tangoGPS

It's been a bit of time since the last release but now we have a shiny new version: 0.9.7! To cut it short, here the digest of the major new features:

• map scale indicator
• upscaling missing tiles and over-zoom
• distance measuring
• friend finder simplified, can set message now

Map Scale Indicator

This was by far the most requested feature and finally it is in. In the lower left corner you have now a little ruler showing you the current scale. The units of the ruler (miles, kilometers, nautical  miles) correspond to your general settings.

Upscaling Map Tiles

That's a very nice feature: whenever you zoom in and the tiles are missing, you now get an upscaled version of maps of a lower zoom level - thus no more white tiles!

Overzoom

This is a follow-up feature of the "Upscaling Map Tiles" - you can now go to zoom level 20 in which case the maps of zoom level 17 are used. The purpose of this feature is to make the search for geocaches easier. Once you are close to the cache you can zoom in for an easier find. One website with a listing of geocaches is geocaching.com - it's a fun freetime activity.

Distance measuring / GPS Info

The functionality for the menu item "this point" has been overhauled. Measuring distances on the map is now easy and additionally allows for measuring of ways. Furthermore the pop-up menu shows now the bearing to another point which is of great use for navigational purposes. Last not least the coordinates get automatically copied to the clipboard - ready to be pasted for example into an email.

Friend Finder

The friend tab got overhauled too. It is simpler and much more straight-forward. It follows now the YSWOS mantra - You See What Others See. This means in "fun mode" you see everybody and everybody can see you. In "friend mode" you see only people who have defined you as friend and vice versa. In "private mode" you see nobody and nobody can see you.

On top of all that you can now set a message of what you are currently doing, like "sitting in a cafe", "doing sports" or "shopping"...

To use this features you need to be able to define friends which finally is possible. Go to http://www.tangogps.org/friends/ , it is simplistic, but it works!

Translations

Hungarian and Spanish have been added.

Screenshot

The obligatory screenshot:



1) The GPS info shows now bearing between two points.

2) Simply clicking on the map extends the measured way.

3) The new map scale indicator


Kudos go to:

Patches:
Stefan Fröbe - Overzoom idea and several patches for upscaling (big kudos!)
Enrico Zini - Fix for potential crasher on track load

Translations:
Dailos Franchy Gil - Spanish
Balló György - Hungarian

Donations:
richard west (the second donation!)
Salim BOULKOUR

Have fun!