Coverage Mapper Contest – Win a 1 Year Gold Member Subscription

[canadiancow]

Now would also be a good time to ask if there's anything lacking in the Coverage Mapper app.

The list of things planned for the next release are:

• Requires Android 1.6. It's getting too difficult to maintain support for 1.5, and considering how few users have it, and how few devices have it, I'm dropping support.
• Native map, for faster loading, more accurate location tracking, and better touch interface (features like pinch to zoom). Certain features on the web won't be available in the app (terrain layer, for one), but the web map will still work.
• Tablet support. Basically, this just means you'll be able to see the logging screen and the map simultaneously.
• Support for devices with no cellular radio. They will just be able to view the map.
• Better management and communication with the background service, since some people claim it's not shutting down properly.
• Better error messages explaining exactly why data cannot be logged, since the status message isn't always helpful.
• Enable the "Move to SD" feature. If the app is moved to the SD card, a warning will be displayed the next time the app is launched.
• News feature to display important updates

[arikah]

Please don't include a news feed in the app, or if you do have it disabled by default in the options... apps that try and do it all tend to fail at everything.

Might I suggest an option for interval updates? Or rather, buttons on the main screen labeled something like car, bike, walking, that have different capture intervals, to save on battery power?

I'd almost say make android 2.1 your minimum target sdk, the vast majority (nearly 97% actually) of android phones are 2.1+.

[canadiancow]

Please don't include a news feed in the app, or if you do have it disabled by default in the options... apps that try and do it all tend to fail at everything.

Might I suggest an option for interval updates? Or rather, buttons on the main screen labeled something like car, bike, walking, that have different capture intervals, to save on battery power?

I'd almost say make android 2.1 your minimum target sdk, the vast majority (nearly 97% actually) of android phones are 2.1+.

The news "feed" wouldn't be so much a "feed". The way I see it is this. I launch a contest for WIND. The next time you launch the app (possibly while on wifi, based on your preferences), it checks the news for WIND (because you have a WIND SIM in, so you don't care about anything else), detects that there's new news, and shows you a dialog. You never see it again, unless the news changes. This contest is the first thing in the history of Coverage Mapper that would be considered newsworthy by my standards. So some users would have seen one news dialog once.

For intervals, I'm not really sure it would matter. Even at walking speed, you move fast enough that it wouldn't be feasible to power down the GPS between updates, and still make a gapless trip. If each "location" were 1km by 1km, then I could see something like a 5 minute interval for walking, but at our latitude, a location is roughly 80m wide. If the GPS is going to take 30 seconds to spin up, which is quite possible (I've seen worse), it won't work. I understand that using Coverage Mapper while walking is a battery killer, but the ideal use case is to have it plugged into a car charger while it's running.

I check the Platform Versions page regularly too At work, we don't support anything below 2.1. However, almost 10% of Coverage Mapper users are below 2.1, and I don't want to cut them out. What I'm implementing for the next version simply will not work on 1.5 (and would make supporting it incredibly difficult), which is why I cut it out. There's simply no reason to stop supporting 1.6 yet though. Everything works on it (or can be easily disabled).

[Prevailing Wind]

I have noticed it to kill my battery when I use it while walking (which honestly is the only time I've used the coverage mapper). I'm trying to walk my neighbourhood and show how bad signal is around here.

[canadiancow]

I have noticed it to kill my battery when I use it while walking (which honestly is the only time I've used the coverage mapper). I'm trying to walk my neighbourhood and show how bad signal is around here.

That's not really avoidable. It needs the GPS on to track your location, and, due to a "bug" (undocumented behaviour, whether intentional or not) in Android, requires the screen on to track your signal strength. This results in the phone staying in a "wake" state, with both the GPS and cellular radio fully powered up.

[Prevailing Wind]

That's not really avoidable. It needs the GPS on to track your location, and, due to a "bug" (undocumented behaviour, whether intentional or not) in Android, requires the screen on to track your signal strength. This results in the phone staying in a "wake" state, with both the GPS and cellular radio fully powered up.

Ah that would explain why it doesn't seem to record anything when the screen is off.

I realize after I'd recorded like 200+ data points that you actually have to select your gmail account for it to record your email address with them. Ah well. My data probably won't win me any points in this contest anyway.

[canadiancow]

Ah that would explain why it doesn't seem to record anything when the screen is off.

I realize after I'd recorded like 200+ data points that you actually have to select your gmail account for it to record your email address with them. Ah well. My data probably won't win me any points in this contest anyway.

I am doing random drawings too Right now there are 11 eligible entries. The top three will win, leaving at least two prizes for eight people, so you're looking at a 25% chance right now

And about the signal strength, that's something I put it. I can record it, but it would be wrong if the screen's off. That resulted in me having to drop a ton of data last year when the issue was discovered. Yet another reason why this works great in combination with Google Maps Navigation in a car dock. Screen is already on, GPS is already on, cellular radio is already on...minimal overhead!

[canadiancow]

Looks like KW is up, so it's a great spot to earn a ton of points for the contest

[Guest 268]

Looks like KW is up, so it's a great spot to earn a ton of points for the contest

Since I don't have the equipment to contribute, the map is a "read only" feature for me.

Can you tell me: Will http://www.coveragemapper.com/windmap2.php automatically be updated as people contribute to this?

[canadiancow]

Since I don't have the equipment to contribute, the map is a "read only" feature for me.

Can you tell me: Will http://www.coveragemapper.com/windmap2.php automatically be updated as people contribute to this?

Yes. windmap.php and windmap2.php have the coverage overlays automatically updated. The tower locations, however, are manual updates.

[Prevailing Wind]

I'm finally on the leaderboard! #11 yippee! Hopefully I'm able to do some more mapping before the contest ends!

[canadiancow]

I'm finally on the leaderboard! #11 yippee! Hopefully I'm able to do some more mapping before the contest ends!

Not bad. I think I'm going to have to do some work to get up from #8. But I'm so busy this week and weekend, and the weekend after...sigh

[yads]

D'oh, I wish I'd seen this earlier. I just logged a whole bunch of data from Calgary to Fernie.

[canadiancow]

D'oh, I wish I'd seen this earlier. I just logged a whole bunch of data from Calgary to Fernie.

Never too late to start! 30 points is all you need for a chance to win.

[live_strong]

any suggestions for a cheap android device so i could help update the map.
not looking to activate the phone, just collect the data then update over wifi.

thanks