Small change to connector sample

We just updated our connector-sample. We recommend upgrading to the new one. Get it here.

GeOrg version 1.1.5

As promised, here is the unprotected version of GeOrg to download from the market on all those routed and unbranded phones. Please backup your data before the update. Here’s (for one last time) why:

There’s a bug in Android that might affect some devices (rumor has it that only some 1.5-devices are affected, but we were not able to find confirmation for that). On these devices deactivation of the copy protection for an application can lead to crashes when starting that application. The only workaround is to uninstall the application and reinstall it fresh from the market.

Our advice: Before updating to 1.1.5 save your data to your external storage (MainPage -> Menu -> CacheDB Actions -> Export to external) with the new external-storage-features in 1.1.4. That way, even if you have to reinstall GeOrg, your CacheDBs and Waypoints are kept on your SDCard.

Other stuff included in this release:

  • You can now export your Waypoints to GPX on your SD-Card. Import feature coming up next 🙂
  • GeOrg reads additional waypoints now and displays them on the CacheDetailsPage. Expect more waypoint-features in 1.2.0
  • Custom Maps are now faster and use less internal memory. Also you can delete your tilecache now from the SettingsPage.
  • Fixed the tile-flickering-issue on high-density devices
  • … and again some smaller bugs were fixed. As usual – all details are listed in the Changelog.

GeOrg version 1.1.4.4

Version 1.1.4 did contain some bugs, fixed with version 1.1.4.4:

  • Bug in the database-migration code that would affect installations with more than one CacheDB
  • Bug when switching between internal and external storage
  • In some situations the compass would behave erratically
  • The state of the filter on the MapPage was not persisted
  • Crashes when deleting CacheDBs.

GeOrg version 1.1.4

We’re finally ready to release version 1.1.4. Before we go into details, a short but important reminder : We will release version 1.1.5 the next weekend. That version will have copy protection disabled. Why might that be important for you? Read on:

There’s a bug in Android that might affect some devices (rumor has it that only some 1.5-devices are affected, but we were not able to find confirmation for that). On these devices deactivation of the copy protection for an application can lead to crashes when starting that application. The only workaround is to uninstall the application and reinstall it fresh from the market.

Our advice: Before updating to 1.1.5 save your data to your external storage (MainPage -> Menu -> CacheDB Actions -> Export to external) with the new external-storage-features in 1.1.4. That way, even if you have to reinstall GeOrg, your CacheDBs and Waypoints are kept on your SDCard.

Since 1.1.4 is just a minor release, it’s mostly about fixing bugs, small features and performance tweaks. The most notable features are:

  • Database optimizations
    We have optimized the database for speed and scalability. GeOrg 1.1.4 will convert your existing databases (given enough free space in internal memory) when it first starts. Also you will notice a short preload-window whenever you start GeOrg with lots of caches in a CacheDB. We tested the application with up to 2000 caches per CacheDB.
  • With 1.1.4 you can now decide to keep all your data in your internal or external (SDCard) memory. That way you can save space in your internal memory or just backup your data on your SDCard. The documentation will be updated soon.
  • The MapPage has a small lock displayed in it’s top left corner. This shows whether you have locked the map to your current position. If you haven’t, touching the lock activates “Lock to current position” – like from the menu.
  • You can now opt to import GPX-files even if they contain errors. Also there’s support for the Australian GPX-format (GCTour, opencaching.de)
  • You can now opt to show the current GCVote on the CacheDetailsPage (change this via the network settings). Clicking on GCVote-stars shows details about the votes.
  • We included some more waypoint-icons in preparation for the additional waypoints in 1.2.0.
  • There are several bugfixes for devices with small screen-size like the HTC Tattoo
  • … and a lot of smaller bugs were also fixed. All the details are listed in the Changelog.

GeOrg is nominated for Android-App of 2009

There’s a well-known german geocaching-blog at http://www.dosenfischer.de. They are taking a survey for the most popular geocaching-related things in 2009 and one category is “Android-App des Jahres 2009…”. Maybe you want to give us your vote? The survey is open until Jan 5th.

If you want to participate in this survey head over to the Geocaching-Jahresrückblick.

Market Misery – The Plan

As I wrote earlier this month, we have some problems with GeOrg’s availability in the market due to GeOrg being a copyright protected application. Also there’s still this ominous bug on some devices that can’t cope with applications losing their protected status. This is how we’ll fix this:

With the next release of GeOrg (1.1.4) you will have the option to migrate your CacheDBs to your SDCard (and also to use them from your SDCard). When version 1.1.4 is out, we will wait a few days and then deactivate the copy protection together with version 1.1.5.

Now we recommend saving your data to your SDCard in version 1.1.4 before updating to 1.1.5, because if you run into the copy protection bug, you will have to uninstall and reinstall GeOrg. Trust us, we are very unhappy with this option, but currently there’s no other way to switch off the protection.

Who will run into this bug? There’s no certainty but reports seem to indicate that mainly devices with Android 1.5 seem to be affected.

What do you get when GeOrg is longer copy protected? If you are already using GeOrg, nothing will change. But if you own GeOrg and want to root your device or plan to buy a newer device that Google doesn’t happen to support in the Market (like a lot of german Milestones currently) you will be able to re-download the application in the Market, something you currently can’t.

And – last but not least – a lot of people who currently can’t get GeOrg because they own the wrong (read: not Google-Market-supported) or a rooted device, can get the application at last.

Milestones and Google Market Woes …

During the last weeks, we’ve had some customers reporting problems with the Android Market. Maybe it’s time to sum it all up here:

It began when some people, who had bought GeOrg, rooted their phones and tried to reinstall their apps afterwards via the Market. Normally you’d expect to find all the applications previously bought in the market, ready to download them anew. After all, they are associated with your Google Account, aren’t they? But not on rooted phones…

When you root your android phone, typically you install some custom firmware to replace the standard OS that came with the phone. Now, if you look in the market for software, there’s some kind of filtering taking place.

This filtering is seemingly based on some kind of footprint of provider, country and firmware installed. The market keeps whitelists of “legal” clients to stop people on rooted phones from pirating apps. So far, so good.

The only problem is: What if you’ve rightfully acquired an app in the past and now want to install it on a custom baked or downloaded ROM? Chances are – you can’t. At least not via the Market.

Which apps are filtered? That depends on your location and the type of application. The two attributes that matter are: free/commercial and copy-protected/or not. Google sells applications in only a selected few countries. If you want to buy a commercial app like GeOrg and live in – for example – South Africa, you can’t, unless you root your phone, install the right ROM (see our FAQ) and switch the Market to some legal country and provider (for example with the Market Enabler).

Copy-protection – on the other hand – is something the developer activates for his app and this leads to filtering of applications depending on the phone you search for the app.

Copy-protection, as it is implemented right now, makes your bought apps reside in some private directory in your internal memory that you can’t access … unless you root your phone. Hence, Google attempts to filter copy protected apps from rooted phones. There is some mechanism in place in the Market app that segregates unrooted phones from rooted phones and only displays copy protected apps on unrooted phones. Alas, this mechanism is far from perfect.

For example, during the last weeks the Droid (or Milestone) was published. Right now you can buy the Milestone in three different flavours here in Germany. Branded with vodafone, o2 or unbranded for use with whatever provider and plan you see fit. Customers opting for the latter option see themselves stuck with a phone containing an Android Market application that doesn’t allow downloading copy protected apps. For some reason the Market doesn’t whitelist these Milestones and deals with them as if they were rooted.

Meanwhile Google is aware of these problems (link) and will hopefully fix them soon. But as always, they don’t tell us when the issue will be resolved

So, some of you might ask yourselves: Why would a developer refrain from deactivating this copyright protection if it doesn’t protect the apps on rooted phones and stops potential customers from buying the app? Sadly, there’s also a bug with the copyright protection. If you switch from protected to unprotected, there are some devices (e.g. Hero), that start to crash when using the app after the switch. This can only be cured by reinstalling the app, something you don’t really want your existing customers to go through…

GeOrg version 1.1.3

We just fixed a bug before breakfast. The “Find Nearest”-option for looking up geocaches on geocaching.com was not working correctly for 75% of the world … 🙁

… now it does 🙂

GeOrg version 1.1.2

This release fixes a lot of bugs that were sent to us in the last few days. Especially the map should now be much faster and more stable. A few little features also crept in ;-). See the changelog for details.

Like always: if you encounter any problems or crashes, please don’t hesitate to send them to us.

GeOrg – Droid compatibility

With the availability of the new Droid devices in the USA, we were made aware of an incompatibility between GeOrg and Android 2.0, which didn’t show up in our tests with the 2.0 emulator. Sadly the sourcecode of Android 2.0 still isn’t released, the Eclair-Branch is not yet visible.

We did however find the javadoc and – with the Eclair libs existing in the emulator in compiled form – were able to deduce a fix. This was our first experience with the Dedexer. It helped us a great deal!

If you’re having problems with GeOrg on a newly bought Droid device – just upgrade to version 1.1.1!

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