Follow our software developers through our Blog. With news about upcoming App's, WinGPS and digital charts. Usually weekly if there is something to report. Your comments are appreciated. Changes may apply. Mail to w.kuik@ stentec.com.
Status Stentec App Development
The release of the 1800 series apps has been postponed until the autumn. At the Hiswa in-water boat show we expect to demonstrate a test version
The new 1801, 1811 and 1812 have been released for WinGPS on PC but we are still working on the apps for these charts. Developing a copy protection for multiplatform chart licenses requires more time than expected. This should meet the requirements of hydrographic services. Multiplatform means you can activate your charts licensing both the App and on the PC. Central to this is your user account where all your activations are registered. The DKW 1800 series is our first set of digital charts which are available at the Google Play store.
The development of the plotter in the app is almost completed. We tested on the DKW Vaarkaart Nederland 2013 with 10 billion pixels, which navigates very fast with touch control. Even the new waterproof Sony XperiaZ with more than HD screen (see screenshot). We found ways to improve this even more using OpenGL, these developments will folow in a later release.
For optimal navigation on any smartphone or tablet we have a built-in settings tab which allows handling the tile-cache that the app is using. Tiles are chart-blocks of 256x256 pixels. If the app shows too much charts in the screen and you don't have enough memory, the app will show a message to turn off charts, or increase the cache memory. If you increase the memory for the app it will have better performance, and will prioritize the app over background processes of your tablet.
Windflag in WinGPS 5 Voyager 2013
The beta version of WinGPS 5 Voyager with wind flag is tested in practice during the 24 hour race. The first results are analyzed. See the screenshot taken aboard the ZA1 de Jager. The wind strenght along the wind flag will also be displayed. This allows you to see if the veering wind increases in strength or vice versa
After the summer, our development team will be expanded with an additional programmer. He is trained in Artificial Intelligence with image recognition as a specialty and will first develop Android apps and WinGPS 5 2014.
