Orbitrack 2.1 Released!
We’re happy to announce that Apple has approved the latest update to our Orbitrack app for iOS – just in time for next week’s launch! Here’s what you can expect in the new release.
1) Orbitrack supports iOS 12, iPhone XR, XS, and iPad Pro. Built with the latest Xcode.
2) Improved Augmented Reality (AR) mode the utilizes the camera in Sky view. This is finally true augmented reality that blends video from the camera with the simulated sky view – instead of just a simulated sky view that moves with the device’s motion sensors. You can control the blending by swiping up and down with your finger. And, since the digital compasses in most iPhones are usually quite a bit off from reality, you can align the simulated chart with the video “reality” by swiping left-and-right. The Moon or bright planets are usually good targets to align on, this way.
3) There’s a new Motion button in the toolbar to easily activate your device’s motion sensors.
4) There’s more information in Satellite Info – launch dates, launch sites, categories, and countries of origin. This required quite a bit of work on our back end. We’re also now blending satellite data from both n2yo.com and celestrak.com. That should address certain situations where one or the other site is missing satellite data, or has a different name for a satellite.
The most common question we get asked is, “when will the Android version of Orbitrack become available?” To be fair, we’ve been remiss on this – other projects (most notably the Enoch art museum satellite due for launch next week!) have taken time away from this effort. The good news is that we’ve just hired a new Android developer who will pick up the work. So we should have Orbitrack for Android out the door in early 2019.