WIndows Mobile Gps - Always Greener

Hi Everyone,

I've been working on a Windows Mobile 6.5 golf gps application for the last year or so and have been using it succesfully on the course for about 6 months now. I am giving this software away for free and hope that it may be of use to someone with a Windows Mobile phone. The software is completely free to download and use with no restrictions.

I'm a professional software developer with 10 years experience but I wanted to bulk up the mobile application development section on my cv and "Always Greener" is the result.

I hope this isn't considered spam or advertising as I am offering this software to the golfing community for free. There isn't even a single google ad on the website.

If you would like to map your course and download the software please visit.

www.alwaysgreener.net

If anyone has any problems then I'll do my best to help you out.

Sounds like a nice offer :-)
Will this app work in Windows Mobile 6.1 enviroment ?

It should run under 6.1 with no problem at all. I have had it running on an O2 XDA Mantle which is a 6.1 device.

This 6.1 device is quite a low resolution screen which obviously effects the quality of the maps but the yardages are still good.

The only additional step is that you may need to install the Microsoft.Net compact framework version 3.5 if not already installed.

Very nice looking App!

[quote name='Always Greener' timestamp='1300045055' post='3051788']
It should run under 6.1 with no problem at all...

...The only additional step is that you may need to install the Microsoft.Net compact framework version 3.5 if not already installed.
[/quote]

Will give it a try, thank you.

Looks pretty cool. Thanks very much for your obviously significant effort. I have mapped one of my local public courses (Shandin Hills, in San Bernardino, CA). Mapping went smoothly. The mapping routine on your site is elegant, and saves your data frequently. I'm not sure I understand the logic of mapping the tee locations. For one thing, tee locations are very hard to determine on a Google map. I doubt the tee locations I selected are accurate to less than 10 or 15 yards because the tee locations are not nearly as distinguishable as the greens. Also, aren't yardages determined from the current GPS location? Why should I have to load another map just to play a different set of tees? What does the software actually use the tee locations for?
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What really sets this apart from FreeCaddie is the Map View your software offers. This allows for checking distances to bunkers, water hazards, layup locations, etc., without having to pre-define them during course mapping. It also would allow distance to the near and far edges of the green when you are not approaching from the intended angle (not that that ever happens to me, but someone might need it). However, it seems you must have internet access at the course for the Map View to work, correct? This makes it not useful for me, because my Windows Mobile device is an iPaq PDA with a compact flash GPS, which doesn't have mobile internet access (only WiFi, so it works great in my living room). I do have lots of storage space (16gb SD card). Any chance the map could be cached to the device so that realtime downloading isn't necessary?

Thanks again. I look forward to trying it on the course.

I just noticed that after downloading all the hole maps for my course, the map view seemed to work, even if I turn my WiFi off, so it looks like it is caching to the device. But this caching is not persistent after closing the app and restarting.

It does seem to be quite good at finding the GPS, which other apps sometimes seem to have trouble with (and me having to manually configure the GPS port, etc., when the app can't find it automatically).

Hi Dave,

Its all part of the Terms and Conditions linked to using Google maps unfortunately. You are not allowed to permanently store the maps offline.

I have coded the solution so that it stores the map in memory for the duration of your round. I assumed this was how all the other solutions worked unless they are ignoring the google terms and conditions and saving the maps permanently.

I will investigate the Google t&cs in more depth and if I think its safe to store the maps on the device permanently I'll upload another version.

Thanks for the feedback.

The thinking behind mapping the different tee locations is to ensure that you get the entire map on the screen. Without knowing where the tee is roughly located then I can't automatically scale or rotate the course to be in the correct orientation (I have tried to copy yardage books where the flag is always at the top of the screen).

On my local course we have competition tees in quite different locations from the standard ones. One of the holes even changes to a par 3 when playing off the competition tees, normally its par 4. We also have a few temporary holes that come into play when on Winter Tees as we can't squeeze a temporary green in next to the standard one.

You are correct that when on the course the gps would be centered around your current position so the actual tee locations accuracy is not that important and I would have thought 99% of courses can be used with one set of tees mapped. It is however quite nice to be able to download the map and work out which club you should be hitting from the different tees whilst sat at home.

With the current version if you want the maps available on the course you can download them all before leaving your house (just don't step back to the course list, leave it on the first hole) and they will all be saved in memory even after disconnecting from your wifi.