Beta testers wanted - new release!

[John Taylor]

Hey Folks,

I just wanted to let you know that we're close to our first release of Sky Map in 4 years.

If you want to become a beta tester then sign up at:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.google.android.stardroid

Once done you should be able to download the beta version from the Play Store (and/or you'll get a notification saying it's available).

It's taken quite a lot of effort just to bring the code into a buildable state, so the first releases will be quite modest and just fix the most painful issues.  We do have plans for some new features though so stay tuned.  There are going to be 3 almost simultaneous releases targetted at different versions of Android (your phone will pick the right one).  On phones running Kitkat or better you'll get:

* Twice as many stars

* Some data fixes

* Menus are back! No longer will you have to find the secret incantation on your phone to bring up the old-fashioned menu.

* Arabic translations

Let us know on skymapd...@gmail.com if you have any issues!

John & Kevin on behalf of the Sky Map Devs.

PS

If you've tried to play with the Sky Map code in the past and been frustrated with trying to build it, please give it another try.  We've updated the code on github https://github.com/sky-map-team/stardroid and it should build much more reliably now (especially the data regeneration).  Again, let us know if you have problems.