Headless Cuckoo for BB10

Advanced native, headless hourly (and half-hourly / quarter-hourly) chime application for BlackBerry 10. Works invisibly in the background with no unnecessary windows or active frames. Power efficient - no noticeable battery or CPU usage. Just select your preferred sounds and options, close the app and let the headless service run invisibly and do its job, reminding you with the selected sound (and/or vibration/LED) about the passing time.  Great as a reminder, time manager, or simply yet another pleasant and useful feature of your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. 

Features:

• Native, headless, runs invisibly in the background
• Autostarts upon reboot or when you open the app
• Headless service can be stopped/started anytime with one tap
• 6 nice chime sounds included
• Use any other sound file stored on your phone or downloaded from the Internet as chime sound
• Select interval: hourly (on the hour - :00), half-hourly (every 30 minutes - :00 and :30) or quarter-hourly (every 15 minutes - :00, :15, :30, :45)
• Select the number of chimes: 1, 2, 3, or the current hour (e.g. 10 times at 10:00)
• Vibration on/off, and duration (short, medium, long)
• LED on/off, and choose color (red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, white)
• "No sound" option for only LED and/or vibration notifications at selected intervals
• Select chime sound volume (relative to phone's main multimedia volume setting)
• Exclude days - there will be no chime on the selected days of week
• Exclude hours - there will be no chime between the selected hours
• Almost unmeasurable CPU and battery usage
• More features to come in future updates.

Headless Cuckoo is now available on the BlackBerry World

StarFinder for BB10 now Built For BlackBerry approved

I am pleased to inform that StarFinder for BB10 is now Built For Blackberry approved.

This means that it has been positively verified for full compliance with all BlackBerry criteria when it comes to UI design, power and resource efficiency, user expierience, code quality, security, functionality, etc.

StarFinder and MoonCalc are the only astronomical applications for BB10 with the Built For BlackBerry designation.

StarFinder is available in the BlackBerry World

MoonCalc for BB10 now Built For BlackBerry approved

I am pleased to inform that MoonCalc is now Built For Blackberry approved.

This means that it has been positively verified for full compliance with all BlackBerry criteria when it comes to UI design, power and resource efficiency, user expierience, code quality, security, etc. It is the only Moon tracking tool for BB10 with the BFB designation.

Additionally, the most recent version includes True North / Magnetic North selection for compass. If True North is selected, local magnetic variation (declination) is obtained and added to compass readings, which makes it point to the geographic North (and thus also to Astronomic North as the tiny difference between them is negligible).

MoonCalc is available in the BlackBerry World

StarFinder 2.2 update for BB10

StarFinder for BB10 has been updated again to version 2.2. Changes:

** Dynamically updated (every 30 secs. to save power) Active Frame showing currently selected object's image, rise/set times, azimuth and elevation when the application is minimized.

** Share feature to easily share currently selected object's astronomical data by email, SMS, via social media, with other applications, etc.

** True North / Magnetic North selection for compass. If True North is selected, local magnetic variation (declination) is obtained and added to the compass reading, which makes it point to the geographic North (and thus also to Astronomic North as the tiny difference between them is negligible).

** Sort lists of stars and deep sky objects either alphabetically or by brightness (visual magnitude)

** Additional yellow needles on compass and elevation indicator, showing phone's current orientation. They move as you rotate/raise the phone. When those yellow arrows and the red arrows (showing selected object's azimuth and elevation) overlap, they change the color to green and the selected celestial object is right behind the phone. Makes using the program simpler and more obvious.

** An option to disable background picture

** Various other tweaks and improvements.

Some screenshots:

StarFinder is available in the BlackBerry World

MoonCalc for BB10 now with Share function and an Active Frame

Another update of MoonCalc (1.3.0) has been submitted to BB World and should be available within a day or two.

This new update brings the following features:

- when minimized, the application now shows an Active Frame displaying current Moon data (phase name and image, illumination percentage, rise/set times, azimuth, elevation). It is dynamically updated every 30 seconds

- Share function in the menu to quickly and easily share current Moon data by email, SMS, on Twitter, Facebook, with other applications (e.g. Remember), etc.

Some screenshots: 

MoonCalc for BB10 rewritten in Cascades

MoonCalc is an advanced Moon tool providing rich, real time calculations of Moon phase, age, illumination, distance, apparent size, coordinates (right ascension, declination, ecliptic latitude and longitude), azimuth, elevation, moonrise and moonset times, perigees and apogees, Moon Compass, and more - for any location and date/time. It also shows Moon position in the sky on an interactive graph.

Previously available for BB10 as a Qt/QtQuick application, it has just been rewritten from scratch in Cascades so now it is a fully native BB10 Cascades application, compatible with all BB10 devices, screen resolutions and OS versions.

This new version additionally provides the following features:

• switch between kilometers and miles as distance unit (e.g. in Perigees/Apogees view)
• Moon elevation shown both with and without atmospheric refraction
• azimuth shown as both numeric value and direction (e.g. NNW)
• improved "Moon Path" graph
• various other tweaks and improvements.

Depending on interest, another update may come soon, bringing the following additions:

• list of all Super Moons in a selected year
• list of all moonrise/moonset times in a selected month
• Share function to quickly and easily share the calculated/shown data with other people or other applications
• Active Frame showing selected Moon data while the application is minimized.

Screenshots:

- Full Touch (Z10 / Z30)

- BlackBerry Passport (1440x1440 pixels)

- Q10 / Q5 / Classic (720x720 pixels)

This new version has just been submitted to the BlackBerry World store and should be available shortly after the weekend.

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/28025177/

StarFinder ported to BB10 Cascades

StarFinder, formerly available for BB10 as a Qt/QtQuick application, has just been fully ported to Cascades, so now it is a fully native Cascades application, very quick and 100% smooth. It works on all devices and OS versions.

Additionally, this new version also brings the following enhancements:

• an option to enable vibration and/or LED feedback when the phone is aimed at the right azimuth and elevation
• Night Mode dimming the display so that it's not dazzling in darkness. Night Mode can be swiched manually on or off, or set to Auto mode controlled by the Light sensor
• varius corrections and optimizations.

StarFinder is an application to instantly (within just a few seconds) and very easily (by simply following two indicators) locate astronomical objects (stars, constellations, galaxies, nebulae, planets, asterisms, meteor shower radiants, etc.) in the night sky. For all supported objects, StarFinder also provides a lot of their astronomical data calculated in real time (right ascension, declination, azimuth, elevation, hour angle, apparent magnitude, rise/set/transit times, distance from Earth and Sun, illumination (phase), elongation, apparent diameter, phase angle, etc.) and lots of other information.

Some screenshots:

- Full Touch devices

- BlackBerry Passport (1440x1440)

- Q10 / Q5 / Classic (720x720)

StarFinder is available in the BlackBerry World