What's new

July 30, 2010

MapSphere v.0.99 beta (build 215)

1.	Feature	You can download maps along any path now (while in the previous version this could be only an existing track). Choose Tools \| Measure Tool, mark a path on the map, right-click on the map and choose "Download maps along the path".
2.	Feature	Now you can choose trip data to be downloaded. Right-click on the trip in the trip list and choose "Download Trip". You will be asked whether to download chat, track, thumbnails, or large photos.
3.	Improvement	The trip cover is displayed in the Manage Trip Photos dialog.
4.	Improvement	Now you can drag photos from Windows Explorer to the list of thumbnails in the Photo Geocoding dialog.
5.	Improvement	The system locale settings are now supported for the number formats.
6.	Change	The photo background in Photo Viewer is black now.
7.	Improvement	The Photo Viewer dialog is synchronized with the current selection in the Photo Geocoding dialog.
8.	Improvement	Now MapSphere supports more NMEA messages and consequently more GPS receivers. The handlers of GPVTG and GPZDA were implemented.
9.	Improvement	The Area Download dialog was slightly improved. It is resizable; it saves its parameters between sessions and uses the measurement units as set in the Options dialog.
10.	Improvement	You can use double click in the Search dialog to center the map on the selected object.
11.	Improvement	The handling of track open/save was improved.
12.	Fixed	Chat messages were lost if the user sent them while there was no internet connection. Now a warning is displayed in this case and all such messages are sent after the connection is established again.
13.	Fixed	Sometimes the application did not respond when clicking it on the Windows Task bar. In other cases its system menu disappeared immediately. Now it works better although this bug happens sometimes.
14.	Fixed	GPX files containing several tracks were opened incorrectly.
15.	Fixed	Sometimes download progress was displayed incorrectly (it could show wrong percents or size) or it did not disappear after the downloading was finished.
16.	Fixed	Map Area Download worked incorrectly if several layers were chosen to be downloaded.
17.	Fixed	A number of minor bugs and inconsistencies of the user interface were fixed in trip related dialogs.
18.	Fixed	After the user sent photos to the MapSphere server and requested them back the duplicated photos could appear on the map.
19.	Fixed	Data from different sources could be mixed without need in composite mapping data layers.
20.	Fixed	Several track formats (NMEA, Cicerino, Magellan, and OziExplorer) could be opened incorrectly if they contained some special symbols.
21.	Fixed	Sometimes MapSphere crashed while uploading a track to a trip.
22.	Fixed	The toolbar Customize menu item did not work.
23.	Fixed	No photos were bound to a track if the last one could not be bound to it.
24.	Fixed	The user could add the same photos twice in the Photo Geocoding dialog.
25.	Fixed	Sometimes the proposed trip track name was incorrect when saving it to a file.
26.	Fixed	When opening a track in the GPS Error Measurement dialog all points of other existing tracks were added too.

June 25, 2010

MapSphere v.0.99 beta (build 211)

1.	Feature	Now you can measure distance on the map. Select the Measure tool on the toolbar.
2.	Feature	You can modify the preferred language of search results and the maximum number of displayed results. Select Tools \| Options, Search.
3.	Feature	The interface of the Trip Editor dialog was updated. There are separate dialogs to manage the trip track, photos, location and other information.
4.	Feature	Now you can clear trip photo album and change trip name from within MapSphere application.
5.	Feature	While geocoding photos prepared for your trip you can drag them over the map using mouse.
6.	Feature	Now you can manually place photos to the map dragging their thumbnails from the Photo Geocoding dialog.
7.	Feature	Now it is possible to download all trip photos at once. Right click on a trip and choose "Download Trip".
8.	Improvement	Geocoded photos are marked by a special icon in the thumbnail list.
9.	Improvement	The Photo Viewer dialog can run modeless. You can click other photos on the map without closing this dialog.
10.	Improvement	The coordinates of the photo are displayed in the Photo Viewer dialog. You can also disable the "autolocate" function in this dialog.
11.	Improvement	The track preview is generated much faster now. This allows you to open tracks containing more points.
12.	Improvement	MapSphere provides more information about errors that can occur while downloading an update.
13.	Improvement	MapSphere is terminated faster now. This reduces the probability to get the "application is already running" message while updating or restarting MapSphere.
14.	Improvement	The search takes less time now because its cache was optimized.
15.	Fixed	It was not possible to view more than 5 photos located at one point.
16.	Fixed	MapSphere worked very slowly if the mapping data download was turned off.
17.	Fixed	Trip photos could not be uploaded to the server if one of them already had a proper size.
18.	Fixed	Sometimes the automatic detection of GPS terminated incorrectly.
19.	Fixed	Sometimes chat messages were not displayed in the chat window.
20.	Fixed	GPS log was not saved correctly on exit.
21.	Fixed	The maps of different data providers were mixed in the map window when using multiple mapping data layers.
22.	Fixed	Now filenames are not modified when the file filter is changed.
23.	Fixed	If a full path was specified in the Track Open dialog with quotes the file could not be opened.
24.	Fixed	The estimated size of requested photos was displayed incorrectly if a large photo was requested one more time.

May 28, 2010

MapSphere v.0.99 beta (build 207)

1.	Feature	New search plugin was implemented. It uses GeoNames service to search populated places and geographical objects like mountains, lakes, parks. You can use your native language in search requests.
2.	Improvement	All search plugins (GeoNames, Geocoder.US, and Yahoo! Maps) are now described on the Help page. To see it, press F1 in MapSphere.
3.	Feature	New dialog was introduced to display search results. Now MapSphere can process and locate several found items.
4.	Feature	You can change the information concerning your trip in the new Trip Editor dialog. Choose "Trip \| Edit".
5.	Feature	Now you can assign any track to your trip and share it with other users. To do this you need to upload a track to the MapSphere server. Choose "Track \| Upload" in Trip Editor.
6.	Feature	You can set the location of your trip in Trip Editor. Other users can see the location of your trip by double-clicking on its name in the Trip pane.
7.	Change	You can upload photos to your trip via Trip Editor only. This item was removed from the Trip pane.
8.	Feature	The list of the most recently used tracks is now available in the File menu.
9.	Feature	Now you can view the list of your favorite trips on the Trips pane.
10.	Improvement	After the Photo Geocoding dialog is finished you are notified about the number of selected photos and their approximate size (just before the uploading starts).
11.	Improvement	The user interface of track selection was improved in the Photo Geocoding dialog.
12.	Change	The list of newly added trips is limited to the last 2 weeks only. Previously it showed all trips for the last 100 days.
13.	Improvement	A proper file extension is automatically appended when saving track files.
14.	Improvement	The progress of downloading photos is now indicated.
15.	Improvement	If an error occurs while loading/saving tracks, the message window provides more details on its possible cause.
16.	Fixed	The Photo Geocoding dialog did not show any warning message if user exited the MapSphere application.
17.	Fixed	MapSphere could hang or work incorrectly while uploading and downloading photos if the internet connection terminated or was unstable.
18.	Fixed	The "Online \| Save Current Online Track" did not work for trip tracks.
19.	Fixed	In some cases the mapping data update (forced by the user) could lead to a crash.
20.	Fixed	After the track opening (or saving) operation was cancelled, the subsequent open/save operations failed.
21.	Fixed	The Photo Geocoding dialog hung for several seconds after adding a large number of photos. Now it works faster.
22.	Fixed	Sometimes thumbnails were not displayed on the map even after they were downloaded.

May 4, 2010

MapSphere v.0.99 beta (build 204)

1.	Feature	The usability of selecting and uploading photos to a MapSphere trip was improved.
2.	Feature	You do not need to wait until all photos are resized to start binding them to a track.
3.	Improvement	Photos are resized faster now. This operation is performed directly during uploading. As a result, the total process takes significantly less time.
4.	Feature	While selecting photos of a trip you can add photos from several folders.
5.	Feature	Now you can select a track to do photo geo-referencing. It can be the trip track, your online track, or track opened locally from the hard disk.
6.	Change	MapSphere does not use an external photo viewer anymore. Now photos can be viewed directly in MapSphere.
7.	Improvement	MapSphere can rotate photos automatically using the information about the camera orientation from the JPEG EXIF block (if present).
8.	Improvement	After selecting "Show Photos on Map" thumbnails become available faster. In the previous version they appeared on the map only after all downloads completed.
9.	Feature	The mapping data in the main window can now be reloaded from the server. Use Maps \| Refresh map or <Ctrl> + <F5>.
10.	Improvement	Saving tracks to GPX file is now faster and the progress indicator is more consistent.
11.	Improvement	For "Blue Marble Next Generation" and "Landsat 7" MapSphere now uses NASA OnEarth Tiled WMS server. It works faster and stable. In the previous version the standard WMS requests were often rejected due to the JPL WMS server limitations.
12.	Fixed	Groups and trips were not updated after pressing the Refresh button.
13.	Fixed	Uploading of a large number of photos usually failed.
14.	Fixed	After deleting a data provider, the Overview and Detailed maps could be updated incorrectly.
15.	Fixed	A wrong data blinked on the map when map pane was resized.
16.	Fixed	A wrong data could be displayed on the map after pressing <Ctrl> + <Tab>.

February 25, 2010

MapSphere v.0.98 beta (build 178)

1.	Feature	Now you can select distinct map layers in the main, overview and detailed map windows. Right-click anywhere in the auxiliary map window to activate the map selection menu. You can either choose a specific map source or keep the view synchronized with the main map.
2.	Feature	The Tutorial was updated according to the latest changes in MapSphere.
3.	Feature	Now a separate thread is used to save tracks. You can continue working while they are saved.
4.	Change	The Privacy page was restored in the Options dialog.
5.	Change	If you click on a thumbnail on the map, the large photo is downloaded if necessary.
6.	Change	A number of minor changes in the user interface.
7.	Fixed	The menu item "Online \| Open My Page" did not work.
8.	Fixed	File filter was not correct for OziExplorer track files.
9.	Fixed	If at least one of the auxiliary map was close MapSphere would not start.
10.	Fixed	Sometimes the context menu did not appear in the chat window.
11.	Fixed	The information on a trip and its photos was not properly updated in case of changes.
12.	Fixed	The date strings could be duplicated in the chat window.
13.	Fixed	Chat history was not loaded if there was a message written by a deleted user.
14.	Fixed	Your username was a link in the chat window.
15.	Fixed	If an authorized user connected again as anonymous, his/her map context menu was incorrect.
16.	Fixed	Envelope icon indicating unread chat messages were not displayed for trips and groups.
17.	Fixed	The contact/group/trip list could scroll away on chat update.

February 05, 2010

MapSphere v.0.98 beta (build 175)

1.	Feature	Communities were divided into Groups and Trips according to their purposes.
2.	Feature	Groups are used to limit GPS visibility to a group of people. Each Group has got its own blog and chat.
3.	Feature	MapSphere "Trip" is a description of somebody's trip (walk, journey, and so on) with photos, tracks, chat, blog, and trip plan.
4.	Change	Some features were disabled in this version (like Tutorial or Trip Playback). They will be restored shortly.
5.	Feature	New menu sections were added: Maps (for mapping data management), Online (for MapSphere Online features), and Trip (to manage your trips).
6.	Feature	Use Online \| Connect to log into MapSphere Online.
7.	Feature	Now you can create a new trip from within the MapSphere application. Choose Trip \| Create...
8.	Feature	Trip photos are downloaded and uploaded up to 10 times faster now. A special internet protocol was created for these purposes.
9.	Feature	The distance and speed can now be displayed in nautical miles and knots (respectively).
10.	Feature	Coordinates can be displayed in the UTM system (see Tools \| Options).
11.	Feature	Automatic track file format detection is now available. To make it work choose "All files" when opening track.
12.	Feature	Google KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file format is now supported for tracks.
13.	Improvement	Tracks are loaded in a separate thread without blocking the user interface.
14.	Improvement	Now any track can be saved. In the previous version tracks that were loaded from a disk could not be saved.
15.	Improvement	The latest used folders are kept separately for each data type (tracks or data plugins) in "Open file" dialogs.
16.	Improvement	The Online Status indicator (on the status bar) shows more details.
17.	Improvement	User icons were updated. Authorized and non-authorized users are displayed differently.
18.	Improvement	Now you can click your offline contact on the map (displayed as a gray circle) to get the same local menu as for other users.
19.	Improvement	If you try to log in while your previous session is not terminated, the attempt to reconnect is performed automatically.
20.	Improvement	Now you can copy your current coordinates to clipboard from the Position Info pane.
21.	Improvement	In the View menu you can select or hide any of the Information panes.
22.	Improvement	Starting from this version the pane layout should not refresh after the application is updated.
23.	Improvement	Baud rate 38400 is now supported for GPS connection.
24.	Change	The Online Privacy options are temporarily unavailable in MapSphere. You can set them on the site.
25.	Fixed	GPS connection was not stable for some GPS receivers.
26.	Fixed	Online track stopped updating if there were no new GPS fix for 1 minute or more even after a GPS fix appeared later.
27.	Fixed	Sometimes the application hung or crashed on exit. Several possible reasons of this bug were eliminated.
28.	Fixed	The mapping data settings were saved incorrectly on Windows Vista.
29.	Fixed	The contents of some panes disappeared after pressing <Alt> + <F4>, <Enter>, or <Esc> key.
30.	Fixed	Sometimes a wrong mouse cursor was displayed while viewing photos on the map.
31.	Fixed	The application could crash while processing user login and password.
32.	Fixed	When saving track in GPX format the extension was not added to the filename.
33.	Fixed	It was possible to drag trip photos of another user.

March 17, 2009

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 161)

1.	Feature	New OpenStreetMap themes were added ("Osmarender" and "Cycle Map"). The old one corresponds to "Mapnik". See http://openstreetmap.org (the OpenStreetMap site) for details.
2.	Feature	The hill shading theme for Microsoft LiveSearch Maps was added to MapSphere data layers.
3.	Feature	MapSphere can load tracks in OziExplorer .plt file format now.
4.	Change	The last chosen data layer is stored in the registry instead of an XML file.
5.	Change	Checksum is not ignored in GPRMC and PMGNTRK messages in NMEA or Magellan track files.
6.	Fixed	The application could overload the processor resources if there were problems with data download.
7.	Fixed	The map cells adjacent to one of the poles were not displayed for some data plugins (like OpenStreetMap). Now such cells are formed using the existing data and the uncovered areas are filled with a pattern.
8.	Fixed	Local paths could be saved to data settings file incorrectly on Windows Vista.
9.	Fixed	The application could start slowly if there was no internet connection.
10.	Fixed	Memory leaks were excluded in some data plugins and mapping data handling.
11.	Fixed	The start and finish time was not correct in the GPS Position Error Measurement report.
12.	Fixed	The double-click on the map didn't work in the previous release. Now it zooms in the map in the specified point.
13.	Fixed	The time tolerance was too small in GPS fix handling. This could cause problems with some GPS devices.

January 30, 2009

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 159)

1.	Feature	Now MapSphere can be used to estimate the GPS position error (EPE). Choose GPS \| Measure Error and click Start. Note. You need to keep your GPS receiver still while measuring.
2.	Feature	You can also use saved tracks or the current GPS log to calculate EPE.
3.	Feature	You can clear the GPS log by choosing GPS \| Clear.
4.	Change	The points with coordinates (0, 0) are marked as invalid when opening a track.
5.	Fixed	When the GPS fix was lost, the last good position was repeatedly saved into the GPS log.

January 12, 2009

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 156)

1.	Feature	The state of GPS fix (no fix / 2D / 3D) is now displayed in the GPS Status pane.
2.	Fixed	GPS status, speed, and track were not translated online and were not visible to other users.

December 27, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 155)

1.	Feature	New "GPS Status" window is available in right-bottom ("Information") pane. It shows the GPS satellites position and activity.
2.	Feature	New interface of GPS plugins was introduced. Its API is available for developers by request.
3.	Feature	Added support of Cicerino (Rodranner) tracker log-file format (http://www.roadpoint.ro).
4.	Feature	Tracks can be saved in the Magellan NMEA format (PMGNTRK).
5.	Feature	Now the index file for data layer is created if it is absent. This makes creating offline data layers easier.
6.	Feature	You can play back the trip in the community (track and photos). To do this, right-click on the community and choose "Replay". Note that this feature is still being developed and can be unstable. It is provided for preview purposes only.
7.	Improvement	The <Ctrl> + <F> can be used for searching.
8.	Improvement	"Technical Support" menu item was activated.
9.	Change	Now unknown users are grouped together in the map local menu.
10.	Fixed	Now the cached track is cleared if its time differs from that of the server. This can help to fix the problem when the MapSphere server receives incorrect point from a GPRS tracker.
11.	Fixed	Sometimes new messages were not displayed immediately in the active chat tab.
12.	Fixed	Corrected double-click action on the map.

September 26, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 150)

1.	Feature	Now MapSphere supports the connection to GPS receivers with different baud rates (namely 1200, 4800, 9600, 19200, 57600, 115200) and COM port numbers up to COM64.
2.	Fixed	A wrong distance to cursor was displayed when GPS had no fix.
3.	Fixed	The georeference options didn't work properly. Now the community tracks are also supported.
4.	Fixed	The unnecessary envelope icon appeared if you sent a message and switched to another tab immediately.
5.	Fixed	The description of the selected photos was saved in a file even after the user chooses Cancel.

August 21, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 148)

1.	Change	Previously the "Show track" command was available for your contacts only. Now you view track of any user (if it is allowed by its owner).
2.	Change	The last active tab in the chat window is saved before sessions.
3.	Fixed	The application crashed when attempting to save a GPS log to GPX file.
4.	Fixed	The real-time track was not connected to the user-owner icon.

August 19, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 147)

1.	Feature	Now you can manually adjust photo positions on the map before uploading them to the server.
2.	Feature	New "tracker" mode was introduced for internet traffic economy (in roaming, with a poor GPRS connection, etc). It can be activated on the "Options \| Online" page. MapSphere will send only the minimum required information to the server. Note. In this mode you will not be able to see other online users.
3.	Improvement	The speed of 2D/3D rendering engine was improved.
4.	Improvement	A cache for names of online users was introduced. The cached user names are displayed faster (without requesting the server).
5.	Improvement	Now MapSphere restores the state of tabs in the Online pane from the previous session.
6.	Improvement	The memory allocation of GPX track points was optimized. Also waypoint and track point attributes don't take extra memory if they are not specified. Now the GPX files processing works faster and takes less memory (which is most noticeable on large tracks).
7.	Improvement	Now the image file format is detected faster and safer by the first bytes of the file. This is useful for data plugins and layers that works with several image formats or when the server response can be not an image (for example HTML or XML file).
8.	Improvement	More countermeasures against corrupted points in the restored GPS log were introduced. Note. These points can appear after the application was unexpectedly terminated.
9.	Feature	The mouse double-click zooms the map in and centers it on the clicked point.
10.	Change	Options pages were renamed. The Privacy options were moved to a separate page, and all others formed the Online General page.
11.	Change	Now it is possible to make a geo reference for photos using the community track.
12.	Change	The placement of some MRU (most recently used) elements were corrected in the registry. For example the search results will not be lost during the application update.
13.	Fixed	Some OpenStreetMap tiles were not loaded due to a wrong server prefix. In some other cases the server prefixes were incorrectly calculated leading to performance losses.
14.	Fixed	MapSphere could crash when the user switched between layers that shared some data files.
15.	Fixed	The current camera position marker and the visible area frame were missed in the Overview map in the previous release.
16.	Fixed	The data downloading could be stopped for a long time if there were problems with some map tiles. Now the waiting time is limited by approximately 40 seconds. Also such tiles are marked as currently unavailable and thus they are not requested further.
17.	Fixed	MapSphere could crash on exit due to incorrect timeline destruction.
18.	Fixed	In some rare cases MapSphere could act unpredictably while checking for new updates.
19.	Fixed	There could be a wrong distance displayed for the offline tracks. Now non-valid points are not taken into account in the distance calculation.
20.	Fixed	The application could crash when displaying some tracks (for example if all the points were at the same location). This could also lead to a problem with the restored GPS log (thanks Johan van der Spuy for reporting this bug).
21.	Fixed	Some line gaps could appear on the tracks on low zoom levels. These gaps actually correspond to long time intervals between two adjacent track points. Now the track segments are joined in most cases.
22.	Fixed	There could be problems with non-Latin symbols in the names of favorite places and in photo titles and comments.
23.	Fixed	After the network was disconnected and reconnected again MapSphere proposed to upload suspended photos. Now it is done only on the next login to the server performed by the user.
24.	Fixed	The chat tab became blinking (indicating new messages) if the user opened several of them too fast.

July 21, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 145)

1.	Feature	Now there is a timeline control for viewing online tracks day by day or in any given interval. It appears automatically in the top right corner of the map window after you click "Show track".
2.	Feature	All kind of tracks are now visible in the 3D mode, including online tracks, your saved tracks and the current GPS log.
3.	Feature	The initial appearance of the Online pane was changed. Now you can type your login name and password directly in the pane.
4.	Feature	Now the user icons can be inspected on lower scales. Note that if some users are displayed as small dots, you need to move closer to them in order to know their names.
5.	Improvement	Now tracks are colored by days and indicate their direction. Each day segment has a new color.
6.	Improvement	The MapSphere rendering engine was improved. In most cases MapSphere works faster.
7.	Improvement	Now all messages and tracks are cached in separate directories for each user. Previously there could be different confusions if you login under another name at the same computer.
8.	Improvement	There is a possibility to temporarily login under another user name (without saving this information to registry).
9.	Improvement	Now zoom operations are performed much faster and smoother.
10.	Change	Now the chat tabs are limited by length to 20 symbols.
11.	Fixed	There was not possible to use non-Latin characters in titles and comments of the photos being uploaded via MapSphere. In this case the uploading failed.
12.	Fixed	On some computers MapSphere asked the login and password while uploading photos. It continued many times without any success.
13.	Fixed	The Help file couldn't be displayed when using Firefox as a default browser.
14.	Fixed	It was not possible to detect the user names if there were several users in the same point. Now you simply need to click on this "crowd" again.

June 27, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 142)

1.	Change	The MapSphere Online server IP address was changed. Now it is 69.8.125.216. Please keep patience while DNS tables are being updated.
2.	Improvement	Now the GPS status button invokes the popup menu like the "small triangle" button does.
3.	Improvement	Now the Magellan track files are opened much faster.
4.	Fixed	The "Register" menu item was not enabled.
5.	Fixed	The "Add to contacts" menu item was enabled when you were not logged in.
6.	Fixed	The position fix got a wrong milliseconds value in case of integer time value in $PMGNTRK sentence (in the Magellan track format).
7.	Fixed	Fixed memory leaks in the map local menu.
8.	Fixed	The application could crash when double-clicking outside an item in the track list.

May 13, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 141)

1.	Feature	Now there is a local menu for users in the chat window. You can left-click on the user name link and select one of the standard actions.
2.	Fixed	The images could not be uploaded from MapSphere due to incorrect Unicode string processing.
3.	Change	There are several small changes in the first-time appearance of MapSphere: by default, 2D mode is active, automatic connection to the MapSphere Online site is switched on, and the map is displayed at the lowest zoom level.

April 28, 2008

MapSphere v.0.97 beta (build 140)

1.	Feature	Now MapSphere supports Unicode. This mainly concerns the chat window where you got the possibility to type and read messages on different languages.
2.	Change	Now MapSphere uses Microsoft DirectX 9.0c. If you don't have this version installed, please follow this link.
3.	Feature	You can save the current map view as a location for your community. Other users will be able to locate this community by double-clicking on it in the contact list.
4.	Feature	Now chat may be geo-referenced to tracks in the same manner as photos. This works both for personal chat and community chat. You need to right-click in the contact list and select "Show chat on map" command.
5.	Feature	Now it's possible to set the categories of users to be displayed on the map. You can view all users, or your contacts only, or users with the real (GPS) position only. The option is available in the Options dialog ("Online \| Users" page).
6.	Feature	Now you can find a location by its coordinates. They should be typed in the search bar. In this case the search provider is ignored.
7.	Improvement	Now the chat messages on the map can be displayed as multi-line text.
8.	Improvement	When you call the "Locate" command for users or for positions marked in the chat, the map can be zoomed to a larger scale if necessary.
9.	Improvement	Now there is the Option button on the toolbar. The currently selected options page is saved between calls of the Options dialog.
10.	Improvement	Now the right mouse click on the map invokes the local menu for users.
11.	Change	Now there is the Refresh button for the contact list. The Add contact button was removed. You can add a user to your contacts by right-clicking on his/her icon and choosing the proper command.
12.	Change	The number of currently visible users is not displayed now.
13.	Change	The most of MapSphere components were updated to newer versions. This can lead to some instability in this version but we will try to overcome these issues as soon as possible.
14.	Fixed	The envelope icon could be missed in the contact list even if there were unread messages.
15.	Fixed	There were no track icons for communities. The status of track visibility was not set-up correctly.

April 15, 2008

MapSphere v.0.96 beta (build 137)

1.	Feature	The Welcome screen is displayed on the MapSphere start-up. There you can enter into the Tutorial mode to make your first steps in MapSphere.
2.	Feature	One of overview maps was replaced by a more detailed view. It displays the location around the center of the main map with a larger scale.
3.	Feature	Now you can limit the visibility of your GPS position to the members of the selected community. This is useful for games and private parties.
4.	Feature	Now communities may have tracks. The owner of the community should setup track time on the community page. The segment of the owner's track that is limited by the specified time period will be used as the community track.
5.	Change	Now GPS users send their GPS positions continuously, instead of sending virtual camera coordinates.
6.	Change	After the "Show Track" is clicked the map does not jump to the track location.
7.	Change	The color scheme of the chat window was slightly changed.
8.	Change	The zoom + and - buttons on the toolbar change the scale by 2 instead of 1.1.
9.	Improvement	When you are trying to chat with a user that has disabled anonymous chat, the server adds the text of your message to the response.
10.	Improvement	More commands are available in the map menu for online users. The appearance of the context menu in the contact list was also corrected.
11.	Fixed	Some segments of the online tracks were not displayed on the map.
12.	Fixed	The message about that the connection with the server became broken was displayed in the chat window. Now the message box is displayed instead.
13.	Fixed	In some cases personal messages were not delivered properly.
14.	Fixed	Some community messages could be missed in the chat window.
15.	Fixed	The order of inspection of track points and users was wrong.
16.	Fixed	The user names could be displayed incorrectly in case of poor connection.
17.	Fixed	GPS status icons could be wrong.
18.	Fixed	The GPS connection subsystem could hang MapSphere if a zero symbol was received from GPS.
19.	Fixed	The precision of coordinate's representation was not enough in the "Degrees, Minutes, Seconds" format.
20.	Fixed	The precision of the displayed distance was not enough.

March 14, 2008

MapSphere v.0.96 beta (build 134)

1.	Feature	Three new data layers were added. These are OpenStreetMap based on vector data and Microsoft Live Search Maps (Road and Aerial view).
2.	Feature	You can select your vehicle type or status while traveling with GPS. Other users will see this status on the map as a special icon.
3.	Feature	The coordinates can be displayed in different formats now (use the "Tools \| Options" menu item, the General settings).
4.	Feature	Now there are two trip odometers. One of them is kept between MapSphere sessions and the second displays the distance traveled during the current session.
5.	Feature	Now you can see the personal chat history for each contact in the list.
6.	Improvement	Chat messages are cached on the disk and you don't have to download them from server each time.
7.	Improvement	Now you can postpone the uploading of photos to the community. It will continue at the beginning of the next MapSphere Online session.
8.	Improvement	The total size of the selected photos is displayed before uploading.
9.	Change	The user name is displayed in all chat windows instead of "You".
10.	Change	The envelope icon is displayed in the contact list when there are new messages from this user or in this community.
11.	Change	The time of the online track points is displayed in the local time of your computer instead of UTC.
12.	Change	The latitude correction algorithm in 2D was adjusted for a better look.
13.	Change	MapSphere is automatically connected to the GPS receiver after the settings are done. There was an additional confirmation message in the previous release.
14.	Fixed	The photos were uploaded to the MapSphere Online site with their original size. Now the resized (smaller) pictures are used.
15.	Fixed	When the user tried to upload photos without internet connection the login dialog was erroneously displayed.
16.	Fixed	The font in the chat callouts was not comfortably readable.
17.	Fixed	When the connection with GPS was broken the warning message box appeared twice.
18.	Fixed	In some cases the proper COM-port was not selected after auto-detection finished.
19.	Fixed	The (0, 0) point could pass the GPS position filter if it was the first point obtained from the GPS receiver.
20.	Fixed	The track was displayed over the ruler on the map.
21.	Fixed	The online tracks could be cached in a wrong directory or not cached properly. Thus, the track was downloaded again in the next MapSphere session.

February 15, 2008

MapSphere v.0.96 beta (build 129)

1.	Feature	GPS Status visibility. Now users are able to setup their GPS visibility to others. When you start sending your GPS positions, you have three options: Your position and name are visible to everyone. Your position is visible, but others see you as an anonymous user. You are not visible in the GPS mode to anyone except of your contacts.
2.	Feature	Chat privacy. Now you can setup chat restrictions. Two options are available: everybody can send you a message or your contacts only.
3.	Feature	Now the speed of users with GPS receivers is displayed in the map window.
4.	Feature	The text rendering and readability was significantly improved (especially on a bright background).
5.	Feature	The Options dialog is now available. Now it contains just a few options but it will be extended later.
6.	Feature	The measurement units (metric or US) can be selected in the Options dialog.
7.	Feature	The information that user enters while selecting photos for a community is automatically saved to a hard disk. It is restored in the case of failure.
8.	Improvement	The offline contacts are displayed as gray dots on the map in case they were online with GPS in the previous two days. Their last visit time is also displayed.
9.	Improvement	The visibility of the online user positions on low scales was improved. Now they are visible even on white maps.
10.	Improvement	The photo navigation controls (back and forward) fit the screen and easier to access.
11.	Improvement	The photo preview dialog does not block the application.
12.	Improvement	The comments are now displayed in the photo preview dialog.
13.	Improvement	The Global MapSphere Online GPS odometer is available offline.
14.	Improvement	The chat window text is scrolling to be comfortably visible when the size of the Online Pane is changed.
15.	Change	The number of previous messages that are downloaded by a single request is 20 instead of 10. Now you can access the chat history faster.
16.	Fixed	For some GPS units the position update was irregular.
17.	Fixed	The ruler scale was not precise. The deviations could exceed 5%.
18.	Fixed	The user inspection order was not correct. Now it is easier to get the information about the user you are pointing to.

February 01, 2008

MapSphere v.0.96 beta (build 127)

1.	Feature	The dates of chat messages are displayed in the chat window.
2.	Feature	Now it is possible to view all photos that are bound to the same track point or to the very close ones. After you have clicked on a track point, the Back and Forward buttons appear below thumbnails (if there are more than 5 photos).
3.	Improvement	The thumbnails got more reliable cache storage and faster downloading routine. Also thumbnails internet traffic is displayed in information window now.
4.	Improvement	The thumbnail size was increased.
5.	Improvement	Now the user gets more information about photo uploading progress and can continue uploading after restarting MapSphere.
6.	Improvement	The online tracks and photos remain visible on the map even if the connection with the server is poor or temporarily lost.
7.	Fixed	The last GPS position of a user (the grey ball icon) couldn't be inspected.
8.	Fixed	If reading EXIF time failed then the last modification time is used as a timestamp for uploaded photo.
9.	Fixed	There could appear duplicated messages in chat window after Refresh was done.
10.	Fixed	The chat tab could disappear after the Esc key is pressed.
11.	Fixed	The application could crash if it was terminated while thumbnails for community photos were being downloaded.
12.	Fixed	Online track could be inspected incorrectly on large scales.
13.	Fixed	Now the chat message time is displayed with the current system locale.

January 17, 2008

MapSphere v.0.96 beta (build 124)

1.	Feature	Now you can upload photos directly from the MapSphere application to a community on the MapSphere Online site. Other users will get the possibility to view them in MapSphere. You can supply each photo with title and comment and rotate it if necessary. The resizing and uploading are performed automatically.
2.	Feature	The photos can be georeferenced using your online track. In other words, each of them will have geographical coordinates and it will be associated with some point on the track.
3.	Feature	You can view photos that were uploaded to MapSphere Online by other users. To do this you need to select the proper community and click the Download images button.
4.	Feature	You can view your own online track by selecting the "GPS \| Show my online track" menu item. Note: you have to be online while doing this.
5.	Feature	You can convert your online track to the ordinary MapSphere track (and then save it to GPX file for example). Use the "GPS \| Convert my online track" menu item.
6.	Feature	When clicking on the user name link in the chat window, his/her name is inserted to the text of the next message.
7.	Feature	The context menu was added to the Contact list (right click on the contact or community name). It made some operations more convenient: add/remove a user from contact list, view user's page, track, or location.
8.	Feature	You can refresh the list of contacts and communities without reconnection.
9.	Feature	To view your page on the MapSphere Online site, click on the My Page button in the Online tab.
10.	Improvement	The performance of the chat window was improved and its flickering was reduced. It also concerns the behavior of "Download the previous messages" link.
11.	Change	The automatic update process was changed to avoid some messages from the system firewall.
12.	Change	Now you need to use your Username instead of e-mail (unified with the MapSphere Online site) when connecting to MapSphere Online from MapSphere.
13.	Fixed	Sometimes the community message counter doubled.
14.	Fixed	The chat window and contact list were not cleared completely if you disconnected from the MapSphere Online server and then connected again.
15.	Fixed	MapSphere did not inform on the broken GPS connection if USB or Bluetooth GPS receiver was detached from the port.
16.	Fixed	The user had to wait a minute when connecting to the MapSphere Online server after reentering the application.

December 17, 2007

MapSphere v.0.95 beta (build 120)

1.	Feature	Vertical and horizontal rulers can be displayed on the map window in 2D mode (use View \| Rulers menu item).
2.	Feature	The distance from the cursor to the current GPS position is displayed in the GPS tab.
3.	Feature	The data copyrights can be displayed in the bottom of the map window (if available). You can look at the corresponding license or terms of use of the currently displayed data by clicking on the copyright link.
4.	Improvement	It is possible for plugin developers to specify several rectangles and zoom levels in the data layer settings file to denote data coverage.
5.	Improvement	GPS device states were introduced. If the GPS connection is broken, a warning message box appears.
6.	Improvement	Some additional procedures were added to verify the validity of position coordinates returned by GPS.
7.	Fixed	The update of GPS date and time was not correct near 0:00 (UTC).
8.	Fixed	The map display became disabled after some actions such as locking/unlocking the computer, or when a Windows Vista firewall message was displayed.

November 11, 2007

MapSphere v.0.95 beta (build 118)

1.	Feature	The MapSphere Online web-site was launched. You can manage your contacts there and create your own communities.
2.	Feature	There are a lot of design and functional changes for the Online pane in MapSphere. The most significant of them are listed below.
3.	Feature	Private messages can now be sent at any time, even if the recipient is currently offline. They will be delivered at the beginning of his/her next MapSphere Online session.
4.	Feature	When you click on a community, the last 10 messages are displayed in the chat window. If there are more messages in the community, you will be able to download them, too.
5.	Feature	You can manage tabs in the chat window. To keep a tab permanently, you need to click on the corresponding checkbox in the contact list.
6.	Feature	The current user statuses are displayed in the contact list. They are "offline", "online", "online with GPS", "not from the contact list", and some others.
7.	Feature	You can click the user on the map to get access to some related functions - select, follow, add to contact list, and so on.
8.	Feature	You can see all GPS positions (including those that were marked as bad by the filter) by pressing <Ctrl> + <Shift> + <L>.
9.	Feature	There is Online/Offline indicator on the status bar.
10.	Improvement	The GPS filtration parameters were slightly adjusted.
11.	Improvement	New sophisticated "Track up" algorithm was implemented. It starts the map rotation only after the motion becomes stabilized and straight.
12.	Improvement	Lines for tracks and GPS log were made smoother.
13.	Improvement	The online track line is made connected to the current position of the tracked user.
14.	Change	The message timestamps in the chat window mean the time when the message was sent while in the previous version they denoted the receipt time.
15.	Bugfix	The contact list was not cleared when the user clicked on the Disconnect button.
16.	Bugfix	Automatic map scrolling did not work in the 3D mode.
17.	Bugfix	Sometimes the GPS cursor and the line of its track disconnected from each other.
18.	Bugfix	Sometimes application crashed when the online tracks were displayed on the large scale map.
19.	Bugfix	The frames in the Overview map windows flickered when the size of the Main map window was changed.
20.	Bugfix	Fixed NMEA messages parsing and initialization of corresponding parameters.

October 19, 2007

MapSphere v.0.94 beta (build 114)

1.	Feature	New "Track-Up" mode is available for GPS navigation. In this mode the map is automatically turned to keep the direction pointer oriented up.
2.	Feature	The GPS speed is displayed in the bottom right corner of the map window.
3.	Feature	New information panes. The Internet pane displays the traffic counter, the number of active internet connections, and the average download speed. In GPS navigation mode the GPS pane shows the current speed and the trip odometer.
4.	Feature	The appearance of online tracks (these are the tracks of other MapSphere Online users) was improved. Different segments of a track are displayed in different colors. Their drawing style was adjusted to make them better visible on the map. The rendering speed was increased for large tracks.
5.	Feature	You can inspect the online track points on the map to see their date and time. Note: in this version they are displayed in UTC!
6.	Improvement	The text of license agreement is available from the application (use "Help \| License Agreement" menu item).
7.	Improvement	There is a link to the MapSphere web-site in the About dialog.
8.	Improvement	During automatic update the total progress indicator is displayed. You can also see the size of the file that is being currently downloaded.
9.	Improvement	The internet traffic counter is more precise now, especially when the data blocks are small.
10.	Improvement	GPS output is filtered to exclude some obviously wrong or duplicated points.
11.	Bugfix	Fractions of a second were not taken into account for GPS logs.
12.	Bugfix	Better protection from crash when wrong NMEA messages are received from GPS.
13.	Bugfix	There could be wrong elevation values for several points at the beginning of the GPS log.
14.	Bugfix	If the internet connection was broken, some threads were not terminated correctly. After reconnect the data downloading could be blocked.
15.	Bugfix	The map appearance in 2D was wrong near the W180 longitude on low-detailed zoom levels.
16.	Bugfix	The automatic updates couldn't be started in some cases.

October 03, 2007

MapSphere v.0.94 beta (build 111)

1.	Feature	Dynamic Track Publishing. When you are authorized in MapSphere Online and a GPS receiver is attached to MapSphere your GPS track is sent to the server and stored there. Your friends are able to see your track in real time or afterwards (even if you are offline). The tracks are displayed in 2D mode only.
2.	Feature	Global Chat. Now all online users may communicate in a single chat group called Global. Everyone see everyone's messages. The user-to-user messages can be found under the Personal tab and the system messages are placed under the Server tab.
3.	Feature	Global Odometer. It indicates how much kilometers were driven with MapSphere Online and GPS active. This number is accumulated from all MapSphere users. The indicator is located in the status bar at the bottom right corner.
4.	Feature	Internet Traffic Counter. The amount of mapping data received by MapSphere from remote servers during one session is displayed in the Information Pane.
5.	Change	The way of connecting to the server was Changed. Now you will be denied to connect to MapSphere Online from several computers simultaneously using the same account.
6.	Improvement	The chat tabs blink when new messages are received. If the application is minimized in this moment, it becomes blinking on the Windows task bar.
7.	Improvement	Faster connect to the server and faster contact list downloading.
8.	Improvement	The map scale is not Changed when the bottom pane is being hidden.
9.	Improvement	There is a button in the bottom pane to hide it in the same manner as double-clicking on its title bar.
10.	Improvement	The Escape key could be used to move the focus to the Main Map window.
11.	Improvement	You can toggle between the current and the previous data layers using +.
12.	Bugfix	There could be wrong date in some track points in GPS logs and tracks due to mistake in the time-zone correction.
13.	Bugfix	The application could hang if the USB connection to GPS was physically terminated.

September 05, 2007

MapSphere v.0.93 beta (build 105)

1.	Feature	The bottom pane can be hidden by double-clicking on its title bar.
2.	Feature	The Online tab becomes blinking if a new message is received while the Online pane is hidden.
3.	Bugfix	Some messages were dropped in the message log in case of high message traffic in MapSphere Online.
4.	Bugfix	The application could crash when GPS-reciever was suddenly disconnected from the computer.
5.	Improvement	The process of application update was made more comfortable.

August 29, 2007

MapSphere v.0.93 beta (build 102)

1.	Feature	Automatic downloading of mapping data for an area along tracks.
2.	Feature	Automatic application updates.
3.	Change	Now you can use only one geo-link in each chat message. When you press the Locate button, MapSphere remembers the coordinates and then appends them to the end of the message.
4.	Change	The Online tab window title now contains your screen name only when MapSphere is connected to the server.
5.	Improvement	The map can be infinitely scrolled along the equator in 2D mode.
6.	Bugfix	The GPS Settings dialog hung if it was terminated before GPS auto-detection finished.
7.	Bugfix	There was a wrong data representation near the world borders in 2D mode.
8.	Bugfix	The map scrolling was skewed in 2D mode if the map was rotated.
9.	Bugfix	Sometimes the application crashed when an address search was performed without internet connection.

August 10, 2007

MapSphere v.0.92 beta (build 101)

1.	Feature	Virtual geocaching.
2.	Feature	The parameters of current view (camera position, 2D/3D mode, data layer) are saved between sessions.
3.	Feature	The found GPS is automatically selected in the COM-ports list.
4.	Feature	The maps downloading can be disabled. Use the "Toggle Downloading" button on the "Mapping Data Layers" toolbar.
5.	Feature	+<0> (zero) can be used to invoke the "Mapping Data Layers" dialog.
6.	Feature	There are timestamps for each message in the chat window.
7.	Feature	Your current coordinates (mark point) can be sent to another user as a link. It is inserted to the edit field when you click the "Locate" button.
8.	Feature	You can tie yourself to a user from your contact list and repeat his or her movements.
9.	Feature	The http and ftp links are supported in the chat window. Click on a link to open it in a browser window.
10.	Improvement	GPS log is handled more robustly to prevent its corruption after sudden shutdown.
11.	Update	Minor changes in the application resources.
12.	Bugfix	Two versions of MapSphere could make undesirable GUI settings sharing.
13.	Bugfix	Sometimes an existing COM-port was not displayed in the list.
14.	Bugfix	The default GPS plugin couldn't attached correctly from another directory.
15.	Bugfix	For + shortcuts the number was not coordinated with the layer number after reordering.
16.	Bugfix	Possible crash after the currently selected user was disconnected.
17.	Bugfix	Contact list was not properly Updated in some cases after reconnect.
18.	Bugfix	The application could crash during frequent window resizing.