I know many hours go into developing apps. I also know we're only in the first version on the iOS side of things. Please don't take this feedback as a total slam of Nearby Explorer, and know that some of this could be just personal preference that no one else will take well to.
There are toggles on the home screen that would feel more at home organized in the Settings menu. Since there is no straightforward means of automatically acquiring one's current position, the least we ought to be able to do is experience an uncluttered Home Screen. One suggestion would be to only present those buttons on the Home Screen one chooses to toggle on. For example, if I turn off GeoBeam and Compass, they should not appear in the Home Screen until I choose to toggle them back on. It makes little sense to apply the same context menu options to every item in the Home Screen. It seems no matter what icon you tap, the options generally include Add Favorite, Add Watch, Virtually Explore. The wording is not exact, but you get the idea. Why not make these options available on the Home Screen itself? They would certainly make more sense than the unnecessary list of toggle options. When using the Compass to get a sense of the next upcoming street, the user ought to be able to say how far out the app should look. When walking, I am only really interested in the next upcoming street, something the app seems to struggle with. When it lists the next several streets beyond the next intersection, it doesn't even provide an accurate listing in the order the streets actually exist, and that seems a little troublesome considering we're talking about Downtown DC, not exactly a remote area. Approaching streets in a vehicle is hit or miss. I tested the app against my bus's onboard GPS system that calls out stops as we approach them. Sometimes the app would call them out, more often it would not, and sometimes the intersecting streets would not be called out until after we'd driven past them. Portions of the manual could be written with better clarity. For example, consider this passage from the GeoBeam section: "The second position is the normal Geobeam operating position. It is achieved by rotating the device 90 degrees counter clockwise from position 1, (as though you were shaking hands with someone). As you move your device into this position, Nearby Explorer makes a sound. When you move it out of Geobeam position, Nearby Explorer makes another sound to confirm." I don't know what that means. I don't usually rotate someone's hand when shaking, and there is no specification as to what they mean by Position 1, a reference that does not appear anywhere else in the manual. I'll assume Position 1 is holding the phone horizontally with the display facing up, but the rest of the instructions still make no sense because when they say to rotate, are they talking a vertical rotation or a horizontal one? Yes, it could be I'm just an idiot and can't read right. :) On a similar point, I wish the distinction between destinations and watch points was a little clearer. Can we use more common terminology and call Watch points breadcrumbs? I think that's basically the equivalent and makes more sense than calling something a Watch. A breadcrumb would indicate a point does not have to be tied to a specific address. My comments generally stem from a feeling that the app in some ways became more technical than it needed to be. The level of flexibility is great, but for the most part they seem to give more knobs and buttons that don't necessarily need to be there. The primary purpose is navigation, and the quality of the navigation is really more important than whether or not I turn on or off the accuracy levels and whether or not I need to grind down to such a granular level as determining whether Nearby Points are on or off and whether Nearby Distance is on or off. This is in no way meant to discourage anyone from purchasing the app if they have not yet done so. Some things ought to be fixed before it can fully convince me I made the right choice in seeking out an alternative to my previous arrangement of using BlindSquare in conjunction with Google or Apple Maps. As lukewarm as I felt about BlindSquare, I feel the things it does right are really done well and executed in an intuitive fashion. At $80, even without a subscription fee, I want my cake and at least enjoy a good size bite of it too. So far, it's been eighty dollars well invested in the APH developers, but let's hope the developers do not sit too long on the plateau of introducing the app to the iOS platform. Best, Joe -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. 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