Terrabrowser - Release Notes

A Shareware Satellite and Topographical Map Browser with GPS support for Mac OS X

1.5 (beta 3) 28 April, 2005

[new feature] Added menu option to open selected waypoint(s) in web browser with Google Maps.

[new feature] Info inspector now remembers its position between launches.

[new feature] The main browser window can now be re-opened under the View menu if accidentally closed.

[bugfix] Terrabrowser is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 and above ("Tiger").

1.5 (beta 2) 12 April, 2005

[new feature] Now checks for new application version upon launch; this can be disabled in the preferences.

[bugfix] Bookmarks are now saved automatically when quitting. Previously, one had to open the Bookmark Manager and save the bookmarks by hand.

[bugfix] Download region feature now works correctly again.

1.5 (beta 1) 25 March, 2005

[new feature] Added menu of waypoint icons in the waypoint window - it is now possible to set a waypoint's icon through this menu. Note that they won't update on the map until you refresh the view.

[bugfix] Illegal characters such as '&' are now prevented from being entered in waypoint names.

[other] New application icon.

1.5 (alpha 9) 30 January, 2005

[new feature] Added option to turn off waypoint labels but retain the marker dots.

[new feature] Distance and scale line now respect line width set by user in the preferences.

[new feature] Waypoints and their labels now respect the transparency level set in the preferences.

[new feature] Added option to send center location to Avant Go website which was present in version 1.1.

[bugfix] Sorting by latitude or longitude of waypoints now works correctly.

[bugfix] Fixed problem where tracklogs would sometimes get cut off when zoomed in too far.

[other] Assorted internal changes and performance enhancements.

1.5 (alpha 8) 22 December, 2004

[new feature] The find button in the toolbar actually does something now - it opens the location search window.

[new feature]Rewrote many of the instructions in this readme file since they were out of date.

[new feature]Scale bar now adjusts itself to display extra zoom levels for the urban map but remove them for photo and topo maps. It also auto adjusts the value to be more zoomed out if necessary.

[new feature]Added basic printing support for the map which prints whatever is currently visible including waypoints and tracklogs.

[new feature]Added basic printing support for waypoint documents, however it is not very customizable at this point.

[new feature]Added distance calculation feature - just option-click and drag to display a calculated distance on the map.

[bugfix] Track view of waypoint document now resizes correctly.

[bugfix]Users are now prevented from entering out of bound values into the latitude and longitude fields in the toolbar.

[bugfix] Zipcode search now works with zipcodes which begin with a '0'.

1.5 (alpha 7) 5 December, 2004

[new feature] Added search by zipcode, or zipcode, street address, and city. This feature was highly requested!

[new feature] Added option to change color of scale bar and to enable or disable it.

[new feature] Added send to custom URL option which allows the user to specify a URL taking a decimal latitude and longitude. Terrabrowser will then fill in the selected waypoint's location and send to the default web browser.

[bugfix] Fixed readme button in about window.

[new feature] Preferences window now remembers last tab selected.

[new feature] Added advanced preferences tab.

[other] Assorted cosmetic changes.

1.5 (alpha 6) 23 November, 2004

[new feature] Map can now be moved simply by clicking and dragging it. Moving in whole tile increments is no longer required.

[new feature] Map now stays centered on the master location rather than almost centered as it used to be when zooming in and out.

[new feature] Added download region feature with user specifiable height, width, and compression level.

[new feature] Added scale bar to map.

[new feature] Beginnings of basic Apple Script support added. Can query and set the current latitude and longitude, you can also use the reload command to have Terrabrowser load reload its map at the current location. See the Apple Script dictionary (from within Script Editor) for details. Note that many of the default operations may not work - only the Terrabrowser specific ones are known to do anything. Also, the reload command syntax listed in the dictionary is not quite correct - just use the command by itself (ie: reload).

1.5 (alpha 5) 11 September, 2004

[new feature] Added "super" zoom option - you can now zoom in to 0.25 meter resolution (twice as far as before) on urban area (color) maps!

[bugfix] Fixed bug which prevented searching in a waypoint document from working until you clicked on on the corresponding tab.

[bugfix] Internet version checking should now work correctly.

[new feature] Added a few new built in bookmarks (Space Needle, Buckingham Fountain).

1.5 (alpha 4) 8 September, 2004

[bugfix] Fixed bug which prevented Terrabrowser from launching on any computer lacking a built in modem.

[bugfix] Fixed bug which could cause tiles to stop loading after attempting to load an out of bound region.

1.5 (alpha 3) 6 September, 2004

[bugfix] Fixed bug with latitude and longitude fields not setting the location correctly.

[new feature] Added support for colorsatelliteimagesofurbanareas including Chicago, Seattle, and others. More color images are being added to the Terraserver all the time. Note that this also introduces a bug which has not yet been fixed - if you try to load a color image of a region which doesn't have color images yet, you will have to quit and relaunch Terrabrowser before you can load normal images again.

[new feature] Replaced multiple toolbar lat/lon fields with a single set of fields which are formatted in DMS, DM, or decimal degrees according to the user's preferenc

1.5 (alpha 2) 15 August, 2004

[bugfix] Fixed bug where longitude toolbar field was setting itself to the latitude value when edited.

[bugfix] May have fixed bug where it wouldn't launch on some computers?

1.5 (alpha 1) 7 August, 2004

[new feature] First alpha release of the new Cocoa Terrabrowser.

[new feature] Rewritten from the ground up in Cocoa.

[new feature] Supports display of tracklogs and routes from GPX files.

[new feature] Used in conjunction with the third party MacGPSBabel program, now supports Magellan GPS receivers.

[new feature] Limitation on cache size removed.

[new feature] Much faster than the old version at loading tiles.

Pre-Cocoa Versions

1.1 7 August, 2003

[other] Terrabrowser is now Shareware. Please pay the $10 fee if you like it.

[new feature] Improved download speed.

[new feature] Added image cache which greatly improves interactivity.

Ability to empty or clean image cache.

Ability to pre-download a region.

Browse Offline mode allows you to browse a pre-cached region without being connected to the internet.

[new feature] Integrated GPS support from GPS Connect with Terrabrowser. You can now upload/download waypoints from compatible Garmin GPS Receivers. NMEA mode is also supported which enables live tracking.

[new feature] Added ability to search for a region based on its Zip Code.

[new feature] All bookmarks are now displayed on the map simultaneously.

All open GPX files are also displayed on the map.

[new feature] Added scale bar.

[new feature] Added support for UTM coordinate system and for degree/minute entry.

[new feature] Added option to blink the current position marker.

[new feature] Removed menu to select number of tiles. Instead, just drag the window to the desired size.

[new feature] Added Zoom in and Zoom out buttons and menu options.

[new feature] Added download progress bar.

[new feature] Added contextual menu option to zoom in on mouse location.

[new feature] Added contextual menu option to calculate distance.

[new feature] Added ability to calculate distance between two points.

[new feature] Preferences such as window position, size, display of position marker, etc. are now saved.

[new feature] Saving images with scale bar, bookmarks and marker dot is now supported.

[new feature] Export of bookmarks file option added.

[new feature] Added printing support (map or waypoints)

[new feature] Added option to hide navigation window. Also added button for this.

[new feature] Added option to check for new versions on the internet.

[new feature] Moved the Map Datum popup to the preferences dialog since it is not used very often.

[other] other assorted changes...

1.0.5 8 June, 2003

[bugfix] Microsoft changed their web address again! To prevent this problem in the future, this version adds the ability for the user to manually enter the base URL to use for the Terra Server. The old URL was terraserver.microsoft.com the new URL is terraserver-usa.com—. It appears that they will eventually standardize on the second URL, but this has not been consistent yet.

[new feature] Added support for Avant Go web site.

[new feature] Added option to view a location in a web browser.

[new feature] Added ability to fetch location name from Terra Server.

[new feature] Added ability to fetch date of satellite photo from Terra Server.

Note, the above two features still have a few bugs in them.

1.0.4 30 May, 2003

[bugfix] Fixed a couple of bugs related to coordinate entry.

1.0.3 27 May, 2003

[bugfix] Microsoft changed their web address to terraserver-usa.com which broke Terrabrowser. Note, Microsoft has stated that the Terra Server will be slow for up to a week while they move their servers to a new location. See this page for details: terraserver-usa.com—About.aspx

Changed Dec/DMS to a tab interface - UTM coordinates coming soon.

1.0.2 29 April, 2003

[bugfix] Fixed a couple of other bookmark management related bugs.

1.0.1 29 April, 2003

[bugfix] Fixed a bug when deleting all bookmarks at once.

1.0 28 April, 2003

First public release.

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Terrabrowser - Release Notes

A Shareware Satellite and Topographical Map Browser with GPS support for Mac OS X