SkEye version 7.1.x : changes and known issues

[Harshad RJ]

Hello all,

Long time! I hope all is safe around you.

As you might have noticed by now, I published a shiny new update to SkEye over the last weekend.

Changes:

1. The biggest change is the addition of a "home screen". The motivation behind it was to add more "surface area" to the app; for presenting more information and settings to the user and to de-congest the "map screen".

2. On the home screen, there is a "what's up now" list, along with rise and set times for the Sun and the Moon. The objects can be clicked to automatically start a search. Options to configure this list will be coming in the future.

3. Another noticeable change is the addition of the "ground plane" on the map. This should help clearly demarcate the objects above the horizon from those below. A very basic feature which shouldn't have taken this long to come; but here it is.

4. I added C/2020 F3 (Comet Neowise) data to the free version. Henceforth, I will try to always include bright comets in the free version.

5. The "Color Theme" feature got a small tweak: it doesn't change the screen brightness any more. Nowadays it is quite easy to change the screen brightness and newer versions of Android also have some intelligence built into it. So there's no point in overriding the behaviour from within the app.

6. The guide button on the homescreen opens this newly written guide in your browser. In the future this guide will be packaged inside the app itself, so that there is no need to have an internet connection to view it.

Known issues

1. One user mentioned that after updating to the new release and clicking on the app's icon, the app started the map screen instead of the new home screen. They were using a custom launcher called "Nova Launcher", so I am not sure if this is specific to "Nova launcher" or a more general problem. If you see the same behaviour, please let me know.

2. The application hangs in a particular scenario: Start "search" + enable "play voice instructions" + click on "view target".

I have fixed this in my code, but my laptop crashed yesterday and has gone for repairs. I will cut a new release with the fix as soon as the laptop is back again.

3. The new version is only available for Android 6+. Supporting older versions and devices was holding me back. I hope Android 6, which was released about 5 years back, is a reasonable cut-off.

4. Translations are lagging behind. If you would like to translate the app to your favourite language, please drop me a line.

stay safe,

--

Harshad RJ