aLittleApplication

aLittleMap is a map viewer and GPS application for webOS. It shows maps from OpenStreetMap at six scales and the map can move to follow your location, tracked using GPS.

The map scale, the location, and GPS and trip readouts appear at the top of the screen with zoom and other controls at the bottom. A transparent gray dot at the centre of the screen marks the location, ringed in green, yellow or red (indicating accuracy) when using GPS.

Zoom in or out using the -/+ buttons. Use the smaller scales to move to the area of interest then zoom in to see detail. In very many areas OpenStreetMap is more up-to-date and shows more detail than Google Maps and is improving daily as a worldwide community of mappers adds and updates map data. OSM mappers can use aLittleMap to log and export GPS tracks.

Places are marked by orange dots, tracks and waypoints in yellow, and routes in blue. It is very easy to view, edit and add or delete places, tracks, waypoints and routes, and you can add photos to places or waypoints. A single tap will take you to a place or waypoint.

You can save whole sets of places, tracks, waypoints and routes (known as loci) and re-load them later (when returning to a holiday location for example).

aLittleBritain is a mapping web application which will run on any smartphone as well as in a desktop/laptop browser. Here it is shown running in the web browser on an Android device, but other screenshots show it on an iPhone and a Palm Pre.

To the right of the graphical scale bar above the map is the next arrow >. Tapping this brings up a set of tools (see later screenshots).

Navigating the map is a little different from other map apps such as Google Maps. You cannot drag the map - instead simply tap on the location you want to focus on and the map will centre there. Similarly, you do not use gestures to zoom in or out - instead, tapping the scale bar brings up a zoom control.

To try the application point your browser to http://alittle.org.uk/britain (then bookmark it).

You can view Ordnance Survey maps at eight scales represented by bars of increasing width. The current scale is indicated by the black bar. Tap a bar to show the map at the associated scale from the smallest on the left to the largest on the right. Alternatively, tap + or - zoom in or out to the next scale.

This simple web app is freely available for anyone to use, but can easily be developed and customised to suit the particular needs of a company or organisation, renamed and accessible either to the public or just for staff via their own website. One possible change is to display maps from another source (Google or Bing maps and aerial imagery are obvious candidates, as is OpenStreetMap - all allowing global coverage). Other options are mentioned with later screenshots.

Tapping the next arrow > to the right of the scale bar displays a menu of tools:

geo-location
search
distance measurement
add place

Tapping the location icon toggles geo-positioning on (green satellites) or off (grey satellites). This feature relies on the browser's capabilities. Oddly, the Chrome browser on a desktop computer 'knows' its location, but the browser on the Palm Pre, with built-in GPS, does not!

If geolocation is available the map will centre itself at your real-world location, indicated by the yellow circle.

Here and elsewhere, tapping the back icon < will return to the original scale-bar screen.

Custom versions of the application could easily incorporate other tools as required.

Tapping the search tool allows you to type in a place name to search for. Tap the search icon and the app searches its own database and the online geonames.org service to find matching place names in the UK.

Custom versions could search an organisations own databases if required, held on the server and accessible to all users.

Matching place names are listed and tapping the next arrow > will center the map at the selected place. If the place is in the app's database it will be marked by a 'map pin' as shown in a later screenshot.

Places in an organisation's own database could appear as icons or differently-coloured pins representing various types of location.

The largest scale of OS map serves as a street map while smaller scales are useful for finding your way around the countryside and road travel. the smallest scale allows rapid navigation to other parts of Britain.

The distance tool allows measurement of distances. You can quickly estimate how far a particular route would be or the distance you covered on a walk in the country. Just tap on locations along the route and the cumulative distance is updated.

Tapping to the right of the distance toggles between kilometres and miles and the application remembers your preference just as it remembers the location and scale you were using last time you used it.

The final tool allows you to mark and name places on the map. With the map centred on a location, tap the add place icon, enter a name for the location, and tap the add icon + to add the place to the map where it appears as a yellow map pin.

You can use this feature to mark the position of your hotel, where you left your car, your customers' premises, promising picnic spots,...

A custom version could offer a menu of types of place (store, office, customer, substation, antenna mast,...) and could allow areas or linear features to be marked as well as point locations. These could be saved in an organisation's central database on the server, accessible to all users.

Places are stored in a local database and will be there next time you use aLittleBritain on the same device (and browser).

Tapping on or near a place 'pin' will display its name. You can change this if you want, tapping the tick to save the change. Alternatively, you can remove a place simply by tapping the red cross X. As elsewhere, tapping the back arrow < just brings back to the scale-bar.

A custom version with a menu of custom place types might show these as various 'pin' colours or icons, or coloured polygons or paths denoting area or linear features. It would even be possible for the application to report its location and to display the location of other agents, sales representatives, etc.

If you think a custom version might be useful to your company or organisation please get in touch. Contact details are in the Organisation section.

aLittlePlanet is a map viewer and GPS application. It shows maps from Open Street Map and other sources at five scales, and the map can move to follow your location, tracked using GPS. You can mark places and waypoints and follow routes.

The application first opens with a world map. The cursor keys move the map north, east, south or west. The number keys move in bigger steps as well as diagonally. The Zoom option, the SELECT key or the 5 key zoom in to the next larger scale. There are five larger scales each showing increasing detail. The Out option or the 0 key zoom back out to smaller scales. The coordinates give the location indicated by the blue cross at the centre of the screen, and the time appears top/right if there is enough space.

Maps are assembled from tiles, drawn on screen as they are downloaded. A yellow bar indicates progress in what may take a few seconds or longer, depending on your service connection and the type and complexity of the map. The default source of maps is Open Street Map but other maps are available to users who register.

When tracking GPS the map moves to follow you and a trail of blue dots marks your track. Your altitude, speed and the trip duration and distance are shown, while your direction is indicated by the cursor arrow and a compass bar across the bottom of the screen. You can still browse around the map when the blue cross reappears at the screen centre while the coloured arrow indicates your real-world position. After a few seconds the map will return to your GPS location. A single key-press while tracking GPS will add a Waypoint and registered users can add audio notes or photos.

The GPS control screen allows you to start/stop GPS tracking, reset the trip data, and choose whether to save track logs. You can also choose whether to display your average speed for the trip or your current speed. If you are following a route it is shown at the top and you can choose to show the estimated time and distance to your destination. From here registered users can also show a screen displaying the track statistics and profile.

You can define a route by adding a series of numbered waymarks, and aLittlePlanet guides you, displaying the number of the next waymark, its distance, and its direction, shown by blue arrows at your location and on the compass bar. Waymarks are detected as you get close and the arrows shift to the next stage in your route. Registered users can name, save and re-load routes.

The Settings screen lets you expand the display to use the full screen, or show distances, altitudes and speeds as miles, yards, feet and mph. Registered users can choose alternative map types and can have map tiles saved to a memory card, speeding loading and reducing data charges. Maps can be refreshed, downloading new tiles when changing map type or to ensure you have the latest. This is where you enter your user key if you have made a contribution towards development costs.

You can mark named Places, shown as red dots, which you can return to just by choosing them from a list. Registered users can add photos and audio to illustrate and annotate Places just as they can when marking Waypoints. As you move the map close to a Place its name appears bottom/right.

Loci groups location and path data. You can list all your marked Places, saved Routes and Tracks, and any Waypoints on the current Track. You can navigate straight to a Place and view a photo or listen to audio. You can load a Route or another Track together with its Waypoints, and any of these may be renamed or deleted. Registered users can Save all these Loci as an archive or to Load again later. They can also Export tracks to memory cards in GPX format.

You can buy aLittlePlanet for less than the price of a paper map - just £2.00 - using your PayPal account or a credit/debit card if you don't have a PayPal account.

The application will be delivered by email as an attachment. Full installation instructions are included in the user guide.

aLittleMoney keeps records of financial accounts. You can create and name accounts and they can be protected by a user PIN. Each account records transactions in date order and calculates balances.

The application opens with a list of your Accounts and this will of course start empty. Use the New option to create your first account. Accounts can be for whatever you like: bank accounts, expenses, holiday spending,... This is a bank savings account so, hopefully, most transactions will pay into it, so the default is for credit transactions. Check secret if you want to keep it confidential.

The Add option puts the new account in the Accounts list. You can do the same to set up a 'Current' account, defaulting to debit transactions if most will be withdrawals. Selecting an account takes you to a list of transactions for that account.

If the account is secret you will need to enter your PIN the first time you view it. This is the familiar four-digit number, initially set to 1234. Use the Change option to enter a less obvious code. You will only have to enter your PIN once per session.

Use the New option to add a Transaction for the account. Give it a date, a brief description and an amount. Use the # key to toggle between credit and debit (-) amounts. The default is for transactions to be 'one-off' but you can set them to repeat every four weeks, calendar month or annually.

The Add option returns to the transactions list with the new transaction slotted in according to its date and the balances adjusted to suit. You can select any transaction to change or Delete it. The Accounts option returns you to the Accounts list where you can view and change account Details or Delete whole accounts, and Backup and Restore your records.

You can buy aLittleMoney for the price of a newspaper - just £1.00 - using your PayPal account or a credit/debit card if you don't have a PayPal account.

The application will be delivered by email as an attachment. Full installation instructions are included in the user guide.

aLittleTime records the time you spend on projects. You can create and name projects and the application will log the time you spend on each project each day. You can also log expenses and travel, review earlier records and see monthly totals.

The application opens with a list of your projects or Jobs. This will of course be empty the first time you start aLittleTime. The New option allows you to create a new job. Each job has a short ref. and a longer name. The job reference can be up to four characters and usually corresponds to your project numbering system.

Press Add to save the new job and it will appear in the Jobs list. The application logs time spent on projects each day. The work in one day on one job is a task. There are options to view the list of tasks for Today, to view a History of older tasks, ordered by date, to view a summary of a job as month-by-month Totals, to view Details for a job and to Delete it, and to Backup and Restore your records. When you start work on the day's first job just SELECT it from the list.

Your new task defaults to today's date and has zero values. Usually you will just press Add but you can set an earlier date if this is an old task, or you can enter values for the time already used (hours:minutes), distance (km, miles, whatever), or costs.

If the new task is for an earlier date it will be added to the History list but normally it will appear in the Today list headed by the date and time and showing the day's tasks so far. You can view Details for a task (and Delete it), but mostly you will just press SELECT to start timing a task or SELECT again to stop the timer. The clock indicates a timed task. Pressing Jobs returns you to the jobs list.

You can buy aLittleTime for the price of a newspaper - just £1.00 - using your PayPal account or a credit/debit card if you don't have a PayPal account.

The application will be delivered by email as an attachment. Full installation instructions are included in the user guide.

aLittleKnowledge is a organised notebook application. Notes are organised into lists and can be added, re-named, re-ordered, edited and deleted, while confidential notes or whole groups of notes can be protected by a user PIN.

There are no notes when you first start the application so you need to add some using the New option. It's useful to have a note of your passwords and these are obviously not something you would want other people to see, so make the note secret then click the Add key.

Enter the content of your new note and select the Done option to save it. It doesn't matter if the note is incomplete. You can view, add to, change or remove notes at any time. Your notebook now has its first item, 'passwords'.

As well as simple notes you can add lists. It might be useful to add one for notes about your bank accounts. To create a new list, select New again, give the list a name and check header. Like your passwords, your bank details are confidential, so check secret again then Add it to the notebook. The two dots indicate that your new 'bank' item is a list header. Select it to display the new list..

When you first open a secret note or list you will have to enter your PIN. This is a four-digit number initially set to '1234'. To be more secure, Change it to a less obvious number. You only need to enter your PIN once each session.

Your 'bank' list will of course start empty but you can add notes about your branch details, account numbers, etc. You can even add sub-lists! If you want to re-order a list, there is a Move up option to nudge items one place nearer the top. You can use the Details option to view and change a note or list's name or secrecy, and Delete notes or lists. There are Backup and Restore options to save your notebook to a memory card and recover them or transfer them to a new phone. The Back option returns you to the previous list.

You can buy aLittleKnowledge for the price of a newspaper - just £1.00 - using your PayPal account or a credit/debit card if you don't have a PayPal account.

The application will be delivered by email as an attachment. Full installation instructions are included in the user guide.