The other day I was at a football game where I had to park on a golf course far from the stadium and ended up wandering around for 20 minutes trying to locate the car afterward.
I knew that the iPhone had an app called "Dude, Where's My Car?" which let someone use GPS to tag a specific location and then later use Google Maps to guide them back to the GPS mark, but when I did some searching I couldn't find a WinMo version. So I made one.
This version isn't as sexy as the iPhone app, but it's free, and you can store up to 3 different locations and even name them if you'd like. When you want to locate one, you just click the respective Find button and you will be provided an arrow or compass direction (N, NW, S, SW, E, SE, W, NE) and approximate distance to your destination which will change as you continue to move.
I did some testing and got rid of whatever bugs I could find and everything seems to work. Since I find it useful to have, I wanted to pass it on to the community in case they might be interested as well.
If you find any problems with it, let me know, otherwise enjoy.
UPDATE 3
I finally got around to adding arrow guidance to accompany compass directions for finding a destination. The arrows are a bit finicky, but its partially due to the quality of the gps fix and the amount of fluctuation in the coordinates it gets. I find that the best way to work with it is to travel in one direction for a short distance steadily until a steady arrow appears. Once that happens, turn in the direction of the arrow and keep walking in the direction it had indicated until it changes to reflect the direction you turned. I.e. if you are walking straight and right arrow appears, turn right and keep walking straight until the right arrow changes to an up arrow.
I also updated the source code package for anyone interested in modifying the code. As before, I just ask that you keep its open nature going (GNU style) and if you post a new version of the software with arrows, or a better GPS interface (that uses triangulation as an option), etc. that you link the new software back to this thread and you let me know about it so I can check it out
UPDATE 2
As requested, I have attached the source code for the project developed with Visual Studio 08. It's not super clean since I put it together kind of rapidly, but it is decently commented. Anyone is welcome to modify this code and use it for your own personal development. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.
UPDATE
Attached a screenshot from my visual studio emulator. It should look the same as on the phone but with longer decimal values for the GPS coords.
Also attached the .cab files for the .NET framework that people were having issues with. I don't know if those will resolve the problems or not, but I developed the phone using the 3.5 compact framework. If you have that, a GPS chip on your phone, and WinMo 6 it should work for you.
Downloading, will try it and give you some feedback.
I'll try this out later. The compass feature is nice, something that nuePark doesn't have.
Thanks for pointing me to nuePark. I wish I had located it when I first did my searching, but then I wouldn't have created this. It looks like I unintentionally covered some peoples' requests for naming and multiple locations. Good times.
theres also an app called wm mini gps, or something along those lines. it will let you set a point, then navigate back to it later.
just my 2 cents
you can also do this in google maps.
The WM Mini GPS looks pretty cool. Google maps is ok, but only if you save it as a favorite. Not very good for temp stuff, and I'm not sure you can add a mark based on your current location (vs an address, which I know you can). I guess this app fuses the functionality and adds flexibility with naming and multiple spots. Thanks for pointing out both options.
bug in progam
smrtdrmmr thanx for the program but the prob is
immediately upon install my lil scroll wheel thingy (dont laugh) stop functioning normally instead of scrolling while browsing it activated the call volume function just like I had tapped the lil speaker icon....
That's really strange. It definitely didn't do that for me and I had to install/uninstall several times during the testing process. The installer is a generic project type based on the directions I got from MSDN. You might have some conflicting settings or something. Anyone else experience this?
This nice little utility works great on my Tilt. I'm gonna move this thread to Development and Hacking so it can have greater exposure for other devices.
Thanks
Tried it yesterday and it worked great!
Any way to get an arrow / graphic that works similar to a compass would, or is it just easier to have the words: SW / S...etc.
Thanks again!
I got the following error message once I tried to run it:
GParkS.exe
Exception
at Microsoft.AGL.Common.MISC.HandleAr()
at System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase._SetInfo()
at _System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.set_MaxLength()
at GParkS.GParkS.InitializeComponent()
at GParkS.GParkS..ctor()
at GParkS.Program.Main()
I am running a custom wm6.1 rom with netcf 3.5
Please click one of the Quick Reply icons in the posts above to activate Quick Reply.
download and text
scotcha12345 said:
Tried it yesterday and it worked great!
Any way to get an arrow / graphic that works similar to a compass would, or is it just easier to have the words: SW / S...etc.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought about using an arrow that rotates around, but because the phone's orientation can change relative to the compass direction I thought it might be kind of confusing (I.e. it points left so you turn left and start walking but it keeps pointing left because it wants you to travel West and you have rotated the phone).
It would be possible for me to track the direction that someone is traveling and adjust the arrow accordingly, but again, phone orientation could vary and it's just more complicated to deal with. The compass directions are fixed so it keeps things simple and generic no matter what way you are pointing your phone.
fredcatsmommy said:
I got the following error message once I tried to run it:
GParkS.exe
Exception
at Microsoft.AGL.Common.MISC.HandleAr()
at System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase._SetInfo()
at _System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.set_MaxLength()
at GParkS.GParkS.InitializeComponent()
at GParkS.GParkS..ctor()
at GParkS.Program.Main()
I am running a custom wm6.1 rom with netcf 3.5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen this before either so I did a little research and dug up this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-405749.html which then links here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2430410&postcount=390 I am not sure if this corresponds with my app or not, but you could check your registry setting and see if your problem matches the one described in the thread.
smrtdrmmr said:
I haven't seen this before either so I did a little research and dug up this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-405749.html which then links here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2430410&postcount=390 I am not sure if this corresponds with my app or not, but you could check your registry setting and see if your problem matches the one described in the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will do. thanks
fredcatsmommy said:
will do. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that wasn't the problem; my registry was fine.
doesn`t work for me too. I have net fram 3.5 and i get a window with a german text, somthing like: there is a error that can`t be displayed because i have not installed "NETCFv35Messages.DE.wm.cab" ?
I press okay, the app started and i first tried to change for miles to kilometers, now the app crashes completly with a unexpected error (no luck today)
Hope this helps you finding the Bugs.
smrtdrmmr said:
The other day I was at a football game where I had to park on a golf course far from the stadium and ended up wandering around for 20 minutes trying to locate the car afterward.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Parking at the Rose Bowl sucks, huh. You get used to it after a few trips. Now I just need a phone with gps
Any hope of getting some screen shots of this?
Hello!
Sorry if this is asked/answered, search isn't working on my phone.
Is there any way to change just the text field editing interface on the sgs2? cyanogenmod seems to have it down pretty well but the stock Samsung one that appears in practically all the ROMs I've tried is absolutely pathetic. If anyone is confused about what I mean, I mean selecting words, highlighting words, copying and pasting words, the little text selection arrows etc. It is frustratingly incompetent ATM and is making me want to throw my phone at a wall.
Its the one main thing that bothers me about Android, iOS has this perfectly sorted.
Most of the time now I have to write my emails/forum posts/Facebook posts etc (ie anything with multiple lines of text) in a notepad type program and copy and paste it over, as trying to select a sole word in the middle of many in a websites text field (or similar) is quite literally impossible.
Someone help me, it is driving me insane.
Thank you.
Is there seriously nothing that can be done about this?
I find that quite hard to believe..
I am developing my first android app, I have been studying javascript for a few months, and have manged to get it down pretty well, along with creating some fair applications with it.
This is my first android application, and please take into account that i started it less then 5 hours ago. Ill post on this thread whenever I run into problems to hopefully get some help.
Here is my aplication currently:
(attached)
nothing actually "does anything" right now, except the button its just a XML screen and a splash screen really.
Here is a project i did in JDK which i am trying to "Mimick":
The first problem i am having right now is that the background that i am trying to put on to my application is not showing up in the XML properties "Background" under drawable. The Background is saved in all 3 of the draw able folders under rec. Whenever i try to add the background manually with code i get this error.
Failed to convert @drawable/background3 into a drawable
Couldn't resolve resource @drawable/background3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Secondly I am trying to figure out how to send the numbers entered into the "editText" objects to the main java method. I used actionListeners in java but i don;t know here. No need to explain it i would be very appreciative if someone could just point me in the right direction.
I am having some SERIOUS difficulties in lifting these Colornote app files BACK to some readable form after I was forced to do a restore of my phone. It's causing me TOO MUCH STRESS. Someone recommended your blog and that you might be able to help with this.
This problem has been DOGGING me for awhile now. Obviously, I can only spend so much time troubleshooting this on my own limited time because I have to work often and dedicate my precious time on other things. I know it's Proprietary software. But I simply REFUSE to believe that someone out there couldn't put this in a readable format; either on PC or back on my phone where they originated. There's someone out there that could look at this and say, "Piece of cake, here's what you do....". No one has said that so far though.
The makers could though, but they either don't know or refuse to help me. I also contacted them on their Facebook page, only to have them ignore me completely (which is really infuriating). I DO KNOW that others experienced this same problem that im having in the past.
I was forced to do a master reset on my phone and basically the files are not going back to where they originated from (The Colornote App). As you can see per the image I attached here, the files are STILL ON THE PHONE, but this stupid Colornote is not locating them or something! It says that it's "Unable to find application to perform this action" when I try to access the files. It's really bizarre. So these files are basically stuck in limbo. The file types are in 2 forms: IDX and DAT. I contacted Samsung and they they were absolutely worthless for any type of support and said they couldn't help because it's a 3rd party app. Same thing with Verizon.
If there's anyone that can please help me out with either transferring/resurrecting these files in a readable form, I would so greatly appreciate it!
Hello @all,<br>I'm kinda new to "asking a question on a forum" hence I kindly ask you in advance to be a bit apologetic for any blunder I'm going to 'produce' .. thx
The reason me being 'new' is because usually I find my way around—not that I consider myself almighty but a simple Google-search does it's magic .. usually. This time I ran out of luck, which surprised me (even a search-string-overhaul was to no avail).
I'm looking for a neat text/script editor that is capable of monitoring file-changes that may happen in the background while a file is open .. a standard for any given IDE on a PC-environment (in fact, the simplest notepad replacement would cover such basics). Or a precocious check upon file-saving would be sufficient. As of now every App I tried so far failed to notice when I "sneak into my own phone and 'secretly' modify a file" currently open by this very App (of course, there are different scenarios conceivable why a file might have changed, though). QuickEdit looked promising but .. alas .. and why the heck is no there UltraEdit available for Android .. but I reckon this would be an entirely different topic and too much to ask.
ps: chose the 'post'-icon because it seemed fit .. although in a slightly different way than probably intended
pps: for the non-working line-break .. just use your imagination