I have the pleasure to inform the taxi guests of this blog that new major version 4 of Taxi Professional has been approved and is now ready for the free update for all its users. Here is the change log:

• New Apple turn-by-turn library adopted instead of the old third party one for a better reliability and efficiency in the drawing of paths.
• Now the booking notifications include the address of the user requesting the service and, if the user decides so, also the destination so to the able to be informed without taking your hands out of the wheel.
• If present, the foreseen destination is entered as the default.
• 64 bits support.
• Full iOS 7.2 support including the return of the disabled icon in the alerts.
• The controller lever slides bottom way while driving for establishing an added security level.
• The annotation of the booking user now correctly follows the actual position of the user even after the booking phase.
• A label reports the current speed of the vehicle.
• The position of the taxi is now updated even while the app is in background.

Tag:MKDirection,64bits,IOS7.2,security,Background

Some updates on the oncoming release of In Arrivo HD to be possibly submitted during the course of the week.
First of all, the focus of the new release is the improvement of the teleport add-on and of the iPad version.
For the former aspect, the architecture has been totally restructured by moving the storing of the portals from the internal memory to the back office. This allows to handle more data on one side - in fact portals can also have a name and description in addition to the address -, but on the other side it allows to give the feature a social aspect. In fact now portals from other users are also shown, if published, and even users not possessing the teleport add-on my trek through other users’ portals, that, in a way, may turn to way-points.
The iPad exploit is a consequence of a long standing bug on the part of Apple regarding the navigation in the master controller using Auto Layout. Tired of waiting, after a year of receiving no solution from Apple, I decided to get rid of the master controller and present all new views as pop-ups. In a sense that better captures the spirit of the navigation by exploding the annotations being clicked. Perhaps the only disturbing aspect is the tab controller hosting the near stations and the add-ons. I will see in the next version if I may keep at least it in the master controller. For the time being it also appears as a pop-up.
The focus on the add-ons and the iPad does not exclude other important improvements, though. The remote cache is in fact now available as an option in beta to be selected in the settings. That should streamline some funny behaviors of the original waiting times often jumping stops and in general not presenting an integrated experience. The remote cache, by projecting the waiting times forward and backward should at least assure that the next stop has one stop more of waiting and so on. Testing, though, is a nearly impossible endeavor, so use it with caution and possibly report me if you find it working better or worse than the original source.
Moreover directions are now faster in their calculation, thanks to the geo-referencing in advance of the local address, also shown on the bottom. Should a portal be active, the address of the portal is shown underlined. In order to return home it is enough to click it.
Also the new version uses a feature introduced in iOS 7 to handle communication even while in background. This will allow to keep one’s position on the right location even at all times, sort of what happens with the Apple’s “Find my friends” app.
A new feature has also been added to welcome and say farewell to users when they arrive and leave Rome. You will discover it by yourself. Even the other notifications are being improved by means of the silent new features allowing to translate them on the iPhone so allowing to include more characters, even in non-latin alphabets.

Tag:Portals, teleport,MKDirection,Cache,iPad,apple,geo-referencing,Find my friends