What’s changed?

• When first launching CarDar you are now immediately presented with a map view.
• A history of parking locations is also available.
• Overall look and feel has changed. ie. refreshed icon, graphics, etc.

What’s missing?

• The color selector was removed from the notes section. One can quickly enter the color in the custom notes field. There is also another feature still in development that may reduce the need for a color selector. If anyone desperately wants the color selector back, please leave me feedback via CarDar.
• The full version has lost RADAR support for now. This will be restored soon-ish, so don’t panic. (RADAR is a separate download found under the software libraries section in the Android Marketplace)

I have a list of new features to work on. Many based on user feedback. Thank you for your emails and supporting CarDar.

There are a number of changes which I’ll try to list the more significant ones.

• A handfull of UI updates: Map item bubble windows, dashboard redesign, etc…
• Several bugs fixed
• Suspend GPS feature for power saving
• More waypoints/geocaches on the map at one time (20)
• GPS update interval user settings available (power saving)
• New waypoint details view
• Waypoint / Geocache date created saved
• Fixed HTML display for all descriptions

Travelbug support is coming. It had been planned for this release, but I felt this was a good update and didn’t want to keep everyone waiting on it. As always, please email me if you run across a bug I didn’t find.

So what’s the scoop on clinkbot this year? Well, I’ve been seriously busy with a new job in 2009, though I put out several updates during the year; but things with the new job have settled and some more serious development is underway again.

Geodroid

A rather significant update is coming to Geodroid in the coming weeks. I can’t put an exact date on it right now, but hopefully by month’s end the 1.0 release will be ready. The next release will included some requests, bug fixes, and user interface changes. The UI will be reorganized a bit and the map interface is receiving a bit of an update. I believe it will be quite an improvement on the user experience.

CarDar

In 2009, an app (which shall remain nameless) won 3rd place in the Android Developer Challenge 2. It was CarDar rehashed. That was quite a blow to my motivation to keep working on CarDar. It’s already suffered a name change due to bullying by a European parking lot company and a soulless drone named “Ian”. Anyways, seeing an app that offered the same feature set of CarDar win the contest was difficult (esp considering the 25k USD that was won). CarDar was never about money though (with what it makes, it couldn’t hope to be), I just wish the contest was about new ideas and not ripping off other people’s apps. (Next year I may very well re-invent Google Maps. I mean, people love that app right?!) Anyways, stepping away from the disappointing ADC2 outcome, CarDar has some places to go. I’m not going to reveal the roadmap, but know that some exciting features are coming.

Highlights

• Background importing – You can select a file or directory to import and continue using your phone while the import runs.
• Short descriptions are now included along with the long description for GPX entries.
• Fixed a skip duplicates bug.
• Misc performance tweaks.

Highlights

• GPS / Network locations only required if you set your location. This allows people to quickly set the timer if they don’t need to set their location.
• Updated icon
• Fixed user orientation bug. Orientation was broken in a previous compatibility release.
• Minor tweaks

Highlights

• Importing forces closes fixed
• Importing improved – You should be able to import any size file, though for your own sanity, be reasonable. A GPX file with hundreds of caches will take a few minutes. A large LOC file however, will be very snappier since there is less data per entry.
• Mass deleting improved.
• HTML descriptions now display with images if available.
• All log entries from import files are saved.

If I broke anything, please let me know.

My new day job has soaked up my energy for a while now. Since it’s been several months like this, I’ve started doing a bit of time management to allow healthier blocks of time for development. Geodroid is getting it’s importing code rewritten for better support of larger files. I’m also looking at expanding support for GPX file data along with fixes for any reported bugs.

I have a lot of feedback to sort through and develop a road map for. I’m also going to be reviewing the user interface layout and may revisit several portions of the GUI.

• Force close bug affecting some G1’s when trying to mark your parking spot.
• Distance calculation error fixed.

Search

You can now search your waypoints and geocaches by their names. The search covers full and short names at this time. It should be a great help to those users that keep a hefty list of entries in Geodroid.