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Some initial observations from the time I’ve spend playing around with the beta app:
***** Initial background mode on the tracking maps should probably be the generic blue map with the option of the satellite imagery being secondary - as it is on the web site.
***** Including the yellow dots and airport codes (as seen on the web site) on the maps would, of course, be a nice addition at some point. I understand that we’re on beta v1.0 and we’re taking baby steps at this point - but I thought I’d throw it out there.
***** There doesn’t seem to be any visible date information within the app. When clicking on a flight that has already arrived at an airport, clicking on a flight that departed in the past, or clicking the option to view other flights with the same flight number as the flight you’re currently looking at - there are no dates visible anywhere.
As an example: I clicked the “Track More Nxxxxx Flights” option while viewing the tracking page of a BNA-based Falcon that arrived a few hours ago. On the next page, I’m given the option of viewing the last five flights of this aircraft - but I have no idea when these flights took place when looking at the various past flights as there is no date information displayed.
***** I have viewed several GA flight tracks thus far that have returned completely incorrect registrant information. One of them - a privately-owned Cessna 414 - showed registrant information for the next flight up on the arrivals listing at that particular airport, which happened to by an Embraer 145 registered to ExpressJet. Leaving the individual track pages for these random GA aircraft and then coming back seems to correct the issue.
***** When a particular flight is selected on the “Nearby” map while using the generic blue map background, a green data block appears that includes random, non-readable (by most people, I would assume) information - other than the flight number. When clicking on a particular aircraft while using the satellite imagery background, the app will open a new scroll-down page that displays various information about the flight - and it appears to work well.
It would be a nice addition for this page to no only display the actual departure and arrival times, but also the scheduled departure and arrival times (as the web site does).
***** The “Add+” button displayed at the bottom of the above pictured screen when viewing an individual flight should probably say “Add to My Aircraft” or something along those lines. As it is now, you don’t immediately know what it is you are adding that flight to - until you venture in to the “My FlightAware” menu within the app and find the flights listed on the “My Aircraft” screen.
***** Long-pressing a particular flight on the “My Aircraft” list within the “My FlightAware” menu with the intention of removing it from the list doesn’t seem to work efficiently. The process is delayed and the flights don’t seem to actually disappear from the list until you go somewhere else in the app and return to the “My Aircraft” list once an unknown amount of time has gone by.
***** The “Add+” button seems to allow you to add the same flight to the “My Aircraft” list as many times as you choose to press the button.
*** **I somehow became trapped within the individual flight information screens when clicking on one of the green aircraft currently in the air near LAX. Instead of showing me the information for that individual flight and letting me use the phone’s back arrow to return to the map, each press of the arrow would take me to the data for another flight in that area. After pressing the arrow 7-8 times and cycling through the information for several aircraft, the app force-closed but didn’t actually exit. Upon clearing the force-close message box from the screen, the app returned to the nearby map for my local area.
***** WX radar data appears to hide the green data block of aircraft on the standard blue “Nearby” map if you’re zoomed-out too far. The block displays properly if you zoom-in and there is no WX radar data visible near the location of the data block. (I realize that one image is larger - I saved it a bit larger to provide more detail of the information in the data block.)
http://tinyurl.com/3bzyfwl http://tinyurl.com/3k3e8mv
***** The blue buttons at the bottom of the screens within the app seem to require a very deliberate finger press in exactly the right spot to activate them. There isn’t a lot of room for error when pressing a button, and I find that several attempts are often needed to activate the function of whichever button I’m aiming for.
Now that I’ve figured out that the app will open on my HTC phones when the phones are held in landscape mode (see other thread), I’ll see what else I can come up with.
Matt
(BNA)
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