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It’s great to see that you’re working on this! I’ve really enjoyed using URL schemes to simplify tasks I do repeatedly. I’ve been playing with this a bit in Pocket Earth with Drafts and Launch Center Pro. Here are some actions I’ve enjoyed using already:
- Send “I am here” pin by SMS. Invaluable when exploring a place with cell service, but no internet. (Uses the [[latitude]] and [[longitude]] tags from Drafts 4. Using LCP to make it a single button push is optional.)
- Save “Quick Pin.” Lets me quickly mark something on the map that I don’t have time to stop and explore now…doing it quickly is essential when you’re moving quickly in a vehicle. (Similar setup as above)
Those work pretty well if the GPS has already been active – if not, Drafts doesn’t wait for the most accurate position, so it can be off by 200m or so. If there were a way to do it with PE’s URL scheme, I’d use that.
And for what it’s worth, I can’t get any of the
pe-remote://?screen=SCREENfunctions to work in PE 2.5. Here are a couple scenarios I encounter all the time, and I’d love to be able to use URL schemes to save a few taps every time:- Search nearby. “What’s the closest Chinese restaurant?” Send text (“Chinese”) from Drafts or LCP straight into the search bar on PE, returning results sorted by distance.
- Search my pins. “How far are we from that big acacia grove we passed on the way here?” (I’m not sure why the PE search results prioritize results from Maps above Favorites, but it always means scrolling down the list to find what I want.)
I hope that hearing what users are doing with these features is helpful as you continue developing them.
Pocket Earth has improved in many ways since my original post! However, I’m sad to say I just had a similar experience as the one I wrote about 9 months ago.
This time around, I took my family to the incredible Nyika National Park, a 10 hour’s drive from where we live. I wanted to see exactly how much time we spent driving, so began recording one long track for the two day drive up and resuming it the two day drive back. I renamed all the waypoints of our stops along the way as reference points. I also liked theAnd about 700 km into it, the track disappeared. As best I can tell, here’s how it happened. We stopped at a hiking spot. I wanted to record a new track of my hike, so I hit “New Track.” I got a prompt saying, “This will stop the current recording track.” Yes, I want to stop the current track from recording, so I hit “Yes.” But what it actually meant was, “This will delete the current recording track…”My wife saw the look on my face as I realized the whole log was gone, and now she’s afraid to touch Pocket Earth in case she accidentally deletes something important too. So now I can’t ask her to help navigate when I’m driving anymore.I LOVE so many of the changes of Pocket Earth, and how it’s obvious that the developers are working hard to make things better. So I sincerely hope that my comments will help close up a little hole that has caused me two very great disappointments.Thanks!Bucky,
Thankfully, I had made a few notes in my journal with a few of the most important details. Writing those things down may be an antediluvian habit, but it’s one I’m just beginning to adopt.My current camera doesn’t geotag photos, but not surprisingly, its newly-released successor does… 🙂Between the helpful info and the goose grease, your post brightened my day. This forum has given me one more thing to like about using Pocket Earth. 🙂MattHey Bucky,
Thanks for the sympathy!I’m ashamed to say that I don’t think it was a technical fault at all, just good old user error. Here’s how I think it happened:I did stop the recording, which saved just like it should. The completed track remained selected, and after we finished the first leg I actually checked a few of the stats to get an idea of the elapsed time and change in altitude.At some point later in the day, my friend asked, “How far is it to Thuchila Hut?” I pulled out my phone, and popped into Pocket Earth. The previously recorded track was still selected, obscuring part of the map. With my mind entirely on answering my friend’s question, I jabbed at the “X” in the top right a couple times until it cleared, and started browsing for our destination.My guess is that when I did that, I accidentally hit the green star, which is right next to the “X.” Then, I hit the “X,” discarding it forever.I can’t remember if I was walking at the time, or maybe even climbing over rocks. Maybe there was a glare on my screen or my iPhone case got in the way. But ultimately, it’s my own dumb fault for hitting the star instead of the X.But I still hope the Geomagik team can help add a “Confirm Delete” to make it a little harder to make big mistakes like this…MattThere is already an excellent app to do exactly this, called The Photographer’s Ephemeris. It’s paid for iOS, but free for desktop use.
But for some uses, like planning solar panels or choosing stadium seats, I much prefer an app called SkyView Free, which uses augmented reality to show where the sun will be in 3 dimensions. I find it much more helpful than viewing a sun path on a map.No affiliate links above – I just like those two apps a lot.Thanks for the reply. I hadn’t thought of using a group to export just the elements I want. It’s great to know that there’s already a way to do this, even if it’s not immediately obvious. I’ll give it a try!
Regarding #2: That would be huge!
As far as I can tell, there is currently no decent iPhone app for adding info to OSM. The Pushpin app is nice, but has huge limitations (requires data connection, only allows adding POIs.)The idea of the Geomagik folks developing their own OSM editor is amazing! I know you’d do an excellent job. I can only imagine how much the OSM project would benefit from an app that makes it easy for users to contribute on the go!I think the new icon is a wonderful improvement. Although one time when I glanced at it, my imagination interpreted the the shape of the North Atlantic/Arctic Ocean on the globe as a silhouetted Tyrannosaurus Rex. Now, every time I look at the app, I see a T. Rex with its mouth open…
Ragnakore sees Angry Birds, and I see a dinosaur. Does anyone else see any interesting creatures in the new icon? 🙂Just wanted to say how much I like the new additions! It’s so great to have an developer who is working hard to keep improving their app. Keep up the good work!
