BackCountry Navigator Android

Today's newsletter talks about new features in BackCountry Navigator for waypoint lists, GPX import and export. Also included is response to feedback for finding maps, and other comments from the Android Market and surveys. 

Hello Android Outdoor enthusiasts!

There is much to cover in today's message, including Track Recording, a new video, the status of BackCountry Navigator Demo, and some survey results.  

Hi, everyone. 

Today's newsletter contains tips on the latest Pinch and Zoom functionality, and a warning about some slow servers. 

Hello, users of BackCountry Navigator on Android. I want to share some news and respond to some comments.  

Demo version and trial:
We have extended the DEMO version so that those who recently downloaded it can use it through July 31st. Beyond then, we expect to provide a trial that will last about 16 days from first use.  

Tracking in Android
Tracking, or breadcrumbing, has consistently been a highly requested feature and is at the top of our survey. Therefore, Ive been spending a lot of time on it these last few weeks. As of last Thursday, there was some promising progress based on the ability to draw tracks on a map from a GPX file. Some of the progress is mentioned on this post:

Hi everyone,

Happy Fourth of July Weekend! 

The latest update of BackCountry Navigator from today should resolve several issues. Most notably, missing tiles can appear when doing a download where the connectivity varies.
 

You can now download a demo version of BackCountry Navigator directly from the Android Market. 

With any luck, this link will take you directly to the market listing:

BackCountry Navigator DEMO on Android Market.

Hello Android Beta Users,

I realize that it has been a short time since you last heard from me. 

Since yesterday, I have gotten a flood of crash reports due to a dreaded OutOfMemoryError that can occur after opening the program multiple times. This has occurred most often on the Sprint Hero, but can happen on other devices as well. I've spent some quality time with some memory analysis tools and eliminated a lot of factors before finding that the root cause was in a Google library - a small bug that caused a huge memory leak.

Due to the sleep I've lost over this issue, I've rushed out today's fix. Download it here:  

Thanks to all who have tried beta downloads of BackCountry Navigator for Android. In just the last few days, I have posted several new builds and received several helpful reports from users. I have posted a few good tips and screenshots to the FaceBook Fan Page:

http://www.facebook.com/BackCountryNavigator

At least two users report that the HTC Incredible does not randomly reboot during a long download. This is good news and shows that some countermeasures were effective.  Some other users have had reports of OutofMemory conditions, and I will continue to follow up to see if any of the recent fixes are effective. You can download the latest version from here:

Thanks to all those who have tried a beta of BackCountry Navigator so far. For many, by the time you receive this email, it will be memorial day weekend in the US. I hope it has been a good weekend for you. 

Waypoints Plus More
This week's build incorporates waypoints, plus other changes too numerous to mention. They are not yet fully described in web pages or video.  Here are some quick hints:

• The GPS Data menu is now active to create a trip file for storing waypoints.
• Press and hold to identify or define waypoints. Or use the target button to define one for the current gps position.  

Thanks to those who have been following, and participating in, the beta program for BackCountry Navigator on Android. I hope you have found that this has potential for bring offline topographic maps to your Android phone.

I wanted to share some of the progress that has been made to date, and some other things to keep in mind.

Multiple Map Downloads
So far, many people have given feedback on how the download service works. This week's build will allow you to start multiple downloads at once. See this article for the process: