On Sep 23, 10:55*am, Max Kellermann wrote:
Sean Fidler wrote:
Oh and by the way...I would happily pay $100+ for professional supported software from Google market for soaring. *I'm sure many iPhone/iPad users would as well. *Maybe that's Max & team? *Maybe somebody will buy them. *But more should be stepping up to compete...

There's iGlide on the iPhone, but that's a proprietary software that
was started from scratch last year - it has some refreshing new
concepts, but it will probably never be able to catch up with XCSoar,
it's a one trick pony.

Proprietary software is a dead end, because to make something better,
you need to start from scratch. *With free software, you improve the
existing thing, and contribute to the big project as a whole.

Money will not improve XCSoar. *What we do is only possible because
there is no money involved: when developer time costs nothing, you can
afford to spend a year or two on just improving things on the backend,
where no user will notice it, until the big picture becomes visible
(e.g. the Android port, my pet project).

For that reason, none of the commercial vendors have an Android port:
they cannot afford the massive amount of developer time required to do
it. *I spent thousands of hours on our Android port, with help from
other fellow developers. *That's some huge investment that will never
pay off for a commercial vendor. *It's not solely ignorance.

Anyway, don't believe me, I'm biased ;-)

Max

Good discussion. I decided it is time to replace my 4700 PDA (which
keep freezing on me recently when it gets too hot) with a Droid
running XCSoar. My understanding that the Dell Streak mini is the best
option currently, and am getting ready to get one on eBay. What is not
clear to me is what else will I need to be able to connect it to my
302 and the glider battery, including cradle, without having to build
it myself or pay more than the cost of the tablet itself. Also if
anyone has suggestion for better Droid based hardware please advise.

Ramy