iPhone Software Support |
Support for Stevens Creek Software's iPhone software is provided by email. Click here to visit our contact page. Read the material below, which hopefully will answer your questions. Even if it does, however, feel free to go to the contact page just to send us a short email. Apple does not provide us with the names and emails of users, so if you want to be in our database to receive notices of updates, etc., and you haven't yet registered through the software itself, that's the best way to do it. If you're on Facebook, you should also follow either Stevens Creek Software or Birdwatcher's Diary (or both) to keep up with the latest developments.
Before we get to the program-specific issues, here's one general thing that is worth knowing about — "killing" an app, which is the first thing to do if something seems to be going wrong:
Sometimes "stuff happens" and the best solution is to "kill" the app, meaning to stop it from running in background, so it can "start over." There are two ways to do that.
To "kill" an app:
iOS 7:
1) Double-tap the Home button and a small view of each of the "active" apps" appears on the screen, which you can scroll through with a horizontal swipe.
2) Once you find the app you want to kill, "flick" it vertically off the screen.
3) Double-tap the Home button again.iOS 6 and earlier:
1) Double-tap the Home button until a row of "active" apps appears on the bottom. Scroll horizontally if the app in question doesn't appear.
2) Hold down your finger on the app until the icons wiggle and a red "-" sign appears on the upper left of the app's icon.
3) Tap the "-" sign.
4) Double-tap the Home button again.Note that this is not the same as deleting an app (in which you hold your finger down on the icon on the main part of the screen), and also note that no data is lost (at least from our apps) in this process, because all our apps are always constantly saving their data "just in case."
Every once in a while, it doesn't hurt to reboot the iOS device, which also "kills" all the running apps (again, no data is lost in this process). This can cure a variety of ills:
To reboot an iPhone and "kill" all apps:
1) Turn on and unlock if not already on.
2) Hold the Power button (top right of the case) down for 3-4 seconds until you see a red arrow on the top of the screen reading "slide to power off." Do so. A small "spinning cursor" will appear on the screen for a few seconds, followed by the screen going black.
3) Hold the Power button down again until you see an Apple logo appear on the screen. Shortly thereafter the unit will be ready to go.
Click here to jump to the program you're looking for:
• TripLog/1040
• Handy Randy
• The Athlete's Calculator
• The Athlete's Diary
• PocketTimer Pro
• PocketTimer XC
• Birdwatcher's Diary
• On Hand
Version History:
Known issues:
• When recording a trip which "rolls over" from 999xx to 000yy, the distance of the trip is correctly recorded. But if the trip is later modified, the ending value is not correctly restored.
Version 2.1.2:
• Fixed a bug which required you to set "Use Start/End Times" before using the program the first time or else the program would crash.
Version 2.1.1:
• If you are recording start and end times for a trip, once you have entered the start time you can exit the app and return without losing the start time.
• When modifying an existing entry, the "category" button (Business, Charity, etc.) for the entry to be modifed is correctly highlighted
• Sorting of new entries on the same day as existing entries improved to handle some out-of-the-ordinary cases.
Version 2.1:
• Entries could be sorted incorrectly in the event that the software was being used to record starting and ending trip mileages for multiple cars. In turn this would cause incorrect yearly totals. This is now corrected, and when the new version is installed, existing entries will be re-sorted properly.
Version 2.0:
• Move data to desktop via iTunes file sharing
• Support for multitasking
• Inclusion of totals in output is optional
• Added From-To choice for output allowing customizable periods
• Simplified icons on the output screen
• User-specifiable line endings and encodings for output files including Unicode, providing full alphabet-independant output
• Log screen supports "tap on the status line to scroll to the top"
Version 1.5.1:
• Properly displays (and emails) totals for "Previous Year" under all situations
• Added software registration capability
Version 1.5:
• Doesn't crash when displaying the stored entries (under iPhone OS 3)
• Added display of version and copyright information
Version 1.4.2:
• Zero distance trips are now allowed after confirmation
• Fixed a bug which would crash when selecting "Other" date in languages other than English
• Added German language version
Version 1.4.1:
• Fixed a bug which prevented emailing long logs
Version 1.4:
• Allows record start and finish times (controlled in the "Settings" application).
Version 1.3.1:
• Turning on recording of 100,000's digit and turning off the recording of the tenths digit no longer crashes the application (as it did in 1.3)
Version 1.3:
• Recording of 100,000's digit (when recording starting and ending odometer reading) and tenths digit are user-configurable
• Category names are user-configurable
• Emailed data can be tab or comma (CSV) separated
• Odometer numbers "wrap around" for quicker and easier changes.
• Width of digits on odometer is optimized for all settings (i.e., as wide as possible)
• Tenths digit has been changed from black to dark gray background to make it more easily distinguishable from the odometer "frame"
• Swedish and Finnish versions added
Version 1.2:
• Emailed logs can contain accented characters (e.g., é).
• Added Portuguese version
• Software now remembers (and restores) entries in progress when application exited before a Save (e.g., when interrupted by a phone call), which means if you are using the start/end mode of recording, you can open the app, enter the start value, and then exit the app without losing that number; it will be there when you re-start the app at the end of the trip to enter the ending odometer reading.
• The log can be emailed as an attachment directly from TripLog/1040 (i.e., without exiting to the iPhone Email app) via a server (this also removes whatever email length limitations exist when using the iPhone email app).
• Last but not least, the "landing area" for the "show log" button (the arrow in the blue circle at the lower right of the screen) was enlarged to include the entire area from the top to the bottom of the "recent log" box, and from the right edge of the box to an equal distance on the other side of the arrow.
Version 1.1:
• Allows entering starting and ending odometer readings in lieu of trip distance
• Category buttons get larger when that category is selected, making it clearer which one is selected
• "Recent log" label is removed; when the program first starts and there are no entries, that area of the screen is occupied by a message letting you know what it's purpose is. After that, it is assumed that you know!
• A default email address (or addresses) can be entered in the Settings application to automatically fill in the "To" field when emailing the log
• Fixed a bug preventing emailing of log when the log (destination or purpose fields) contained an ampersand (&
• For locales other than the United States, the correct currency symbol is shown on screen
Version 1.0.1 uploaded to Apple on July 5 and finally posted in the App Store on July 24 (!), contains the following feature changes/bug fixes:
• Emailed log includes totals
• Log automatically scrolls to bottom (latest entries) on first viewing
• Fixed a bug preventing purging of entire log
• Fixed a date bug when modifying entries
All updates will, of course, be free (not necessarily for life!, but definitely for now and quite possibly forever).
Common question:
Will TripLog incorporate use of GPS? Answer: almost certainly not. First, you'd have to remember to start the application the moment you turned the key in your car; if you remember later, it's useless. Second, Apple doesn't recommend leaving an application running continuously (e.g., sampling location, which, while on the road, would be done using cell phone signals) because of the potential power drain. Third, even if you were willing to drain your power, and not leave the application, the accuracy still wouldn't be as good as the odometer on your car. So no, we don't anticipate using GPS. And last but not least, many accountants recommend recording actual start and finish odometer readings rather than simply mileage travelled, so GPS would be useless in that case as well.
Version 3.0.1 fixes a problem in 3.0 which only allowed selecting names from the first two groups in the address book.
Version 3.0:
• New iPad version
• List of "previous winners" can be hidden, and the new winner displayed in large type on almost the entire screen
• Support for landscape orientation (iPad only)
• Sounds and colors can be changed from within the application
• List of drawn winners can be printed and emailed
• Lists of items (names, etc.) can be downloaded from the Internet or via iTunes file sharing (as well as entered manually and via the clipboard)
• Improved "shake-detection" for drawing winners by shaking
Version 2.0 adds the ability to draw items from user-created lists, which can be either created within the software directly or transferred (via the Clipboard) from other applications or websites.
Version 1.2 adds the ability to shake the device to draw numbers or names (with a brief shake) or erase the already drawn numbers or names (with a prolonged shake of two seconds or more). It also adds the ability (by tapping the "manual" icon on the Settings screen) to register the software with Stevens Creek Software.
Version 1.1 adds the ability to select background colors and "fanfare" sounds (the sound that plays as a winner is selected).
Version 1.0.4: iOS 5 compatible
Version 1.0.1, which contains an absolutely trivial bug fix (a memory leak of one location, which actually is "repaired" when you leave the application anyway), was uploaded to Apple on June 30 and finally posted on the App Store on July 31, more than one month later!
Version 5.0:
• Renewed compatibility with Dropbox after Dropbox discontinued support for their older APIs.
• Changes for iOS 11 compatibility, particularly in iPad version.
Version 4.2.4: (12/29/14)
• iPad version only: previous version could crash if attempting to use the pop-up "Display/Modify/Duplicate/Delete" menu while the log was scrolling
Version 4.2.3:
• iPad version only: Use of pull-down menus would crash app
Version 4.2.2:
• Fixed a crash that could occur when exporting data
Version 4.1.3: (10/2/13)
• Apple changed the default date format for Canada from Y/M/D to M/D/Y in iOS 7; this version should handle that properly.
Version 4.1.1: (6/25/13)
• Default date for data entry is once again the date where the user is, not the date in Greenwich, England
• Improved handling of "~" character
Version 4.1: (6/3/13)
• Enhancements for iOS 6
• Fix for rare date-related problem for certain time zones
Version 4.0.2:
• Keyboard switches to numeric mode after selecting a numeric keyword
• Saving of an empty workout prohibited
• Bug fix: wouldn't allow totals or graph of the last keyword
• Bug fix: selection of date sometimes didn't work (iPad version only)
• Bug fix: scrolling the log using date icon in upper-left working again (iPhone/iPod Touch version only)
Version 4.0.1:
• Bug fix: ftp upload in version 4.0 would perform the upload and then crash the app. Fixed.
• Bug fix: In weekly mode, graphs can be scrolled to include most recent week
• Bug fix: Change in the "Week Start Day" are immediately reflected when re-entering the app, and no longer requiring killing and restarting the app.
• Data entry fields for sport, category, and distance units are fixed vertically and don't move when touched (iPad version only)
Version 4.0:
• New separate iPad-optimized version
• Support for Dropbox™, including automatic upload and download of log and associated photos
• New eBook manual
Version 3.0.2:
• iOS 5 compatible
Version 3.0.1:
• When uploading or emailing data, a diagnostic message pops up on the screen
• The "privacy lock" icon on the Facebook posting screen, which allows you to select the "friend list" to which your post is visible, was left off the screen
Version 3.0:
• Posting of workouts directly to Facebook
Version 2.3:
• Displays numeric totals of keyword entities (weight, ascent, etc.) as well as graphs
• Totals and graphs of #workouts
• Many buttons are now images (or include images) instead of just words
• User control over date formats (month/day/year, day/month/year, or iPhone native), line ending character, and encoding for both input and output, providing increased compatibility with desktop versions of Athlete's Diary, particularly for those using languages with accent marks [Note for Athlete's Diary desktop users: if you are using the Windows version, you should set the Encoding to "Windows (ISO Latin-1)." If you are using the Mac version, you should set the Encoding to "ASCII/UTF-8", not to "Mac (MacOS Roman)." The latter is for use only for uploading the data to a Mac desktop for use by programs other than Athlete's Diary for Macintosh, and which do not read UTF-8 files.]
• Ability to output selected workouts (as well as all workouts and only newly added workouts, as before)
• Easier (separate button) access to input and output via iTunes file sharing
• Simplified input/output screen
• Redesigned entries in the Settings app
• Erroneous "no internet access" error message when emailing a log no longer appears.
• French language version
Version 2.2.2:
• Fixed a bug which, if you were in the middle of making a new entry, wouldn't let you Cancel and exit that screen
• Fixed a bug which crashed app if attempting to make changes to (add, delete, or re-order) keywords or autofill routes
Version 2.2.1:
• Fixed a bug which broke upload of data via ftp when adding support for file sharing in version 2.2
• Renamed various "internal" files so they are no longer accessible to users via file sharing
• Changes in sports, routes, and keywords are now saved immediately; in earlier version they were only saved when the next change was made in the log itself, and hence could be lost if the program was exited without any changes to the log.
• Fixed a bug which would crash the app if deleting the last sport in the list of sports
Version 2.2:
• Added support for file sharing via iTunes
Version 2.1.6:
• Fixed a bug introduced by iPhone OS 4.0 which would crash the app when tapping on the date field when making a new entry.
Version 2.1.5:
• Multitasking aware for iOS 4
• Fixed a bug introduced by iPhone OS 4.0 which prevented adding a keyword to the Note field if you hadn't first tapped in the Note field.
• Added an error message when attempting to email data without an internet connection
Version 2.1.3:
• Fixed a bug which calculated totals incorrectly when workouts were entered in different units (e.g., some in yards, some in meters). The bug didn't affect sports whose distances were measured in miles, but did affect any others.
Version 2.1.2:
• In time zones to the east of GMT, workouts on the "first day of the week" (as user-specified) would actually be totalled in the previous week's totals.
Version 2.1.1:
• Fixed bug in software registration code which failed on a small number of devices.
Version 2.1:
• Ability to select pictures from iPhone photo library.
Version 2.0:
• Support for embedded pictures in a journal entry.
• Support for HTML links in a journal entry
• Restoration of partial data entry when application is interrupted during data entry (e.g., for a phone call)
Version 1.2:
• Three different settings for the x-axis of graphs - 10, 21, or 43 time intervals (previous versions are fixed at 10). Change the setting by "pinching" the graph.
• The ability to register the software with Stevens Creek Software, entitling you to discounts on desktop (Windows and Mac) versions of The Athlete's Diary. Tap the "information" icon on the Files screen to access this feature.
Version 1.1:
• You can't upload or email the log unless you have the "Download Base URL" field filled in in the Settings app. The "Upload Base URL" is correctly used as the one which determines where the log is uploaded or emailed to, but the software issues a warning and doesn't proceed if the "Download Base URL" field is empty, rather than the "Upload Base URL".
• When the entire log is emailed or uploaded, the keywords are screwed up (fields uploaded in incorrect order).
• When plotting keywords, it is possible to have a value equal to the minimum Y value which produces a zero-height bar graph, making it appear that point has been omitted from the graph (which, for all practical purposes, it has).
• If you had only two entries and deleted the first one, a crash would occur. Also if you had only two entries selected from a larger log, and the second one was the most recent entry in the log, and you deleted the first one, a crash would occur. Both fairly obscure situations.
• The ability to add data to the log from the clipboard (assuming iPhone OS 3.0 or higher), thus allowing you to email yourself the log or syncing it via the Notes application and then copying and pasting from the Mail or Notes app into The Athlete's Diary.
• The "clear" button (the white "x" in a gray circle) in the Time field when entering data has been removed to prevent the time scrolling off the left of the field while entering times greater than an hour. You can, of course, erase entries in that field one character at a time with the backspace key.
• The ability to select the starting day of the week from Monday, Saturday, or Sunday (using the Settings app).
Version 1.0.4:
• Due to font changes in iPhone OS 3.x, some of the words which used to fit in various places no longer fit and are truncated. Fonts were changed in 1.0.4.
• In monthly or yearly mode, graph won't scroll to most recent month or year (weekly will scroll to most recent week).
Also in 1.0.4, horizontal scrolling of graph is smoother.
Version 1.0.3:
If you download a log in to the iPhone, subsequent uploaded logs will always be in "American" (mm/dd/yy) date formats.
Version 1.0.2:
• When you modified the time, distance, or pace of an entry, the appropriate other field was not recalculated.
• When you attempted to download a file, and the download failed (because of lack of HTTP access, incorrect filename, whatever), the Download button would disappear.
• If there were no entries in the log yet, and you clicked on the Calendar icon on the upper left of the Log tab, or the Graph icon on the upper right of the Totals tab, the program would crash.
• Pace of "minutes per kilometer" was mistakenly abbreviated as "kpm" instead of "mpk."
• Support for comma (",") as the decimal separator character was incomplete.
• Changes to the filenames on the Files tab were not saved unless you tapped the Done button on the keyboard.
Version 1.0.1 corrects a bug which reversed the role of average and totalled keywords created on the iPhone (as opposed to already created with the desktop version and then downloaded into the iPhone). Keywords created as "average" would do totals and keywords created as "totalled" would average instead. If you created such keywords with version 1.0, you will need to delete them and then recreate them. Note this will not affect any stored data. This version also added an "i" (information) icon on the Files tab which takes you to the online manual.
Version 5.0:
• Renewed compatibility with Dropbox after Dropbox discontinued support for their older APIs.
• Changes for iOS 11 compatibility, particularly in iPad version.
Version 4.2.1:
• Eliminated a crash when editing times
Version 4.2:
• iOS 7 UI version
• When deleting all times, the "Cancel" button now functions properly (instead of also deleting all times just like the "OK" button)
Version 4.1.1:
• Apple changed the standard date formats for Canada in going to iOS 7, so that attempting to change the race date could crash the app. This situation is now handled.
• Improved reliability of Bluetooth transfer
Version 4.1:
• New output format (using output name Ultrasignup.csv) produces results output properly formatted for submission to Ultrasignup (requires entry of "Default State" into the Settings app as well)
• ftp upload will now succeed if username or password contains "special" characters like &
Version 4.0:
• New (separately sold) iPad version
• Optimized for iPhone 5 screen
• Transmission of recorded times, names, and categories from one iOS unit to another. Recorded times can be transmitted in batch mode or instantly after each recording
• Search of recorded times by bib# or name
• Results can now display lap times for multilap races
• Racers in multilap races can be scored if they finish fewer than the required number of laps
• Support for input and output via Dropbox™
• Settings is now a separate screen rather than being accessed via the Results screen
• Bug fix: stopping the timer now always works (it used to appear not to work if you had exited and reentered the software while the timer was running, although in fact in was actually working)
• Bug fix: Exclusion of top N runners from category placings will now always work, without requiring having changed the value in the Settings app first
Version 3.1.8:
• Handicap times (individual or category) can now be entered either in fractional minutes (e.g., 30.0 or 2.5) as before, or as minutes:seconds or hours:minutes:seconds (e.g., 2:30 or 1:15:00). (Previous versions of the software would allow entry in any format, but would only correctly handle the fractional minute format). Note that a single number without colons (e.g., "30") means 30 minutes, as it always did, and not 30 seconds.
• Bug fix: Under some circumstances, handicaps would be ignored, regardless of the setting of the "Use Handicaps in Scoring" setting.
• Bug fix: when editing Categories, after tapping "Edit" on the upper left, the button would continue to read "Edit" when it should have changed to read "Done." The function of the button was still correct, just the label was incorrect.
Version 3.1.7:
• Bug fix: If the "Allow Duplicates" status was changed from "off" to "on" while a race was being timed, the software could crash when attempting to display results. This is now fixed.
Version 3.1.6:
• Bug fix: If your iOS device was configured to send email through its Mail app, the email would be sent, but the email screen would remain forever (requiring quitting and then "killing" the app). Older versions of the software sent email via Stevens Creek Software servers using a different method, so this problem didn't arise. Bug fix: If the "Allow Duplicates" status was changed from "off" to "on" while a race was being timed, the software could crash when attempting to display results. This is now fixed.
Version 3.1.5:
• Bug fix: A typo in the code affected reading in the "Racers" URL. If you did change the "Racers" URL, but never changed the "Final Times" URL, the software would crash when attempting to display results. This is now fixed.
Version 3.1.4:
• Two or three users have experienced a problem where a corrupted Category file has left the software unable to score a race. Although we have been unable to determine how this corruption can arise, this version of the software "self-corrects" if it finds such a problem.A typo in the code affects reading in the "Racers" URL. If you DID change the "Racers" URL, but never changed the "Final Times" URL, the software would crash when attempting to display results. This is now fixed.
Version 3.1.3:
• Downgraded minimum iOS level from 3.2 to 3.1 for iPod Touch-compatibility.
Version 3.1.2:
• iOS 5 compatible
Version 3.1.1:
• When inputting a file of racer information, if the category specified in the file for a particular racer doesn't match any existing category, but does match "case-insensitive," the category for the racer is corrected to correspond to the proper case-sensitive name of the category. For example, if a category is "M20-29," and the racer file says "m20-29," the software will change the racer's category to "M20-29."
• Bug fix: Version 3.1 added printing of results, but the printer icon was inadvertently omitted, so unless you knew where to touch the screen, you couldn't print.
• Bug fix: Output of handicapped-corrected times would be empty unless also outputting results.
Version 3.1:
• Printing of results (requires iOS 4.2 or higher) to any AirPrint-compatible printer, or to any printer connected to a Mac via 3rd-party desktop software (Printopia). Via the latter method, results can also be transferred to the desktop as a PDF file.
• Uploading of results as tab-delimited or CSV spreadsheet-compatible text files as an alternative to uploading as an HTML web page.
Version 3.0:
• Much more convenient method of scoring multiple races simultaneously, no longer requiring numerically-separated bib #s (which in turn means racers can switch from one race to another more easily and still be scored).
• Multiple times for a single racer can be uploaded on a single line when outputting a file of times, thus allowing easier manipulation by a desktop database or spreadsheet for, e.g., producing triathlon split times
• Once a race is in progress, the racers screen can now show those racers who haven't finished (i.e., are either still on course or have withdrawn).
Version 2.2:
• Support for input and output of files via Apple's iTunes File Sharing
• Output files are all UTF-8 files for full international support
• Line-termination character in output files is user-specifiable
• Races can be scored with or without division handicaps
• Times are now output as two files; one with the "raw" times, the other with the handicap-corrected times
Version 2.1.1:
• When attempting to enter a race date on the Configure screen, the screen no longer scrolls making it impossible to change the date
• (iOS 4 only) Category and Racer URLs are properly read in in all cases so they can be downloaded.
Version 2.1:
• Quick scrolling between duplicates by tapping on bib#
• Transfer of results to other applications (and from there possibly to desktop) via the clipboard
Version 2.0.1: (version 2.0.1 replaced by 2.1 before release)
• Doesn't issue warning buzzer for duplicates when recording time only without any bib#
• Widened hidden "pre-record" button to entire width of screen, from "Bib#" to the right edge
Version 2.0:
• Multiple impending finishers can be "pre-recorded" and then recorded individually when they actually finish
• Recording of multiple finishes for the same bib# can either be precluded, warned, and/or highlighted.
• If duplicate finishes are recorded for the same bib#, scoring can be based on the shortest recorded time, the longest recorded time, the Nth recorded time, or all times
• Use of the "Nth recorded time" button allows results to be displayed for the Nth lap of a multi-lap race, and final results to be displayed only for those finishing all N laps.
• URL for uploading results is now accessible from the Configure screen (and not just the Settings app) to facilitate uploading different results (e.g., for different races, different laps) to different URLs without exiting the app.
• A new "Save, Next" button when editing recorded results (typically to add a bib#) allows updating of multiple entries without returning to the main screen
Version 1.2:
• A "pull-up/pull-down" button allows expansion of the recorded times list on the main (Timer) screen to toggle between its normal size and full-screen view.
• Fixed bug in software registration code which failed on a small number of devices.
Version 1.1:
• Ability to exclude top finishers from division placings
• Optional scoring of masters division, with optional exclusion of those top finishers from further division placings
• Quick scrolling from one division to the next when viewing results
• Ability to register software with Stevens Creek Software
Version 2.2.2: (Submitted to Apple 10/5/13)
• Apple changed the standard date format for Canada (and possibly other countries?) going to iOS 7. If you had an old format date in the Race Date field, attempting to change it would crash the app. Fixed.
Version 2.2.1: (10/2/13)
• Version 2.2 could crash when attempting to output results; fixed.
Version 2.2: (9/30/13)
• Printing of results is now possible
• Various display problems which affected the software under iOS 5 and higher are now fixed
Version 2.1.1:
• Uploading files with accented characters is now handled properly and no longer crashes the program
Version 2.1:
• Filename for results upload is now accessible on the Configure screen (as well as in the Settings app), to allow more convenient access to changing it.
• Memory-related cleanup
Version 2.0:
• Support for input and output via iTunes file sharing
• Team names can now be input from a file
• Email output uses the Mail app rather than Stevens Creek Software servers if the unit is configured to send mail
• Improved multitasking support allows changes of values in the Settings app to take place immediately upon re-entry to PocketTimer XC
Version 1.2.1:
• iOS 5 compatible
Version 8.2:
• Updated for compatibility with changes on the eBird website; direct upload of sightings to eBird once again functioning.
Version 8.1:
• The "date chooser" on the Sighting screen and the Archive->Save screen sighting was not working at all in the iPhone version (since 8.0?); in the iPad version, they were working, but the one on the Sighting screen was not giving a choice of "Date, Time" or "Date Only". Both bugs fixed.
Version 8.0.5:
• Updated for iPhoneX compatibility
Version 8.0:
• Renewed compatibility with Dropbox after Dropbox discontinued support for their older APIs.
• Changes for iOS 11 compatibility, particularly in iPad version.
Version 7.3:
• A new setting "Birder's Diary Compatible" [in the Input/Output section of the Birdwatcher('s Diary) section of the iOS Settings app], when "on", allows sightings output in Spreadsheet format from the Output screen to be properly imported by "Birder's Diary" software for PCs.
Version 7.2:
• A new setting "Record Altitude" [in the Recording section of the Birdwatcher('s Diary) section of the iOS Settings app], when "on", records the altitude of sightings (in the sighting notes section for that species).
• Updates for iOS 9.x
• Bug fix: When manually entering a note for a sighting, not hitting the "Done" button could result in a vertically displaced screen and no way to proceed except killing the app.
Version 7.1:
• Direct upload of sightings to eBird is functioning again, following some changes on the eBird site which temporarily disabled this functionality
• Posting of sightings to Facebook is now functioning again.
Version 7.0.1:
• Fixed display when sorted by bird-banding code and code is displayed
• When using search mode, and narrowed list is longer than fits above the on-screen keyboard, list can be scrolled all the way to the bottom
• When "local name" is displayed by itself or on the top line, the indexing and search now properly use it rather than the English name
Version 7.0:
• Updated for iOS 7/8 and iPhone 6/6+
• Intelliscroll™ has been extended to selection of location and species list, and, on main screen, has been extended to three letters. If the number of species which match the 1-,2-, or 3- letters is fewer than the number displayed on the screen, the matching species are centered vertically on the screen with the first highlighted.
• A new "conventional search" is now available, accessed by tapping a magnifying glass icon on the top of the index on the right side of the screen. It allows searching by first name, last name, Latin (scientific) name, and bird-banding code.
• Fixed a bug which meant that if you installed the software on a new device and tried to download all your old archived sightings from Dropbox, it would fail, until you had created and saved at least one archive directly on the device. So now, if you are archiving your sightings to Dropbox, and install the software on a new device, you can recall all your sightings from Dropbox as the first thing you do, and you'll be ready to go.
Version 6.1.3: (Released to Apple 1/20/14)
• When sightings of "Rock Pigeon" are uploaded to eBird, they are uploaded as "Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)" to satify eBird's new requirement. If you are in a country where there are actually "Rock Pigeon (Wild type)" birds by eBird's definition, you should amend your species list to show that (for more information read this).
• Fixed a situation where roundoff could result in calculated distances of 0, which were then rejected if uploaded to eBird
• Importing old sightings from eBird now functions properly for European dates
Version 6.1.2: (Released to Apple 1/1/14)
• Added Bell's Sparrow & Sagebrush Sparrow to U.S. master list replacing Sage Sparrow (if you have downloaded relevant state lists you'll need to re-download them to update those as well)
• If you use "multiple sightings" mode, but a report only includes Name and Quantity, the sightings will be consolidated for purposes of the report
• Recall of archives from Dropbox now functions properly (got broken in the last update)
• Importing old sightings from eBird now functions properly (got broken at some unknown time)
• In countries using 4-digit years as their standard format, display of dates on the Archive->Recall screen is no longer truncated
Version 6.1.1: (12/13/13) [Note: on the iPad, this version is called 6.1]
• Selection by date was broken in 6.1; it is now not only fixed but selections which include date selection are now much faster.
Version 6.1: (11/25/13)
• A new display option Name, Note allows display of any sighting note for that species on the main screen.
• Changes in standard date formats (e.g., 4-digit years vs. 2-digit years, use of 24-hour clock for time vs. use of AM and PM) introduced by Apple going from iOS 6 to iOS 7 cause problems with archived data (which was archived with a different date format). This only affects users in certain countries, not including the U.S. In any case, this version allows old archives to be recalled properly.
• Going to iOS 7, touch sensitivity changed, resulting in frequent unwanted appearances of the "Bird" screen (the screen for an individual species which appears when you hold your finger down on the species for 3/4 of a second). This release eliminates those unwanted appearances.
Version 6.0: (4/30/13)
• A new method to add a second (or third, etc.) sighting for a species at the same named location without having to turn on "Multiple Sightings" mode (which would record multiple sightings for all species, which may not be desirable). A new "+" button is found on top of the screen when you edit the most recent sighting; tapping that adds the new sighting. As a reminder, if you change named locations, then a new sighting is always recorded; this new feature only applies to multiple sightings at the same location.
• Because it is now easier to add multiple sightings, the number of sightings of a species, if greater than 1, is always displayed as a superimposed number on top of the binoculars or ear icon. Formerly this only happened when you had "Multiple Sightings" activated.
• A new method to add a sighting you forgot to record, using time and location from another sighting. There are times when you later realize you forgot to record the sighting of a species, but you know it was about the same time and place as another species that you did record. You start by editing the existing sighting, but instead of just tapping on the "+" button as described above, hold it down for 3/4 second. The sighting is then duplicated. Now change the species to the one that you forgot to record (and any other details you need to change — quantity or note, perhaps) and then tap "Save".
• When you record sightings from a previous date, you now have the option of doing so by date only, or by date and a constant time (perhaps you might want to record them as 8:00 a.m. to indicate a morning outing). As before, when you enter the first sighting for the previous date, tap on the binoculars icon to edit the sighting, then tap in the Date /Time field. Now you can leave the option on the bottom set to "Date, Time", select the earlier date and time, and tap "Set & Keep", and that same date and time will be used for subsequent sightings. Or, you can select "Date Only", set the date, and that date only (with no time) will be used for subsequent sightings. In either case, on the top of the main screen you'll now see displayed: "Current record date: X/XX/XX Tap to reset to today". When you are done recording sightings on that date, tap where indicated, and the recording date is reset to today. Of course you can always record a specific time for any sighting, even on a previous date, but unless you have a time-stamped photo you will be unlikely to have that information if you didn't record it at the time,
• A new "Default to "Present"" setting (in the "Settings" app), when set to "On", makes the first tap on any species set the quantity to "-" ("x" in eBird terminology), i.e., "present" but not being counted. For those species that you actually want to count, a second tap sets the count to 1, then a third tap to 2, and so on. With this setting set to "Off", the software works as before - the first tap sets the count to 1, and if you want to set the count to "present," (or "uncounted") you need to edit the sighting and delete the number in the quantity field.
• A new "Default to "Heard"" setting (in the "Settings" app), when set to "On", makes the first tap on any species set the status to "Heard Only." A quick tap on the "ear" icon then changes this to a "binoculars" (seen) icon, precisely the opposite of the "normal" behavior.
• The various checks (for the same date as existing ticks, for being at the location named, etc.) are skipped when simply updating counts on existing sightings.
• A new "Ignore Year" option has been added to the Life List screen. This allows you to create, for example, a life list of only birds seen in the month of April (combined with all the other restrictions, e.g., a list of only birds seen in April at a particular location, or in a particular county, etc.).
• When a Life List is created, the current active list is saved into a temporary backup, and can be immediately restored from the main screen, thus allowing more convenient searching of archived sightings while in the middle of an outing. You could do this previously, of course, but you had to make sure that you first archived the active sightings, and then recall them after you were done looking at the Life List.
• Sighting maps now include a "where am I?" button, so if you recall archived sightings you'll be able to see when you are getting close to the same location.
• Locations and Phrase List files can now be properly output by the various methods (Email, Dropbox, Clipboard, Internet Upload), and the "auto-naming" of the output file is properly suppressed when you are outputting those files. Note that you can always access the Locations.txt and Phrase List.txt files via iTunes.
• The display formats "Scientific Name, Name" and "Scientific Name, Local Name" are now properly implemented. In earlier versions, only the Scientific Name would display with nothing beneath (note that the more common choices of "Name, Scientific Name" and "Local Name, Scientific Name" were working properly).
• A new "All Sightings Recorded" checkbox has been added to allow submitting sightings to eBird in which the answer is "No" (previously it was simply assumed the answer was "Yes", which will still be the case if the checkbox is checked which is the default setting). The reason this was done is that, while Birdwatcher's Diary users typically record all sightings on most days, "big days"/birdathons are often different, with multiple locations being visited, but species only being recorded the first time they are seen or heard (some people record all sightings at all locations, but most in our experience do not). This means that, except for the very first location, all the other locations may have had sightings which were not recorded, and hence the proper answer is "No" (i.e., you'll want to uncheck the box to submit those sightings).
• Added a warning that there are strict requirements for state/province codes (as well as country codes) in order to submit sightings to eBird.
• Added a warning to prevent attempting to submit sightings to eBird using the "Stationary" protocol with a duration (time) equal to zero (which is not accepted by eBird).
• When a problem is encountered uploading a list of sightings to eBird (for example, when a species in the list is not "recognized" by eBird), you can now click on "Fix Species" right on the eBird webpage within Birdwatcher's Diary, without needing to login to eBird separately from a web browser on your iPhone, iPad, or computer.
• A "timeout" error when trying to login to eBird (because the eBird site was temporarily down) would crash the app. This is now fixed.
• When creating a new location, setting the county, state, or country to blank will update the "Default" county, state, or country as also blank ("Default" was formerly updated only when the new value was non-blank).
• When creating a new location, the abbreviation is automatically created from the first 10 alphabetic characters of the location name as it is entered. It can still be changed by the user (until the new location is saved, at which time the abbreviation becomes unalterable).
• When the species are sorted by Time, if you went to edit a sighting and change the name of the species, the displayed list was blank. This is now fixed.
Version 5.2.1: (2/27/13)
• If a note attached to a particular sighting or your Trip notes has an unbalanced double quotation mark (that is, just one " and not a pair of them), then attempting to upload sightings to eBird would fail with a message "Problem transferring file to eBird" (which was actually not correct, the file was transferred properly, just rejected by eBird). This problem is fixed in 5.2.1, and should any other similar obscure problems occur, a more accurate error message will appear.
We've just fixed two fairly obscure bugs -, and the second line of the display if you have the display format set to Scientific Name on the top line and either Name or Local Name on the second line is now displayed (before it was blank, i.e., that choice didn't really work). If anyone has any other little problems you'd like to throw in the hopper for us to fix before we submit this to Apple, now is a good time. Neither of these problems is particularly urgent, so we'll be waiting a while before submitting.
Version 5.2: (2/18/13)
• Direct upload of sightings to eBird from the app is once again functional (in the past few days, eBird changed their login screen which disabled this feature of the app, although indirect upload by transferring sightings to a computer and then to eBird was still functional)
• Uploading sightings to eBird with protocol set to "Traveling" and either distance or time zero is prohibited (with a warning).
• After direct uploading of sightings to eBird, the screen is left in web browser mode (within the app, not Safari) logged into eBird, permitting visual confirmation of the upload, as well as allowing the user to browse the eBird site.
Version 5.1.2: (2/1/13)
• Archive->Recall screen now shows full date when date format is "Canadian" (yyyy-mm-dd)
• Attempt to change the "From" date on the Life List screen no longer crashes when date format is Canadian
• eBird uploads forced to be 2-letter country codes
• Posting a single sighting to a listserve no longer duplicates the sighting note (if any) in the post
• Both eBird preview and postings to Listserve now consolidate "multiple sightings" (at the same location) [Actual eBird upload already did this]
• Removed "uploaded from Birdwatcher's Diary" note from comment field of eBird upload
Version 5.1.1:
• Fixed crash when attempting to add species on "Select Species" screen (when changing ID of already recorded sighting).
• iPhone screen doesn't rotate in iOS 6.
• Master list can properly be imported via iTunes.
• eBird-related changes:
• URL-encoding of eBird username and password so either can now include characters like &.
• Changed the name of eBird "Casual" protocol to "Incidental" (reflecting change by eBird).
• When the eBird server is not available, a proper error message indicating that is displayed, rather than a more generic "Login problem" message (suggesting incorrectly that the problem was with the username or password).
Version 5.1:
In its wisdom, Apple saw fit to change its standard "date, time" format between iOS 5 (and earlier versions) and iOS 6, by adding a comma between the date and the time (which is, perhaps, more "normal," but isn't the way it has been since day one of the iPhone). To further confuse matters, this change only affected (as far as we can determine) users in the United States (specifically, those with "United States" set as their "Region Format"). As a consequence of this change, if you were a user of Birdwatcher's Diary and upgraded to iOS 6 (and were in the U.S.), you will (temporarily) not be able to recall archives (which includes the ability to create a Life List) that were created before you upgraded to iOS 6, because those were saved using a different date, time format (if you do attempt to recall one, the app will crash). You will be able to recall your new archives (the ones you saved since the upgrade to iOS 6). This problem is fixed in 5.1.
• For those who were affected by the bug described below under Version 5.0.2 only: If you used the workaround suggested, and archived data with the "U.S." format, and have now switched back to your correct local format, then those particular archives are now saved in the wrong format. If you try to recall them (including creating a life list), the program will crash. To "repair" (fix the formatting on the dates) those files, you can do one of two things:
1) Change the settings to US, go to BWD, recall one set of sightings. Back to settings, change back to your correct format, back to BWD, archive sightings. Repeat.
2) Alternatively, you could transfer the archives in question to a computer (via Dropbox or iTunes), open them up with a text editor and use global search and replace to change the MM/DD/YY format back to DD/MM/YY, save, and then transfer back into BWD. Using Dropbox is the simplest because you don't have to change the extension and you can use the new Archive->Recall from Dropbox feature to just recall them (likewise to Save them in the first place). Using iTunes is a bit more annoying, because of the way it is implemented by Apple, you have to change all the file extensions on the desktop from .txt to .bwd in order to transfer them back into BWD.
This will, fortunately, be a "one-time" fix; once these archives are back in the correct format, they'll be good from then on.
Version 5.0.2:
• Bug fix: For users outside the U.S. or Canada, attempting to edit a sighting would cause a crash. Until the bug fix is released by Apple and appears in the App Store, the workaround is to go to the Settings app, then the General tab, then the International tab, and set the Region Format to "United States" (which changes the format of displayed dates).
Version 5.0.1:
• Bug fix: Units running iOS 4.x or 3.x would crash when tapping the File icon
• Bug fix: Editing a sighting and changing it to a "Date Only" sighting would crash when tapping Save
• Bug fix: When uploading data to eBird one location at a time and with the Calculate button checked, changing the location from that screen would not automatically recalculate the distance and time for the new location
• Bug fix: Lists containing spaces (e.g., "New Jersey") can now be downloaded from the new File->Lists->Download screen
• Much more reliable direct upload of data to eBird
• Lists of things (e.g., butterflies) which are not found in the "master taxonomy" file now load much faster than previously
• If there is just a single sighting at a location, the automatic calculation of distance and time for eBird output is set to 15 minutes and 0.1 miles (of course this can be changed by turning off "Calculate" mode).
Version 5.0:
• Enhancements for interfacing with eBird, including:
• Direct upload of sightings to eBird (no longer any need to transfer the sightings to the desktop first and then upload to eBird from there)
• New eBird "preview" shows you exactly what you will be uploading to eBird before you do it
• If all counts are 1, you will be advised to use the "Report as Present Only" mode (unless the counts for all species really were 1)
• New separate iPad version, including:
• Full support for portrait and landscape orientations
• Full support for Bluetooth keyboards, including not just text entry but also navigation capabilities including scrolling, selecting species, and entering counts directly on main screen, allowing a list of sightings to be entered completely via the keyboard with no screen interaction required (Bluetooth keyboard support also functional for iPhone/iPod Touch version)
• Extensive support for cloud storage via Dropbox, including:
• Save and retrieve archived sightings
• View list of all Dropbox archives
• Automatic backup of new archives
• Back up or restore all archives with one request
• Easy transfer of sightings from one iOS device to another via Dropbox
• Enhancements of the mapping function, including:
• Access to map of sightings directly from the main screen
• Sighting maps now include sightings at multiple locations
• Sighting maps of individual species can display map for a single sighting only, or for all sightings of that species
• Locations (houses) and sightings (pins) can be separately shown or hidden
• Red pins now used for "heard only" species
• Cleaner interface for relocating sightings
• Increased support for bird photos, including:
• Ability to save multiple photos for each species
• Ability to delete photos
• Higher resolution photos
• Easy photo download via Dropbox
• More help for new users, including:
• "Tips" on using the software are presented, one per day, for the first several days of use
• Software will now ask for values like email address when they haven't been entered, rather than requiring the user to open the Settings app
• Error-prevention features, including:
• Attempting to enter sightings on a new day without having cleared sightings from a previous day results in a warning, and a chance to clear the sightings
• Attempting to enter sightings on a new day without having saved (archived) sightings from a previous day results in a warning, and a chance to archive the sightings
• When the first sighting of the day is recorded, if the actual location is more than 2 miles from the selected location, a warning will appear, and an opportunity to change the location before recording the sighting; the software will even locate the closest existing location in your list of locations to the current location
• Input/output enhancements, including:
• Input and output of Phrase List and Locations files, both for backup purposes and also for easy sharing between iOS devices
• Select lists to download from the Stevens Creek Software website directly from a new Lists->Download screen
• Activity indicator or progress bar (as appropriate) shown when loading lists or generating life lists (for when lists take a long time to read in), or when uploading and downloading files
• No attempt to upload or download files if there is no network access
• Miscellaneous enhancements, including:
• The list of species currently in use is displayed, with the ability to load (or merge) a new list accessible from the main screen
• "Definite species only" option when creating life lists
• Cleaned up design of several screens, more uniform interface (e.g., in selecting items from lists or setting dates)
• "Red binoculars" mode (species not seen) is now less prominent (accessed by tapping on the already-selected green binoculars)
• "Scroll to top" gesture (tapping on the status bar) to scroll to the top of the species list is now supported
• Adding new species to the active list is now accessed by scrolling to the very bottom of the species list
• Taps in the right-most 20% of a species block are ignored, so that attempts to tap the alphabet scroller don't result in erroneous records
• Species with active sightings now have a "disclosure indicator"; you can tap EITHER that or the binocular icon to edit the sighting (iPad only)
• Bug fix: recalling archives wasn't properly displaying the "ear" for "heard only" sightings (this still seems to fail occasionally, so a further bug fix may be necessary)
• KNOWN BUG - On the new File->Lists->Download screen, attempting to download a list with a space in the name (e.g., "New Jersey") fails. You can still go to the File->Input screen, set the Format to "Master List", and download those lists by typing in the same name (again, e.g., "New Jersey").
Version 4.3.1:
• Absolute taxonomic reference updated to correct a few problems, including incorrect 4-letter codes for some species
• Bug fix: Displaying the "local name" on the first line of the main screen would cause a crash when tapping the scrolling alphabet if the active list did not actually include "local names."
Version 4.3:
• Absolute taxonomic reference is now included. This allows merging lists while maintaining taxonomic order, and sorting by taxonomic order of lists which weren't originally in taxonomic order.
• Each species now includes a scientific name, a "pseudo bird-banding code," and, when available, a "local" name (name of the species in British English, Spanish, Chinese, etc.). By pseudo bird-banding code, we mean that 4-letter codes are only defined for U.S. birds, with "collisions" (where the rules give the same 4-letters) resolved by a certain consensus. But with 15,000 worldwide birds, this is impossible. Instead, we use the same rules, but accept that some species will have the same "pseudo-code." Since this is only being used for searching (for those who like the Code method), it matters not that two or more species have the same code.
• Main-screen display can use Scientific name and/or "local" name in place of or in addition to English name. Even if you don't speak Spanish (or Russian or Chinese etc.), you'll still be able to display those names on screen and discuss the birds with your local guides or friends.
• Provision to include user photos of individual species, along with a new shortcut (aside from using the "Edit" button on the lower-left) to get to the Species screen - hold your finger down on the species for 3/4 sec.
• Eliminated accidental ticking of birds when scrolling. Birds are now ticked (or the count increased) when your finger comes up, not when it goes down, and if the position of your finger moves while it is down, the species is highlighted but not ticked.
• Removed "All" from the Output screen, changed from "Seen or Heard" and "Location" to "All Locations" and the name of the current location to be exported
• Various graphical enhancements - more pleasant highlight color for selected species, background color on other screens, and a background image on the Location screen.
Version 4.2.1:
• Bug fix: Bird lists with accented characters could be installed correctly in the software using iTunes file sharing, but would give garbled characters if downloaded directly into the iPhone
Version 4.2:
• Import of data exported from eBird, including exports of single-day sightings and of the user's complete eBird data
• Downloaded master lists are automatically saved
• Attempting to import data with time format different from currently set iPhone value (e.g., 12 instead of 24-hour time or vice-versa) reads in the date only (and sets the time to noon), rather than incorrectly setting the date to 1/1/70
• New calendar icon button to scroll the list of stored archives to a desired date
• Improved display of very long location names, using two lines for the location selection screen and ellipsis to shorten long names
• Accessing the list/archive editing feature for renames, splits, and lumps added in version 4.1 has been changed from an icon button to a Save/Recall/Edit selector
• When editing the date/time of a sighting, the date scroller is properly initialized to the current date and time of the sighting
• When editing sightings, if the main screen is displaying all sightings, the latest sighting is the one that appears first; if the main screen is displaying just sightings at one location, the latest sighting at that location is the one that appears first
• Buttons on the bottom of the main screen (except for the calculator) must be pressed for 0.1 second (or more) to activate, in order to prevent accidentally brushing the buttons and changing modes inadvertently
• Removed support for "upside-down" orientation
Version 4.1:
• New editing mode for renaming, splitting, and lumping species in checklists and in archives of recorded sightings.
• Full location name (rather than just abbreviation), county, state, and country can now be exported along with all the other items characterizing a sighting
• When multiple sightings mode is active and output is uploaded to eBird, counts from multiple sightings of a single species at a single location are consolidated so that the count that eBird records is correct
• If the unit is configured to send email, then emailed output is sent from the user's own email, rather than via Stevens Creek Software's server
• Birds are now sorted properly when software is first installed
• Subtle problems with alphabetizing species by last name when the names include subspecies names in parenthesis and "sp.", which could even cause the import of such a list to fail, have been fixed
Version 4.0.2:
• 4.0.1 release (for iOS 5 compatibility) broke the "Green" and "Red Binoculars" mode; attempting to record or edit sightings in those modes would cause a crash or record incorrectly (Recording and editing in "All" mode worked fine). This is fixed in 4.0.2.
Version 4.0.1:
• iOS 5 compatible
• When entering sightings from previous days, once you have used "Date Only/Set & Keep" to set an earlier date, GPS coordinates are no longer recorded (which doesn't make sense, since you obviously aren't standing where you saw the bird). This means you no longer have to go to Settings, set Record Lat/Long to "Manual" before recording old sightings (and then remember to set it back to "All Sightings" when you're done).
• After "Date Only/Set & Keep" has been used to set an old date for recording sightings, exiting the app and re-entering correctly set the date back to today, but didn't erase the yellow display of the old date on the top of the screen. Now it does.
Version 4.0:
• Post individual sightings or a complete list of the day's sightings directly to Facebook or to your local birding listserve, complete with a Google map of the sightings
• Improvements to "multiple sightings" mode let you more easily change counts without creating new "sightings". User-specifiable minimum distance or time to generate separate sightings
• Some situations in which the count of sightings on the top line of the screen was incorrect have been corrected.
Version 3.6.1:
• Version 3.6 introduced a bug which caused output with Include set to "Location" (rather than "Seen or Heard") to include multiple duplicate entries for each sighting, but with date set to 12/31/69. This is now fixed.
Version 3.6:
• A new "Output Order" setting lets you specify the ordering of the species on output independent of the displayed order on the main screen
• For output to eBird, individual species can be set to "uncounted" by setting the quantity to "-" (which will then upload to eBird as "X"). Alternatively, if all species were simply ticked and not counted, they can be properly reported to eBird simply as "present"
• New "Group by Location" preference in settings lets user decide whether output files should be grouped by location or not (until version 3.5, output was ALWAYS grouped by location; beginning with 3.5, grouping by location was eliminated). Regardless of this setting, eBird output is always grouped by location to allow calculation of time and distance for each location.
• More intuitive and smoother user-interface for manual entering or modifying of coordinates for locations or sightings, using fixed red crosshairs rather than a non-stationary circular crosshair
• When ticking birds in "Unseen Only (Red binoculars)" mode, the screen is not refreshed (and the bird removed from the display) for three seconds, allowing time to visually verify that the correct bird was ticked off and make changes as needed (e.g., changing to "heard only", adding a sighting note, or deleting the sighting if the ticking was erroneous).
• When ticking birds in "Seen Only (Green binoculars)" mode, with several screens' worth of birds already ticked, the list will no longer scroll when ticking a bird.
• Output via File Sharing doesn't produce an error message if no "Upload Base URL" has been entered
• Under some circumstances, the "number of sightings" shown on the Archive->Save screen would be 0 instead of the correct number. That should no longer happen.
• Archived data are always sorted when recalled, in case they were archived in a different order than the current sort order
Version 3.5.1:
• Second try to fix a problem affecting some (not all) new users, which prevents the use of Location Services
• Attempting to edit a sighting whose location has been deleted from the list of locations doesn't crash the program.
Version 3.5:
• Reports are no longer sorted by location, so that reports sorted by taxonomic order or time of sighting are now in order across all locations
• New installations should now initialize Location Services properly
• Archive Recall screen now provides enough room to display full UK-style dates (4-digit years)
• Old archives transferred to a computer via iTunes can now be restored to the Archived Sightings folder by renaming them with ".bwd" extension
• Outputting "all" birds on the list (as opposed to just those Seen or Heard) in eBird or GMaps format is no longer possible (since it is inappropriate in both cases)
• Having an ampersand in the output of a GMap file (say, in the name of a location) no longer prevents the file from properly importing to GMap.
Version 3.4.1:
• More Location Services-aware - now issues proper warnings if Location Services disabled for this app
• Location color (indicating GPS precision) no longer erroneously changes to red from green when simply switching locations
• Enhanced Intelliscroll (TM) enhanced with improved centering on the screen of most likely requested species ]
Version 3.4:
• Species and location can now be modified on the Edit Sightings screen.
• When viewing a series of sightings of the same species on the Edit Sightings screen, going from a sighting with a long "sighting note" to one with no note or a shorter note would crash the app.
Version 3.3:
• Much easier to import previous sightings. Location and date can be "pre-set" so that only a simple list of birds is needed to import the sightings. Bird names are now case-insensitive on import, so that importing a sighting for, e.g., "bewick's wren" will add a sighting to the existing "Bewick's Wren" rather than adding a new species to the list.
• Fixed a bug which would crash when attempting to display a sighting map for an individual species or a location for which latitude or longitude had been manually entered outside of legal bounds (latitude>90 or <-90; longitude >180 or <-180).
Version 3.2:
• Attempting to archive data on a day for which an archive already exists gives a warning message, allowing the user to overwrite the existing archive (as appropriate when simply updating a list of sightings with a new sighting or modified note) or cancel.
• Improved ability to enter older sightings. A new "Date, Time" and "Date Only" selector" is added to the screen for editing sightings, allowing entry of sightings for previous years, and a new "Set & Fix" option on that screen tells the software to keep using that date as you add further sightings (until you either change it, or exit and re-enter the app). The new "sighting date" is displayed on the top of the screen as a reminder that sightings are being recorded for a previous day and not for the current day.
• Increased reliability in using the "TOP" button to return from a two-letter search to a single-letter search and the top of the list, including added space between "TOP" and the top letters on the list.
• Input/Output screen buttons include icons for added clarity, and also include permanent Read/Write buttons in addition to (rather than alternating with, depending on settings) Download/Upload buttons, allowing easier output to, for example, iTunes and email without having to changing parameters in Settings.
• A new "Report" output format takes the place of using the "Custom" format with the field separator set to spaces, and provides an improved output for simple reports (e.g., for an email to a birding mailing list).
• New, optional (via a Settings setting) "Auto Filename" generates filenames for output files automatically, based on location and date.
• A new "Time Only" format for dates, coupled with the automatic appending of the date to the comment, provides simplified output
• Recalling an archive from multiple locations sets the current location to the first of those locations, rather than to NONE.
• Increased application stability (hopefully eliminating the last remaining crashes).
Version 3.1.2:
• Improvements in use of GPS and in adopting to changes (e.g., exiting app and turning location services off or on)
• Multitasking-related improvements which should eliminate crashes which could occur occasionally when re-entering the app
Version 3.1.1:
• If the calculated distance travelled (for eBird submissions) is zero, automatic calculation of distance is deactivated, and you are warned to enter the estimated distance manually.
• When merging lists (e.g.., when merging the "Species" list in with another list), the "original order" wasn't set correctly. Starting with 3.1.1, a list merged into another wil be added at the end of the "original" (taxonomic) order.
• Export of Google Map data was broken in 3.1.
• Attempting to read in an empty master list does not crash the software.
• Deleting all species from the species list does not crash the software.
Version 3.1:
• All changes (e.g., new sightings, increased counts) are now saved in background, significantly speeding up certain operations (e.g., repeated taps on a bird to indicate sighting more than one individual), particularly on slower units (e.g., iPhone 3G). As a result of this change, the "binocular-to-ear" tap time has been reduced from 3 to 2 seconds, that is, if you tap for a sighting, tapping on the binoculars icon within two seconds changes it to an ear icon indicating "heard-only"
• When creating life lists, comparisons with country, state, county, location, trip notes, and sighting notes are now all case-insensitive
• Google Maps description field now includes total number of species seen
• Added a right-side index to the recall list screen to help in finding desired list from a long list of lists
• Changing the sort order four times no longer causes a crash
• Attempting to copy Google Maps info to the clipboard, with a blank filename, no longer causes a crash
• Reduced redundant warnings about needing to save unarchived sightings before recalling older ones
• Made a change which may prevent crashes which were occuring when tapping a new sighting on re-entry to the software, after a period of disuse.
Version 3.0.1:
• New lists files can contain one, two, or three columns of information (Name, Code, Note); in 3.0 they had to contain all three columns, tab-separated
• More reliable switching from binoculars to ear icon with less than three-second interval after the first tap (in 3.0, sometimes would just go to sighting edit mode, which allows switching to "heard-only", but with two extra taps required)
• When sightings are cleared, main screen switches automatically to "All" mode to avoid the confusion of a blank screen appearing
Version 3.0:
• New "Lists" sub-screen on the I/O screen lets you save and recall master lists (for different countries, states, counties, etc.) directly on the iPhone. Lists included with the software are U.S., U.K., and Mexico.
• Species can be sorted by 4-letter bird banding code; bird banding code added to the master list of all U.S. species
• "Casual" sightings being uploaded to eBird mistakenly use 2-digit year (eBird requires 4-digit year)
• "All" mode to upload a full list of birds is broken
• Deleting a bird from the master list crashes the software (but after deleting and saving, so a simple re-start is all that is needed)
Version 2.1.1:
• Archived sightings can now be deleted.
• An unintended message ("gpsMode=kGPSModeNoLocation"), intended only for software testing, removed.
Version 2.1:
• Tapping the status bar (very top of the screen) scrolls to the top of the bird list
• Fixed a bug which could crash app when editing sightings, after having exited (but not quit) and then re-entering app (bug introduced with multitasking)
• Fixed a bug, introduced by a recent Apple OS upgrade (4.1 or possible 4.0.x), which de-activated the feature which lets you designate a new sighting as heard only by tapping twice (within 3 seconds) on the left end of the line containing the name, rather than having to use the edit sighting mechanism. This feature is now again functional.
Version 2.0.2:
• Output to eBird now always uses "American" date format ("MM/dd/yyyy") which is required by eBird, rather than user's local date format
• Fixed a bug which could crash app when attempting to calculate distance travelled or duration of trip with fewer than two sightings
Version 2.0.1:
• Updated North American bird list to reflect recent AOU changes (Winter Wren split to Pacific Wren and Winter Wren; Whip-poor-will split to Eastern and Mexican); trimmed out "accidental" birds reducing full list to 828 species
• Changed the default file format for storage of files with accented (etc.) characters from Unicode (UTF-16) to UTF-8. File input can now handle UTF-16, UTF-8, and plain ASCII
• Enhanced multitasking capability - can now change display characteristics (whether or not quantity, note, etc. are displayed) "on the fly" without needing to fully quit the app
• Fixed a bug which could give erroneous "No Internet access" message when emailing files
Version 2.0:
• Updated for full support to the new multitasking capability of iOS 4.
• Output of data via iTunes file sharing.
• Support for accented and non-Latin character sets.
Version 1.1.1:
• Updated for full support to the new multitasking capability of iOS 4.
• When viewing the locations screen, program automatically scrolls to ensure selected location is on screen.
• Added GPS coordinates of specific observation to the sighting notes (in eBird output only).
• Bug fix: If (and only if) you are outputting data for sending to eBird, and if (and only if) you are entering the distance and duration manually instead of letting the software calculate them, then attempting to send the data (by email or ftp) would crash the program in version 1.1.
Version 1.1:
• Increased support for eBird upload, including selection of eBird "protocol" (Casual, Stationary, Traveling, Area), input or automatically calculated distance and duration, and input of #observers. Added time of specific observation to the sighting notes (in eBird output only).
• Automatic setting of suffix to ".txt" or ".kml" based on output format
Version 4.0:
• Renewed compatibility with Dropbox after Dropbox discontinued support for their older APIs.
• Changes for iOS 11 compatibility, particularly in iPad version.
Version 3.3.1: (10/16/13)
• Due to changes in date/time formats made by Apple going to iOS 7, attempting to read in dates and times (either for Creation Date or Modification Date) would read in the date only and not the time. This is now fixed (working properly for iOS 7 and earlier versions of iOS that still use the previous date/time format).
• Bug fix: If an item was highlighted and a scan with the camera was cancelled, and a barcode was entered with 3 digits or fewer, that number would be added to the quantity of the previously highlighted item rather than added as a new barcode.
• Bug fix: If the program was started on an iPad in landscape orientation and then the iPad rotated to portrait orientation, the "status bar" at the bottom of the barcode scanning (via camera) screen wasn't fully visible.
Version 3.3: (6/25/13)
• Search field is maintained while changing locations (as well as sort order and quantity selection criteria), and is not automatically cleared when tapping in it.
Version 3.2.2: (1/16/13)
• Bug fix: Previous version (thanks to latest iOS being "less forgiving") would only output 6 out of 7 fields.
Version 3.2.1: (1/9/13)
• ftp upload will now succeed if username or password contains "special" characters like &
Version 3.2: (7/7/12)
• New "Search Database" preference lets you turn off the database search, so each barcode is added to the database, even if it duplicates an existing barcode
• New "Number Scan" preference lets you turn off the feature which treats numeric barcodes of 4 digits or fewer as quantities to add to the quantity of a selected item, rather than as a barcode
Version 3.1: (5/31/12)
• Ability to search for text within item name
• Barcode search now uses "default barcode"
• When items are sorted by name, alphabetical index is now case-insensitive.
• Fixed crash when attempting to import a file that is not UTF-8 encoded.
• Localized in French, Spanish, and German
Version 3.0.2: (4/24/12)
• Bug fix: Input could crash under some circumstances.
Version 3.0.1: (3/23/12)
• In Version 3.0, the input file must include a quantity field. This restriction (the result of a bug) is removed in 3.0.1.
Version 3.0: (2/25/12)
• Support for Bluetooth barcode scanners
• Improved speed and reliability of recognition of barcodes using built-in camera
• Full support for iPad
• Support for Dropbox™ for input and output
Version 2.3: (1/4/11)
• New "barcode filter" allows total control over exactly which digits of a "scanned" barcode are used (over and above simply using or ignoring check digit)
• Improved reliability
Version 2.2:
• "All locations" quantity now always reflects the sum of quantities at named locations
• Quantities can only be entered or changed in "All locations" mode when there are no quantities entered for that item at named locations
• "Clear all entries" and "Zero all quantities" buttons are always visible on the File screen
Version 2.1:
• Improved handling of fractional quantities, including support for both "." and "," as decimal separators
• Improved output of large quantities
• Changes are saved when exiting application
About Stevens Creek Software:
Stevens Creek Software has been developing software for Windows, Macintosh, Palm, and iPhone since 1988. We have been a leading developer of software for the Palm platform, and are now one of the leading developers of software for iPhone, with eight different titles on the market. Read about all our software here.
Stevens Creek Software
P.O. Box 2126
Cupertino, CA 95015
