App Summary:
Although the CourseSpeed iPhone App, and its associated CourseSpeedWatch App, were developed for boating, the Apps can be used anywhere (using Apple Maps), for example Boating, Hiking, Bike Riding, and Geocaching.
The iPhone app was developed to conveniently have Course, Speed, and Position available on one screen in sufficiently large fields to be seen several feet away from the iPhone as well as to show the current position on a map. However, it also provides other views that perform the following, additional useful functions:
1. Allows the current position to be followed on any of three map types and, from the map, get Turn-by-turn navigation directions with voice prompts to anywhere using Apple Maps. The current track history can be displayed along with user entered waypoints along the track line. Both the track history and waypoints can be saved to a history file. Saved history files can be loaded to the map later for reference.
2. Allows Point-Of-Interest map pins to be added to the map. These are also saved to a file and displayed whenever the App is started and are independent of the track history Waypoints. The Map Point-Of-Interest pins can be edited or deleted.
3. Saving track points in a GPS Exchange Format (GPX) file which may be moved to a computer via the Finder application (macOS Catalina, or later) or the iTunes application (prior to macOS Catalina or on a Windows PC). The GPX track may then be viewed on any mapping program/web site that reads GPX files (examples here: santuit-sw.weebly.com).
4. For the current location, displays the times of sunrise and sunset as well as the current Sun azimuth and elevation for the current day, or any other day with user date input.
5. Provides a Horizon Distance Calculator that calculates the distance an observer can see for any height of an observer and any height of an object.
6. Provides the capability to add a Mark point on the Map for which distance and bearing are displayed. (Useful for sailors, geocachers, hikers)
7. Provides a Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward indication for sailers.
8. Provides an "Anchor Watch" function for boaters to determine if their anchor is "dragging".
9. Allows the management of track history files, and GPX files; i.e. renaming or deleting them.
10. Allows the following settings to be saved automatically whenever the user changes them. There are thirteen settings that are selectable from either the "Settings" view or other views. All are saved to a file on the iPhone and restored when the App is restarted:
1 Speed smoothing enabled
2 Course smoothing enabled
3 Course smoothing type
4 Enabling/disabling the display of speed in tenths, for speeds < 10.
5 Enabling/disabling the recording of a GPX format track file.
6 Latitude/Longitude display format
7 Elevation Display Units (meters, feet)
8 Course display reference (magnetic, true)
9 Speed display units (statue miles per hour, nautical miles per hour, kilometers per hour)
10 Map type (road, satellite, hybrid)
11 Horizon Distance units (statute miles, nautical miles, kilometers)
12 Enabling/disabling Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward (statue miles per hour, nautical miles per hour, kilometers per hour)
13 Wind Direction (Degrees magnetic)
14 Anchor Distance (Feet, meters)
The CourseSpeed iPhone App supports Apple's "Light" and "Dark" modes for which the screen/text colors are changed to better see the information for the current ambient lighting. These modes can be set manually via the iPhone Settings App -> Display & Brightness. Under Appearance select either "Light" or "Dark". These modes can also be set to automatically switch between "Light" or "Dark" by setting the "Automatic" switch to "On" and then selecting which time settings you like.
Note that "Light" and "Dark" modes are only available for iPhones running iOS 13 or later. If your iPhone has an older iOS version, the App defaults to the equivalent of "Light" mode.
The CourseSpeedWatch App is also available for use with a paired iPhone running the CourseSpeed App. The CourseSpeedWatch App functionality is a subset of the iPhone App functionality and contains only data fields and buttons but no mapping capability. The following data fields/buttons are visible on a single, scrolling, screen:
1 Position (Latitude & Longitude)
2 GPS receiver Accuracy (Horizontal & Vertical)
3 Course
4 Speed
5 Altitude
6 Trip 1 Odometer value
7 Trip 1 Odometer Start/Pause/Resume button
8 Trip 1 Odometer Reset button
9 Trip 2 Odometer value
10 Trip 2 Odometer Start/Pause/Resume button
11 Trip 2 Odometer Reset button
12 Distance to a user entered Mark
13 Bearing to a user entered Mark
14 Start/Stop/Clear track button
15 Save track button
16 Current track distance
17 Sunrise time
18 Sunset time
Two fields, Mark distance and bearing, are present on the screen only when the user has enabled the Mark on the iPhone App. The units of the fields on the screen (i.e. Latitude, Longitude, Speed, Distance, and Angle) are all set by the user in the CourseSpeed iPhone App in the Main View by using the blue buttons. Example: if the speed units are selected to be miles per hour in the iPhone App, the speed units in the watch App are also miles per hour.
In addition, Trip 1 and 2 states are color coded as follows to match the iPhone App (Inactive: White; Active: Green; Manually Paused: Yellow; Automatically Paused: Magenta).
The times of Sunrise and Sunset are always in 24 hour, local, time.
Any changes to the units in the iPhone App are dynamically changed in the watch App.
Also note that there may be up to a one second delay transferring the data from the iPhone App to the watch App.
With Version 8.1(3), the CourseSpeedWatch App automatically starts the CourseSpeed iPhone App if the watch App is started without the iPhone App already running. When started this way, the CourseSpeed iPhone App will run in the "Background" mode to provide the data to the watch App. You can bring the iPhone App to the foreground at any time by pressing the blue highlighted Time field on a newer iPhone (with a notch) or by pressing the very top, blue, line of an earlier iPhone. Don't forget to pause, or reset, the two trip odometers on the Apple Watch App or iPhone App when not needed to save resources (e.g. battery) as they require the use of the GPS.
What's New:
Version 8.18(0)
- Fix for occasional App crash seen in V8.16(5).
Version 8.18(0)
- Fix for occasional App crash seen in V8.16(5).
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Main View:
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Main View:
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Main View Light Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
Main View Dark Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
Position:
The position is presented as Latitude, Longitude, and Elevation above sea level and is calculated every second. The default latitude/longitude format is degrees and fractions of degrees. The format may be easily changed to degrees-minutes-seconds, on the main screen, by pressing the "Latitude-Longitude" button above their numeric values. When this button is pressed, the text will change to indicate the current latitude/longitude format. Pressing the button will change the format of both Latitude and Longitude fields. Pressing the button again will change back to the other format for both fields.
Elevation can be presented in either feet or meters by pressing the elevation format button above the elevation display field. The GPS elevation is smoothed for the display.
The position accuracy is displayed between the latitude/longitude field and the elevation field. Its units are either in feet(Ft) or meters(m). The units displayed follow the distance units associated with the user selected speed units. i.e., feet(Ft) for speed units of Miles Per Hour or Knots, and Meters(m) for speed units of Kilometers Per Hour.
Course:
Course is presented in degrees from True north on startup and is updated every location update from the GPS receiver. The presentation can be changed to degrees from Magnetic North by pressing the "Course" button above the numeric Course field. Pressing the button again will change back to course relative to true north. When the button is pressed, the button text will change to indicate the current course format. Three methods of determining course are provided in the settings view, one as provided by the iPhone's location service and two different methods for "smoothing" the course so that it does not bounce around, especially at low speeds.
The local Declination is added to the course when magnetic north is selected. The Declination is calculated internally from the World Magnetic Model (WMM) public domain software provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and ported to the iPhone CourseSpeed App. It is neither licensed nor under copyright by NOAA. The WMM is updated every five years by NOAA. The current version is from 2015. (https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/WMM/DoDWMM.shtml)
The Declination is calculated every minute instead of every second, as the declination changes very slowly as position changes. Declination is positive when magnetic north is east of true north, and negative otherwise. Course is presented as a value in the range of 0.0 to 359.9 degrees.
The current value of the local declination is displayed in the text field below the Course button.
Speed and "Speed-Made-Good":
Speed and Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward:
Either displayed Speed or "Speed-Made-Good" towards a selected location (e.g. a sailing racing mark) may be selected in this view. Speed is presented in Miles Per Hour on startup and is calculated every second. The presentation can be changed to Knots or Kilometers Per Second, and back to Miles Per Hour, in a circular fashion by pressing the "Speed" button (above the displayed speed numeric value) multiple times. Any time the button is pressed, the button text will change to indicate the current speed format. Two methods of determining speed are provided in the settings view, one as provided by the iPhone's location service and another that "smooths" the speed so that it does not bounce around, especially at low speeds. Speeds below 1.0 may be enabled or disabled from being displayed by a setting on the settings page.
Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward is the speed at which you are travelling directly into the wind. This is often used when sailing since a sailboat cannot go directly into the wind, but must "tack" back and forth, perhaps 45 degrees away from the desired mark. The speed can be either positive (into the wind) or negative (away from the wind). Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward is calculated every position update, when enabled in the Settings View, and can be selected to be displayed in place of the current Speed. As with current speed, Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward can be displayed in Knots or Kilometers Per Second, or Miles Per Hour. This is done by pressing the Speed button until the desired units are displayed. Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward can be enabled or disabled in the Settings View. The wind direction, needed for Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward, can also be set in the Settings View.
Anchor-Watch function for boaters:
Note, this function is described here in the Main View even though it is not a function that is visible when in use in this or any other view.
The Anchor-Watch function is used by boaters to detect whether an anchored boat is "dragging" its anchor, i.e. the anchor is not holding the boat in the desired position. The captain needs to enter the maximum distance that the boat is allowed to move before the anchor is considered to be "dragging". This is performed from the Settings View, as is the enabling of the Anchor-Watch function. Once enabled, the CourseSpeed App continuously monitors the boat's position. During this monitoring time the App can be running in the foreground or background. i.e. you can continue to use the iPhone in the foreground or put it down and let it continue to run in the background. In either case, if an alarm sounds, an alert is displayed on the CourseSpeed App's display (in any view you might be in). The alarm will continue to sound until the Alert's "Stop" button is pressed, which clears the alert and disables the Anchor-Watch function. (Note, "Stop" is the only option and you must stop the alert to do anything else with the App). Finally, the selected Anchor Distance is saved to a file and will then be used as the default value when the App is run again. It can be changed at any time, even without enabling the Anchor-Watch function.
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Settings View:
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Settings View:
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Settings View Light and Dark Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
The Settings View provides the following functions:
1. Button to go to the Santuit Software Privacy Policy view.
2. Button to go to the Manage Track File View.
3. Slide switches to enable/disable certain CourseSpeed settings.
4. Data entry fields for wind direction and anchor distance.
Selecting/Saving Settings:
There are eight settings that are selectable from the "Settings" view and six others affecting display options that are selected from the "Main", "Map" and "Extra" views. All are saved to a file on the iPhone and restored when the App is restarted:
From "Settings" view:
1. Speed smoothing enabled / disabled. Enable for slow speeds
2. Course smoothing enabled / disabled. Enable for slow speeds
3. Course smoothing type (when course smoothing is enabled):
a. Alpha filter Course smoothing
b. Vector Course smoothing
4. Enabling/disabling the display of speed in tenths, for speeds < 10.
5. Enabling/disabling the recording of a GPX format track file. A new track file is created each time the switch is enabled. Likewise, the current track file being recorded is saved each time the switch is disabled. (It will also be saved if the App is closed without disabling the switch)
6. Enabling/disabling Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward function.
7. Wind Direction (magnetic) Used with the Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward function.
8. Enabling/disabling the "Anchor Watch" function.
9. Anchor Watch Distance (Units follow the distance units that are associated with the speed units from the Main View)
From "Main" view:
10. Latitude/Longitude display format:
a Degrees and fractions of degrees (DDD.DDDDDD)
b Degrees Minutes Seconds and fractions of seconds (DDD MM SS.S)
11. Elevation Display Mode:
a. Feet
b. Meters
12. Course display format:
a. Degrees from True north (0-359.9)
b. Degrees from Magnetic north (0-359.9)
13. Speed display format:
a. Current Speed in Miles Per Hour (MPH)
b. Current Speed in Nautical Miles per Hour (knots)
c. Current Speed in Kilometers Per Hour (KmPH)
d. Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward in Miles Per Hour (MPH)
e. Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward in Nautical Miles per Hour (knots)
f. Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward in Kilometers Per Hour (KmPH)
From "Map" view:
14. Map type:
a. Road
b. Satellite
c. Hybrid (Road superimposed on Satellite)
From "Extras" view:
15. Horizon Distance Units:
a. Height in feet and distance in nautical miles
b. Height in feet and distance in statute miles
c. Height in meters and distance in kilometers
16. Trip Odometer 1 distance (Units follow the distance units that are associated with the speed units from the Main View)
17. Trip Odometer 2 distance (Units follow the distance units that are associated with the speed units from the Main View)
18. Trip Odometer 1 state (Started, Paused, Reset)
19. Trip Odometer 2 state (Started, Paused, Reset)
1. Button to go to the Santuit Software Privacy Policy view.
2. Button to go to the Manage Track File View.
3. Slide switches to enable/disable certain CourseSpeed settings.
4. Data entry fields for wind direction and anchor distance.
Selecting/Saving Settings:
There are eight settings that are selectable from the "Settings" view and six others affecting display options that are selected from the "Main", "Map" and "Extra" views. All are saved to a file on the iPhone and restored when the App is restarted:
From "Settings" view:
1. Speed smoothing enabled / disabled. Enable for slow speeds
2. Course smoothing enabled / disabled. Enable for slow speeds
3. Course smoothing type (when course smoothing is enabled):
a. Alpha filter Course smoothing
b. Vector Course smoothing
4. Enabling/disabling the display of speed in tenths, for speeds < 10.
5. Enabling/disabling the recording of a GPX format track file. A new track file is created each time the switch is enabled. Likewise, the current track file being recorded is saved each time the switch is disabled. (It will also be saved if the App is closed without disabling the switch)
6. Enabling/disabling Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward function.
7. Wind Direction (magnetic) Used with the Speed-Made-Good-To-Windward function.
8. Enabling/disabling the "Anchor Watch" function.
9. Anchor Watch Distance (Units follow the distance units that are associated with the speed units from the Main View)
From "Main" view:
10. Latitude/Longitude display format:
a Degrees and fractions of degrees (DDD.DDDDDD)
b Degrees Minutes Seconds and fractions of seconds (DDD MM SS.S)
11. Elevation Display Mode:
a. Feet
b. Meters
12. Course display format:
a. Degrees from True north (0-359.9)
b. Degrees from Magnetic north (0-359.9)
13. Speed display format:
a. Current Speed in Miles Per Hour (MPH)
b. Current Speed in Nautical Miles per Hour (knots)
c. Current Speed in Kilometers Per Hour (KmPH)
d. Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward in Miles Per Hour (MPH)
e. Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward in Nautical Miles per Hour (knots)
f. Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward in Kilometers Per Hour (KmPH)
From "Map" view:
14. Map type:
a. Road
b. Satellite
c. Hybrid (Road superimposed on Satellite)
From "Extras" view:
15. Horizon Distance Units:
a. Height in feet and distance in nautical miles
b. Height in feet and distance in statute miles
c. Height in meters and distance in kilometers
16. Trip Odometer 1 distance (Units follow the distance units that are associated with the speed units from the Main View)
17. Trip Odometer 2 distance (Units follow the distance units that are associated with the speed units from the Main View)
18. Trip Odometer 1 state (Started, Paused, Reset)
19. Trip Odometer 2 state (Started, Paused, Reset)
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Map View:
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Map View:
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Map View Screen Shots (Click to enlarge):
Map View Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
The Map view displays either Apple's standard road map, a satellite map, or a hybrid map combining the road map and satellite view. The map defaults to following the latest measured postion. Zoom buttons (In & Out), active only in the "Follow" mode, allow for zooming in or out while the map is following your location. A button to "Un-follow" is available to allow you to use the standard Apple touch commands for moving about the map and zooming in and out with the standard "pinch" and "swipe" gestures.
The following description describes the Menu buttons that are initially hidden from view on the Map view. The Menu buttons are made visible by pressing the "Show Menu" button on the bottom of the Map. The menu buttons can be hidden again by pressing the "Hide Menu" button. Two buttons ("Start/Stop/Clear Track" and "Hide/Un-Hide/Show Track") control whether a current track history line is displayed or not (red color). The "Save/Load/Unload Track" button saves the current track to a TKH file (Save), loads previously saved track history (Load), or removes the loaded track history from the screen (Unload). The track history loaded from a saved file is displayed in a magenta color to differentiate that history line from the current history line (red color). The time between track history points is a function of the speed (minimum 1 second, no maximum). Track history filenames can be generated by the user or generated automatically by the App. If the App generated name is selected the name will include the date and time of the start of the recording. The track history files have an extension of ".tkh". The TKH files may be deleted using either the Map View or the Settings View via the "Manage Track Files" button. From the map view, the user can save the current user position, on the track history line, as a waypoint/place-of-interest by pressing the Add WPT button. That will cause a red pin to be placed on the track with the name entered by the user. Touching the pin reveals the subtitle that contains the latitude and longitude of the waypoint/place of interest. Points-of-Interest (POI) map pins can also be added to the map, separately from the track history Waypoints/Places-of-Interest pins. These Map POI pins are also saved to a file and displayed whenever the App is started. The labels of the Map POI pins can be edited (Label or Latitude/longitude) and the Map POI pins can be deleted by the user. Note: the limit for the number of Waypoints on a track history line is 100. The Limit for the number of Map Points-Of-Interest is 400.
The Map view also provides the user the ability to enter the position of a "Mark". This allows distance to, and bearing from, the mark to be displayed. The user can enter a Mark position in two ways:
1. Using a keyboard to enter the latitude and longitude, or
2. Touching the desired Mark location on the Map.
The "Mark" appears on the Map as a red Pin with title "Mark". Touching the pin reveals the subtitle that contains:
1. The latitude and longitude of the Mark.
2. The distance from the user's current position to the mark.
3. The bearing from the user's current position to the Mark.
The distance and bearing shown are displayed in fields at the top of the Map view. The units of distance are the same distance units selected in the Main view for speed (e.g., if nautical miles per hour is selected, the pin will show the distance in nautical miles). The bearing is displayed in degrees, either relative to true or magnetic north, selectable using the Main view's course button. The Mark distance and bearing fields are visible only when a Mark has been added to the Map. If the Mark is not enabled or has been removed, the distance and bearing fields are hidden. When visible, the distance and bearing fields are updated every 5 seconds.
The Map view also contains the information available on the main view, including Latitude, Longitude, Elevation(altitude), Course, and Speed. The units of each field, in the map view, track the units of the respective fields currently set on the main view. Note that the speed will be Speed-Made-Good if that is what is selected on the main view. The "Directions" button allows the user to get turn-by-turn directions from the current location to anywhere, with voice prompts using Apple Maps. The Map View also shows the distance traveled for the current track history line and the loaded track history line, whenever the respective histories are being displayed. The units of distance are the same distance units of the speed units selected on the Main View. (e.g., if Miles Per Hour is selected as the speed, the history distance is in Miles)
Map View Buttons:
a. Follow/Unfollow: Press to have the Map follow your current location. Press again to no longer follow. Each time the button is pressed, its text is changed to indicate what the button will do if pressed again. When in follow mode, no "pinch" or "swipe" gestures will work.
b. In Zoom button: This button is active when the map is following the current location and zooms the map in to see more details.
c. Out Zoom button: This button is active when the map is following the current location and zooms the map out to see fewer details.
d. Start/Stop/Clear Track: Controls whether a line of track history points is displayed. The current track history line is displayed in a red color.
e. Hide/Unhide/Show Track: For temporarily hiding or unhiding the track history line when a track has been started or for showing the most recent track again after the track has been stopped, but before it has been saved or cleared.
f. Save/Load/Unload Track: Enables the saving of track history to a file and the loading of the track history from a directory of all saved track history files. It also Unloads a loaded track file history when desired. Track histories loaded from a file are displayed in a magenta color.
g. Add WPT: When a GPX Track file is enabled or a Track History is being displayed on the map, "the Add WPT" button is visible" and allows the user to enter a waypoint/place-of-interest name. If the GPX file is enabled, it will then contain a waypoint containing the name, time, latitude, longitude, elevation, and magnetic Variance (declination). Also, if the Track History is currently being displayed on the map, a named pin will be displayed on the track for that waypoint/place-of-interest.
h. Add/Remove Mark: Allows the user to enter a Mark position via a keyboard or by touching the map. The button is also used to remove the Mark from the Map, which disables the Speed-Made-Good functionality.
i. Manage Track Files: Allows the user to rename or delete any .tkh or .gpx file previously created.
j. Enable POI Action/Disable POI Action: To Add a POI, press the POI button and touch the map where you want the POI to be. You will be asked to enter a label for the POI and to Save the POI with your choice of the lat/lon of the touch point or the current GPS lat/lon. POIs can be edited or deleted by touching the map near the POI. You will be prompted to either edit the label or POI latitude/longitude or to delete the POI.
After adding or editing a POI, pressing the "Disable POI Action" button will then prevent the user from inadvertently adding/editing a POI if the map is touched. As with all "Pins", either POIs or Waypoints, by touching the pin the location's latitude and longitude will be displayed. Pressing anywhere on the map will then remove the display of the Pin latitude/longitude. (Note: The Enable POI Action must not currently be enabled in order to view any Pin's latitude/longitude otherwise the POI would be placed in "Edit" mode)
k. Road: Displays only Apple's road maps.
l. Satellite: Displays only a satellite image.
m. Hybrid: Superimposes the road map on the satellite image.
n. Directions: Allows turn-by-turn directions with voice prompts to anywhere from your current location on the map using Apple Maps.
The following description describes the Menu buttons that are initially hidden from view on the Map view. The Menu buttons are made visible by pressing the "Show Menu" button on the bottom of the Map. The menu buttons can be hidden again by pressing the "Hide Menu" button. Two buttons ("Start/Stop/Clear Track" and "Hide/Un-Hide/Show Track") control whether a current track history line is displayed or not (red color). The "Save/Load/Unload Track" button saves the current track to a TKH file (Save), loads previously saved track history (Load), or removes the loaded track history from the screen (Unload). The track history loaded from a saved file is displayed in a magenta color to differentiate that history line from the current history line (red color). The time between track history points is a function of the speed (minimum 1 second, no maximum). Track history filenames can be generated by the user or generated automatically by the App. If the App generated name is selected the name will include the date and time of the start of the recording. The track history files have an extension of ".tkh". The TKH files may be deleted using either the Map View or the Settings View via the "Manage Track Files" button. From the map view, the user can save the current user position, on the track history line, as a waypoint/place-of-interest by pressing the Add WPT button. That will cause a red pin to be placed on the track with the name entered by the user. Touching the pin reveals the subtitle that contains the latitude and longitude of the waypoint/place of interest. Points-of-Interest (POI) map pins can also be added to the map, separately from the track history Waypoints/Places-of-Interest pins. These Map POI pins are also saved to a file and displayed whenever the App is started. The labels of the Map POI pins can be edited (Label or Latitude/longitude) and the Map POI pins can be deleted by the user. Note: the limit for the number of Waypoints on a track history line is 100. The Limit for the number of Map Points-Of-Interest is 400.
The Map view also provides the user the ability to enter the position of a "Mark". This allows distance to, and bearing from, the mark to be displayed. The user can enter a Mark position in two ways:
1. Using a keyboard to enter the latitude and longitude, or
2. Touching the desired Mark location on the Map.
The "Mark" appears on the Map as a red Pin with title "Mark". Touching the pin reveals the subtitle that contains:
1. The latitude and longitude of the Mark.
2. The distance from the user's current position to the mark.
3. The bearing from the user's current position to the Mark.
The distance and bearing shown are displayed in fields at the top of the Map view. The units of distance are the same distance units selected in the Main view for speed (e.g., if nautical miles per hour is selected, the pin will show the distance in nautical miles). The bearing is displayed in degrees, either relative to true or magnetic north, selectable using the Main view's course button. The Mark distance and bearing fields are visible only when a Mark has been added to the Map. If the Mark is not enabled or has been removed, the distance and bearing fields are hidden. When visible, the distance and bearing fields are updated every 5 seconds.
The Map view also contains the information available on the main view, including Latitude, Longitude, Elevation(altitude), Course, and Speed. The units of each field, in the map view, track the units of the respective fields currently set on the main view. Note that the speed will be Speed-Made-Good if that is what is selected on the main view. The "Directions" button allows the user to get turn-by-turn directions from the current location to anywhere, with voice prompts using Apple Maps. The Map View also shows the distance traveled for the current track history line and the loaded track history line, whenever the respective histories are being displayed. The units of distance are the same distance units of the speed units selected on the Main View. (e.g., if Miles Per Hour is selected as the speed, the history distance is in Miles)
Map View Buttons:
a. Follow/Unfollow: Press to have the Map follow your current location. Press again to no longer follow. Each time the button is pressed, its text is changed to indicate what the button will do if pressed again. When in follow mode, no "pinch" or "swipe" gestures will work.
b. In Zoom button: This button is active when the map is following the current location and zooms the map in to see more details.
c. Out Zoom button: This button is active when the map is following the current location and zooms the map out to see fewer details.
d. Start/Stop/Clear Track: Controls whether a line of track history points is displayed. The current track history line is displayed in a red color.
e. Hide/Unhide/Show Track: For temporarily hiding or unhiding the track history line when a track has been started or for showing the most recent track again after the track has been stopped, but before it has been saved or cleared.
f. Save/Load/Unload Track: Enables the saving of track history to a file and the loading of the track history from a directory of all saved track history files. It also Unloads a loaded track file history when desired. Track histories loaded from a file are displayed in a magenta color.
g. Add WPT: When a GPX Track file is enabled or a Track History is being displayed on the map, "the Add WPT" button is visible" and allows the user to enter a waypoint/place-of-interest name. If the GPX file is enabled, it will then contain a waypoint containing the name, time, latitude, longitude, elevation, and magnetic Variance (declination). Also, if the Track History is currently being displayed on the map, a named pin will be displayed on the track for that waypoint/place-of-interest.
h. Add/Remove Mark: Allows the user to enter a Mark position via a keyboard or by touching the map. The button is also used to remove the Mark from the Map, which disables the Speed-Made-Good functionality.
i. Manage Track Files: Allows the user to rename or delete any .tkh or .gpx file previously created.
j. Enable POI Action/Disable POI Action: To Add a POI, press the POI button and touch the map where you want the POI to be. You will be asked to enter a label for the POI and to Save the POI with your choice of the lat/lon of the touch point or the current GPS lat/lon. POIs can be edited or deleted by touching the map near the POI. You will be prompted to either edit the label or POI latitude/longitude or to delete the POI.
After adding or editing a POI, pressing the "Disable POI Action" button will then prevent the user from inadvertently adding/editing a POI if the map is touched. As with all "Pins", either POIs or Waypoints, by touching the pin the location's latitude and longitude will be displayed. Pressing anywhere on the map will then remove the display of the Pin latitude/longitude. (Note: The Enable POI Action must not currently be enabled in order to view any Pin's latitude/longitude otherwise the POI would be placed in "Edit" mode)
k. Road: Displays only Apple's road maps.
l. Satellite: Displays only a satellite image.
m. Hybrid: Superimposes the road map on the satellite image.
n. Directions: Allows turn-by-turn directions with voice prompts to anywhere from your current location on the map using Apple Maps.
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Extras View:
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Extras View:
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Extras View Light and Dark Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
Sunrise/Sunset times of day: There are two ways to compute the Sunrise/Sunset times of day:
1. The "Sun Centered" time is calculated as the time the geometric center of the sun drops below the horizon. However, due to half the sun still being above the horizon, the sun is still visible to a viewer. In addition, this calculation does not take into account the bending of the light by the atmosphere (refraction) which makes the sun be still visible for a short time after the sun has actually set.
2. The "Apparent" (i.e., what you actually see) sunrise/sunset calcuation takes into account the two factors mentioned above and is the preferred calculation method and is the method this App uses. The "Apparent" time will differ from the "Sun Centered" time by up to 5 minutes ("Apparent" sunrise earlier than "Sun Centered", and "Apparent" sunset later than actual). The sunrise/sunset of any day between the years 1582 and 3000 can be obtained by entering the desired date into the Sunrise/Sunset Calculator. Pressing the "Today" button will set the year-month-date fields to the current date. Pressing the "Compute" button will cause the calculation to be made for the entered date and the sunrise/sunset times to be displayed. To hide the keyboard, tap anywhere other than the keyboard, or press the "Compute" button.
The view also provides a Horizon Distance Calculator that calculates the distance you can see over the horizon for any height of an observer and any height of an object being viewed. Three sets of units can be selected for the observer/object height entries and distance result via a single button as follows:
1. Observer and Object height in feet, with sight distance in nautical miles (NM).
2. Observer and Object height in feet, with sight distance in statute miles (MI).
3. Observer and Object height in meters, with sight distance in kilometers (KM).
The units can be selected in a round-robin fashion by pressing the units button until the desired units are displayed. Once the units are selected, enter the heights of the Observer and (optional) Object and press the Calculate button. Note, if no object height is entered, distance from the observer to the visible horizon is calculated.
The view also provides two, independent, Trip Odometers. Each Trip Odometer may be manually paused for any period of time and then continued. The trip odometers will also be automatically paused when the speed is near zero (< 1) and will be automatically resumed when the speed increases again (>= 1). While a trip odometer is paused, for either reaon, the distance will not be updated. Each trip odometer can also be reset to 0.0. Trip distances reflect the distance units of the selected speed units from the main view (Miles, Nautical Miles or Kilometers). Each state of the odometers will be indicated by a different color as follows:
State: Background/Text Color: GPS required
-------------------------- ---------------------------- ----------------
Reset (not running) White No
Running (i.e. started
& unpaused) Green Yes
Manually paused Yellow No
Automatically paused Magenta No
The Trip odometer distances are saved to allow quitting the App and having the odometers be restored when the App is started again. When the App is restarted, they will be in the same state as they were when the App was last closed. i.e., running or paused or reset.
Important note to improve battery life!! When either trip odometer is active, it requires GPS position inputs. If you are finished using the trip odometers, either reset them or manually pause them to avoid the use of the GPS in the background when you are not actively using the iPhone App. This is also true when using the CourseSpeedWatch App. When that is in use, it launches the CourseSpeed App on the iPhone in the background. If you have either trip odometer running on the iPhone CourseSpeed App it will continue to use the GPS in the background even if the CourseSpeedWatch App becomes not visible on the watch. To tell if an iPhone app is using the GPS, the top of the iPhone display will turn blue, either in the upper lefthand corner (for newer phones with a notch) or in a band across the entire top of the display on older phones without a notch.
1. The "Sun Centered" time is calculated as the time the geometric center of the sun drops below the horizon. However, due to half the sun still being above the horizon, the sun is still visible to a viewer. In addition, this calculation does not take into account the bending of the light by the atmosphere (refraction) which makes the sun be still visible for a short time after the sun has actually set.
2. The "Apparent" (i.e., what you actually see) sunrise/sunset calcuation takes into account the two factors mentioned above and is the preferred calculation method and is the method this App uses. The "Apparent" time will differ from the "Sun Centered" time by up to 5 minutes ("Apparent" sunrise earlier than "Sun Centered", and "Apparent" sunset later than actual). The sunrise/sunset of any day between the years 1582 and 3000 can be obtained by entering the desired date into the Sunrise/Sunset Calculator. Pressing the "Today" button will set the year-month-date fields to the current date. Pressing the "Compute" button will cause the calculation to be made for the entered date and the sunrise/sunset times to be displayed. To hide the keyboard, tap anywhere other than the keyboard, or press the "Compute" button.
The view also provides a Horizon Distance Calculator that calculates the distance you can see over the horizon for any height of an observer and any height of an object being viewed. Three sets of units can be selected for the observer/object height entries and distance result via a single button as follows:
1. Observer and Object height in feet, with sight distance in nautical miles (NM).
2. Observer and Object height in feet, with sight distance in statute miles (MI).
3. Observer and Object height in meters, with sight distance in kilometers (KM).
The units can be selected in a round-robin fashion by pressing the units button until the desired units are displayed. Once the units are selected, enter the heights of the Observer and (optional) Object and press the Calculate button. Note, if no object height is entered, distance from the observer to the visible horizon is calculated.
The view also provides two, independent, Trip Odometers. Each Trip Odometer may be manually paused for any period of time and then continued. The trip odometers will also be automatically paused when the speed is near zero (< 1) and will be automatically resumed when the speed increases again (>= 1). While a trip odometer is paused, for either reaon, the distance will not be updated. Each trip odometer can also be reset to 0.0. Trip distances reflect the distance units of the selected speed units from the main view (Miles, Nautical Miles or Kilometers). Each state of the odometers will be indicated by a different color as follows:
State: Background/Text Color: GPS required
-------------------------- ---------------------------- ----------------
Reset (not running) White No
Running (i.e. started
& unpaused) Green Yes
Manually paused Yellow No
Automatically paused Magenta No
The Trip odometer distances are saved to allow quitting the App and having the odometers be restored when the App is started again. When the App is restarted, they will be in the same state as they were when the App was last closed. i.e., running or paused or reset.
Important note to improve battery life!! When either trip odometer is active, it requires GPS position inputs. If you are finished using the trip odometers, either reset them or manually pause them to avoid the use of the GPS in the background when you are not actively using the iPhone App. This is also true when using the CourseSpeedWatch App. When that is in use, it launches the CourseSpeed App on the iPhone in the background. If you have either trip odometer running on the iPhone CourseSpeed App it will continue to use the GPS in the background even if the CourseSpeedWatch App becomes not visible on the watch. To tell if an iPhone app is using the GPS, the top of the iPhone display will turn blue, either in the upper lefthand corner (for newer phones with a notch) or in a band across the entire top of the display on older phones without a notch.
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Privacy Policy View:
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Privacy Policy View:
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Privacy Policy View Light and Dark Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
This view displays the Santuit Software privacy policy. The Privacy Policy is also
available on the Santuit Software web page at:
https://santuit-sw.weebly.com/coursespeed-privacy-policy.html.
The Privacy Policy must be accepted by the user the first time the App is loaded and then again only when the policy changes. In those two instances, the App will open the Privacy Policy view on startup. The Privacy Policy may be viewed at any other time by going to the Settings view and clicking on the Privacy Policy button. It can also be viewed on our website at:
https://santuit-sw.weebly.com/coursespeed-privacy-policy.html
available on the Santuit Software web page at:
https://santuit-sw.weebly.com/coursespeed-privacy-policy.html.
The Privacy Policy must be accepted by the user the first time the App is loaded and then again only when the policy changes. In those two instances, the App will open the Privacy Policy view on startup. The Privacy Policy may be viewed at any other time by going to the Settings view and clicking on the Privacy Policy button. It can also be viewed on our website at:
https://santuit-sw.weebly.com/coursespeed-privacy-policy.html
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Manage Track File View:
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Manage Track File View:
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Manage Track File View Screen Shots (Click to enlarge):
Manage Track File View Light Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
Manage Track File View Dark Mode Screen Shots (Click to enlarge)
The Manage Track File view is entered from either the Settings View or the Map View.
1. From the Map View: When entered from the Map view, a directory of saved Track File History files (.tkh extension) and their sizes is presented in an alphabetized table format for selection. When one is selected, you are taken back to the Map View and the Track History, from the selected file, is displayed on the map in a magenta color to distinguish it from any current track history which is displayed in a red color.
2. From the Settings View: When entered from the Settings View, two types of files and their sizes are presented in an alphabetized table format for maintenance (renaming or deletion) of the files on the device. The file types presented are:
a. Track History files (.tkh extension)
b. GPX format Track files (.gpx extension)
Any file may be deleted via one of the following two methods:
a. Swiping to the left on any table entry and clicking on the "Delete" button.
(To cancel the operation, click on the entry away from the "Delete" button or click on the "Edit" button)
b. Pressing the "Edit" button then pressing the red "-" button and then pressing the "Delete" button. (To cancel the operation, click on the entry away from the "Delete" button or click on the "Cancel" button).
The App will alert the user if they are deleting a GPX or TKH File that is in use and instructs the user as to how to close the file so that the file can then be deleted.
Any file may be renamed by clicking on the table entry and entering the new name in the pop up window. The App will alert the user of a user-entered file name that is blank or a duplicate of another, existing file.
********************************
Saving Tracks to a
GPX format file:
********************************
CourseSpeed has the capability to create a GPS Exchange Format (GPX) file containing track position data including latitude, longitude, elevation (meters), course, speed (meters/sec), magnetic variation (declination in degrees), date, and time. Track points are saved periodically. The time between points is a function of the speed (minimum 1 second, no maximum). The GPX file may be offloaded from the App using the mac computer Finder application (macOS Catalina or later) or the iTunes application (prior to macOS Catalina or on a windows PC) when the GPX file is no longer needed on the iPhone/iPad. Enabling/disabling of the recording of each GPX format track file is performed from the "settings" view. GPX track filenames are generated automatically and include the date and time of the start of the recording. The GPX files have an extension of ".gpx". GPX files may be deleted from the Settings View via the "Manage Track Files" button.
Using your GPS Exchange Format (GPX) Track file:
The GPX track files produced by the Course Speed App can be used as inputs to a number of mapping programs available on-line that show graphically what was recorded. Follow either of the following methods to get the GPX file from your device and then view the track on a map:
Getting GPX file from your CourseSpeed App:
Before you can use any of the mapping sites/programs you need to get the GPX file from your device as follows:
A. Transferring files using an Apple Mac computer running macOS Catalina (or later):
1. Open a Finder window on the mac.
2. Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer with a USB cable.
3. Select your device in the Finder.
4. Click the Files tab to see a list of apps that can share files.
5. Find the CourseSpeed App in the list.
6. Click the ">" next to the CourseSpeed app to see the files that you can share.
7. Finally, select the file(s) you want moved from the iPhone and drag them to a directory of your choosing on the Mac. When you use one of the mapping programs, above, you will navigate to this same directory on your Mac to upload the .gpx files to the GPX mapping program.
8. If you want to delete the .gpx files (and you should to keep as much space available on the iPhone), select the .gpx file(s) and hit the "delete" key on the keyboard. Note that you can also delete any CourseSpeed generated file using the CourseSpeed app via the Manage Files view.
B. Transferring files using an Apple Mac computer running a macOS prior to macOS Catalina or using a Windows computer:
1. Connect the iPhone to either an Apple computer or a Windows computer that has Apple's iTunes installed.
2. Start Apple iTunes.
3. Click on the iPhone icon, near the top of the page, left side. This should now show your iPhone and a list under "settings".
4. Select File Sharing. This should bring up the File Sharing screen. Wait for the App icons to be displayed under "Apps".
5. Once the apps are displayed, scroll to the CourseSpeed app and click on the icon. That should now show files in the Documents area (right side of the screen). The GPX track files are marked with CourseSpeed_GPX_Track_*.gpx.
6. Finally, select the file(s) you want moved from the iPhone and drag them to a directory of your choosing on your computer. When you use one of the mapping programs, above, you will navigate to this same directory to upload the .gpx files to the GPX mapping program.
7. If you want to delete the .gpx files (and you should to keep as much space available on the iPhone), select the .gpx file(s) and hit the "delete" key on the keyboard. Note that you can also delete any CourseSpeed generated file using the CourseSpeed app via the Manage Files view.
Note: there is another file, CourseSpeedSettingsData.txt in the Documents section. Do not delete that file. If you do, it's not a big deal but you will just lose your latest settings that you set up when using the CourseSpeed app. CourseSpeed will regenerate the file with the default settings if it finds that file is missing.
Viewing a GPX track file on a map:
The GPX track files produced by the Course Speed App can be used as inputs to a number of mapping programs available on-line that show graphically what was recorded. A few of these programs are as follows:
1. Google MyMaps (www.google.com/mymaps) - This is a free on-line website by Google that imports GPX files directly. In the menu, click on "Create a new map". A new map should appear with a small options window opening at the side. In the options window, click on "Import" and follow the instructions to upload the GPX file from your computer. When it is loaded, you can zoom in and click on individual track points to view all the data for that track point.
2. Outdooractive.com - This is a free on-line web site. From the home page, in the menu at the top, Click on "Tours" -> "Route Planner". Then, in the "Import GPX track" window click "Browse" and select your .gpx file and "open". Finally, click "Import".
3. TrailRunner.mini - (Apple Mac only??) This is a program that you purchase, either outright, or pay for by the month or year (About $12/year). I use this because it has a nice interface to allow you to see the route on the map and a graph of the speed and altitude above the track. As you move the cursor, each point on the map is also indicated with a vertical line on the graph to easily read the data.
1. Google MyMaps (www.google.com/mymaps) - This is a free on-line website by Google that imports GPX files directly. In the menu, click on "Create a new map". A new map should appear with a small options window opening at the side. In the options window, click on "Import" and follow the instructions to upload the GPX file from your computer. When it is loaded, you can zoom in and click on individual track points to view all the data for that track point.
2. Outdooractive.com - This is a free on-line web site. From the home page, in the menu at the top, Click on "Tours" -> "Route Planner". Then, in the "Import GPX track" window click "Browse" and select your .gpx file and "open". Finally, click "Import".
3. TrailRunner.mini - (Apple Mac only??) This is a program that you purchase, either outright, or pay for by the month or year (About $12/year). I use this because it has a nice interface to allow you to see the route on the map and a graph of the speed and altitude above the track. As you move the cursor, each point on the map is also indicated with a vertical line on the graph to easily read the data.
Sample GPX file output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gpx version="1.1" creator="CourseSpeed V5.2(3) - https://santuit-sw.weebly.com">
<time>2018-12-07T10-03-09.0</time>
<trk>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="42.359352" lon="-71.448099"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:14.050Z</time><ele>61.501229</ele><speed>0.000000</speed><course>1.054688</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359329" lon="-71.448110"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:19.069Z</time><ele>61.006833</ele><speed>0.000000</speed><course>0.000000</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<wpt lat="42.359329" lon="-71.448110"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:21.075Z</time><ele>60.979559</ele><magvar>-14.43</magvar><name>Home</name></wpt>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="42.359330" lon="-71.448118"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:26.078Z</time><ele>61.094214</ele><speed>0.000000</speed><course>18.984375</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359347" lon="-71.448151"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:31.078Z</time><ele>61.319170</ele><speed>0.108084</speed><course>192.304688</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359289" lon="-71.448162"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:36.074Z</time><ele>61.759483</ele><speed>0.890862</speed><course>205.936649</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359272" lon="-71.448189"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:41.044Z</time><ele>62.343965</ele><speed>1.001499</speed><course>201.180371</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359342" lon="-71.447936"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:46.069Z</time><ele>62.663816</ele><speed>2.861919</speed><course>151.080691</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359357" lon="-71.447581"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:51.038Z</time><ele>61.737976</ele><speed>4.646543</speed><course>91.833500</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>
</gpx>
<gpx version="1.1" creator="CourseSpeed V5.2(3) - https://santuit-sw.weebly.com">
<time>2018-12-07T10-03-09.0</time>
<trk>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="42.359352" lon="-71.448099"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:14.050Z</time><ele>61.501229</ele><speed>0.000000</speed><course>1.054688</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359329" lon="-71.448110"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:19.069Z</time><ele>61.006833</ele><speed>0.000000</speed><course>0.000000</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
</trkseg>
<wpt lat="42.359329" lon="-71.448110"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:21.075Z</time><ele>60.979559</ele><magvar>-14.43</magvar><name>Home</name></wpt>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="42.359330" lon="-71.448118"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:26.078Z</time><ele>61.094214</ele><speed>0.000000</speed><course>18.984375</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359347" lon="-71.448151"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:31.078Z</time><ele>61.319170</ele><speed>0.108084</speed><course>192.304688</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359289" lon="-71.448162"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:36.074Z</time><ele>61.759483</ele><speed>0.890862</speed><course>205.936649</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359272" lon="-71.448189"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:41.044Z</time><ele>62.343965</ele><speed>1.001499</speed><course>201.180371</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359342" lon="-71.447936"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:46.069Z</time><ele>62.663816</ele><speed>2.861919</speed><course>151.080691</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
<trkpt lat="42.359357" lon="-71.447581"><time>2018-12-07T15:03:51.038Z</time><ele>61.737976</ele><speed>4.646543</speed><course>91.833500</course><magvar>-14.43</magvar></trkpt>
</trkseg>
</trk>
</gpx>
iPhone Screen Shots:
(Click to Enlarge)
iPhone Light Mode Screen Shots (Click to Enlarge)
iPhone Dark Mode Screen Shots (Click to Enlarge)
Version History (latest to earliest)
Version 8.15(11)
- Added an Anchor-Watch function, for boaters, that sounds an alert tone when a boat at anchor is found to move by an unacceptable distance, selectable by the user. The selectable distance is saved to a file in order to have the same setting when restarting the App.
- Changed Speed-Made-Good-to-Mark functionality to Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward. Added operator entry for wind direcction and as a switch in the Settings view to enable the Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward function. Saved the value of wind direction and the enable/disable status of the new switch to a file in order to have the same settings when restarting the App. You can still add a Mark on the map and still see the distance and bearing to the Mark in the same fields on the Map view.
- Fixed an issue in the Map View where a track history could not be stopped if a waypoint was added to the current track history track and there was not a GPX track recording started.
- Better rejection of obviously bad GPS receiver locations.
- In certain instances, when it is questionable whether the GPS receiver's speed or course is correct, we are computing speed and course from the last two GPS receiver latitude/longitude pairs instead of using the GPS receiver values for speed and course.
- When course is changing quickly, e.g. turning sharply, display the new course immediately instead of passing it through the course smoothing algorithm.
- Other, non visible improvements.
Version 8.14(2)
- Undo a change made in Version 8.13(3) that inadvertently caused the Map view to be updated at a one second rate instead of a 0.1 second rate.
Version 8.13(3)
- Corrected the algorithm for computing "Julian Day" to include the current time zone offset from UTC time. Julian Day is used in all astronomical calculations, including in the CourseSpeed App's Apple Watch "Sun Rise/Set" complication showing sunrise and sunset times of day.
- Other, non visible improvements.
Version 8.12(2)
- Added an Apple watch "complication" to show the times of Sunrise and Sunset at your current location. The times are calculated and updated periodically as the Sunrise and Sunset times will change based on your current position. The calculations for the times of sun rise/set take into account the light refraction at the horizon as well as the radius of the sun. Both are needed in order to accurately represent the time at which the observer actually sees the sun rise/set.
The following complication families are supported:
Modular Small, Modular Large,
Utilitarian Large, Utilitarian Small Flat,
Extra Large,
Graphic Corner, Graphic Bezel, Graphic Rectangle, and Graphic Extra Large.
Add the Sun Rise/Set complication to your watch as you would any other Apple Watch complication.
- Other, non visible improvements.
Version 8.11(2)
- Added the ability to start, stop, clear, and save tracks from the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Added current track distance field to the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Changed when track history points get stored from a time base to a distance base.
- Made changes to the speed and course computations when the GPS receiver gives a position update but not a valid speed or course update (i.e., compute speed and course from the last two valid measurement lat/lon positions).
- Other, non-visible, improvements.
Version 8.10(4)
- Changed the commands to Apple's Location Manager that provides the GPS receiver position updates. In previous builds, the App was requesting every location update (which occurred every second). Changed the Location Manager commands such that it now sends position updates whenever the iPhone moves more then 3.6 meters (12 Feet). This eliminates the problem of receiving position updates when stopped that actually indicate that you are moving (speed non-zero).
- Changed the Speed and Course smoothing "Alpha" values due to the changes to the Location Manager settings.
- Updated units conversion constants to contain more fractional digits for more accuracy.
- Disabled the Map View periodic timer when the Map View is no longer visible and no track is in progress.
- Other internal, non-visible, improvements.
- In the CourseSpeedWatch App, changed the "Getting Data" indication to "Synching" whenever the watch is waiting for data from the CourseSpeed iPhone App.
Version 8.9(11)
- Added Trip Odometer buttons to the CourseSpeedWatch App to Start, Stop, Pause and Reset the Trip Odometers. The functionality is identical with that on the iPhone App but now more convenient.
- Corrected the Trip Odometer state colors on the CourseSpeedWatch App to match the colors on the CourseSpeed iPhone App.
- Made the Trip Odometer units part of the value field. Units abbreviations are: MI, NM, or KM. (Miles, Nautical Miles, Kilometers). Removed the previously separate odometer distance units text line.
- When the Watch App is waiting for the iPhone App to provide data, e.g., at startup of the iPhone App or when the Watch App becomes active (visible) again, now writing "Getting Data" to the watch display fields.
Version 8.8(5)
- Made the location horizontal and vertical accuracy units be in meters as well as feet (Tracks the units of distance of the currently selected speed units).
- Updated the CourseSpeedWatch App for the Location Accuracy units change in the iPhone App.
- Fixed an issue with the trip odometers in which the first point used in determining the distance between points is from an earlier time for which the location is not the location where the odometer was started. This may have given the odometer an immediate error, potentially miles.
Version 8.7(2)
- Fixed an issue with a change made to the previous build that caused the trip odometers to be twice what the actual distance is.
- Fixed an issue when the user returns to the Map view where the current track history was not being redisplayed on the map under certain conditions.
- Fixed an issue which caused the map position center to move about when regular updates are not being received from the GPS receiver and the speed is near zero.
Version 8.6(9)
- Made internal improvements to the communication between the CourseSpeed iPhone App and a connected Apple watch running the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Enabled the iPhone to determine whether it needs to run, or not, in the background using the iPhone GPS receiver in order to support the watch App.
- Changed the way the trip odometer increments the distance traveled every position update for speeds near zero and with poor GPS coverage.
- In the main view, selecting one of the buttons to change the units of a data item will now immediately convert the data field value to the new units instead of waiting for a new position update.
- See note in the CourseSpeed iPhone App "About" text in the Trip Odometer section for a note indicating when the iPhone GPS is being used for each Trip Odometer state. This becomes more important when using the CourseSpeedWatch app.
Version 8.5(2)
- When the "Mark" is active, and the iPhone App selected speed is "Speed Made Good", set the Watch App speed label as "Speed Made Good".
- On the Watch app, split both horizontal and Vertical Accuracy data fields into a data field and a units field. (previously the data and units were all one field) This was done in order to have the units field a different color than the data field.
- Made the Watch App units fields a different color than the label/data fields.
- For the Watch App, changed horizontal/Vertical alignment attributes for new units fields to be left/center.
- For the iPhone App, made the Speed field minimum size smaller for smaller iPhones and km/hr speed units.
Version 8.4(0)
- Increased the CourseSpeedWatch App's time as the "frontmost" App to 8 minutes.
- Shortened the field names Azimuth and Elevation to Azim and Elev on the CourseSpeedWatch app to avoid truncating their respective values on a 38mm Apple Watch.
Version 8.3(0)
- Added the following fields to the CourseSpeedWatch App:
GPS Horizontal Accuracy, GPS Vertical Accuracy, Sun Azimuth, and Sun Elevation.
- Added the units of each watch field (e.g. MPH)
Note: The units reflect those that have been selected in the CourseSpeed iPhone app.
Version 8.2(1)
- Added "No Data" text in each watch data field when data has not been received from the iPhone within the last seven seconds.
- Fixed the Trip odometer auto-pause color in the watch App such that it is the same magenta color as in the iPhone app.
Version 8.1(3)
- Added a button to show/hide the "About" information for the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Made the CourseSpeedWatch App automatically start the CourseSpeed iPhone App if the watch App is started without the iPhone App already running. When started this way, the CourseSpeed iPhone App will run in the "Background" mode to provide the data to the watch App. You can bring the iPhone App to the foreground at any time by pressing the blue highlighted Time field on a newer iPhone (with a notch) or by pressing the very top, blue, line of an earlier iPhone. Don't forget to terminate both the iPhone App and the watch App when no longer in use to save resources (e.g. battery).
- Added Trip 1 & Trip 2 state colors to the values in the CourseSpeedWatch App that match the colors on the iPhone App. (Inactive: White; Active: Green; Manually Paused: Orange; Automatically Paused: Purple)
- Added a CourseSpeedWatch App version string separate from the iPhone App's version string. If the versions don't match, the CourseSpeedWatch App will present the version in Red.
Version 8.0(10):
CourseSpeedWatch:
- Created an Apple Watch "CourseSpeedWatch" that is now available for use with a paired iPhone running the CourseSpeed App. The CourseSpeedWatch App requires an Apple Watch running watchOS V5.0 or later. See description in the "App Summary", above.
CourseSpeed iPhone changes:
- Made the entry of a "Speed-Made-Good" Mark and "Point of Interest" entry on the Map View mutually exclusive. i.e., hide the button of one when the other button action is active.
- Added text on the Map View Map whenever an Add POI or Add Mark is being processed. Each is a reminder to the user that the respective Add is still active and the user should complete the action.
Version 7.11(0)
- Added text to the Map View for the case when an "Add Mark" has been requested, but the location of the mark on the map has not been touched by the user. The text reads: "Touch Map to Complete Mark Add Action or Select Rem Mark to cancel Mark Add"
Version 7.10(16)
- Set segue presentation attribute to "Full Screen". This is necessary to get the segue view to be full screen due to an iOS 13 change.
Version 7.10(15)
- Test features not implemented.
Version 7.10(14)
- Updated the App to support Apple's "Light and Dark Interface" modes. Dark mode was introduced in iOS 13 and if you use the most up-to-date iOS you will see the full changes for Dark Mode in the App. If you have an older device that does not support iOS 13 or you select not to upgrade to iOS 13 you will see only "Light" mode, which is the only Interface mode prior to iOS 13. For iOS 13, "Light and Dark" mode may be selected in the iPhone settings App under Display & Brightness -> Appearance -> Dark (or Light).
- Changed the method used to determine whether the Privacy Policy view should be displayed at startup due to a change in the Privacy Policy. The original method did not consider the case where the user did not update the App to the version in which the privacy policy changed. If the user then upgraded to a later version he would not be shown the new privacy policy of the version he did not load.
- Reduced the height of the Map View Menu buttons slightly.
Version 7.9(1) Saved trip odometer distances to allow quitting the App and having the odometers be restored when the App is started again. When the App is restarted, they will be in the same state as they were when the App was last closed. i.e., running or paused or reset.
Version 7.7(1)
-Trip Odometers now auto-pause for speeds less than one and auto-resume for speeds greater than or equal to one.
- Updated the Privacy Policy to make it clear that the only time we ask for any personal information is when the user contacts us via our website. Never while using the mobile application.
- Updated the "about" text to reflect changes in transferring files from your apple device using macOS Catalina (or later macOS).
Version 7.6(4)
Fixed a problem that caused the App to not continue to update the GPS position in a GPX file when the App is in the background. This occurred as follows:
1. Start a GPX file recording in the Settings view.
2. Start a track history recording in the Map View.
3. Stop the track history recording.
4. Place the App in the background (i.e. open another app)
Backgrouond position updates would erroneously NOT be saved in the GPX file as they should be.
Version 7.6(0)
- Added Trip 1 and Trip 2 Odometers to the Extras View.
- Trip distances reflect the distance units of the selected speed units from the main view.
- Trip distances will not be updated when speed is < 1 unit of whatever speed units are selected on the main view.
- Made button and text field fonts the same on all views.
Version 7.5(0)
- Made the Map View menu buttons 67% larger (You can still hide the menu).
Version 7.4(7)
- Fixed a bug when deleting a Point Of Interest (POI) that would cause the names of subsequent new POI names to become part of another, existing POI.
- Added an option, when adding a Point Of Interest on the Map screen, to allow the user to choose to have either:
(new): 1. the App use the current GPS position for the POI, or
(existing): 2. the App use the user touched position.
This makes it easy to put a POI at your current location without having to zoom in enough to get an accurate position when touching the screen with your finger.
- Changed POI edit distance to 0.04 miles from 0.05 miles. (Helps to prevent editing the wrong POI)
- Added the total number of bytes used for all files to the list of files in the ManageTrackFile view.
- Changed the Location Manager 'Desired Accuracy' setting to be kCLLocationAccuracyBest instead of kCLLocationAccuracyBestForNavigation. This should improve battery life.
- Made the Map menu buttons text slighly larger.
- Made the main page latitude/longitude button text smaller to fit on an iPhone SE.
Version 7.3(3)
- Removed the selection wheel for the course filter type in the settings view. Replaced it with three toggle switches that are mutually exclusive.
Version 7.2(4)
- Fixed a potential App crash problem when "Unhiding" a track history when the history had waypoints associated with it.
- Fixed an issue where the "Hide Menu" button on the Map view was being set to orange instead of black when you are in the map view with a black "Hide Menu" button and you go "Back" to the Main view and then to the Map view again.
- Changed the distance between the latitude and longitude fields to be zero to avoid a non-fatal constraint error when starting up with no GPS data.
Version 7.1(1)
- In the Extras View, added a Horizon Distance "Clear" button that clears the two input fields, Observer Height and Object Height.
- In the Extras View, Fixed the Horizon Distance Calculator such that, if you change the units, the observer height and object height are changed to the new selected units and the distance is recalculated in the new distance units.
- In the Map View, changed the "Hide Menu" button text color to be black instead of orange.
- Removed the NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription key in the info.plist file since the App does not use the location except when the app is in use. (not the "always" case).
Version 7.0(1)
- Fixed an issue that could cause a cleared track history to be displayed for a newly started track for which "Hide Track" and "Unhide Track" are pressed before the new track has been updated by Apple's location services.
- Changed the "Hide Menu" button background color to match the other buttons and increased the font size of the "Hide/Show" Menu buttons.
- Cleaned up code from V6.5.
Version 6.5(3)
- Added a "Show/Hide Menu" button on the Map page to show/hide the menu buttons on the bottom of the screen. This will free up space on the map view. The new Menu button is on the bottom of the Map. The map now defaults to having the menu hidden.
-Fixed the Sunrise/Sunset fields, used for entering the Date, to always line up with the text description of those fields in the line below.
Version 6.4(1)
- Fixed an issue introduced in V6.0 that caused some track history coordinates,
written to a track history file, to not be loaded correctly.
- Fixed an issue when there is only one Map Point-Of-Interest, and it is deleted by the user, that it is not removed from the POI file.
- Limited the number of Points-Of-Interest read from the POI file to the maximum allowed by the App.
- Added an Alert for attempting to add a Point-Of-Interest beyond the maximum allowed by the App.
Version 6.3(0)
- Added the ability to edit the Latitude/Longitude of a Point-Of-Interest.
- Used a different, cleaner, method of reading track history from a file.
- Used a different, cleaner, method of reading Points-of-Interest from a file.
Version 6.2(0)
- Updated the "About" text for functional additions of Version 6.1(5).
Version 6.1(5)
- Added the ability to add Point-Of-Interest (POI) pins anywhere on the map, save them to a file and reload them from the file each time the App is used. To allow the user to add, modify, or delete POIs, an "Enable POI Action" / "Disable POI Action" button was added to the Map View. To Add a POI, press the POI button and touch the map where you want the POI to be. You will be asked to enter a label for the POI and to Save the POI. POIs can be edited or deleted by touching near the POI. You will be prompted to either edit the label or to delete the POI. After adding or editing a POI, pressing the "Disable POI Action" button will then prevent the user from inadvertently adding/editing a POI if the map is touched. As with all "Pins", either POIs or Waypoints, by touching the pin the location's latitude and longitude will be displayed.
- Fixed a problem of Waypoint Labels losing all but the first word of the label when a track history file is loaded to the map. Note that the labels were originally stored in the track history file correctly, so if you upgrade to this version, V6.1(4), the Waypoint labels will be correct without any editing. Note that, as of yet, you cannot edit a Waypoint label as you can a POI label.
Version 6.0(0)
- Incorporated NOAA's World Magnetic Model 2015v2. Ordinarily, each release is good for five years and it was expected that the Model 2015 would be good through 2020. However, this release of the out-of-cycle WMM (2015v2) was necessary to address the degraded performance of the WMM2015 in the Arctic region. WMM 2015v2 is valid through 2019. It will be updated again by NOAA in 2020.
Version 5.12(3)
- Added file size to the list of files in Manage Track File View.
- Changed the color of the loaded track button text from yellow to magenta to match the color of the loaded track history line.
- Made the Extras View fit on the screen in iPhone landscape mode for iPhone models down to the 4s.
- Made the Settings View fit on the screen in iPhone landscape mode for iPhone models down to the 4s.
Version 5.11(3)
- Added distance travelled to current track and loaded track histories. The distance is displayed above the map for each track type. The Track distances are computed in statute miles but are displayed in the distance units of the speed selected in the Main View. (e.g. Statute miles for Miles-Per-Hour speed selection, etc.). The distance of each track is stored in the saved track history file (.TKH) in statute miles and used when the track history file is reloaded on the map.
- Changed the update period of the Mark distance and bearing to 10 Seconds from 30 seconds.
- Fixed the Manage Files view and Privacy Policy view to auto rotate the display when the iPhone/iPad is turned sideways or upside down (matches all the other views now).Version 5.10(3)
- In the Speed-Made-Good to Mark Pin subtitle, added the distance from the current user position to the Mark in the distance units of the Speed selected in the Main View. Also added the bearing to the Mark in the pin subtitle in either degrees true or degrees magnetic, based upon the Course angle type selected in the Main View.
- Added Speed Made Good distance and bearing fields in the Map View. Hid these fields when a Mark is not enabled. These fields have the same units as in the Mark Pin.
- Mark distance and bearing are updated in the Mark Pin and Map View fields every 30 seconds.
- Added Cancel option to the Add Mark button Alert.
Version V5.9(4):
- Changed the calculation of Julian Day to match Jean Meeus' book, page 61 that is good for all dates in both the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar that begins on 10/15/1582.
- Added Julian Day to the Extras view.
- Allowing Solar Calculator dates outside of the nominal years of 1582 to 3000 to be entered. An alert with a warning of reduced accuracy is presented in those cases and the calculations are still performed.
-Added the determination and display of "Speed Made Good" towards a user entered mark (useful for sailors and hikers). The "Mark" position is entered by the operator from the Map view by pushing the "Add Mark" button and then touching the desired location on the map or by entering the location via a keypad. The Mark appears as a map Pin labeled "Mark". The "Speed Made Good" can be either positive (towards the Mark), or negative (away from the Mark). The display of "Speed Made Good" is selected on the Main view by pushing the "speed" button to select one of three "Speed Made Good" options, i.e., "Speed Made Good Miles per Hour", "Speed Made Good Knots", "Speed Made Good Kilometers per Hour".
- Added Latitude and Longitude to the subtitle field of all Map pins (Track Waypoints and the Speed Made Good Mark).
Version V5.9(0):
- Changed the calculation of Julian Day to match Jean Meeus' book, page 61 that is good for all dates in both the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar that begins on 10/15/1582.
- Added Julian Day to the Extras view.V5.8(0):
- Corrected the Julian Day calculation that was off by one day (too low). Julian Day is used in the calculation of the sun position and times of day involving the sun, so this change corrects those fields also.
Version 5.6(5):
- Changed to a different, more accurate, set of astronomical algorithms for computing the sun related quantities. The App now uses the algorithms from the book "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus.
- Added a Sunrise/Sunset calculator on the Extras page. This Allows the user to enter, via a keyboard, the day, month, & year, that are used to compute the Sunrise/Sunset times. A "Today" button was also added to set the current date quickly.
V5.7(1)
- Fixed the displayed Sunset Time to be rounded to the nearest minute, as the Sunset Time currently is.
- Fixed the displayed Solar Elevation Angle to be the value "Solar Elevation Corrected for Atmospheric Refraction" value instead of the uncorrected "Solar Elevation Angle" value.
Version 5.5(2):
- Expanded the "Usage Description", that the user must acknowledge in order for the App to access Location Services data, to the following: "Your current location, course, and speed are displayed in label fields on multiple pages. Your location is also displayed on the map page and is used for providing directions and estimated travel time to your entered destination as well as for determining nearby places of interest".
- Fixed missing track point in .gpx file when a waypoint is added.
- Use the GPSr location at the moment of pushing the "Add WPT" button instead of the location at the time of the file name submittal.
- Added protection to prevent the user from entering file names with non-alpha-numeric characters that would cause the operation to fail or perhaps crash.
- Allow the user to cancel out of saving a track history file, as is done for renaming a file.
- Don't allow a blank file name when saving a track history file.
- Fix the label of the Unload Track Button for the iPhone SE.
- Increase the precision of the latitudes and longitudes saved to Track History (.tkh) and GPX Track (.gpx) files to 12 decimal places.
- Make the text heading of the ManageTrackFile view context sensitive, i.e., Different explanation text for loading a track history file vs renaming/deleting a file.
Version 5.4(1): - Added a "Manage Track Files" button on the Map page so that you don't have to navigate to the Settings page to click the "Manage Track Files" button there. Left the "Manage Track Files" button in the settings page, however.
-Put up an alert to the user if they create more than the maximum number of waypoints/places of interest (100) on a track history line. However, the waypoint is still stored in the track history file. Upon load of a track history file, only the maximum allowed number of waypoints will be loaded, if more than the maximum number are in the .tkh file. If it is necessary, in a later change, to increase the allowed maximum to a larger number, reloading the .tkh file will then have all the waypoints.
Version 5.3(3) :
Added Pin "annotations" to the map for saving place/waypoint names and coordinates.
Added Pin coordinates and Labels to the Track History File (.tkh).
Allows users to create the Track History filename themselves, or use the App provided default name, when saving the track history to a file.
Version 5.2(4):
- Improves the user interface for the file management of the Track History File (.tkh) and GPX Track File (.gpx) files. The App now alerts the user if they are deleting a GPX or TKH File that is in use and instructs the user as to how to close the file so that the file can then be deleted.
- The App now alerts the user of a user-entered file name that is blank or a duplicate of another, existing file.
For a GPX file, the user can now add a Waypoint via a "Add WPT" button on the Map View. The GPX file will then contain a waypoint containing the name, time, latitude, longitude, elevation, and magnetic Variance (declination).
- Other minor code cleanup/improvements.
Version 5.1(1) Adds the capability to rename any Track History file (.tkh) or GPX Track file (.gpx). The Track History and GPX Track file names are initially assigned by the App to have the type of file and date and time embedded in the name. With this version, the user can now rename any file as they like in order to better describe what it contains. Also, the text in the table of file names has been made left justified instead of centered and is now alphabetized. Note, Version 5.0(9) previously added the capability to delete any of these .tkh or .gpx files.
Version 5.0(9) In the Map View, added the ability to save the current track history to a file and to load it back at any time, including after restarting the App. Any number of Track Histories may be saved. Both the real time Track History and the file loaded Track History are visible on the map simultaneously. The real time Track History line is displayed in red while any loaded Track History line is displayed in magenta. A Manage Track File view has been added to maintain (delete) any Track File History files (.tkh) or GPX formatted Track Files (.gpx) created with the app without having to use Apple's File Sharing feature in iTunes.
Also changed the way the Privacy Policy will be displayed. It will now only be displayed on App start-up when the policy changes. You can still view it at any time from the Settings View.
Version 4.0(8) Added a track history line on the map view controlled by two buttons (Start/Stop Track, and Hide/Unhide/Load Track). Once started, the track line is displayed until Stop Track is selected. After starting, and subsequently stopping, the track history line, you may reload the line again by using the Load track button. Note: When tracking, the location manager is allowed to run in the background in order to have a complete set of track history points for the display when the App comes into the foreground again.
This Version will also remember the map zoom level and Follow/Unfollow button states when moving out of the map view and back again.Version 3.2(2) Minor changes to fix conflicting display constraints.
Version 3.1(1) Made "Display Speeds Near Zero Enabled" switch label auto-shrink font to prevent switch from being pushed off the screen on smaller iPhones.
Version 3.0(4) Added a setting, on the settings page, to enable or disable the displaying of speeds less than 1.0
Version 2.9(2) Updated the "about" text.
Version 2.9(1) Fixed problems with smaller iPhones (SE, 4S) where some text fields were being clipped or zero height. Set Deployment Target to IOS 10.3.
Version 2.8(1) Fix error in determining magnetic course from true course. Fix other views' (Map and Extras) buttons from being covered by the "other apps actively using your location" warning
Version 2.7(5) Moved the "Units" buttons to be above the field they refer to instead of beneath the field. Moved everything down from the top in order to prevent the Apple generated warning of "other apps actively using your location" from partially covering the top most buttons.
Version 2.6(8) Adds an "Extras" view that contains calculations for the time of Sunrise and Sunset, as well as the Sun's current Azimuth and Elevation. It also now has a Horizon Distance Calculator that calculates the distance you can see for any height of an observer and any height of an object.
Version 2.5(1) Replaced the App icons.
Version 2.4(1) Added Turn-by-Turn navigation with voice commands from your current location to anywhere using Apple's maps and navigation from maps.apple.com! Also, made the map view update rate higher to get smoother map scrolling when you are moving fast. Minor map view field tweaks.
Version 2.3(4) Added a Map view as either Apple's standard road map, a satellite map, or a hybrid map combining the road map and satellite view . The map defaults to following the latest measured position. Zoom buttons, active only in the "follow" mode, allow for zooming in or out while the map is following your location. A button to "Un-follow" is available to allow you to use the standard Apple touch commands for moving about the map and zooming in and out with the standard "pinch" and "swipe" gestures. The map view also contains the information available on the main view, including Latitude, Longitude, Elevation(altitude), Course, and Speed. The units of each field, in the map view, track the units of the respective fields currently set on the main view.
Version 2.2(3) Increases the size of the Latitude, Longitude, Elevation, and Speed fields. Updated "About" text to include how to export GPX track files and how to import them to web based mapping programs.
Version 2.1(4) Added Elevation (altitude) as well as both horizontal and vertical accuracy to the main view. Elevation may be displayed in the units of feet or meters. The units can be changed by pressing the Elevation button above the Elevation label field. Horizontal and vertical accuracy are displayed below the Elevation field and are in the units of feet only.
Version 2.0(3) added the capability to create a GPS Exchange Format (GPX) file containing track position data including latitude, longitude, elevation (meters), course, speed (meters/sec), magnetic variation (declination in degrees), date, and time. Track points are saved periodically. The time between points is a function of the speed (minimum 1 second, maximum 5 seconds). Apple "File sharing" has been enabled in order to offload the GPX file from the App using iTunes and to remove GPX files from the device when no longer needed. Enabling/disabling of the recording of each GPX format track file is performed from the "settings" view. Use iTunes file sharing to export the files. GPX track filenames are generated automatically and include the date and time of the start of the recording. The GPX files have an extension of ".gpx".
- Added an Anchor-Watch function, for boaters, that sounds an alert tone when a boat at anchor is found to move by an unacceptable distance, selectable by the user. The selectable distance is saved to a file in order to have the same setting when restarting the App.
- Changed Speed-Made-Good-to-Mark functionality to Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward. Added operator entry for wind direcction and as a switch in the Settings view to enable the Speed-Made-Good-to-Windward function. Saved the value of wind direction and the enable/disable status of the new switch to a file in order to have the same settings when restarting the App. You can still add a Mark on the map and still see the distance and bearing to the Mark in the same fields on the Map view.
- Fixed an issue in the Map View where a track history could not be stopped if a waypoint was added to the current track history track and there was not a GPX track recording started.
- Better rejection of obviously bad GPS receiver locations.
- In certain instances, when it is questionable whether the GPS receiver's speed or course is correct, we are computing speed and course from the last two GPS receiver latitude/longitude pairs instead of using the GPS receiver values for speed and course.
- When course is changing quickly, e.g. turning sharply, display the new course immediately instead of passing it through the course smoothing algorithm.
- Other, non visible improvements.
Version 8.14(2)
- Undo a change made in Version 8.13(3) that inadvertently caused the Map view to be updated at a one second rate instead of a 0.1 second rate.
Version 8.13(3)
- Corrected the algorithm for computing "Julian Day" to include the current time zone offset from UTC time. Julian Day is used in all astronomical calculations, including in the CourseSpeed App's Apple Watch "Sun Rise/Set" complication showing sunrise and sunset times of day.
- Other, non visible improvements.
Version 8.12(2)
- Added an Apple watch "complication" to show the times of Sunrise and Sunset at your current location. The times are calculated and updated periodically as the Sunrise and Sunset times will change based on your current position. The calculations for the times of sun rise/set take into account the light refraction at the horizon as well as the radius of the sun. Both are needed in order to accurately represent the time at which the observer actually sees the sun rise/set.
The following complication families are supported:
Modular Small, Modular Large,
Utilitarian Large, Utilitarian Small Flat,
Extra Large,
Graphic Corner, Graphic Bezel, Graphic Rectangle, and Graphic Extra Large.
Add the Sun Rise/Set complication to your watch as you would any other Apple Watch complication.
- Other, non visible improvements.
Version 8.11(2)
- Added the ability to start, stop, clear, and save tracks from the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Added current track distance field to the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Changed when track history points get stored from a time base to a distance base.
- Made changes to the speed and course computations when the GPS receiver gives a position update but not a valid speed or course update (i.e., compute speed and course from the last two valid measurement lat/lon positions).
- Other, non-visible, improvements.
Version 8.10(4)
- Changed the commands to Apple's Location Manager that provides the GPS receiver position updates. In previous builds, the App was requesting every location update (which occurred every second). Changed the Location Manager commands such that it now sends position updates whenever the iPhone moves more then 3.6 meters (12 Feet). This eliminates the problem of receiving position updates when stopped that actually indicate that you are moving (speed non-zero).
- Changed the Speed and Course smoothing "Alpha" values due to the changes to the Location Manager settings.
- Updated units conversion constants to contain more fractional digits for more accuracy.
- Disabled the Map View periodic timer when the Map View is no longer visible and no track is in progress.
- Other internal, non-visible, improvements.
- In the CourseSpeedWatch App, changed the "Getting Data" indication to "Synching" whenever the watch is waiting for data from the CourseSpeed iPhone App.
Version 8.9(11)
- Added Trip Odometer buttons to the CourseSpeedWatch App to Start, Stop, Pause and Reset the Trip Odometers. The functionality is identical with that on the iPhone App but now more convenient.
- Corrected the Trip Odometer state colors on the CourseSpeedWatch App to match the colors on the CourseSpeed iPhone App.
- Made the Trip Odometer units part of the value field. Units abbreviations are: MI, NM, or KM. (Miles, Nautical Miles, Kilometers). Removed the previously separate odometer distance units text line.
- When the Watch App is waiting for the iPhone App to provide data, e.g., at startup of the iPhone App or when the Watch App becomes active (visible) again, now writing "Getting Data" to the watch display fields.
Version 8.8(5)
- Made the location horizontal and vertical accuracy units be in meters as well as feet (Tracks the units of distance of the currently selected speed units).
- Updated the CourseSpeedWatch App for the Location Accuracy units change in the iPhone App.
- Fixed an issue with the trip odometers in which the first point used in determining the distance between points is from an earlier time for which the location is not the location where the odometer was started. This may have given the odometer an immediate error, potentially miles.
Version 8.7(2)
- Fixed an issue with a change made to the previous build that caused the trip odometers to be twice what the actual distance is.
- Fixed an issue when the user returns to the Map view where the current track history was not being redisplayed on the map under certain conditions.
- Fixed an issue which caused the map position center to move about when regular updates are not being received from the GPS receiver and the speed is near zero.
Version 8.6(9)
- Made internal improvements to the communication between the CourseSpeed iPhone App and a connected Apple watch running the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Enabled the iPhone to determine whether it needs to run, or not, in the background using the iPhone GPS receiver in order to support the watch App.
- Changed the way the trip odometer increments the distance traveled every position update for speeds near zero and with poor GPS coverage.
- In the main view, selecting one of the buttons to change the units of a data item will now immediately convert the data field value to the new units instead of waiting for a new position update.
- See note in the CourseSpeed iPhone App "About" text in the Trip Odometer section for a note indicating when the iPhone GPS is being used for each Trip Odometer state. This becomes more important when using the CourseSpeedWatch app.
Version 8.5(2)
- When the "Mark" is active, and the iPhone App selected speed is "Speed Made Good", set the Watch App speed label as "Speed Made Good".
- On the Watch app, split both horizontal and Vertical Accuracy data fields into a data field and a units field. (previously the data and units were all one field) This was done in order to have the units field a different color than the data field.
- Made the Watch App units fields a different color than the label/data fields.
- For the Watch App, changed horizontal/Vertical alignment attributes for new units fields to be left/center.
- For the iPhone App, made the Speed field minimum size smaller for smaller iPhones and km/hr speed units.
Version 8.4(0)
- Increased the CourseSpeedWatch App's time as the "frontmost" App to 8 minutes.
- Shortened the field names Azimuth and Elevation to Azim and Elev on the CourseSpeedWatch app to avoid truncating their respective values on a 38mm Apple Watch.
Version 8.3(0)
- Added the following fields to the CourseSpeedWatch App:
GPS Horizontal Accuracy, GPS Vertical Accuracy, Sun Azimuth, and Sun Elevation.
- Added the units of each watch field (e.g. MPH)
Note: The units reflect those that have been selected in the CourseSpeed iPhone app.
Version 8.2(1)
- Added "No Data" text in each watch data field when data has not been received from the iPhone within the last seven seconds.
- Fixed the Trip odometer auto-pause color in the watch App such that it is the same magenta color as in the iPhone app.
Version 8.1(3)
- Added a button to show/hide the "About" information for the CourseSpeedWatch App.
- Made the CourseSpeedWatch App automatically start the CourseSpeed iPhone App if the watch App is started without the iPhone App already running. When started this way, the CourseSpeed iPhone App will run in the "Background" mode to provide the data to the watch App. You can bring the iPhone App to the foreground at any time by pressing the blue highlighted Time field on a newer iPhone (with a notch) or by pressing the very top, blue, line of an earlier iPhone. Don't forget to terminate both the iPhone App and the watch App when no longer in use to save resources (e.g. battery).
- Added Trip 1 & Trip 2 state colors to the values in the CourseSpeedWatch App that match the colors on the iPhone App. (Inactive: White; Active: Green; Manually Paused: Orange; Automatically Paused: Purple)
- Added a CourseSpeedWatch App version string separate from the iPhone App's version string. If the versions don't match, the CourseSpeedWatch App will present the version in Red.
Version 8.0(10):
CourseSpeedWatch:
- Created an Apple Watch "CourseSpeedWatch" that is now available for use with a paired iPhone running the CourseSpeed App. The CourseSpeedWatch App requires an Apple Watch running watchOS V5.0 or later. See description in the "App Summary", above.
CourseSpeed iPhone changes:
- Made the entry of a "Speed-Made-Good" Mark and "Point of Interest" entry on the Map View mutually exclusive. i.e., hide the button of one when the other button action is active.
- Added text on the Map View Map whenever an Add POI or Add Mark is being processed. Each is a reminder to the user that the respective Add is still active and the user should complete the action.
Version 7.11(0)
- Added text to the Map View for the case when an "Add Mark" has been requested, but the location of the mark on the map has not been touched by the user. The text reads: "Touch Map to Complete Mark Add Action or Select Rem Mark to cancel Mark Add"
Version 7.10(16)
- Set segue presentation attribute to "Full Screen". This is necessary to get the segue view to be full screen due to an iOS 13 change.
Version 7.10(15)
- Test features not implemented.
Version 7.10(14)
- Updated the App to support Apple's "Light and Dark Interface" modes. Dark mode was introduced in iOS 13 and if you use the most up-to-date iOS you will see the full changes for Dark Mode in the App. If you have an older device that does not support iOS 13 or you select not to upgrade to iOS 13 you will see only "Light" mode, which is the only Interface mode prior to iOS 13. For iOS 13, "Light and Dark" mode may be selected in the iPhone settings App under Display & Brightness -> Appearance -> Dark (or Light).
- Changed the method used to determine whether the Privacy Policy view should be displayed at startup due to a change in the Privacy Policy. The original method did not consider the case where the user did not update the App to the version in which the privacy policy changed. If the user then upgraded to a later version he would not be shown the new privacy policy of the version he did not load.
- Reduced the height of the Map View Menu buttons slightly.
Version 7.9(1) Saved trip odometer distances to allow quitting the App and having the odometers be restored when the App is started again. When the App is restarted, they will be in the same state as they were when the App was last closed. i.e., running or paused or reset.
Version 7.7(1)
-Trip Odometers now auto-pause for speeds less than one and auto-resume for speeds greater than or equal to one.
- Updated the Privacy Policy to make it clear that the only time we ask for any personal information is when the user contacts us via our website. Never while using the mobile application.
- Updated the "about" text to reflect changes in transferring files from your apple device using macOS Catalina (or later macOS).
Version 7.6(4)
Fixed a problem that caused the App to not continue to update the GPS position in a GPX file when the App is in the background. This occurred as follows:
1. Start a GPX file recording in the Settings view.
2. Start a track history recording in the Map View.
3. Stop the track history recording.
4. Place the App in the background (i.e. open another app)
Backgrouond position updates would erroneously NOT be saved in the GPX file as they should be.
Version 7.6(0)
- Added Trip 1 and Trip 2 Odometers to the Extras View.
- Trip distances reflect the distance units of the selected speed units from the main view.
- Trip distances will not be updated when speed is < 1 unit of whatever speed units are selected on the main view.
- Made button and text field fonts the same on all views.
Version 7.5(0)
- Made the Map View menu buttons 67% larger (You can still hide the menu).
Version 7.4(7)
- Fixed a bug when deleting a Point Of Interest (POI) that would cause the names of subsequent new POI names to become part of another, existing POI.
- Added an option, when adding a Point Of Interest on the Map screen, to allow the user to choose to have either:
(new): 1. the App use the current GPS position for the POI, or
(existing): 2. the App use the user touched position.
This makes it easy to put a POI at your current location without having to zoom in enough to get an accurate position when touching the screen with your finger.
- Changed POI edit distance to 0.04 miles from 0.05 miles. (Helps to prevent editing the wrong POI)
- Added the total number of bytes used for all files to the list of files in the ManageTrackFile view.
- Changed the Location Manager 'Desired Accuracy' setting to be kCLLocationAccuracyBest instead of kCLLocationAccuracyBestForNavigation. This should improve battery life.
- Made the Map menu buttons text slighly larger.
- Made the main page latitude/longitude button text smaller to fit on an iPhone SE.
Version 7.3(3)
- Removed the selection wheel for the course filter type in the settings view. Replaced it with three toggle switches that are mutually exclusive.
Version 7.2(4)
- Fixed a potential App crash problem when "Unhiding" a track history when the history had waypoints associated with it.
- Fixed an issue where the "Hide Menu" button on the Map view was being set to orange instead of black when you are in the map view with a black "Hide Menu" button and you go "Back" to the Main view and then to the Map view again.
- Changed the distance between the latitude and longitude fields to be zero to avoid a non-fatal constraint error when starting up with no GPS data.
Version 7.1(1)
- In the Extras View, added a Horizon Distance "Clear" button that clears the two input fields, Observer Height and Object Height.
- In the Extras View, Fixed the Horizon Distance Calculator such that, if you change the units, the observer height and object height are changed to the new selected units and the distance is recalculated in the new distance units.
- In the Map View, changed the "Hide Menu" button text color to be black instead of orange.
- Removed the NSLocationAlwaysAndWhenInUseUsageDescription key in the info.plist file since the App does not use the location except when the app is in use. (not the "always" case).
Version 7.0(1)
- Fixed an issue that could cause a cleared track history to be displayed for a newly started track for which "Hide Track" and "Unhide Track" are pressed before the new track has been updated by Apple's location services.
- Changed the "Hide Menu" button background color to match the other buttons and increased the font size of the "Hide/Show" Menu buttons.
- Cleaned up code from V6.5.
Version 6.5(3)
- Added a "Show/Hide Menu" button on the Map page to show/hide the menu buttons on the bottom of the screen. This will free up space on the map view. The new Menu button is on the bottom of the Map. The map now defaults to having the menu hidden.
-Fixed the Sunrise/Sunset fields, used for entering the Date, to always line up with the text description of those fields in the line below.
Version 6.4(1)
- Fixed an issue introduced in V6.0 that caused some track history coordinates,
written to a track history file, to not be loaded correctly.
- Fixed an issue when there is only one Map Point-Of-Interest, and it is deleted by the user, that it is not removed from the POI file.
- Limited the number of Points-Of-Interest read from the POI file to the maximum allowed by the App.
- Added an Alert for attempting to add a Point-Of-Interest beyond the maximum allowed by the App.
Version 6.3(0)
- Added the ability to edit the Latitude/Longitude of a Point-Of-Interest.
- Used a different, cleaner, method of reading track history from a file.
- Used a different, cleaner, method of reading Points-of-Interest from a file.
Version 6.2(0)
- Updated the "About" text for functional additions of Version 6.1(5).
Version 6.1(5)
- Added the ability to add Point-Of-Interest (POI) pins anywhere on the map, save them to a file and reload them from the file each time the App is used. To allow the user to add, modify, or delete POIs, an "Enable POI Action" / "Disable POI Action" button was added to the Map View. To Add a POI, press the POI button and touch the map where you want the POI to be. You will be asked to enter a label for the POI and to Save the POI. POIs can be edited or deleted by touching near the POI. You will be prompted to either edit the label or to delete the POI. After adding or editing a POI, pressing the "Disable POI Action" button will then prevent the user from inadvertently adding/editing a POI if the map is touched. As with all "Pins", either POIs or Waypoints, by touching the pin the location's latitude and longitude will be displayed.
- Fixed a problem of Waypoint Labels losing all but the first word of the label when a track history file is loaded to the map. Note that the labels were originally stored in the track history file correctly, so if you upgrade to this version, V6.1(4), the Waypoint labels will be correct without any editing. Note that, as of yet, you cannot edit a Waypoint label as you can a POI label.
Version 6.0(0)
- Incorporated NOAA's World Magnetic Model 2015v2. Ordinarily, each release is good for five years and it was expected that the Model 2015 would be good through 2020. However, this release of the out-of-cycle WMM (2015v2) was necessary to address the degraded performance of the WMM2015 in the Arctic region. WMM 2015v2 is valid through 2019. It will be updated again by NOAA in 2020.
Version 5.12(3)
- Added file size to the list of files in Manage Track File View.
- Changed the color of the loaded track button text from yellow to magenta to match the color of the loaded track history line.
- Made the Extras View fit on the screen in iPhone landscape mode for iPhone models down to the 4s.
- Made the Settings View fit on the screen in iPhone landscape mode for iPhone models down to the 4s.
Version 5.11(3)
- Added distance travelled to current track and loaded track histories. The distance is displayed above the map for each track type. The Track distances are computed in statute miles but are displayed in the distance units of the speed selected in the Main View. (e.g. Statute miles for Miles-Per-Hour speed selection, etc.). The distance of each track is stored in the saved track history file (.TKH) in statute miles and used when the track history file is reloaded on the map.
- Changed the update period of the Mark distance and bearing to 10 Seconds from 30 seconds.
- Fixed the Manage Files view and Privacy Policy view to auto rotate the display when the iPhone/iPad is turned sideways or upside down (matches all the other views now).Version 5.10(3)
- In the Speed-Made-Good to Mark Pin subtitle, added the distance from the current user position to the Mark in the distance units of the Speed selected in the Main View. Also added the bearing to the Mark in the pin subtitle in either degrees true or degrees magnetic, based upon the Course angle type selected in the Main View.
- Added Speed Made Good distance and bearing fields in the Map View. Hid these fields when a Mark is not enabled. These fields have the same units as in the Mark Pin.
- Mark distance and bearing are updated in the Mark Pin and Map View fields every 30 seconds.
- Added Cancel option to the Add Mark button Alert.
Version V5.9(4):
- Changed the calculation of Julian Day to match Jean Meeus' book, page 61 that is good for all dates in both the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar that begins on 10/15/1582.
- Added Julian Day to the Extras view.
- Allowing Solar Calculator dates outside of the nominal years of 1582 to 3000 to be entered. An alert with a warning of reduced accuracy is presented in those cases and the calculations are still performed.
-Added the determination and display of "Speed Made Good" towards a user entered mark (useful for sailors and hikers). The "Mark" position is entered by the operator from the Map view by pushing the "Add Mark" button and then touching the desired location on the map or by entering the location via a keypad. The Mark appears as a map Pin labeled "Mark". The "Speed Made Good" can be either positive (towards the Mark), or negative (away from the Mark). The display of "Speed Made Good" is selected on the Main view by pushing the "speed" button to select one of three "Speed Made Good" options, i.e., "Speed Made Good Miles per Hour", "Speed Made Good Knots", "Speed Made Good Kilometers per Hour".
- Added Latitude and Longitude to the subtitle field of all Map pins (Track Waypoints and the Speed Made Good Mark).
Version V5.9(0):
- Changed the calculation of Julian Day to match Jean Meeus' book, page 61 that is good for all dates in both the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar that begins on 10/15/1582.
- Added Julian Day to the Extras view.V5.8(0):
- Corrected the Julian Day calculation that was off by one day (too low). Julian Day is used in the calculation of the sun position and times of day involving the sun, so this change corrects those fields also.
Version 5.6(5):
- Changed to a different, more accurate, set of astronomical algorithms for computing the sun related quantities. The App now uses the algorithms from the book "Astronomical Algorithms" by Jean Meeus.
- Added a Sunrise/Sunset calculator on the Extras page. This Allows the user to enter, via a keyboard, the day, month, & year, that are used to compute the Sunrise/Sunset times. A "Today" button was also added to set the current date quickly.
V5.7(1)
- Fixed the displayed Sunset Time to be rounded to the nearest minute, as the Sunset Time currently is.
- Fixed the displayed Solar Elevation Angle to be the value "Solar Elevation Corrected for Atmospheric Refraction" value instead of the uncorrected "Solar Elevation Angle" value.
Version 5.5(2):
- Expanded the "Usage Description", that the user must acknowledge in order for the App to access Location Services data, to the following: "Your current location, course, and speed are displayed in label fields on multiple pages. Your location is also displayed on the map page and is used for providing directions and estimated travel time to your entered destination as well as for determining nearby places of interest".
- Fixed missing track point in .gpx file when a waypoint is added.
- Use the GPSr location at the moment of pushing the "Add WPT" button instead of the location at the time of the file name submittal.
- Added protection to prevent the user from entering file names with non-alpha-numeric characters that would cause the operation to fail or perhaps crash.
- Allow the user to cancel out of saving a track history file, as is done for renaming a file.
- Don't allow a blank file name when saving a track history file.
- Fix the label of the Unload Track Button for the iPhone SE.
- Increase the precision of the latitudes and longitudes saved to Track History (.tkh) and GPX Track (.gpx) files to 12 decimal places.
- Make the text heading of the ManageTrackFile view context sensitive, i.e., Different explanation text for loading a track history file vs renaming/deleting a file.
Version 5.4(1): - Added a "Manage Track Files" button on the Map page so that you don't have to navigate to the Settings page to click the "Manage Track Files" button there. Left the "Manage Track Files" button in the settings page, however.
-Put up an alert to the user if they create more than the maximum number of waypoints/places of interest (100) on a track history line. However, the waypoint is still stored in the track history file. Upon load of a track history file, only the maximum allowed number of waypoints will be loaded, if more than the maximum number are in the .tkh file. If it is necessary, in a later change, to increase the allowed maximum to a larger number, reloading the .tkh file will then have all the waypoints.
Version 5.3(3) :
Added Pin "annotations" to the map for saving place/waypoint names and coordinates.
Added Pin coordinates and Labels to the Track History File (.tkh).
Allows users to create the Track History filename themselves, or use the App provided default name, when saving the track history to a file.
Version 5.2(4):
- Improves the user interface for the file management of the Track History File (.tkh) and GPX Track File (.gpx) files. The App now alerts the user if they are deleting a GPX or TKH File that is in use and instructs the user as to how to close the file so that the file can then be deleted.
- The App now alerts the user of a user-entered file name that is blank or a duplicate of another, existing file.
For a GPX file, the user can now add a Waypoint via a "Add WPT" button on the Map View. The GPX file will then contain a waypoint containing the name, time, latitude, longitude, elevation, and magnetic Variance (declination).
- Other minor code cleanup/improvements.
Version 5.1(1) Adds the capability to rename any Track History file (.tkh) or GPX Track file (.gpx). The Track History and GPX Track file names are initially assigned by the App to have the type of file and date and time embedded in the name. With this version, the user can now rename any file as they like in order to better describe what it contains. Also, the text in the table of file names has been made left justified instead of centered and is now alphabetized. Note, Version 5.0(9) previously added the capability to delete any of these .tkh or .gpx files.
Version 5.0(9) In the Map View, added the ability to save the current track history to a file and to load it back at any time, including after restarting the App. Any number of Track Histories may be saved. Both the real time Track History and the file loaded Track History are visible on the map simultaneously. The real time Track History line is displayed in red while any loaded Track History line is displayed in magenta. A Manage Track File view has been added to maintain (delete) any Track File History files (.tkh) or GPX formatted Track Files (.gpx) created with the app without having to use Apple's File Sharing feature in iTunes.
Also changed the way the Privacy Policy will be displayed. It will now only be displayed on App start-up when the policy changes. You can still view it at any time from the Settings View.
Version 4.0(8) Added a track history line on the map view controlled by two buttons (Start/Stop Track, and Hide/Unhide/Load Track). Once started, the track line is displayed until Stop Track is selected. After starting, and subsequently stopping, the track history line, you may reload the line again by using the Load track button. Note: When tracking, the location manager is allowed to run in the background in order to have a complete set of track history points for the display when the App comes into the foreground again.
This Version will also remember the map zoom level and Follow/Unfollow button states when moving out of the map view and back again.Version 3.2(2) Minor changes to fix conflicting display constraints.
Version 3.1(1) Made "Display Speeds Near Zero Enabled" switch label auto-shrink font to prevent switch from being pushed off the screen on smaller iPhones.
Version 3.0(4) Added a setting, on the settings page, to enable or disable the displaying of speeds less than 1.0
Version 2.9(2) Updated the "about" text.
Version 2.9(1) Fixed problems with smaller iPhones (SE, 4S) where some text fields were being clipped or zero height. Set Deployment Target to IOS 10.3.
Version 2.8(1) Fix error in determining magnetic course from true course. Fix other views' (Map and Extras) buttons from being covered by the "other apps actively using your location" warning
Version 2.7(5) Moved the "Units" buttons to be above the field they refer to instead of beneath the field. Moved everything down from the top in order to prevent the Apple generated warning of "other apps actively using your location" from partially covering the top most buttons.
Version 2.6(8) Adds an "Extras" view that contains calculations for the time of Sunrise and Sunset, as well as the Sun's current Azimuth and Elevation. It also now has a Horizon Distance Calculator that calculates the distance you can see for any height of an observer and any height of an object.
Version 2.5(1) Replaced the App icons.
Version 2.4(1) Added Turn-by-Turn navigation with voice commands from your current location to anywhere using Apple's maps and navigation from maps.apple.com! Also, made the map view update rate higher to get smoother map scrolling when you are moving fast. Minor map view field tweaks.
Version 2.3(4) Added a Map view as either Apple's standard road map, a satellite map, or a hybrid map combining the road map and satellite view . The map defaults to following the latest measured position. Zoom buttons, active only in the "follow" mode, allow for zooming in or out while the map is following your location. A button to "Un-follow" is available to allow you to use the standard Apple touch commands for moving about the map and zooming in and out with the standard "pinch" and "swipe" gestures. The map view also contains the information available on the main view, including Latitude, Longitude, Elevation(altitude), Course, and Speed. The units of each field, in the map view, track the units of the respective fields currently set on the main view.
Version 2.2(3) Increases the size of the Latitude, Longitude, Elevation, and Speed fields. Updated "About" text to include how to export GPX track files and how to import them to web based mapping programs.
Version 2.1(4) Added Elevation (altitude) as well as both horizontal and vertical accuracy to the main view. Elevation may be displayed in the units of feet or meters. The units can be changed by pressing the Elevation button above the Elevation label field. Horizontal and vertical accuracy are displayed below the Elevation field and are in the units of feet only.
Version 2.0(3) added the capability to create a GPS Exchange Format (GPX) file containing track position data including latitude, longitude, elevation (meters), course, speed (meters/sec), magnetic variation (declination in degrees), date, and time. Track points are saved periodically. The time between points is a function of the speed (minimum 1 second, maximum 5 seconds). Apple "File sharing" has been enabled in order to offload the GPX file from the App using iTunes and to remove GPX files from the device when no longer needed. Enabling/disabling of the recording of each GPX format track file is performed from the "settings" view. Use iTunes file sharing to export the files. GPX track filenames are generated automatically and include the date and time of the start of the recording. The GPX files have an extension of ".gpx".