- You are in a Review
-
-
Platforms
-
-
Carriers
-
-
Companies
-
-
Star Light, Star Bright. What Star Do I See Tonight? (1/2)
Vito Technology AstroNavigator II v1.1
INTRODUCTION
No geek is complete
with out his or her own star map. Ever find yourself looking at the
stars and wondering "What constellation is that?" or "Is that a
planet?"? Maybe you yearn for the rustic old days of navigating by the
stars and find it might be a lost art. AstroNavigator II sets sail in
an attempt to claim the prize of best star map. Read on to see if it
gets lost at sea or navigates the heavens like the sailors of
yesteryear.
WHAT'S HOT
The biggest change between the
first rendition of AstroNavigator and AstroNavigator II is the super
user interface. I say super because there are few applications out
there today with such an intuitive feel and simplicity. Charting the
stars is difficult enough without pausing to try and figure out how to
locate one in your star guide. The new interface is thumb friendly and for
those of us with smaller screens to work with there is nothing to worry about. I put AstroNavigator
II through the paces on an HTC Wizard and a HP hx2755 to be sure of it's
usability. To keep it simple, big screen or small screen, it didn't
matter which device I used as the experience was the same for both.
This is the standard view of the star field.
SETUP
Like any product coming from
the well knowns like Vito, AstroNavigator II's setup was simple and
easy, if you
can read these words then you can set it up. Installation can be
completed through Activesync or OTA with a .cab file from their site.
PRODUCT FEATURES
The beauty of the new interface
is you do not need a stylus to operate this program. All functions can
be accessed with fingers or thumbs. If you use a smaller device like
the HTC Wizard you can still enjoy its operation. Sliding your finger
across the screen will cause the star field to scroll or rotate. You can scroll quickly through the list of
stars, planets and constellations as well. I was very satisfied with this feature and encourage
this kind of development, with the end user experience in mind. Vito
Technology as done an awesome job on this end.
Zooming is just as easy as the rest of the menu and program navigation, simply tap and slide the ball and arrows on the right side of the screen and see those constellations and stars up close!
Viewing a star up close as simple as moving the slider on the right up.
If you wish to know more detail you can zoom in and tap on the star, and an info box will pop up with information about everything from Proper name to Azimuth and Elevation.
If you do not have GPS you can still set the Date/Time/Location to where you are and get an accurate star field.
If you have an internal or external GPS, AstroNavigator II will work together with it to show you the current star field for your location. When in GPS mode, a small compass symbol is viewable in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Tapping that will lock the star field onto your current location and heading. As you walk around, the star field will change accordingly to what sky objects are in front of you. If you do not have a GPS, AstroNavigator is still just as useful. Simply pull up the Positioning Menu and set it to your time/date and position in the world.
Searching for Stars and Constellations is as easy as flicking your finger.
Tapping on the magnifying glass symbol on the left will open the search function. Across the top are symbols for stars, planets and constellations. Tapping any of those will change the current list view appropriately. You can use your thumb to slide through the menus effortlessly and tap on the object you wish to see. AstroNavigator II will automatically rotate and slide the star field onto your selected object.
If you find that you want to only view a certain type of sky object, you can quickly turn these on and off from the View Options menu. Simply clicking one of the icons will turn that type of object on or off in your view.
Night mode is easy on the eyes.
Another luxury that comes with AstroNavigator II is Night Mode. From the settings menu on the far right you can change between the Normal skin and the Night Mode skin which is red on black to help ease your night vision so you can better enjoy your star watching.
Here is a view showing the positions of the Sun, Mercury and some constellations.
Finding a balance between functionality and aesthetics can be tough. It seems that Vito Technology has consulted an expert on this as I found AstroNavigator II's interface to be elegant and wonderfully thought out. I compared it to a copy of AstroNavigator I that I have and could not wait to start using AstroNavigator II again. Well done Vito.
