iNavX 1.0.3

iNavX 1.0.3 was officially released on Monday. I got a the final version for testing the previous week so I got to play around with it over last week and the weekend. I set up an AIS simulator and fed about 1min of AIS data on a loop via Wifi. It was pretty cool and seemed like a nice addition to the program.

The Main change with 1.0.3 was the change in zooming. Zooming is now controlled by sliding (or just tapping) the circle to the left or right on the "Zoom Bar" which then re-centers when the chart re-renders. This is a LOT easier than moving the zoom dot around very small amounts for minor zoom changes. The disadvantage is that there is no longer an indicator of you zoom level. Richard is working on this and has one solution in mind to display the scale as the chart re-renders, but I prefer a constant visual signal.

My idea (crude photoshoping) is to the left. Basically a zoom indicator in the form of a triangular pointer would be rendered left to right on the zoom bar to indicate how far in the chart was currently zoomed. Not sure how easy or possible it would be, but ideal would be some way to drag this triangle in order to make gross changes in zoom level (ability that was lost in 1.0.3). Overall, 1.0.3 is an improvement in zooming and luckily Rich is going to continue developing his methods.

In other exciting iphone navigation News, Panbo announced Navionics Mobile which is essentially a Vector chart version of iNavX (also known as iNavX2). I am alpha/beta testing for iNavX, but am under an NDA, so nothing more until I am told I can talk. The most promising potential for the raster based system partnered with Navionics is the worldwide availablility of detailed charts. Amazing what a little phone can do.