xGPS - GPS for iPhone / iPod touch

Small post to say that we have released a small bug fix release of xGPS Maps Manager. This version doesn’t improve anything excepting that now it is working with the new Google Maps changes and the zoom levels have been “unified”. The zoom level you see on the left of the window correspond to the zoom level of the current view of the map. If you enter the same number in the text area for the downloaded maps zoom level, it will download the maps at the same zoom level you are seeing. It means that 17 is the most detailed zoom level, and 1 is the less detailed one.

xGPS Maps Manager can be downloaded here:

xgpsmanager-2

Due to the Google Maps problem we have released a small bugs fix release which solves the Google Maps bug and other little bugs. There are no real other improvement except for the support of the mph for the speed. More information can be found in the ChangeLog.

This version also includes all the translations. We have added also the Traditional Chinese translation. Again thank you all for your help.

Due to an update of the Google Maps system this afternoon, all maps download from xGPS Software and from xGPS Maps manager don’t work anymore.

An update will be released shortly when the translations will be finished.

With this post we would like to thank all the proposition we have received for the translations. We picked some people to finish the translations already. Maybe we will contact you in the future if we need more help. Anyway, again thank you for your support!

We are searching for a german translator for our xGPS Software. It consists only in about 15 minutes of work. There are only a few sentences to translate. If you are a native german speaker or if you have the abilities to translate text from English to German, please contact us immediatly. If you want to translate the software into another language, feel free to contact us.

EDIT: We have finally found a german translator. Thank you for your help.

A little word to say that our wish to sell GPS modules produced by Orange Gadgets is for now suspended as they (Orange Gadgets) have to handle all the pre-orders before taking us into account. So if you want a device, it is better for now to order it directly from Orange Gadgets. We remind you that it is also still possible to order cables to connect Holux GPS devices to your iPhone or iPod Touch at the iGPSD store.

We are proud to present to you the new release of our xGPS software tagged 1.0.1-4. This release includes some new features and a lot of bug fixes. Unfortunately we haven’t completely solved the problem concerning the downloading of maps. However things are now more stable than before and we are working to eliminate all the remaining bugs.

You must know that this version is not compatible with all the old maps you have downloaded until now. On the first launch they will be deleted! You are warned! However the xGPS Maps managing software is still compatible with this version.

This version add the experimental support of map auto-rotation. It means that the map will rotate according to your movings. It also the support of the iGPS360 from Orange Gadgets. GPX logging facilities are also included (so now you don’t have any excuse to not want to improve OpenStreetMap ;-). You can enable it in the settings. Your position will then be logged to the file /tmp/xgps_gpxtrack.log in your iPhone or iPod Touch. There is currently no easy to get this file back (except through SSH/SFTP) but the xGPS Maps manager will soon be able to do that seemlessly.

Unfortunately this version isn’t fully localized due to some schedule problems. The next release will then be fully translated.

We remind you that our Cydia repository to be able to install this software is: http://cydia.xwaves.net

We thank you all for all your support.

Due to the large number of people reporting that they cannot download maps successfully on the iPhone (due to an Apple bug by the way, thanks Apple!), we have decided to already release the very very first version of the xGPS Maps Manager which allows to download maps from a computer to use it on the iPhone. So please be aware that this version is a really first version and not all the functionalities are implemented. It is reserved for advanced users as there is currently no option to directly transfer the maps to the iPhone, you have to do it manually.

To download a maps from the computer and then put it on the iPhone or iPod Touch use the following procedure:

1. Be sure to have Java 1.5 or greater installed on your computer (installed by default on Mac OS X)
2. Download the software xGPS Maps Manager
3. Double-click on the downloaded file
4. The program should now be opened
5. Use the left scroller to adjust the zoom level to be able to select the right part of the map you want
6. Then click on “Add region” and then click on the map to draw a closed polygon.
7. Repeat the step 6 the number of time you want. Regions can also be overlapped. The software will not download two times the map.
8. When you are ready with your map regions, select the zoom level at which you want to download the maps. To do so enter a number between 0 (the most detailed zoom level) and 17 (the less detailed one) in the text box right after “Download maps at zoom-level:”.
9. Press “Download selected maps regions” to start the download.
10. To download maps at multiple zoom level, just repeat the step 6 to 8 for a different zoom level.
11. When it is finished, close the program.
12. Go to the same directory where you have downloaded the software.
13. A new file should have been created called “xGPS_map.db”
14. You have to put this file in the iPhone at /var/mobile/Library (overwrite the current one if it exists). To do it you can use WinSCP or any other SFTP file transfer utility.
15. Launch xGPS on your device and the new maps are here! Success!

As we said, it is reserved for advances users. A more simpler version will be available in the future.

We cannot reveal all the details but we will sold new GPS for iPhone / iPod Touch. In order to see how many people are interested we are providing the following form to register yourself to be able to buy one. So if you are interested in buying one of these GPS Modules for iPhone 2G and iPod Touch 1G please subscribe to the form below.

Just a little word about the xGPS Software. We have finally found the bug which sometimes crash the application. It’s a huge bug and will require a certain time to correct it. We hope to make a new fixed release next week.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

We have just released a small update for the xGPS Software (Version 1.0.1-3). All changes can be find in the Changelog page. For people which had problems for downloading large areas of the map, it should be now corrected.

However we would like to call attention to the change of the “GPS Enable” button. This button has now 3 modes: Enable GPS and Disable GPS in blue or in gray-blue. When the Disable GPS with blue background is displayed, it means that the map will follow your moves according to the GPS position. If the Disable GPS button is displayed without the blue background (with a gray-blue background as the other buttons) it means that the map will not follow your moves (i.e the blue pin will not stay on the center of the screen).

For the last xGPS modules we have in stock, we will probably open the orders the next week. Unfortunately there will be only 2 to 3 items to sell. So be sure to come on this blog or to subscribe to the RSS feeds to know when the orders will be open.

We also are finalizing our software to download the maps on the computer and then send it to the iPhone. The software will be released, first, in a beta version which not all the features available but it will be sufficient to download and send maps to the xGPS software. The software is written in JAVA so it will run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Maybe on other plateform but it will not be tested on.

We are proud to present to you the new version of xGPS Software numbered 1.0.1-1. It corrects a lot of bugs and adds the support for iPhone 3G GPS and iGPSD cables. For more information about the changes, go to the ChangeLog page.

This version has also the support to search for cities or locations. Please keep in mind that if you want to search for a street you HAVE to enter also the city name. Because the search is Google based, you will have to have an Internet connection to search for places. Other important improvement is the support for other languages in the interface (Italian, German, French and Dutch for now). If anyone is interested to translate this software in another language feel free to contact us.

For those who want to use the xGPS software with iGPSD cable (sold here: http://store.igpsd.com), they have to provide a license number in the software. For the people they have bought a cable before the 27th September 2008, they have to acquire the license number on our store: http://store.xwaves.net. For the other you should have received your license number along with your cable.

Unfortunately we have a problem on our store. It is not currently possible to place an order because of some problems in our payment system. It will be restored on next Tuesday. Any news about this problem will be posted here.

Concerning the hardware question, we will not produce anymore xGPS Modules but support will still be available for this product. However we have still a few pieces in stock and they will be sold when the time comes (in about one month). More information about this will be also posted here. However we have made a partnership with the iGPSD team to provide a powerful GPS solution with their cable and our software.

We will end this post by thanking all the people helping us to develop this software. We have 3 people working on the translations of the software and one on the graphic part. So we would gracefully thanks:

• Suondmao (Website: http://www.suondmao.altervista.org) for the Italian translation, the xGPS Logo and other graphical parts.
• Gerard for his Dutch translation
• Difensiphone for the German translation

We are happy to say that all orders have been shipped (or will be shipped on Monday as the weekend is not working days). If you don’t already have received a shipment confirmation email, you should receive by Monday. If you still not have received it on Monday, please contact us.

The xGPS and xGPS Util softwares have some known bugs which include:

• The speed doesn’t get refreshed (or doesn’t work at all in some case). It is a software problem and NOT an hardware one.
• The software sometimes says that the xGPS Module is disconnected although it is connected. It is also a bug in the software and it is not due to the xGPS Module.

Next week will be holiday week for us. We will still answer to urgent email, but support will be less responsive for a week. Then we will start hardly developing the xGPS software to get something really stable.

For the iGPSD customers, we are currently in touch with this team to make our software working with their cables / products. So keep you updated by reading this blog.

Thank you all for your interest in our project.