To cut off all the rumors and to answer all the questions, we have decided to post a little update on the release date for the version 1.2 of xGPS.
The current developement version of xGPS has almost all the required features to be released. We are correcting all the remaining bugs. This task should be finished by the end of this week (28.02.2009).
Then the translation tasks have to begin to reflect the changes of the 1.2 version.
When these two remaining tasks will be done, xGPS will be released. We think we are able to release xGPS 1.2 on the 7th of March. However, as usual, this is an approximative date and it can change if majors bugs are discovered.
As most of you now know, from the videos posted on iPhoneFreakz and on the ModMyI’s article, yes 1.2 is in its beta stage, and in a dead sprint for the finish line. We here at xGPS are now taking the time to post an official release of the new features, abilities, fixes, and updates coming in this new release of the xGPS Navigation Application for the iPhone Platform.
The previous version of xGPS was a GPS navigation program allowing what iPhone users really wanted out of their iPhone, realtime GPS navigation. So what have we improved upon from the last version? What have we fixed you ask? Well:
Bookmarks for saved directions now work correctly. Save all the bookmarks you want in an improved way.
GPX logging now works correctly. Save GPX data into multiple logs. Logs will be saved per calculated trips, and now adds the proper end carriage. Go ahead, track yourself and improve open maps!
Current Location and Recompute Itinerary now work correctly. For those areas where it didnt work before, i.e. USA, your location status now works. There is no more “you have to have a hard address”. Plot your destination and roll out.
Wrong Way indicator can now be hidden, should you feel adventurous during your routing, or need to make an extra stop!
Map Manager on the iPhone Stability.
Overall program stability and performance upgrades.
For all the updates, improvements, and fixes that have been included into this release, there have also, and probably the most exciting, been some expansion of the xGPS Program! What’s new to xGPS this time around?…:
Wireless Transfer of your map files. No longer do you have to dig around your iPhones directory to find your map file or put it in the right place. Simply download your maps from your computer and wirelessly push them to the xGPS program on your iPhone. It’s that easy!
Google Terrain Maps are now supported and added as another option for maps. All your hikers, bikers, and adventurers can enjoy this!
GPS Information. Access your GPS’s Lat/Long specs as well as Altitude and Speed of your unit and sent it by email.
English Voice instructions are now supported. Now included is the ability to receive verbal commands on your next turn as you approach it.
Night Mode for all you road warriors traveling across the country all all hours of the night! A new, easy view for the eyes when driving at night!
Access your GPX traces on your computer using a normal web-browser using the Wireless Transfer feature.
The xGPS Maps Manager has also new name: xGPS Manager. With a new name, a new software. The manage has thus been rewritten from scratch and now includes those new exciting new features:
Name your map sections and keep them organized. When downloading maps you can now name each region, allowing you to know what you downloaded, at what zoom levels, and its size.
Ability to download multiple zoom levels at a time now added.
Keep drawn region outline when download of map is finished, should you want to download another zoom level or Terrain Maps of the same region!
Option to show regions already downloaded.
Google Terrain Maps is now supported.
Wirelessly push and retrieve your device maps.
Manage and sync GPX Routes from your iPhone/Computer and show them plotted on a map.
As you can see, a lot has gone into the next installment of the xGPS iPhone Application! We here at Xwaves are trying to give you the most complete and user friendly mappin solution for your iPhone.
As always, we couldn’t do this without you guys, our community. We want to thank you all for your support, input, and debugging of the xGPS software!
We are all excited about this new release and you guys should be too. We are bringing a lot to the table and setting the bar higher and higher for future releases.
The planned release for xGPS 1.2 is for the end of this month. We don’t to communicate a more accurate date as we simply don’t know it. So keep your calendars marked, and stay tuned! And as always you can find the xGPS Software on the ModMyI repo’s (already included with any jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch).
First, no the project is not dead . There were Christmas time, then New Year, then the beginning of the new year etc… All these events have unfortunately stopped us temporarily to develop xGPS. We are gently starting again to improve xGPS to be able to release a new version by February.
For now we are searching for a beautiful, simple, gorgeous logo for xGPS. As this project become big we need a logo. It will not replace the current xGPS icon but it will be the xGPS logo displayed everywhere (website, documentation etc…). So we are searching for talented people who can create such a logo. We don’t have any special requirement excepting the fact that the size of the logo should be big enough in order to be used everywhere and resized.
You can post your creation on the forum threat here:
We have configured a new forum for all xGPS users in order they can discuss about problems, solutions and improvement that can be made in xGPS. We will try to read as much as possible this forum to answer the most recurrent questions.
We are also aware of the problems that the current xGPS version has with the current position and with the need to enter the complete address for driving directions. We are working to correct that.
The new major release of xGPS is now available. It includes a lot of new functionalities and lot of bug fix. As requested by many users there is now a preliminary driving directions support. It is still not fully complete (continue to read to know why but at least it works quite good. The lag with the iGPS360 GPS is now corrected. The auto-rotation feature for the map is now better and the map doesn’t “shake” anymore. There is also now a bookmark system for the driving directions. We can continue to enumerate all the features and bug fix all day long so if you are interested in all the changes we encourage you to visit this page:
Some precisions must be made about the driving directions. The driving directions are provided by Google. So you will need to have an Internet connection to get the direction. However thanks to the bookmarks, the driving directions are automatically saved and you can pick them later with the Bookmarks button (top left on the screen when you search for driving directions).
The release of xGPS Maps Manager is a bit delayed. A bug fix release should appear next week.
Now we have to speak a little bit more about the maps because many people are saying “Maps are bigs” or “Internet connection bothers me”. Maps are big because it is simply images and images are really heavy. For the current version of xGPS it is not possible to overcome this problem. However it is planed to support vectorial map in the version 2.0 of the software (which hasn’t been yet started, so it is for the far away future). A lot of people say “Ok why don’t you use TomTom or whatever other maps ?”. Simply because the format is closed and even encrypted (in the TomTom case) so it is not possible (now) to extract useful information.
As you will see there is still a lot of place for improvement for xGPS. The following features are planned for the next version: Vocal guiding (in English first), Next direction distance, the recomputation of an itinerary will take into account the direction which you are currently heading and more…
We want also to thanks all the people around this project. There is a little community growing up around it. We really like it. We have now about 10 peoples which are translating and testing beta version of the software. We have also a webmaster currently creating the official website for xGPS with a lot of tutorial, video etc… All the people participating to this project are enumerated on this special page: Contributors.
We have also donators which contribute to the project. We are running the servers and build machines without any fund. That’s why we encourage you to donate a few bucks to the project as it requires some money for the servers and administrative tasks. Without that the software will be no more free. You can donate by pressing the donate button on the right.
Without all of you we will not at this step today. So Thank you all!
Due to the recent changes in Google Maps, we have to also release a bug fix version of xGPS Maps manager. Nothing else has changed.
The version 1.1 of xGPS was initially scheduled to be released on the 30th November. However due to the large amount of work there is still to do, we are obliged to postpone the release to, at least, next week (6th December). In this version turn-by-turn directions will be more or less available.
Due to Google Maps internal changes, we have to release another small bug fix update tagged 1.0.1-6. It correct all the gray maps problem some of you have. It is the only change from the last version.
More to come in the following weeks (Yes, turn-by-turn directions are coming, step-by-step )
PS: Cydia repository is still at http://cydia.xwaves.net
Small post to say that we have released a small bug fix release of xGPS Maps Manager. This version doesn’t improve anything excepting that now it is working with the new Google Maps changes and the zoom levels have been “unified”. The zoom level you see on the left of the window correspond to the zoom level of the current view of the map. If you enter the same number in the text area for the downloaded maps zoom level, it will download the maps at the same zoom level you are seeing. It means that 17 is the most detailed zoom level, and 1 is the less detailed one.
. There were Christmas time, then New Year, then the beginning of the new year etc… All these events have unfortunately stopped us temporarily to develop xGPS. We are gently starting again to improve xGPS to be able to release a new version by February. 
but at least it works quite good. The lag with the iGPS360 GPS is now corrected. The auto-rotation feature for the map is now better and the map doesn’t “shake” anymore. There is also now a bookmark system for the driving directions. We can continue to enumerate all the features and bug fix all day long so if you are interested in all the changes we encourage you to visit this page: