PREtracker

[Doug Shepherd]

I'm a cyclist, not a runner, and I've been hoping someone would create a cyclometer for the Pre. One of my cycling buddies has a $700 Garmin that he loves to flaunt, and I'm of the opinion that this phone can do everything that toy can do, and a good deal besides.

I haven't attached my phone to my bicycle yet (probably this weekend) but I did drive home with ver 0.5 running today, and I noticed several things which should be addressed. Probably many of these are fixed in ver 0.6 but I thought it best to get my feedback in sooner rather than later.

1) When I push the "Find satellites" button, I get a message saying "screen timeout end", which shifts everything down a bit, but the screen doesn't stay on. I'm guessing this is some sort of error message?
2) Thinking about it, what is the "Find satellites" button needed for anyhow? Is there any reason you'd ever start up the app and NOT want it to initialize by finding satellites automatically?
3) Partly because of the "screen timeout end" message, the two bottom windows (distance and average speed) roll off the bottom of the screen, especially if there are any notifications.
4) I think the "Pretracker 0.5" bar should be at the bottom rather than the top. It would look better there and if anything does get cut off by notifications, it wouldn't be critical information.
5) The time window doesn't need to be so big. For me as a cyclist, I'd rather have the speed window bigger, but it doesn't need to be as big as the time window is.
6) As others have mentioned, my average speed readout is stuck on zero.
7) Again as others have said, a log file would be very cool. So strange to think that the OS won't let you create an ASCII file when and where you want to! But as a cyclist that would perhaps be the most important thing to me.
8) The interface to google maps would be very cool also, mainly because it would add a lot of functionality with little work. But I'm more concerned with having a log file.
9) Finally, a tiny nit, the speed readout seems pretty noisy -- it jumps around the average value quite a bit. Is there any filtering being done on it?
10) In my opinion, I wouldn't spend a lot of time or energy right now making things pretty. The look is good enough until the functionality and feature set is improved.

I'd be happy to help out if I can, but I'm afraid I'm a sparkie (EE) by trade and only a hack with code. I am pretty good with algorithms though (like I could whip out an IIR filter to help with point 9).

Doug

[joeblack7]

Sorry. a little off-topic...but is the SDK's 'accelerometer' not open/usable enough yet? Pretracker would be even better with all the active g-force, acceleration, etc.

Is that why we don't have any "shake" apps yet? B/c we don't have access to the SDK accelerometer?

[ridius]

Originally Posted by joeblack7

Is that why we don't have any "shake" apps yet? B/c we don't have access to the SDK accelerometer?

I haven't researched it much, but I saw a page on the developer portal about the accelerometer. While it's definitely fun to think about, it's not very practical for this appliction. Most people are going to be moving when using this app. That means the phone itself will move and any accelerometer events could get triggered accidentally. That could cause a whole bunch of undesirable behavior, and we just don't want that.

Ridius

[troymiller]

We are pretty close to being ready for the next public release however we need to finalize the new name.
All who are interested please visit the development thread and cast your vote. If you have another name idea please post it there.

http://forums.precentral.net/web-os-...lopment-5.html

Thanks,

[maverick987]

I have an idea that is close to your app. Im a service tech and drive 1000 miles a week. I leave from home with my work truck. I would like to "clock in" in the morning and track time spent on the road and "clock out" at the end of the day. My blackberry has a 80 dollar app thats ok. It looks like it would not be a morph form your app. Just need to add waypoints and some kind of log. I have no idea how to build apps. Just ideas.

[aolbites]

you might want to try one of the stopwatch apps where you can pause when you're stopped.

Originally Posted by maverick987

I have an idea that is close to your app. Im a service tech and drive 1000 miles a week. I leave from home with my work truck. I would like to "clock in" in the morning and track time spent on the road and "clock out" at the end of the day. My blackberry has a 80 dollar app thats ok. It looks like it would not be a morph form your app. Just need to add waypoints and some kind of log. I have no idea how to build apps. Just ideas.

[ahuntoon]

For geocaching application, I'd like to change the format to DDD MM.MMM. Is this possible? Thanks!

[m117116]

Thanks!

[Kevin.]

Originally Posted by troymiller

Sounds good. I am thinking we will have 0.6 out soon. I know the build I have on my phone right now is more stable then the 0.5 release.

Now to figure out how to post the file so it shows up in fileCoaster and the homebrew gallery.

Yeah, I'm on board too for heavy testing if you like. Eventually I'd like to pitch in for the dev work, but (heh, as you say, like everyone else) I'm still getting up to speed on WebOS development.

[Kevin.]

Originally Posted by Kevin.

Yeah, I'm on board too for heavy testing if you like. Eventually I'd like to pitch in for the dev work, but (heh, as you say, like everyone else) I'm still getting up to speed on WebOS development.

er... just read the other new thread etc... downloading 7.49 now to test =)

[Fitz39]

so this app has hit a dead end?
no new developement??

[QuickAudio]

I see that the original developer has stopped development for this project. Has anyone take it over?

[MetaView]

Why not use MapTool?

[Pulp]

Originally Posted by maverick987

I have an idea that is close to your app. Im a service tech and drive 1000 miles a week. I leave from home with my work truck. I would like to "clock in" in the morning and track time spent on the road and "clock out" at the end of the day. My blackberry has a 80 dollar app thats ok. It looks like it would not be a morph form your app. Just need to add waypoints and some kind of log. I have no idea how to build apps. Just ideas.

You could try to use Holidays Trip - It might not have been made for your purpose, but it should work pretty well - you can track your whole workday, add notes (and photos if needed) and export the whole workday later.
And best of all - it's completely free!

[Phenoum]

I believe this has been moved to a new name - fitTrack