ViewRanger for Android Update

The latest software update of ViewRanger for Android smartphones and tablets has just gone live in the Android Market and on our website. It has also been submitted to other Android appstores.

New:
* Placename and postcode search via local gazetteer or online search
* Manual coordinate entry - a big help for geocaching
* Updated Context and Options menus throughout.
* New titlebar with configurable map text, Quick-Navi button and location search button
* Improved route editing UI
* Double tap the map to zoom in

Bug fixes:
* Send old positions switch in BuddyBeacon location sharing now works
* Better support for Android tablets
* Numerous small improvements.

For all the details see the ViewRanger wiki site.


The new map screen header:


Better route editing:


Placename search:


Manual coordinate entry:

Beta release for of ViewRanger for Symbian

A beta release of ViewRanger for Symbian phones is available from www.viewranger.com/vrbeta, v2.8.11.

The wiki page contains a full list of changes, but the main changes are:

Full support for Symbian ^3 phones such as the N8, E7 and C7.

Pinch and stretch zooming on phones that support multi-touch.

Kinetic scrolling - flick the screen, it continues to pan.

Improved route editing. Waypoints have handles, so while moving the point you can see it and the map. Toggle between panning and adding points. While toggled to panning you can edit previous points.

Improved button layouts, including on screen sound controls.

Distance to/from start/end shown in routes. Distance to a waypoint along the route shown - how far is it to the lunch stop!

Location bar can be configured to show 3 statistics, including time, speed, distance to go, altitude, coordinates and so on.



If you have any questions or feedback, please email support@viewranger.com.

ViewRanger adds Business Traveller city guides to its growing leisure guides portfolio

With great quality street mapping for cities all around the world, available on ViewRanger using web based mapping layers such as OpenStreetMap*, we have entered into a pilot programme with Business Traveller, the leading magazine for the frequent business traveller to publish a selection of their guided city walking tours as downloadable routes.

Part of Business Traveller’s mission is to entertain corporate travellers, and make their travelling life easier, so its global editorial team create and publish short “city guides” which offer visitor’s a slice of local insight into the real nature of cities around the world, to help the time-pressed traveller get the most from their visit.

Publishing within the ViewRanger GPS app means that the visitor gets all the expert guidance of the web based version in the palm of their hand, plus a route plan on the street map that can be easily followed on screen.

The initial selection of city guide routes includes Berlin, Brussels, Dublin, London (5 separate routes taking in Marylebone, Mayfair, Clerkenwell, South Bank & Victoria Embankment), Madrid, 2 routes in New York (Uptown Manhattan & Brooklyn) and 2 in Paris (Montmartre & Aligre).

Each comes with the walking route plus guidance, restaurant and nightlife tips, phone numbers & web links and is available to download for £1.50 per route. To find a Business Traveller route search using shortcode "BTC".


*© 2011 OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA & contributors

ViewRanger GPS to Support the Isle of Wight Walking Festival

ViewRanger supports Isle of Wight Walking Festival 2011 and makes routes available for download to Apple, Android, and Symbian smartphones.

Hot on the heels of one tourism publishing announcement we made earlier this week, I am pleased to announce that for the 2nd year running ViewRanger is participating with the Isle of Wight walking festival (7 – 22 May 2011).

This year we are upping our involvement as a “Festival Partner” and will be publishing a selection of official festival walks available to download to your smartphone free of charge for the period of the event.

The Isle of Wight Walking Festival is the UK's largest such festival. Visitors planning to get involved in the festival will be able to get even more from their time on the Isle, by installing ViewRanger on their smartphone. The ViewRanger “Open” version available for Apple, Android & Symbian devices (£2.39-£4.00), comes complete with web based street and terrain maps. However, this can be easily enhanced by installing whole of Isle of Wight Explorer 1:25K mapping.

Plus, we are delighted to say that all routes on the Isle of Wight published through ViewRanger by Walkingworld will also be available to download in the ViewRanger app for free for the duration of the festival.

And there are ViewRanger competition prizes too.

Find out more about the IoW Walking Festival at www.isleofwightwalkingfestival.co.uk and see you there!

New ViewRanger map products for Germany’s Nature Parks

Today we are announcing the availability of pre-defined map products for the major national & nature park areas in Germany.

The initial 12 map area series cover the largest and most popular outdoor activities locations, such as the Bavarian Forest Parks, The Eastern Alps, The Rhine area parks such as The Taunus and Bergstraße-Odenwald and The Coastline national parks of Schleswig Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony Wadden Sea. For each, it is based on the high-quality, official maps of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) at a scale 1:25.000.

Designed to make it easier for German customers and visitors to install these large areas of mapping onto their phones, the new pre-defined maps can be purchased from the ViewRanger webshop or obtained via in-app purchasing (for Apple devices – later in February). They can be permanently saved on the phone before a visit, such that they will work without a mobile phone signal.

Outside of the Parks maps, customers can buy & install official BKG maps in 1:50k or 1:25k for any area of Germany onto the ViewRanger app. The app also provides access to a range of web based global Open Maps – street, terrain, satellite – that can also be stored for off-line usage.

Find out more about the maps for the Nature Park regions here.

Cumbria Tourism Brings Walking and Cycling Routes to ViewRanger

ViewRanger teams up with Cumbria Tourism to bring tourist & leisure guides to smartphones

ViewRanger today announced another mobile publishing partnership, this time with Cumbria Tourism to make their Lake District walking & biking routes available to smartphone owners.

The initial 30-plus walking & biking routes that have today been released by Cumbria Tourism & ViewRanger includes favourite routes across the region. The partnership re-interprets existing materials published on the Cumbria Tourism website. Publishing on mobile with ViewRanger, goes further than the existing web-based access to visitor information, and enhances the visitors’ experience by providing the peace of mind of GPS mapped location and location specific information.

Information & route guidance	Ordnance Survey maps	OpenMaps

Commenting on the deal, Ellis Butcher, a spokesman for Cumbria Tourism, said: "The Lake District and Cumbria is the best walking and cycling destination in Britain. With increasing numbers of our visitors packing smartphones it makes perfect sense to give them the chance to download some of this area's best routes direct to their handsets. When visitors are in the area they often need additional information which is not necessarily always found on traditional maps. This is where the new project comes into its own by utilising the information we have on our tourism website and putting it into the hands of visitors when they need it. Anyone wanting access to the routes can get them through both the ViewRanger App and our own online e-shop at www.golakes.co.uk"

Here at ViewRanger we are delighted to be working with Cumbria Tourism and especially that we can provide access through ViewRanger into their unparalleled regional knowledge. In return we believe publishing through ViewRanger offers them a way to ensure that their content is made available to a wider audience in a new and dynamic way. We believe many more Tourist boards should be adopting similar approaches very soon, as it offers an innovative way to generate additional income from existing content."

For more information and a full list of routes go to www.viewranger.com/lakes