New WingX Pro7 - V8

[CT4ME]

A significant new update for WingX is out.  Version 8.  OK, it's still WingX Pro7, but version 8, got it?

To the average user the biggest difference will be a simpler, less busy look, mostly done by changing colors (which are now more appropriate for night, too).  WingX now interacts with the "Pebble" line of watches... oops, I think watches are now supposed to be called "wearable devices".  So, selected info from WingX can be viewed on your watch.  Some changes were made to the split screen options, too.  Here's the official blurb:

 

What's New in Version 8.0.0.0

A lot of V8 power in this significant update and a lot of new features and improvements - here are the highlights including a vastly-improved routing engine with easy editing even if you have fat fingers. This new routing engine with fully selectable DP, STAR, and IAP entry is the primary reason this release took a little more time than other releases:

Two more iPad firsts for WingX Pro7!
● Instrument Approach Chart routing
● WingX Pro7 for Pebble

● Instrument Approach Chart routing - an iPad first - select an approach and WingX Pro7 adds the fixes to your route
● DP, STAR, and IAP routing - add DPs, STARs, and even IAPs to your route - you select the transitions (at both ends).
● New routing engine required to handle DPs, STARs, IAPs, and Airways. WingX Pro7 displays the sections of the route in different colors; DPs are green (as in go), the route is magenta (as previously), the STARs are blue (as in high up, sky...), and the IAP route is red (as in caution).
● Display route by Summary, Turns Only, or All Points
● WingX Pro7 for Pebble - an iPad first - view your next waypoint and destination information such as ETE, ETA, DTK, NM on your watch! You can also set a timer (for fuel for example). Oh, one more thing, WingX Pro7 for Pebble will vibrate when you are 1000' above the destination elevation to remind you to run your checklist! How cool is that?!? Oh, you can even monitor your iPad/iPhone's battery level.
● User-Documents - display them in WingX Pro7's split screen (or full screen) - for example, a sectional on the left and the POH's checklist on the right
● Moving Map performance improvement - lots of new work 'under the hood'
● Remove Auto-N functionality in DUATS, now users enter the N-prefix or not as required
● New-look (much better for night), but we're keeping the same easy-to-use and sparse user-interface.
● Added "Split" button that alternates between full Route column, full A/FD Column, or 50/50 of each (as before).
● Fixed DUATS issue

Note: We have renamed the GeoRef Subscription to the Advanced IFR Subscription. It is just a name change that incorporates the new IAP routing. There is no price change and if you have a current WingX Pro7 georef subscription, you will automatically have a current Advanced IFR Subscription because it is the same thing, just a name change to be more applicable to its function.

Tim

[Steve Schroeder]

"Direct To" does not work and sometimes crashes app.  I have notified Wing X  support.  I also don't like the color changes....it's like your stuck in night mode during the day.  Seems harder to read to me, i don't get it.  I used to think Foreflight was unbeatable but for VFR flying on the fly I now prefer Wing X, or at least I did before version 8 came out.

[FastEddieB]

A gripe, still not fixed:

 

 

I brought this up to see Branson after that plane landed at the long runway.

 

Logically, I should be able to click on it to get more info. I wanted "Show Above". But nothing happens.

 

Can anyone think of a reason why not? On the iPad it works as I think it should, bringing up all the options to get info about the airport.

 

I brought up this gripe at their booths at both Oshkosh and the Light Sport Expo in Sebring. In neither case did I understand the reason they said it was not implemented.

 

But we got baseball caps, so there was an upside!

[DocRon]

Gentlemen!

 

Your comments are helpful but I still need advice on this topic.  I've been a "PC guy" since 1985, but the IPAD seems to be the most flexible tool for the cockpit nowadays.  In going that route, and having access to tools like WingX 8, can the IPAD communicate (at all) with a PC-based desktop system for updates?  I don't have a tablet of any kind yet.  While I know Android units can communicate with my Windows 7 machine, I don't know if the IPAD would.  Any comments or suggestions?  I do want to stay with my desktop PC. 

 

Thanks, Guys!

[S3flyer]

Gentlemen!

 

In going that route, and having access to tools like WingX 8, can the IPAD communicate (at all) with a PC-based desktop system for updates?  I don't have a tablet of any kind yet.  

What do you want it to communicate?

[Anticept]

Apple produces are very restrictive in what they can do. Which is both good and bad: generally the applications are better polished, but you can only do what they advertise, and at present I do not believe they have any PC operability (except with X-Plane and Wing X)

[FlyingMonkey]

Yes, you can do iPad updates through a PC, if you have iTunes loaded.  Though in reality you only need to do this if you are syncing the device.  For regular updates you can get them through the wireless interface if you have a wireless network at home.

[CT4ME]

PCs have little to no interaction with tablets, especially nothing to do with updates.  There may be some interaction between data on your PC and a tablet, if you want it on both.  That is accomplished through iTunes (iPads), or something like DropBox.  If you have dropbox (or any of the file syncing programs) on your PC and on your tablet, then anything you put in your dropbox will appear on both.  This is handy for things like PDFs of your manuals or even photos of your license, registration, airworthiness etc.  I even take pics of my log books.

 

Some Android tablets have memory card slots, so you can easily add more memory, or get things into or out of those tablets.  Oddly, the Nexus 7 does not have a memory card slot.

[DocRon]

Gentlemen!

 

Very good and I really appreciate your comments.  You've given me some good things to think about (as well as homework) and I'll check this out now that I have a better starting point.  Thanks very much for your input.

[Doug G.]

Just heard on NPR that 4/5 of the smartphones in the world are Android. Not sure about the tablets. I wonder when the developers are going to get the word.

[Doug G.]

My favorite for flight planning is being rebranded as FlightPro. Website - www.flightpro.com

It used to be called Avilution Aviation Weather which was not particularly descriptive of the current product.

[Doug G.]

I should add that it has many features that are made for the cockpit. (ADS-B, TIS, Nexrad, DUAT flight plan filing, etc.) I don't feel the need for more in the cockpit except on an emergency basis.

Oh, and it is Android.

[CT4ME]

Just heard on NPR that 4/5 of the smartphones in the world are Android. Not sure about the tablets. I wonder when the developers are going to get the word.

 

I'm with you on this.  But it's not an easy thing for developers.  With IOS, developers have a very consistent platform.  Maybe a couple of minor variations.  In the Android World, it's all over the place.  Many different flavors of Android, some proprietary.  Different vendors, different screen sizes, different feature sets, different hardware.  Some have buttons, some don't.   

The same sort of thing happened with PCs and DOS.  With DOS, one program on one disk could run on 100 million computers anywhere in the World.  That same program, written in Unix, would need to be re-coded hundreds of times to run on the crazy variations and flavors of Unix.  

[FlyingMonkey]

I'm with you on this.  But it's not an easy thing for developers.  With IOS, developers have a very consistent platform.  Maybe a couple of minor variations.  In the Android World, it's all over the place.  Many different flavors of Android, some proprietary.  Different vendors, different screen sizes, different feature sets, different hardware.  Some have buttons, some don't.   

The same sort of thing happened with PCs and DOS.  With DOS, one program on one disk could run on 100 million computers anywhere in the World.  That same program, written in Unix, would need to be re-coded hundreds of times to run on the crazy variations and flavors of Unix.  

 

Exactly right.  Supporting a single platform from one vendor is much more attractive to developers than having to support multiple OS revisions across literally hundreds of very different pieces of hardware.  If it were me writing a hugely complex app like ForeFlight or WingX for Android, I might release a list of "approved devices" that are supported, and for the rest just say it will probably work as advertised but we don't guarantee it.

 

Of course, Apple has issues too.  Their closed OS and hardware means that improvements to hardware and software capabilities happen much more slowly.  Not to mention being trapped in the application gulag that is the App Store.  Even if you write a very good app, if it's not approved by Apple for inclusion in the gulag, you are left only able to market to the tiny fraction of owners with jailbroken devices.

[CT4ME]

At AirVenture 2014 Hilton Software announced a new feature for WingX.... your own "Black Box".  I understand the new version that includes this feature will not be available until sometime in Aug.

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Introducing WingX Rewind! Record and playback flights, GPS, AHRS, and pitot/static. Superb compression - a 16GB iPad with WingX Pro7 and all databases loaded can store about 35,000 hours of flight time (GPS and AHRS (10 per second)). More info soon.

[Anticept]

The same sort of thing happened with PCs and DOS.  With DOS, one program on one disk could run on 100 million computers anywhere in the World.  That same program, written in Unix, would need to be re-coded hundreds of times to run on the crazy variations and flavors of Unix.

 

That is because of the inclusion of development libraries. Programs were instructing DOS what to do, which would translate into machine code for the hardware.

 

It did, unfortunately, lead to "vista syndrome" though. Vista was incredibly bloated with huge amounts of drivers from multiple eras in the name of compatibility. They got around this in Win7+ through the clever use of virtual drivers, where old programs spoke to a sort of virtual machine abstraction layer, which would translate the code for newer OSs to understand.