The Windows Phone version of Diving Log is now updated to support the new Windows Phone 8 OS. While the WP7 app was running fine on WP8, the now released update has support for the new high DPI screen resolutions and tile sizes. You will find the update in the Windows Phone Store:
Below you can see the wide app tile with your last dive data on the back and the small app tile:
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This one is long overdue, but now SkyDrive is finally integrated into Diving Log for Windows Phone. The update should show up on your phone within the next few hours. You’ll find SkyDrive now integrated into the sync page, which means you could drop Dropbox – if you want so (SkyDrive is also integrated into Diving Log 5.0 on the desktop).
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I’ve also updated the design of the logbook hub start page, to resemble the design of Diving Log Touch for Windows 8. If you don’t like the white tiles, you can switch back to the accent color tiles in the app settings. The last new feature is the same split GPS coordinate editor I’ve added recently to Diving Log Touch. This update runs on WP 7 and WP 8 (Windows Phone 8 optimized version will be released in January).
A new update of Diving Log for Windows Phone (version 3.3) is now available. It got some new features, which were ported back from the upcoming Windows 8 touch version to Windows Phone. The dive list is now sorted descending by default, so the last dive is on top. You can change the sort order in the settings if you prefer the first dive on top:
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The profile view has now a secondary profile like the desktop version. When you tap on the profile title (e.g. “Asc-/Descend rate”) you’ll get a selection list to switch the profile type. The ppO2 profile is currently not yet available. When you tap on the profile, you’ll get a full screen profile view.
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And last but not least, images can finally be viewed in full screen when you tap on them, which is really useful for dive site maps and certifications:
You should see the update notification in your marketplace hub soon. As mentioned before, these are actually features which are back-ported from the Windows 8 touch version, so you can expect all these things already in the initial tablet version.
Microsoft has finally released SkyDrive apps for Windows, Mac and smartphones and thus I could integrate a SkyDrive sync very easily into Diving Log. It works exactly the same as the existing Dropbox sync and is using a Divelog folder within your sync folder. You can backup your logbook data into the cloud storage and also sync logbook files across different computers. Just push the logbook into the cloud service, wait until the sync client has finished and then you can import the changes on the other PC into your logbook.
SkyDrive Sync
I’ve updated the recently published beta version if you want to try the SkyDrive sync now (you’ll find it in the “Web” dropdown menu of the main toolbar). Make sure that you’ve installed the SkyDrive client application for Windows. Please note, Diving Log for Windows Phone has SkyDrive not yet implemented, so you still have to use Dropbox to sync your dives to Windows Phone at the moment.
Last week, Microsoft released the Consumer Preview (beta) of Windows 8 and I’ve been testing it since then on an Acer 1825PTZ convertible laptop with touch screen and mouse + keyboard. Windows 8 will feature beside the classic desktop from previous versions an additional touch-first user interface. The new design language was first introduced in Windows Phone and is optimized for smartphones and tablets.
Windows 8 Start Screen
Diving Log 5.0 on Windows 8
Diving Log 5.0 runs perfectly fine on the Windows 8 desktop and everything works exactly the same as on Windows 7 (and older).
I’ve also started working on a touch optimized version of Diving Log for the new touch UI of Windows, which will run on all upcoming Windows 8 tablets (ARM and x86 processors), but also on every Windows 8 PC (laptop or desktop PC) with mouse and keyboard. You can run both, the desktop version and the touch version on the same device (tablet, laptop, desktop), which is especially interesting for convertible devices or tablets with attachable mouse and keyboards.
Here you can see which Diving Log version will run on which Windows version:
As you can see, the new touch version will run on all Windows 8 devices (but not older versions), the desktop version of Diving Log will run on the x86 Windows versions (XP, Vista, 7 and 8), but not on the new ARM version (called Windows RT). So you have to decide which type of applications (desktop or touch) you want to run when you buy a new PC or tablet. It looks like that downloading dive computers will only be possible on the x86 versions, which is important to keep in mind if you want a tablet that can be used for that.
As I’ve written, I’ve already started working on the new tablet version of Diving Log, but it is too early to show you anything. But I can tell you that the user interface will look similar to the Windows Phone version of Diving Log, with a clean, touch friendly design, but of course optimized for bigger screens. As soon as I have something to show, I’ll post it here in the blog.
Windows 8 will be available later this year (I expect October / November) and contains a new app store, which is the only place to download new Win RT apps.
Today Diving Log 3.1 for Windows Phone has been released to the marketplace. It contains the following new features:
Your buddy can now sign your dives on the phone and the signature will sync back to the PC. The signature will also sync to the iOS Dive Log and Dive Log Manager:
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The integrated dive map experience will show all your dive sites with GPS coordinates (like the PC version). When you tap on a flag the name will be shown. Another tap on the label will navigate to the dive site details page. Additionally the map can show your current position on the map and calculate navigation data like speed, distance to the selected dive site and ETA (estimated time of arrival). You can pin the map right on your WP start screen and if you have a dive site selected, it will automatically zoom to that region. That way you can quickly access your favorite dive sites or the island of your next trip right from the start screen:
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Tap on the new search button in the app bar to filter countries, cities, dive sites, etc. In the dive site editor, the position button will retrieve your current position and store it in the coordinate fields. The background color shows you the accuracy (red = bad, yellow = average, green = good):
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The marketplace testing team was really quick and approved version 3.0 of Diving Log for Windows Phone (you should get the update notification in the next few hours on your 7.5 device). This is a big update and brings finally the long awaited editing functionality to your phone. Now you can add, edit and delete the following logbook data right on your phone:
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I’ve implemented many data pickers, so you won’t have to type a lot of text. You can also add photos from the pictures hub or right from the camera and store them within your logbook. You can upload the changes to your Dropbox and import them to the Diving Log desktop version, where you could merge your dive data with profiles and other data from your dive computer. When you’re done you sync everything back to your phone.
In the next couple of minor updates I’ll add things like GPS coordinate picker for dive sites, buddy signature, equipment items used for a dive and more.
You should see the update notification on your Windows Phone 7.5 within the next few hours, and it contains some great new features:
You can now pin parts of your logbook data right onto the start screen of your phone, e.g. a dive, equipment item, dive site, buddy, your next trip or your certifications for quick and easy access. When you tap on the tile you get straight to that item within your logbook. Most of the tiles are 2-sided and display further information on the back, e.g. the next service date of your equipment or the GPS coordinates of that dive site.
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You can tap now on any section on the dive overview page to navigate to a detailed page with more data. Now almost the complete logbook data from your desktop logbook is supported on Windows Phone (editing of that data will be possible early next year). When you tap on linked items like country, city, place, trip and dive center, you can navigate right to that item. You can also tap on the statistics page on any of the highlighted numbers to navigate to that particular dive. That gives you a nice and fluent navigation through your logbook data.
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I’ve released a minor update of Diving Log for Windows Phone, which should show up on your phone within the next few hours. Diving Log is now optimized for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and supports fast app switching for better multitasking. There are also some performance improvements, Bing Maps integration for addresses and dive site coordinates and a new star-rating control.
When the text within your logbook data is colored in the accent color of the phone, you can tap on it to launch the corresponding task, e.g. view a location in maps, call a phone number, visit a website or launch the email app, etc. Please note that the update will only be available for phones which are already updated to OS version 7.5.
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The beta version of the next update of Diving Log for Windows Phone 7 is now available. If you want to join the beta test, please send me your Windows Live ID (email address) associated with your Windows Phone to info (at) divinglog.de. You will then receive an email with a link, that you can open on your phone to download the beta version from the marketplace. The beta will run for 3 month (expires on December 9) and runs on WP 7.0 (NoDo) or 7.5 (Mango) devices. You will also need a Dropbox account to sync your logbook to the phone and the Dropbox client application has to be installed on your PC. When you use the beta version, please provide feedback and report any problems.
