Aviation application news
As of today, you can now follow AviatorApps on Twitter. Links to all news items (blog posts) will be automatically posted (tweeted) on Twitter, so now you’ve got one more option if you would like to keep up to date on AviatorApps news.
The account is relatively new so don’t expect much to be there now, but more is certainly to come in the days and weeks ahead. To follow AviatorApps, just click the link above or use the ”Follow Me” button to the right.
The AviatorApps news feed has gone mobile. If you view the site on your iPhone, you’ll now get a view optimized for the iPhones screen. You can even search the feed and post comments right from your iPhone. Enjoy!
As I type this Apple is launching it’s new iPad tablet computing device. At first glance it looks like a giant iPhone with with a 9.7″ screen, but it is clearly much much more than that.
Apple is saying that it will run vitrually all iPhone apps in their native iPhone resolution (appearing small on the iPad screen) or can be zoomed to run full screen in a low resolution mode. However, they are also making the SDK available today so that developers can build iPad specific applications which according to Apple will also be available in the iTunes App Store.
Well, I am not a reporter and I am not at the release event so I am not going to go into all the details here, but just about every technology news service is there covering the event and will provide detailed coverage. I’ve included some links below.
This product’s launch is obviously relevant to us as aviators and iPhone users because it provides us with another, and perhaps better, device which can be used as an EFB (electronic flight bag). Many of us have used our iPhones for a variety of aviation related tasks, but the small size of iPhone display has always stood in the way of it being truly useful. Viewing graphical weather, charts, or instrument procedures on the iPhone always involved a lot of zooming and scrolling, but With an 9.7″ screen the iPad will surely solve many of those issues.
What do you think… does this look to be the device aviators have been waiting for?
iPad coverage…
http://gizmodo.com/tag/apple-tablet/
http://www.cnet.com/apple-ipad/
http://www.appleinsider.com/
http://www.apple.com/
Do you enjoy playing with your iPhone apps into the wee hours of the night? Are you willing to work for little to no pay whatsoever? Have you ever spent time in a Turkish prison?
If so, then I may have a job for you. Well, not a real job, but a job nonetheless. That’s right, I am looking for contributors; People willing to write app reviews and features to be posted here on the news feed.
What will you get in exchange for your efforts? Fame! A chance for notoriety! A ride in one of the Thunderbirds F-16s! It could happen! I can’t pay you anything but you’ll get full credit for your review, and I’ll gladly take you out for a burger and beer should we ever meet.
So if you fancy yourself as a writer, know how to take screen shots with your phone, and you think you can write an objective review, then feel free to contact me.
Since launching this site I’ve received several emails asking whether or not I will be adding apps for the Android mobile OS to the app list. The short answer is no, not in the immediate future.
The longer explanation is that I do not currently know of a way to establish a connection to or relationship with the Android Marketplace without the use of an Android phone. Yes, I know there is AndroidMarket.com, but the view it provides to outsiders coming in from non-Android devices (i.e. a PC) is limited to only a few “featured” applications. Currently, the only way to access all of the Android apps is from an Android mobile device, and unless you start buying a lot more apps through this site, spending $80 on another phone and data plan is out of the question. 
If you are interested in reading more on this topic, check out this TechCrunch article from November 15, 2009.
If you are an Android user and have comments, suggestions or ideas, you can either leave a comment below, or use the contact form to send them to me privately.
A total of 37 apps were added to the list today.
AIM - Aeronautical Information Manual - Double Dog Studios, LLC
Aircraft recognition guide - Pentangelli Software
Airplane Flying Handbook - Double Dog Studios, LLC
Atlantic Aviation - Atlantic Aviation FBO, Inc.
Aviation Abbreviation - mugamma.com
Aviation Glossary - Deep Powder Software
C172cp - Robert Urschel
Cockpit Challenge - Charles Johnson
FAA Test Prep - Aviation Mechanic Airframe (AMA) - Tekk Innovations
FAA Test Prep - Aviation Mechanic Powerplant (AMP) - Tekk Innovations
Flight Chronograph - Marcio Almeida
FlightCode - Volker Bublitz
Flightglobal - Red Glasses
Helicopter Principals of Flight - The Great Circle
Helicopter Technical - The Great Circle
IFR Communications - The Great Circle
InstantWx - Prototechnical Solutions
Mass & Balance - The Great Circle
Pilot Buddy - Charles Johnson
Pilot Handbook - Double Dog Studios, LLC
Pilot My-Cast by Garmin – Subscription App - Digital Cyclone, Inc.
PilotFAR / AIM - CoDeveloper
Power Wheel - Far West Aviation
Prepware ATP - ASA
Prepware Aviation Maintenance Technician - ASA
Prepware CFI - ASA
Prepware Commercial Pilot - ASA
Prepware Flight Engineer - ASA
Prepware Instrument Pilot - ASA
Prepware Military Competency - ASA
Prepware Sport Pilot - ASA
Radio Navigation - The Great Circle
Skylog Pro - Andrew Sowerby
U.S. NEXRAD RADAR - B. Walker Software
VFR Comms - The Great Circle
X-Plane Carrier - Laminar Research
X-Plane Glider - Laminar Research
Happy New Year!
Where are the updates? What’s the latest with the site? What about that categorization filter?
Yes I know, I’ve been a bit absent lately… sorry about that. Year-end at my day job and the invasion of family for the holidays really sucked up all of my available time, but with 2010 now upon us (and the family gone) I am anxious to get back to work on the site as well as a few other projects.
So without wasting your time with more excuses, expect a long overdue update to the app list in the next few days. Once that’s done, I will once again turn my attention to the app categorization filter. I can’t give you an ETA for it yet, but I am making it my top priority for 2010.
Thank you for your continued support.
Brad
The good folks over at ForeFlight have obviously been very busy lately as they have released a major redesign to the their popular and very useful ForeFlight Mobile application in the form of ForeFlight Mobile 3.
Make no mistake about it, this is a MAJOR update and contains far too many changes than I possibly have time to discuss here today.
With that in mind I’m going to point you to ForeFlight’s web site for a complete list of features, and encourage you to check out John Ewing’s blog, Aviation Mentor, where he has written an excellent and very detailed review of ForeFlight Mobile 3 which contains several screenshots.
Good news; Last night’s problems have been resolved and everything appears to be functioning normally.
I also took this as an opportunity to tweak the sort function a bit by adding a secondary sort. Now when you sort the list by Price, Developer or Date Listed, the apps with similar results for those criteria will again by sorted by name. For example, if you sort the list by Price, all of the FREE apps will then be sorted by name. For this secondary soft I’ve fixed the sort direction as ascending, so while you may sort the list by Date Listed and choose the sort direction of descending, the batch of apps for a given date will then be sorted by name in ascending order. Clear as mud right?
My host experienced a power outage last night and they are bringing everything back online today. While things are slowly returning to normal, I’ve noticed that apps are missing from the list when it is sorted. Since they are still working on the issue, I am going wait a bit to see if the problem fixes itself once they have restorated all of their services.
Thanks for your patience… I’ll post an update as more information becomes available.
