Kurviger App

[Robin]

Dear fellow Kurviger users,

we are very proud to announce that Kurviger is releasing an Android App.

The Free Version offers you all the website features you already love, now in a mobile-friendly version. Plan round-trips, find winding roads, import and export routes, and, as a bonus, there's a guide-me mode, supporting you as you follow the route just created.

If you want more features (and we know you do ;)), there is the Pro Version. The Pro Version offers you additional, awesome features. Most importantly it provides you full-featured, turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance. Simply plan a route, press Navigate, and enjoy the best motorcycling routes.

Here's what the Pro version adds to Kurviger Free:

- Turn-by-turn voice navigation

- Offline maps

- Longer round trips (1000km/600mi)

- Alternative routes

- Hillshading (see the outlines of hills and mountains)

There is a getting started guide, that helps you making the first steps with the app.

The App is currently in a public beta stage. During the Beta-Period we are offering 30% off the original price. We are still working on some features. We hope you will enjoy the App as much as we do. If you miss any features or find an issue, please let us know. We are looking forward to hear from you.

Ride safe and enjoy the best motorcycling roads with the Kurviger App!

Robin

[Thorsten P.]

Hi Robin, 

directly bought the Pro version. This is great, thank you.

As always there are some questions and feature requests I have:

- Will you consider to let the user store maps locally?

- Will you consider to offer a garmin export? There are some export options, but yet now garmin :-( 

- Would be nice to have the navigation options "fastest, curvy and extra curvy" directly as option within the map instead of having to open the settings menus and clicking thru the options

- Show the route summary (time and distance) permantly or at least have it as option so user can review at any time. For now I only see the summary by changing the route eg while adding a new waypoint

- by choosing the option "fadenkreuz" it would be nice to use the "fadenkreuz" to easily set a waypoint for a route. The "Fadenkreuz" seems a good way to exactly fix a position in the map.by having some kind of a click option within the map. at the moment i have to select a waypoint with my finger. but my finger is to thick so not easy to position a waypoint precisely with the first try

- currently i can remove a waypoint by going thru the menu. would be nice to be able to delete a waypoint directly within the map.

The app is perfect, I like it very much, so please dont get me wrong. These are just some ideas by playing with the app for the first time. I guess you already have features and ideas on your roadmap yourself. So please see this as potential input to prioritize your feature list :-) 

Best Regards,

Thorsten

Am Freitag, 31. März 2017 23:57:18 UTC+2 schrieb Robin:

Dear fellow Kurviger users,

we are very proud to announce that Kurviger is releasing an Android App.

The Free Version offers you all the website features you already love, now in a mobile-friendly version. Plan round-trips, find winding roads, import and export routes, and, as a bonus, there's a guide-me mode, supporting you as you follow the route just created.

If you want more features (and we know you do ;)), there is the Pro Version. The Pro Version offers you additional, awesome features. Most importantly it provides you full-featured, turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance. Simply plan a route, press Navigate, and enjoy the best motorcycling routes.

Here's what the Pro version adds to Kurviger Free:

- Turn-by-turn voice navigation

- Longer round trips (1000km/600mi)

- Alternative routes

- Hillshading (see the outlines of hills and mountains)

[Emux]

Hi Thorsten,

(I'm Kurviger app author)

On 01/04/2017 01:58 μμ, Thorsten P. wrote:

- Will you consider to let the user store maps locally?

Application has a local map cache while browsing, so when connection is off the map still works in those areas.
If you mean to start with offline maps, this is something already in our minds.

- Will you consider to offer a garmin export? There are some export options, but yet now garmin :-(

Robin can answer here, as app uses Kurviger website for such processes. :)

- Would be nice to have the navigation options "fastest, curvy and extra curvy" directly as option within the map instead of having to open the settings menus and clicking thru the options

- Show the route summary (time and distance) permantly or at least have it as option so user can review at any time. For now I only see the summary by changing the route eg while adding a new waypoint

- by choosing the option "fadenkreuz" it would be nice to use the "fadenkreuz" to easily set a waypoint for a route. The "Fadenkreuz" seems a good way to exactly fix a position in the map.by having some kind of a click option within the map. at the moment i have to select a waypoint with my finger. but my finger is to thick so not easy to position a waypoint precisely with the first try

- currently i can remove a waypoint by going thru the menu. would be nice to be able to delete a waypoint directly within the map.

Actually all these features exist in our list for future Kurviger app improvements, nice you like them!

Also route summary can be seen anytime in detailed route instructions dialog, via Route menu on left drawer.

To drag waypoints better, you can also tap them first for their info bubble to open and then drag them by touching the bubble.

The app is perfect, I like it very much, so please dont get me wrong. These are just some ideas by playing with the app for the first time. I guess you already have features and ideas on your roadmap yourself. So please see this as potential input to prioritize your feature list :-)

Thanks for the kind words and the quick feedback!

--
Emux

[Robin]

Hi Thorsten,

nice to hear from you and we are very glad that you like the App :). Emux already answered most of your questions.

> Will you consider to offer a garmin export? There are some export options, but yet now garmin :-( 

I know that we have talked about this and this is certainly not forgotten. Sorry for the delay here.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Cheers,

Robin

[Richard Emerson]

Today I finally had a chance to use the pro app on the road. I ran into what appear to be two errors. First, when approaching a turn, at about 50-100 meters from the turn, the spoken message is "in point two miles (turn left, right, etc.)". Ironically, in at least one case the message "turn [whatever direction] in point one miles" followed by the "point two" message. While following a route, I wanted to change settings. When I came back, the route was no longer present or, of course, followed.

I'm mystified by the data boxes in the upper left corner of the screen. Some times the upper box, with the larger arrow, shows the same distance mention in the voice cue. Sometimes there is a significant difference. The box below that might show a "turn right" arrow while the box above shows a "turn left" arrow. What's happening here? Also, please explain exactly what's being show in the upper right corner.

After losing the route (as described above), the map didn't seem to slew appropriately to keep "own location" on the screen. Tapping the locator button in the lower right, next to the "directions" button, briefly centered the map display on the current location, but that was rapidly lost.

Controlling map orientation was a challenge. The GPS input seemed to give the steadiest display that shows a "head up" display (that is oriented with the bike's line of travel). Compass 2D and 3D were astoundingly jittery, making them effectively unusable. Additionally, 2D and 3D both gave the "perspective" view and not "map view" and "perspective view" respectively.

I didn't see the three buttons: "mostly highway with some curves", "some curves", and "lots of curves". Did I overlook them?

I'll try to post the recommended route, and the route with more curves, as soon as I can draw them on the web site. The recommended route missed several "twisty" roads very close to the route shown.

Finally, is there any way to boost the volume on the voice cues? Compared to Maps and Waze, the voice quieter.

Having Kurviger on my phone is great, and I'm already looking forward to using it again.

On Friday, March 31, 2017 at 5:57:18 PM UTC-4, Robin wrote:

Dear fellow Kurviger users,

we are very proud to announce that Kurviger is releasing an Android App.

The Free Version offers you all the website features you already love, now in a mobile-friendly version. Plan round-trips, find winding roads, import and export routes, and, as a bonus, there's a guide-me mode, supporting you as you follow the route just created.

If you want more features (and we know you do ;)), there is the Pro Version. The Pro Version offers you additional, awesome features. Most importantly it provides you full-featured, turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance. Simply plan a route, press Navigate, and enjoy the best motorcycling routes.

Here's what the Pro version adds to Kurviger Free:

- Turn-by-turn voice navigation

- Longer round trips (1000km/600mi)

- Alternative routes

- Hillshading (see the outlines of hills and mountains)

[Robin]

Hi Rick,

thanks for your feedback.

> First, when approaching a turn, at about 50-100 meters from the turn, the spoken message is "in point two miles (turn left, right, etc.)". Ironically, in at least one case the message "turn [whatever direction] in point one miles" followed by the "point two" message

Sorry I don't get the issue here? The app might tell you, "turn left in .2 miles, then turn right in .1 miles". So this tells you the next and the turn after the next.

> While following a route, I wanted to change settings. When I came back, the route was no longer present or, of course, followed. 

Oh, that's bad. Do you remember what setting you changed?

> Some times the upper box, with the larger arrow, shows the same distance mention in the voice cue. Sometimes there is a significant difference.

This shouldn't be the case. If you are riding, you might get an instruction for e.g. 250 meters, but the distance is still counting down, as you are moving, so it might tell you 250m when you are already 220m to the turn. Was your issue of this kind?

> The box below that might show a "turn right" arrow while the box above shows a "turn left" arrow. What's happening here?

The second (smaller) box is the turn after the next turn. So that you already know the next two turns.

> Also, please explain exactly what's being show in the upper right corner.

Name of the road you are turning onto, the overall distance to your goal, the overall time, and you current speed (from top to bottom).

> After losing the route (as described above), the map didn't seem to slew appropriately to keep "own location" on the screen. Tapping the locator button in the lower right, next to the "directions" button, briefly centered the map display on the current location, but that was rapidly lost. 

This sounds like a bug. We have to investigate this a bit more, thanks :).

> Controlling map orientation was a challenge. The GPS input seemed to give the steadiest display that shows a "head up" display (that is oriented with the bike's line of travel). Compass 2D and 3D were astoundingly jittery, making them effectively unusable. Additionally, 2D and 3D both gave the "perspective" view and not "map view" and "perspective view" respectively. 

Yes, so the follow my location mode, is the "cheap" navigation, that is mostly build for the free version. I always use the GPS mode here. Whereas Compass 2D, might be nice for orienting yourself while standing, Compass 3D, is mostly to show off ;) (or at least I don't use it very much).

> I didn't see the three buttons: "mostly highway with some curves", "some curves", and "lots of curves". Did I overlook them? 

Yes, this is hidden in the settings, it was already proposed to move this feature further up the UI, to have it easily accessible.

> I'll try to post the recommended route, and the route with more curves, as soon as I can draw them on the web site. The recommended route missed several "twisty" roads very close to the route shown. 

Thanks a lot :).

> Finally, is there any way to boost the volume on the voice cues? Compared to Maps and Waze, the voice quieter. 

Have you tried chaning your device's volume? The loudness is adjustable there, or do you need to further boost it?

> Having Kurviger on my phone is great, and I'm already looking forward to using it again. 

Thanks! We are very happy that you like it. Keep up the good feedback and enjoy your rides with Kurviger.

Best,

Robin

[Richard Emerson]

On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 at 9:17:12 PM UTC-4, Robin wrote:

Hi Rick,

thanks for your feedback.

> First, when approaching a turn, at about 50-100 meters from the turn, the spoken message is "in point two miles (turn left, right, etc.)". Ironically, in at least one case the message "turn [whatever direction] in point one miles" followed by the "point two" message

Sorry I don't get the issue here? The app might tell you, "turn left in .2 miles, then turn right in .1 miles". So this tells you the next and the turn after the next.

The problem is the voice cue for "[do something] in 200 feet" comes out as "[do something] in .2 miles" and this is after "[do something] in .1 miles". If you will, the distances are upside down.

"

> While following a route, I wanted to change settings. When I came back, the route was no longer present or, of course, followed. 

Oh, that's bad. Do you remember what setting you changed?

None - I looked at the menu, I  decided there was nothing I was going to change  (I think I was looking for the slabs/curvy/verycurvy options)

> Some times the upper box, with the larger arrow, shows the same distance mention in the voice cue. Sometimes there is a significant difference.

This shouldn't be the case. If you are riding, you might get an instruction for e.g. 250 meters, but the distance is still counting down, as you are moving, so it might tell you 250m when you are already 220m to the turn. Was your issue of this kind?.

No - the differences were anywhere from many tenths of a mile to the right distance. The problem is the distances were usually not close to what the voice cues were. 

> The box below that might show a "turn right" arrow while the box above shows a "turn left" arrow. What's happening here?

The second (smaller) box is the turn after the next turn. So that you already know the next two turns.

Gotit. I began to think that might be the case. Nice feature! 

> Also, please explain exactly what's being show in the upper right corner.

Name of the road you are turning onto, the overall distance to your goal, the overall time, and you current speed (from top to bottom).

The ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) is based on current speed? If so, maybe a smoothed average speed would give a more likely ETA? 

> After losing the route (as described above), the map didn't seem to slew appropriately to keep "own location" on the screen. Tapping the locator button in the lower right, next to the "directions" button, briefly centered the map display on the current location, but that was rapidly lost. 

This sounds like a bug. We have to investigate this a bit more, thanks :).

You're welcome. 

> Controlling map orientation was a challenge. The GPS input seemed to give the steadiest display that shows a "head up" display (that is oriented with the bike's line of travel). Compass 2D and 3D were astoundingly jittery, making them effectively unusable. Additionally, 2D and 3D both gave the "perspective" view and not "map view" and "perspective view" respectively. 

Yes, so the follow my location mode, is the "cheap" navigation, that is mostly build for the free version. I always use the GPS mode here. Whereas Compass 2D, might be nice for orienting yourself while standing, Compass 3D, is mostly to show off ;) (or at least I don't use it very much).

Understood. Particularly because my phone/GPS is on a handlebar mount, there's a lot of vibration at idle. That can't be good for the compass. LOL Too bad the "3D" isn't easily available. It's fun to see every so often. Otherwise "heading up" (the smoothed direction the bike is going at any instant) is the display most often used.

> I didn't see the three buttons: "mostly highway with some curves", "some curves", and "lots of curves". Did I overlook them? 

Yes, this is hidden in the settings, it was already proposed to move this feature further up the UI, to have it easily accessible.

Good idea! :) 

> I'll try to post the recommended route, and the route with more curves, as soon as I can draw them on the web site. The recommended route missed several "twisty" roads very close to the route shown. 

Thanks a lot :).

Both are up in the discussion of routing - look at the route(s) between Coopersburg and Skippack.

> Finally, is there any way to boost the volume on the voice cues? Compared to Maps and Waze, the voice quieter. 

Have you tried chaning your device's volume? The loudness is adjustable there, or do you need to further boost it?

The volume from the phone is fine, as is the voice from Maps and Waze. It's just Kurviger app that's too quiet.  

> Having Kurviger on my phone is great, and I'm already looking forward to using it again. 

Thanks! We are very happy that you like it. Keep up the good feedback and enjoy your rides with Kurviger.

You got it! :)

R 

[Emux]

Hi Richard,

Robin answered already in most questions.

We'll process your report, thanks for the detailed feedback!

--
Emux

[Richard Emerson]

Es freut mich Hilsbereit zu sein. :)

Cheers

Rick

[Robin]

Hi Rick,

> Today I finally had a chance to use the pro app on the road. I ran into what appear to be two errors. First, when approaching a turn, at about 50-100 meters from the turn, the spoken message is "in point two miles (turn left, right, etc.)". Ironically, in at least one case the message "turn [whatever direction] in point one miles" followed by the "point two" message.

We found that bug and it is already fixed, you should receive the update notification soon (or might have already received it). Thanks for reporting this. There will be some more optimizations for imperial unit users in the future :).

Best,

Robin

On Thursday, April 6, 2017 at 8:50:52 AM UTC+10, Richard Emerson wrote:

[Richard Emerson]

I just found and installed what I take to be the update that fixes the "inverted distance" bug. Interestingly, an update for Waze showed up at the same time. I think Kurviger has them worried... ;)

I have both Kurviger and Kurviger Pro on my phone. Do I need to keep Kurviger (no Pro)? 

Cheers

Rick

[Robin]

> I just found and installed what I take to be the update that fixes the "inverted distance" bug.

Perfect :)

> I have both Kurviger and Kurviger Pro on my phone. Do I need to keep Kurviger (no Pro)? 

Depends on you. Generally speaking the Pro app supports everything the Free app supports, but adds a lot of extras on top. So I think you can uninstall it :).

Best,

Robin

[Robin]

Dear fellow Kurviger users,

there is a new update of the app available. With this update we added the possibility to use offline maps instead of online maps. Offline maps are only available for Kurviger Pro. You can get Kurviger Pro here. The documentation about offline maps is available here. We are looking forward to hear about your experience with offline maps.

Enjoy your ride with Kurviger!

Cheers,

Robin

[Emux]

Hi all,

We published a new version of Kurviger app which, among the usual improvements, has the much anticipated feature:

- Address Lookup (Geocoding)

The documentation about Address Lookup is available here.
We're looking forward for your feedback with that new feature too.

--
Emux

[Richard Emerson]

I'm almost certain there are a variety of app rev.s in use. How about posting the current rev. number at the top of the group page, along with "you'll see your rev. number if you do this to get to 'About'." info?

On Friday, March 31, 2017 at 5:57:18 PM UTC-4, Robin wrote:

[Cyber Gasty]

Hi,
I just installed your application and I like it very much. However one thing is missing for me in order to plan my trips. On the map (I know it is not you who provide the map) there is no numbering for the roads, so you have to choose your roads visually.
For example I would like to pass a road in France D45A and then via D2 and then D44A. If there would be a numbering it would be much easier to choose a road. Or I plan a route in Sardinia to pass by SP61 then take SP49 for a short round and then turn to SP92.
Since there is no such information on the map, I have to look on my computer or google maps and make sure that I chose a good road portion to put my waypoint.
Is there an overlay for this feature available for a particular map i.e. France or Italy?
thx

[Cyber Gasty]

Sorry I see that you have it for Italy. Then the request is for overlay for France with road numbers.

[Emux]

Hi,

What map do you use?
Is it Kurviger with OpenScienceMap or Mapzen map?
Or is it Kurviger Pro with offline maps?

First the information has to be available in OpenStreetMap (since that is our maps source), then the used maps should contain that information and then the render themes we use should expose that data to the users.

Probably here we mean the OSM Key:ref for highways?

--
Emux

[Cyber Gasty]

Hi,
I am using Kurviger Pro with offline maps. I do not know what is the OSM Key.ref, just noting that in France departmental roads which start with letter Dxxx are not displayed with numbers.
Here is the printscreen of the map section without road numbering (regarless of the level of zoom)

[Emux]

Thanks for the additional info!

The offline maps we currently use are Mapsforge maps, built with default options.
We'd need to check what happens in Italy and France.

--
Emux

[Oliver]

Hallo,
bei mir bricht der Download der Frankreichkarte immer bei 99% ab.

Gruß Oliver

[Emux]

Hi Oliver,

Is it done on pc?
Can you try with different browser perhaps?

--
Emux

[Manfred Frommel]

Hi,

looks the same here in Germany:
Could it be, that numbers are only displayed for roads >= "highway=primary" 

ref= B 301     highway=primary     -> number is displayed
ref= St 2084  highway=secondary -> number not displayed
ref= FS 8      highway=tertiary      -> number not displayed

Manfred

[Emux]

Hi Manfred,

Are your examples with offline maps too?

Looking at our map style, there is not any OSM tag ref currently in action (which is used normally for road codes).
So any existing labeling comes from regular "name" tags.

Robin WDYT

--
Emux

[Robin]

Hi Manfred, Emux, and Cyber Gasty,

you are right, there is an issue with our map rendering. I will add the road reference with one of the next updates. Thanks for pointing this out!

Best,

Robin

[Manfred Frommel]

Hi, Emux,

Are your examples with offline maps too?

my examples are for the website.
Looking at Kurviger App Pro with offline map (bayern.map) there aren't any ref-numbers displayed at all.

BTW:
Do the offline-maps have any version numbers, and how can I tell which version of the map I am currently using?
 

Looking at our map style, there is not any OSM tag ref currently in action (which is used normally for road codes).
So any existing labeling comes from regular "name" tags.

Confirmed, only names are displayed in my offline map.
Looks like offline map and website are using different map style.
 
Manfred

[Emux]

Hi Manfred,

> Do the offline-maps have any version numbers, and how can I tell which version of the map I am currently using?

There is not a specific versioning, but their creation date can be used.
We'll see how we can provide a way to be informed for this.

> Confirmed, only names are displayed in my offline map.

That's easy, in next version we'll include the "ref" labels too.

> Looks like offline map and website are using different map style.

Websites usually provide raster image tiles which are pre-rendered on server.

In app we use vector maps, with really small size, containing only the features geometry / tags.
Their rendering is done on device in real tile, so we can change it easily as we wish.

--
Emux

[Frederik Fellerhoff]

Hi Robin,

after testing and using the website version of Kurviger for the last year i finally purchased the Android App Kurviger Pro.
Looks like a brilliant piece of software!
I am happy to see that you already provide offline maps, cause i travel a lot in foreign countries and with offline maps i can save a lot of money for data roaming.
But why i still have to go online to calculate a new route with kurviger? This takes away the advantage of  the provided offline maps for me ;-)

Thanks for you efforts.
Rick

[Robin]

Thanks for the kind words :). Offline maps only handle the map rendering. Offline route calculation is on the long-term agenda, but this is not a trivial task. A route calculation uses almost no internet, so it is quite safe to use it in the EU, as roaming costs have dropped massively over the last years. I know this is not ideal, but we are working on it.

I just ran the numbers for you :). One very long route across Germany, that is ~1000km long, is ~50kb. This means 20 route calculations for a very long route are about 1mb. A "shorter" route of 300kms uses ~20kb, which means 50 route calculations are ~1mb. 1mb cannot cost more than 0.05€ (exl. VAT). Starting from the 15. June 2017 there are no roaming costs in the EU anymore (just saying :)). We are still working on this.

Best,

Robin

[Emux]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for your feedback!

We can offer in the meantime an alternative way to save / load routes, that won't require internet.
So you can plan your routes when online, store them and then load them with navigation starting immediately offline.

--
Emux

[Frederik Fellerhoff]

Hi Robin, Emux.

Thank you for the fast reply. roaming in europe should be no big problem anymore after the change in June 2017, that's right.

I am traveling a lot in asia where we still have lot of different contracts with high roaming costs.

I already noticed, that im- & export of already calculated routes is possible, i played around with this feature, imorted some handmade, very large routes and it works pretty well.

Anyways, this is just a workaround and doesn't work if i want to set up a new route on the spot.

Other apps give you full offline route calculation and i prefer to be independent from any telco Provider ;-))

BTW: The offline maps for Asia: Laos and Cambodia are missing :-)

Keep on the good work,

Rick

[Frederik Fellerhoff]

Hi,

one more remark on offline navigation: After importing a GPX you will only get an overlay if you are offline.

That means you get no directions, voice commands or 3D-view.

To get all this Features you Need to go online first to let kurviger calculate a new route.

Any chance to get this features offline?

Cheers

Rick

[Emux]

Hi Rick,

That's what I meant above, current export / import works with gpx (or other formats) options which cannot provide a complete routing calculation without the server.

We can improve the situation so that route loading can lead to navigation immediately without online requirement.

--
Emux

[Frederik Fellerhoff]

Hi Emux,

that would be a great improvement for the workaround!!

Appreciated,
Rick