Finally, this is something I wanted to add for quite a long time: GPS support. I’ve added now GPS functionality to both, Windows Mobile and Diving Log 5.0 on the desktop. In this blog post I cover the Diving Log GPS Tool for Windows Mobile which is now available. I’ll post soon an update for Diving Log 5.0 which allows you to download coordinates directly from a connected GPS device and adds also support for several coordinate formats in the dive site dialog.
Diving Log GPS
The GPS Tool for Windows Mobile is touch optimized (finger friendly) and can be downloaded here (copy to the device and tap on it).
It requires .NET Compact Framework 3.5 and runs as a standalone tool in addition to Diving Log 4.5 for Windows Mobile. If you have Diving Log 4.5 installed on your phone, the GPS Tool will connect to your logbook on the device and allows you to store coordinates into existing dive sites or as a new dive site. You can later sync these dive sites with coordinates back into your desktop logbook and Diving Log 5.0.
The tool has also basic navigation features, which can be handy when you are on a dive boat. You can select any dive site from your logbook and it will display the distance from your current position, the travel speed, course, time and ETA (estimated time of arrival). You can select between several unit types in the menu.
During the implementation of the GPS functionality I’ve found also an interesting tutorial how to connect your Windows Mobile phone to your PC and using the phone GPS as an external GPS device for your desktop. This way you can use the upcoming GPS functionality in Diving Log 5.0 without the need for a separate GPS device when you have a Windows Mobile phone with built in GPS.
The Android sync function has now moved from the export menu to the “Sync” button in the main toolbar. Import from the phone is now included. I’ve updated the previous blog post to reflect the changes.
The YourDiveBook web sync function will now upload the dive site coordinates
The OSTC downloader is updated to support the latest OSTC Mk.2 firmware 1.70 features. It will display now the correct CF descriptions and offers color pickers to configure the OLED colors
In the main toolbar you will find a new “Web” dropdown button, which is now the central location for cloud services like online logbooks. Currently there are 4 online logbooks included:
Dilogs.com – already included with the Dilogs manager, but the new sync interface offers a lightweight and easier sync experience
Divelogs.de – was only available in the export menu, but now you can upload and download your dives in the new sync dialog
Yourdivebook.com – completely new integrated with upload and download
Divelogpool.com – new beta portal to collect dive data for the NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) in Trondheim for a research project
In future MySQL sync will be added for phpDivingLog
Dilogs Sync
Divelogs Sync
YourDiveBook Sync
Great news for all Android users out there: there is now a sync function from Diving Log 5.0 to the already available Android Dive Log (Dive Log Key) from Rob Knapen. It is included in the sync menu in the main toolbar of Diving Log. The sync is done at the moment only via the sdcard. Diving Log saves the file to the sdcard, Android Dive Log reads this file from the card when you use the restore function. To sync back to the desktop you must create a backup in the Android DL to the storage card, Diving Log will import that and merge the changes into the desktop logbook.
Android Sync
Main Screen
Dive List
Dive Site Map
The ribbon in the logbook window could now be displayed also in the Windows 7 ribbon style:
Greg’s iPhone Dive Log 1.4 is now available in the iTunes App Store and brings compatibility with the just released iOS 4. Together with the previous version 1.3 from May it contains many new features:
Version 1.4
• Support for iOS 4 and the most recent phones.
• Certifications are now sorted by date in the Personal tab.
• Call, or email Buddies from the Buddies tab.
• Dutch localization.
• Minor bug fixes and corrections.
Version 1.3
Expanded Equipment Management
• You can now set additional information about your dive Equipment including purchase details, serial number, warranty information and upcoming service dates. There is a new setting in the settings tab to control how far in advance Dive Log will notify you about upcoming Equipment service dates. The default for this setting is “never”, but you can set a different period (for example “1 week before”) to turn on notifications. Notifications are indicated by the application badge. The application badge will be updated even when the application is not running if you are running on a recent version of the platform software* that supports push notifications.
View Dive Site Maps within Dive Log and get directions via external applications
• Dive Log now shows Dive Site locations on a Map within the application if you are running on a more recent version of the platform software*. This new embedded map also has a new control to measure the approximate distance from your current location to the selected dive site. You also now have the option of getting directions to the site from the Maps application or a 3rd party navigation application if you have a supported one installed (see our website for details).
Landscape mode is now supported throughout Dive Log
• You can now rotate your iPhone and get a landscape view of each screen. This is particularly useful in the photo viewer, the profile viewer and the new map view. You may also find it useful when typing in comments to take advantage of the more spacious landscape keyboard. Full landscape mode support is only available when running a more recent version of the platform software*.
Many smaller improvements have also been added in response to specific customer requests.
* – Dive Log will run on older versions of iPhoneOS, however for the best experience we recommend running on iOS 4.
A service release which fixes some bugs in Diving Log 5.0 is now available. Download this setup and install it into the Diving Log program folder. Here are some of the fixed issues and new features:
Print function and PDF export crash fixed
Statistics.crd report file for printing statistics data
Several issues with saving dives in the logbook window were fixed
Diving Log Viewer is not only a free tool to view Diving Log logbook files which you can give to your friends and buddies – it offers some unique features currently not available in Diving Log 5.0. It is build using the latest UI technology WPF and is for me a good way to learn this technology. It will be included in the upcoming Diving Log 5.0.1, but is also available as standalone Download. On Windows XP and Vista the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 must be installed. After downloading, extract it into the 5.0 program folder and start it one time manually, then you can launch it also from Diving Log. Today I’ve updated the application a bit to make it more compatible with Diving Log 5.0, but I’ve also included some nice new features:
Fixed columns. Now you can pin any column to the left side so it doesn’t get out of view when you scroll horizontally. Either drag the splitter to the right or drag and drop any column header on the left side of the splitter.
Fixed Columns
Statistics and Summarize. You can display several calculated statistics for the numeric columns. In combination with grouping or filtering you can calculate statistics for only a subset of your dives, answering questions like “How long was I diving last year?” or “What was the deepest and shallowest and coldest and warmest dive at a particular dive site?”.
Stats for the year 2008
Stats combined with grouping by site
Column Reorder. You can drag and drop any column header to any position to reorder the columns:
Column Reorder
Image and profile pan works now also with the left mouse button, which is great if you have a multitouch monitor. If you have not used yet the Diving Log Viewer application, make sure to check out this tutorial page which shows all other features, like profile zoom and pan, image viewer and grouping.
When I launched Diving Log 5.0 two weeks ago I knew that the following days will be a tough time for me, and as things turned out, I proved to be right.
During the past two weeks I had 37 GB of traffic (split onto 2 servers). On the peak April 9 – April 11 there were 18 GB of traffic. I’m really surprised that the server didn’t went down, kudos to my Hoster. Within those two weeks, I received and answered 380 emails (not including spam, notifications and forum posts). During the 3 day peak I got 160 emails and answered every single one. I still get a lot of questions which are answered in the FAQ. If you’ve lost your unlock keys, please make use of this automatic tool, even though this works not in every case: your email could have changed, some email providers block those automatic emails from the server and new keys will take up to 4 weeks to appear in the online tool. In this case, just write me an email as usual.
I didn’t have expected that everything will run smoothly, even after a half year long beta test. Overall it was not too bad – the two major problems (crashing print function and an issue with the installer) are both 3rd party components. The installer issue disappeared after I obtained the latest version. For the print crash there is a workaround by downloading this zip file and extracting it into the 5.0 program folder. You should do this only when the print function currently crashes on your computer, because the profile draw quality is not so good in this workaround.
I already bought the latest version of the print engine which hopefully fixes the issue completely. I’ll test this within the next few days and provide an update as soon as possible. Version 5.0.1 should be also appearing in the near future. Most localization is now also completed. Here you can download an update for Catalan, Dutch, Italian and Russian. French is in the works. For Czech, Finnish and Polish I still need translators.
Yes, it’s finally done! After rewriting Diving Log from scratch – which was necessary but also a risk – I think the time has come to release it. After more than 1 year of development and 6 month of beta testing it should be stable enough for everyone. Sure, there are minor issues and a few things are still missing from version 4.0, but the advantages outweigh in general. After you’ve installed the final version and a 4.0 key is found, you will be asked during the first program start to open the update website and your 4.0 key will be automatically inserted.
Diving Log 5.0 is fully localized in these languages:
Danish
English
German
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
The other languages are partly translated. If you want to help to complete the translation for Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Italian, Finnish, French, Polish or Russian, please contact me (Update: Strikethrough = done). As soon as new languages were completed, I’ll provide a small update zip file which you can download and extract into the 5.0 program folder. If you are using one of these languages, please follow me on Twitter, the blog or the news section to stay informed about updates.
So now after the final version is out, what’s going to happen next? I’m already planning on version 5.0.1. Depending on how stable 5.0.0 is, 5.0.1 is either a quick bug fix release or a more feature rich release. In my previous blog post I’ve also written about my plans for the Windows Mobile version.
So now please download version 5.0, update your license keys and thank you in advance for your donations if you like this update or just want to say thank you in general
In February Microsoft presented the successor of Windows Mobile 6 to the public, the new Windows Phone 7 Series. Last week they told the developer story at the Mix10 conference, and now I can write something about my plans for Diving Log for Phones.
First of all I’m very impressed about the new Windows Phone 7, it’s a brand new platform and something they should have done already 2 years ago. First devices will not show up before end of this year (“to the holiday season”) and the developer tools are still very early builds (pre beta). But it goes definitely into the right direction. The UI is different than any other Smartphone platform currently available:
Even if the UI looks great, behind the scenes are still many limitations and two of them are a big deal for a logbook app: currently there is no database accessible, so it’s difficult – but not impossible – to store the logbook data. And the 2nd issue is that there is currently no way to sync the logbook data locally to the phone. Even local WiFi, which we use for the iPhone sync, is not possible for now. The only way to get data onto the phone is from the “cloud”, which is just a geek word for internet. I’m pretty sure that these limitations will be fixed in future updates, but for now we must get used to it.
Anyways, I have already some ideas to get around those problems and still integrate with Diving Log on the desktop. It’s too early to tell any details or even release dates, but I try to have something out at the launch. Apps can only be distributed via an App Store, just like on the iPhone. I think this is also an improvement for everyone, given the fact that it was sometimes a real pain to install something on a Windows Mobile phone. And old apps won’t run on Windows Phone 7, so everyone will have to recreate their apps. These are the facts so far.
So what about Windows Mobile 6 and older devices? No existing device will be upgradable to Phone 7, including the new HTC HD2. But do not fear, I’ve already started working on an update for the legacy platform (renamed soon by Microsoft to “Windows Phone Classic”). The next version “Diving Log 5.0 Phone” will be optimized for touch with a fresh interface similar to the iPhone Dive Log. Microsoft will continue to support Windows Mobile 6.x for quite some time and existing devices won’t stop working of course with the release of Phone 7 Series.
Generally said I will focus this year on the mobile experience, but also continue to improve the desktop version (the final version 5.0 should be available next week). So stay tuned!
Today I’ve released the 2nd and last release candidate of Diving Log 5.0. This version is identical with the final release and gives some time to…
update the website
localize the languages other than English and German
fix possible last minute bugs
prepare the update process
Please download the RC 2 and test everything and report any bugs. The beta portal is no longer required and this version is available as setup only. It will run until end of April, the final version should be released in March, if everything goes well.
I’ve got a lot of questions about the update price for existing customers. I’ve thought about this for a long time and decided that this update will be for free for all existing Diving Log users who have an official license key. But I’ll ask for a PayPal donation during the update process, so you can decide yourself if you want to pay something for this update and how much. And users who have bought version 4.0 recently can update for free, of course. I think this is fair for everyone.
Some things have changed in this version, most notable the location of some files. Report, template and layout files are now stored in your Windows personal folder, sub folder “Diving Log” right beside the default logbook file. This makes it easier to backup all files. The other reason is, that there is no write access into the program folder on Vista or Windows 7. You should copy your modified or downloaded report, template and layout files into the new location. I’ve also changed the location of the program settings, which means that some settings will be lost and you have to setup them again (mostly download and export settings).
