles to the Micro-SD card, as untrusted MIDlets (such as the NavXS beta clients) do not have any access to the phone memory at all.

I got myself a Nokia N95 a short while ago. A truly impressive telephone, especially the camera: I will probably never buy a dedicated digital camera again! And with the combination built-in GPS plus high-speed connectivity (3G, HSDPA, WLAN) it is a nice platform for NavXS.

I must admit that I am a bit disappointed by the built-in GPS receiver though, which is hardly better than the one in my almost 2 years old Siemens SXG-75. To be fair, it does have slightly better accuracy and does not jump around so much as the SXG, but I expect this is more due to the Siemens guys not finding the time to add a little software filtering. The time to get a fix is just as long for the N95 as the SXG, if not longer. Hopefully future firmware updates can bring improvements (through better handling of almanac data perhaps). Another advantage of the SXG, from a developer's point of view, was that it had much more relaxed security implementations, allowing the user to grant untrusted MIDlets file system access for an entire session, rather than just one-shot access. Having to grant explicit rights to each single read or write, makes caching of map tiles to the file system in the N95 (and other Nokias) a real pain! But then again, this is a good incentive to make an “official” release of a signed, trusted NavXS MIDlet.

But all in all: The N95 is a kick-ass phone :-)

New Java versions are available!

New in v0.2.9:

• Improved map tile loading (see screenshot).
• A few menu new icons.
• Sending and receiving locations now works as it should.
• Some new (preliminary) help screens.
• And fixes for a bunch of non-critical but annoying bugs...

Get your update here: http://navxs.com/download/java/index.aspx

Yes!

It's been a while since last update, but we realized our own J2ME to Windows Mobile converter! :)

Here it is: version 0.2.0

Java Clients v0.2.7 are online. This is mostly a cosmetic update, fixing a few missing icons etc. Also a sometimes occurring hang on shutdown has been fixed.

On another topic: I saw the new James Bond film a few days ago. Better then last few, but still not quite Connery… Anyway, on several occasions during the film I found my self thinking about NavXS, as our hero used his mobile phone to track down the bad guys and find his way to Casino Royal. Tom Cruise used similar solutions in Mission Impossible III. This clearly shows that science fiction is catching up on reality ;-)



 

It's been a while since last update, but here it is: version 0.2.6

So, what's new? Quite a bit actually! here's a short list:

• Ta-da! A new main menu. Here a screenshot of how it looks on a Nokia. Hopefully it is easier to get around and find the right things now (let us know if it isn't).
• NavXS elevation map tiles are supported (see previous post).
• Users of the non-GPS editions (basic and jsr75) can now manually enter their location, which will be sent to their contacts. This options also exist in the full edition when automatic positioning is disabled. As of the next version we might make it so that you can see if the location of a contact has been entered manually or not, but as for now they are treated equally...
• You can now define your own points of interest, or "Locations" as we call them (we're location based ;-). The locations are stored locally on your phone and you can use them to quickly position your map on some frequently used spot. In a sense, they're map bookmarks. What we haven't gotten around to do yet, but that will definitely come is the possibility to share your locations with your contacts an perhaps upload them to some searchable database, such as WikiMapia or equivalent (suggestions anyone?).
• Latitudes and longitudes can now be displayed as degrees, minutes and seconds (e.g. 12° 20' 59.489"), rather than decimals only (12.34985805). Also you can configure whether you want to have distances and other values displayed in metric units (e.g. meters, km, km/h) or imperial units (e.g. feet, miles, mph)
• Messages (both received and sent) are now stored locally on the phone.
• File system cleanups are a bit less confusing...

Windows Mobile users: sorry the WinMobile equivalent is not quite there yet. It'll come as soon as Christoph gets around to it ;-)

- Helge -

Ok, this has not been much of a blog so far. And for the simple reason that we're busy working :-) Among other things, on our first set of map: An elevation map based on the NASA/USGS Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data (see http://srtm.usgs.gov/ for more info).

Covering the entire world between plus/minus 60 degrees latitude, and spanning zoom levels 0 to 10, it will look something like the image to the left (northern Italy and the Alps) when dsiplayed in the NavXS mobile client.

New mobile client versions are in progress. Release date: Suddenly!

- Helge -

New Blog from NavXS

Hello,

there is now the NavXS Blog for you.
Here we will post all new information about our project NavXS.com.
Moreover we post important information about software development for Smartphones, PocketPCs and other mobile devices.



Stay tuned!!

Christoph Langewisch