Please excuse the lack of updates, but I put a lot of time into the site in the month of April and I’ve been playing catch-up with several other projects. I’m currently working on a list update which should be posted in a few days, but in the meantime here are a few news worthy items.
Aviation Mentor, John Ewing, has posted several great articles about the iPad on his blog. John is quickly becoming an iPad-Aviation expert and has even produced videos about SkyCharts Pro and the iPad as an EFB.
This is a slightly old news, but still worth a mention.
On April 8th Apple previewed it’s new iPhone OS 4 to the world, which at first glance appears to contains many new and exciting features such as Multitasking, App Folders, Wallpapers, Enhanced Email, a Game Center and more.
Now before you get too excited there’s a catch; While iPhone 3G users will be able to upgrade their phones to the new OS, not all the features will be available, namely Multitasking. Those of you with an iPhone 3GS have no fear, you’ll get your Multitasking and more, it’s just us lowly 3G and 1st-Gen iPhone users that won’t. Sigh.
As a 3G owner I was a bit disappointed when I read this, while app folders are useful and wallpapers are neat, I REALLY desire multitasking. I’m sure that Apple will tell us that the processor or memory in the 3G isn’t capable of supporting multitasking, and they are only just protecting us from encountering crashes or performance issues, and perhaps that is the case, but the paranoid part of my brain is telling me that this is just Apple’s way of encouraging us to upgrade our phones. Maybe that is Apple’s strategy, but my phone isn’t even two years old and I can’t help but feel a little jipped.
Now all of this may be moot (for me) when the next version of the iPhone hardware is released. And what killer-feature would make me upgrade? One word… Verizon!
With his books, CD-ROMs and most recently with his apps, Max has established himself as the zen master of the glass cockpit. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Max on a few occasions and his knowledge of all things GPS and Glass Cockpit related is nothing short of amazing, so when he wrote me to tell me about his new apps, I told him that I would gladly mention them here on the AviatorApps News Feed.
I have used his Garmin 430 app and I find it to be clear, concise, complete, easy to navigate and well documented with plenty graphics and screenshots for a visual thinker like me. Rather than me going on about them I thought it would be best if I let Max tell you about his apps in his own words, or shall I say his own voice.
The GPS Guide for the iPhone can be use as a Quick Reference Checklist, Illustrated Self-Study Learning Guide, or as a Refresher for Pilots and CFIs Using Many GPSs.
More than a paper GPS Checklist, the GPS Guides give detailed descriptions—not just a list of steps. They also include TIPS on the most efficient ways to use the GPS.
Each GPS guide gives clear, concise answers to your GPS questions without hunting through user manuals. Information is organization by function, so you can quickly find what you want.
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?
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.
To celebrate the recent release of SkyCharts v1.51, the developer has graciously provided me with several codes for free copies of the SkyCharts app.
A “Name That Plane” contest and related details will be posted here on the news feed at noon-ish Pacific time on Friday October 30th, where you will have a chance to win a code for one of three FREE copies of SkyCharts. If you don’t already have a subscription, now would be a good time to subscribe to the news feed through RSS or email!
If you don’t win this time, more free apps will be coming next week… so stay tuned!
So let’s see how many of you are paying attention! Thanks to Heikki, the first three people who respond by using the contact form will get a code for a free copy of SkyCharts. Just open the form (by clicking the link above), send me your full name, email address, put the word ”SkyCharts” in the comments box, and I will respond with a code for a free copy of SkyCharts. Rules: One copy per person. (Edit 9/25: Your too late, they’re all gone. Stay tuned for more chances next week)
Our friends over at ForeFlight released a new version (v 2.4) of their popular ForeFlight Mobile this week. This new version contains many enhancements to both usability and performance, and best of all it is free to ForeFlight Mobile 2.x users. You can read all about the new version, including screenshots and a bulleted feature list over on the ForeFlight Blog.
