Mobile Trail Explorer v1.8 - With Maps!
The developing of Mobile Trail Explorer is progressing well. We have received excellent code contributions from the community as I’m proud to present the OpenStreetMap integration in Mobile Trail Explorer. Big thanks to Gareth and Dennis!
There are also other new features such as filtering recorded positions by maximum speed, minimum distance etc. Information view have also been reorganized so that information is grouped more clearly. User can now view current, average and maximum speed. Maximum speed position is also recorded and exported to KML file.
Unfortunately there are also some problems with some of the devices such as my Nokia N80 which doesn’t like the OpenStreetMap texture feature so much as it throws OutOfMemoryErrors even as it does have free memory. I’ve found few writings about the issue and it seems that it is another Symbian OS “feature”.
I hope that you would report whatever your device is able to draw the OpenStreetMap maps without problems or not. Map drawing can be enabled from Settings>Display>
Go ahead and download the latest version either from product page or Google Code project page.
Edit: I forgot to mention a lot of new features as I made the release in so quickly.
One of the features is the stream-gpx-to-file feature that removes all memory issues when user is recording long trails. With this feature user can stream the position data directly into file so you won’t lost your trail even when your phone battery dies.
Other great feature is the auto save feature which saves your trail when application is closed.
December 4th, 2007 at 02:33
Wonderful! Very well done to you all for this release. great to see OpenStreetMap maps as a background on this great app. Great stuff happens with Free software. I now hope to be able to solely use MTE to help map new areas for the OSM project!
December 4th, 2007 at 23:37
Although I used the svn for some time, it’s great to see a new release.
You forgot to mention the gpx-stream-feature which comes in handy on crashes.
December 4th, 2007 at 23:39
You are right, Dennis. I’ll add it to the post. I made the release in a hurry so I forgot to mention a lot of new features.
December 5th, 2007 at 14:07
Awesome, I’ll put the new version to test right away. Currently heading back to Chiang Mai Thailand from Bangkok Thailand.
gpx-stream-feature will definitely comes in handy especially when I go on day trips. I’ve had my phone running out of battery on several occasions and lost all the trail data.
Thanks again.
December 6th, 2007 at 20:33
How do I enable the streaming? I can’t find any menu option for it.
December 6th, 2007 at 20:45
LH: Good question. You can find it from: Manage Trails > New GPX Stream
Let me know if it works well in your phone.
December 7th, 2007 at 01:01
Tried to install v 1.8 on my SE W880i. Did not recognise the already installed v 1.7, and got an “Operation failed” when trying to start the application. V 1.7 always worked though. Had to re-install v 1.7 but would really like to try v 1.8, so what’s up?
December 7th, 2007 at 01:09
Hans: It may have crashed when it tried to convert old trails to new version. You could try to uninstall v1.7 before installing v1.8. I can’t really say what went wrong but I would guess that the trail conversion failed in the first place.
December 7th, 2007 at 23:32
Sorry, but no. That did not do the trick, I’m afraid. Removed the old v 1.7, but “Operation failed” is all I get. Too bad. Anything else I can try?
December 29th, 2007 at 14:45
I have the same problem like Hans but I use the SE K800i with Solar GPS BT2 5SR. I tried your workaround I deleted all trails and I uninstalled MTE and Installed it again but the result was the same.
January 2nd, 2008 at 18:52
Installed & working OK on Nokia 6300. As with 1.7, there’s a few problems - they seem to be memory related mainly. I can’t use a map overlay as it crashes. Creates a file on the card that appears to be map related, but it’s very small so I guess it’s not populated with anything. I have to kill all the settings before I can get it to load again. this is the same with both map options.
1.7 crashed this morning which I put down to having set it to try and display the whole track. again that seemed to be a memory issue.
Haven’t tried the GPX streaming yet, but I will give it a go on the way home tonight.
Thanks for all the work.
January 3rd, 2008 at 17:38
Tried GPX streaming (on the 6300) - seems fine. Is there a difference between the streamed GPX file and the exported/saved GPX file? - they are different sizes.
No more crashes either - I think it was ‘display the whole trail’. I’m pretty convinced it’s memory trouble.
January 21st, 2008 at 01:13
Hi.
I have a Nokia E90. The application starts well but in GPS settings tab , it says “No devices found”
Any idea ?
Thanks
Costin
January 21st, 2008 at 10:02
Hi Costin! Mobile Trail Explorer doesn’t yet support internal GPS devices such as in E90. Or did you try it with external GPS device?
We are planning to add the support for integrated GPS devices as soon as one of the developers have this kind of device for debugging.
January 23rd, 2008 at 21:15
Hello,
I have download the version 1.7 of trail explorer on my mobile (Nokia N70) and it runs very well.
I have just a problem with the keylock .
Does you know a way to stock this function within trail explorer?. I know it is possible because a friend as an commercial GPS application on the same mobile (N70) and the keylock is desactivate when the application runs.
In an other hand I am adding a specific screen to use it when I fly (speed, altitude in feet, heading in degrees, direction to reach the destination, distance to destination). When it will be OK I’ll send it to you.
February 1st, 2008 at 16:42
There seems to be a bug in the SE K850i that throws an out of memory error , i’ve been working on my own GPS impenetation and I get it on my app using gpsdevice code not very different from the one in trail explorer, very weird , don’t get it in nav4all so there has to be away round it.
February 2nd, 2008 at 16:32
Philip: I agree. There must be some work-a-round for the OutOfMemoryError bug. I have tried to search for any solutions but all I have found is that it could be related to threading problems. Here is one discussion thread.
Mobile Trail Explorer app uses quite many threads and it uses Thread.sleep() to refresh the screen and such. I think that this could help a little if we lower the thread count and make the functionality to work with wait/notify instead of Thread.sleep().
February 11th, 2008 at 03:45
very good
February 20th, 2008 at 17:55
Hi Tommi , Can’t we use google maps instead of OpenStreetMaps. Are there any restrictions of using google maps. Can we track current position of a person using Maps in ur MTE.
February 20th, 2008 at 18:02
John: We can’t use Google Maps since it would be against Google Maps license.
March 11th, 2008 at 21:16
Tommi, I can not install V1.8 (nor V1.7) because it appears: file .jar not valid.
My mobile is Nokia E50. I have not tryed to install oldest versions
Thanks in advance
March 11th, 2008 at 22:10
Juan: That doesn’t sound good. Have you tried to download both JAR and JAD files to your computer and installing files using Nokia PC Suite? Does your phone have an operator lock?
March 13th, 2008 at 00:42
I am sorry, Tommi, but I did a bad unpacking of the .zip file. Now the midlet (V1.8) works fine but in my mobile (Nokia E50) the letters are small and lines are very thin.
And a question: How can I get the Sky View and the Satellite Count screens?.
Thanks very much
March 13th, 2008 at 11:11
Juan: Good to hear that it is now working for you.
You can change the view by pressing the ‘0′ key.