• Welcome to MacSailing.net!
  • Dedicated to sailing!
  • Be Jolly!
Hello There, Guest! Login Register


Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Title: AyeTides now available
#1
A great companion to iNavX..

AyeTides home page

AyeTides in iTune iPhone app store
Scott Dillon
Sydney Australia
North Shore 38
CYCA
 
Reply
#2
It should be pointed out that not all Tides apps for iPhone are equal. Only AyeTides DOES NOT require an internet connection to display tidal and current data.

AyeTides was chosen to work with iNavX because it is a quality app, works without an internet connection, provides a mechanism for iNavX to launch it and open to a station list.

I am in communication with Apple in regards to providing a method for iNavX to determine if AyeTides is installed on the device. If it is not, not to display the "Tides" tab in in iNavX.

Scott Dillon
Sydney Australia
North Shore 38
CYCA
 
Reply
#3
GPSNavX Wrote:[color:red]Only[/color] AyeTides DOES NOT require an internet connection to display tidal and current data.
And yet, in one day, that changes.

Tide Graph 1.0 was just released and is available now. According to the web site (www.tidegraph.com), it only supports the US tidal stations right now (iTunes page says more stations will be added). It looks like it has some nice features like providing a distance to tidal stations as well as the ability to sort by that distance. That's really nice. I've often been cruising down the ICW not sure of the names of the closest tide stations. This sorts them by your distance to the location. That's a nice use of the internal GPS.

Oh yeah, it only costs $1.99...
 
Reply
#4
Actually no it does not change the requirement of having an internet connection.

from the Tide Graph website..

"Uses web service to get the latest information from our website."

One can see from the Tide Graph download size (.1 MB), that it does not include the tide data, instead it must be downloaded (which requires an internet connection).

And as you noted Tide Graph:

"Version 1.0 has US Tide locations only!"

hmmm maybe $1.99 is too much.
Scott Dillon
Sydney Australia
North Shore 38
CYCA
 
Reply
#5
AyeTides already shows the stations sorted by their distance from you, in the Nearest view under Find. And, in v1.1 (to be sent to Apple tomorrow) you can eat your battery up by leaving the results of the search on the screen and AyeTides will continuously update the list.

And no, the Tide Graph program is a web application. There's no data on the iPhone. Lose your net connection, lose the tides.
 
Reply
#6
Yikes! Sorry - looks like you're right. I saw the new app in the iStore and figured that it must implement the algorithm locally. I didn't actually try it.

You can bet that there will be other implementations of XTide for the iPhone.

By the way, how do you get around the open source license by charging for AyeTides? I always thought that it's the reason why cTide (Windows Mobile) and Tile Tool (Palm) are completely free.
 
Reply
#7
You are under a false impression. AyeTides doesn't use any code from XTIDE, as it is not a port of XTIDE nor a recompiling of XTIDE. All the code in AyeTides is mine, written in Objective-C (XTIDE uses obscure, dense C and C++ code - completely different). I do use (and have rewritten large sections of) the LibTCD library for it to work on the iPhone, but that library is in the public domain, unrestricted and free. So I am not getting around any licenses.

Oh, and when I first got Tide Tool (not Tile Tool) it was not free. Later on the author released it for free, but I paid for my copy.
 
Reply
#8
ActiveCaptain Wrote:Yikes! Sorry - looks like you're right. I saw the new app in the iStore and figured that it must implement the algorithm locally. I didn't actually try it.

You can bet that there will be other implementations of XTide for the iPhone.

By the way, how do you get around the open source license by charging for AyeTides? I always thought that it's the reason why cTide (Windows Mobile) and Tile Tool (Palm) are completely free.
Not sure just what is going on here....you seem to have some animosity towards AyeTides but it's not clear if you've even used it. Do you have an iPhone? If you've got a problem with AyeTides, why don't you just come out and say so? This isn't the place start a commercial battle with innuendo and widely inaccurate statements.

Thanks
 
Reply
#9
Now just calm down. I have nothing against AyeTides. And yes, I have an iPhone. I've been developing software for the Mac since 1986 and even have an Eddy award under my belt (you've got to go way back to even know what that is). In addition to that, my wife used to work for Apple and we have more 7-color Apple branded stuff than most Apple Stores have on display (the good 1990's stuff too).

Not to pile on but we've also been writing a series of articles on Mad Mariner all about using smartphones on boats. There have been 10 articles in the series so far with the final one being published tomorrow. You can view them all at:
http://www.madmariner.com/mobile_phones

The article from last week was all about the iPhone. In it, we mentioned AyeTides giving it one of the first wide exposures to the boating community. I probably provided more publicity for it than any other channel so far. In my quest to make sure the information in the article is up-to-date, I'm keeping track of new apps that show up for the iPhone that are boating-related. That's how I came across Tide Graph.

Yes, I made a mistake about how Tide Graph works. It wasn't very obvious to me that it needed an internet connection and it appeared like it didn't. Who would really want an network-required app like this? It makes no sense.

To go even further with this nonsense, I've added code to Tide Tool myself and I'm very familiar with it. I'm the one who fixed it when Palm moved to v5 of their OS. I'm also very familiar with XTide and the various ports of that code.

Mr. AugustH writes on his own web site that:
"I've written Mr. Tides so that the Macintosh can display tides. This program is based (roughly) on XTide 2.8 by Dave Flater." Perhaps I wrongly assumed that he also used this code and all of the tide/current station data from XTide as a part of AyeTides. It seems incredible that Mr. AugustH was able to put together so much of those harmonic coefficients by himself.

If all of this was developed outside the open source license of Dave Flater, great. I applaud the app and wish it the best of success. If it is stealing from the open source community, then it shouldn't be tolerated. In issues like this, I assume that it is all open and above board. The truth usually has a way of coming to the surface.
 
Reply
#10
ActiveCaptain Wrote:Now just calm down. I have nothing against AyeTides. And yes, I have an iPhone. I've been developing software for the Mac since 1986 and even have an Eddy award under my belt (you've got to go way back to even know what that is). In addition to that, my wife used to work for Apple and we have more 7-color Apple branded stuff than most Apple Stores have on display (the good 1990's stuff too).

Not to pile on but we've also been writing a series of articles on Mad Mariner all about using smartphones on boats. There have been 10 articles in the series so far with the final one being published tomorrow. You can view them all at:
http://www.madmariner.com/mobile_phones

The article from last week was all about the iPhone. In it, we mentioned AyeTides giving it one of the first wide exposures to the boating community. I probably provided more publicity for it than any other channel so far. In my quest to make sure the information in the article is up-to-date, I'm keeping track of new apps that show up for the iPhone that are boating-related. That's how I came across Tide Graph.

Yes, I made a mistake about how Tide Graph works. It wasn't very obvious to me that it needed an internet connection and it appeared like it didn't. Who would really want an network-required app like this? It makes no sense.

To go even further with this nonsense, I've added code to Tide Tool myself and I'm very familiar with it. I'm the one who fixed it when Palm moved to v5 of their OS. I'm also very familiar with XTide and the various ports of that code.

Mr. AugustH writes on his own web site that:
"I've written Mr. Tides so that the Macintosh can display tides. This program is based (roughly) on XTide 2.8 by Dave Flater." Perhaps I wrongly assumed that he also used this code and all of the tide/current station data from XTide as a part of AyeTides. It seems incredible that Mr. AugustH was able to put together so much of those harmonic coefficients by himself.

If all of this was developed outside the open source license of Dave Flater, great. I applaud the app and wish it the best of success. If it is stealing from the open source community, then it shouldn't be tolerated. In issues like this, I assume that it is all open and above board. The truth usually has a way of coming to the surface.

uh, WOW! Your anchor is draggin' and you're heading for the rocks.

I'm not going to get into a "I know you are but what am I" match with you, suffice it to say that I've been using Macs to navigate since ver 1 of Navimaq.

What I am going to do is take umbrage with you are your numerous inferences that AyeTides has somehow not played fair. Anyway you read your posts, that is what is being said.

If you want to compete with AyeTides or any other iPhone app, come up with your own and let the market judge.

Lastly, this forum has seen very little if any of the type of dialog this thread is heading towards so I'm done with it. I'd be happy to debate the issue further in a venue more suited for some knock down drag out back and forth, lets take it over to Sailing Anarchy, shall we?
 
Reply
#11
The truth has come out about the motive of ActiveCaptain.

August and myself have viable marine apps available right now on the iPhone app store -- No trivial matter getting through all the hoops Apple puts up. Our marine apps will continue to be improved and frequently updated using valuable feedback from actual users. ActiveCaptain Mobile is no where to be found for iPhone, so instead the developer chooses to question the credibility of August who has developed and supported Mr. Tides for years without charging a dime. In order to recoup some of the costs of being an iPhone developer ($99/year, $200 phone, $70 a month service charge) August charges a nominal fee for AyeTides.

So ActiveCaptain I ask that you don't play fast and loose with the facts. Instead get to work on ActiveCaptain for iPhone because you have promised it!
Scott Dillon
Sydney Australia
North Shore 38
CYCA
 
Reply
#12
Whoa whoa whoa now people let's slow down here.

I didn't mean to imply anything about ActiveCaptain, though I did take his comments as an implied criticism of the legality of AyeTides and felt I had to respond to him. But this is getting out of hand now :o

ActiveCaptain is correct in that I said Mr. Tides is based upon XTIDE, but only to the extent that XTIDE is the inspiration to Mr. Tides. At the time I started Mr. Tides (1999, wow almost a decade!) there was no viable tide software for the Mac. I saw a niche, and I filled it - but with my own code, not Dave's. As Dave said on his site, Mr. Tides is a 'non-port' in that it used the harmonics files but that was all. Mr. Tides started as RealBasic, then moved to Objective-C when OS X came out. AyeTides in turn builds upon Mr. Tides and uses much the same code, but again it's all my code.

ActiveCaptain expressed a concern, perhaps not in the best way, about this issue, and I felt the need to explain myself. I know that both Rich and myself have been on this forum for a long time and we both have loyal fans of our programs (because we've been around a long time, and because we're both responsive to our users and generally helpful, or so I'd like to think), and I'm pleased to see them rise up to my defense. But I think in this case we can move on, remain civil to each other, and not discourage the open free-flow nature of the forums.

I hope this brings the matter to a close.
 
Reply
#13
GPSNavX Wrote:The truth has come out about the motive of ActiveCaptain.
It has? This is truly the land of the bizarre. I'm honestly sorry that I stumbled into this love fest for AyeTides. All I was trying to originally do was provide information about a brand new tide application. After writing an article viewed by thousands of boaters talking about iNavX and AyeTides, I thought it would be fair to show that there were others. That's the big secret to my "motive".


GPSNavX Wrote:Instead get to work on ActiveCaptain for iPhone because you have promised it!
Don't worry Rich. Your wish will happen giving you much more time to spend on MacENC.
 
Reply
#14
Guys.. this is getting out of hand. Please take this rather heated discussion off-line.

Thanks.
Never knowingly overcanvassed!
 
Reply
#15
I think the ayetide is really a good thing. It might be a good application that doesn't really need an internet connection to display those current data. It is really a god feature for the application.



_________________
Landing Page Optimization
 
Reply
  


Forum Jump:


Browsing: 1 Guest(s)