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NavXS Client User Guide



The following user guide is written for the NavXS Mobile Java Client - Full Edition, version 0.1.7. Other editions / versions will look and behave slightly different, but in most cases this guide is valid for all editions. Important exceptions are noted.

Download and Installation

To download the NavXS Client, go to http://navxs.com/download/index.aspx, and select the platform and edition that corresponds to your handset. Follow the instructions given there for how to install the client on your phone / pda.

Running the Application

NavXS Icon To run the NavXS Client, locate the directory where you installed the application. You should find the NavXS client, represented by an icon like the one to the left.

When you have successfully launched the application, you will first see a screen displaying the NavXS logo and some credits and copyright information (Figure 01).

See the Maps Section for more on 3rd party copyrights.

Press on the softkey mapped to the command "Continue" to move on to the really interesting parts.
Figure 01
Figure 01: The NavXS Client Startup Screen.

Security Settings

The application will by default try to determine your position at startup (this can be disabled, see the My Location section below). Depending on your phone's security settings you may be prompted to grant the NavXS Client access to use "Location Based Services", similarly to the dialogue shown in Figure 02. Grant this access if your phone has a built-in or external GPS receiver and want to use the NavXS Client to determine your current position. In a similar way, you might be prompted to grant access to the internet when logging on to the NavXS Service or downloading maps, and to grant access to the file system if you have enabled local caching of map tiles. See the Map section below.)

If these security messages are displayed frequently, you can change the security settings of the NavXS Client to only these messages once at startup (usually this can be found in the "Options" menu before starting a Java application).

Note: The Basic Edition and JSR-75 Edition do not support accessing Location Based Services, and will thus not display any security dialogues this regarding. The Basic Edition does also not support file access, making internet access the only security item for this edition.
Figure 02
Figure 02: Java Security Setting Dialogue.

Screens and menus

Having granted the security rights you find appropriate, you should see the screen shown in Figure 03. This is the main screen, showing the current status of the NavXS Client. The field marked "Location Service" displays the current location status. This may be "Acquiring Sats...", "Available", "Tmp. Unavailable", "Out of Service" or "Not Installed" (the latter only for Basic and JSR-75 editions). See the My Location section below for details of location status.

The field marked "Exchange Service" displays the current state of the Navigation Exchange Service. This will typically be Offline or Online Depending on whether you have logged in to the service or not (see the My Account section below).

Finally, the fields marked "Latitude" and "Longitude" shows your phone's current location or 0.0 if not known.



The NavXS Client has three main parts: My Location, My Account and Map, each with their own Settings sub-screen. These can be accessed by pressing the softkey mapped to "Menu" (on some phones "Options") and selecting the corresponding item in the pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 02. (The 4th item in this menu opens up a simple "About" screen, showing information about the application Edition, Version and Platform etc.) Navigating between these three program parts, and their respective settings screen is always done using menus like this, plus a softkey marked "Back" for returning to the previously displayed screen.
Figure 03
Figure 03: The application status page.

Figure 04
Figure 04: The application main menu.

My Location

The My Location screen displays the current locational status. The Availability field displays an indication of the availability of the location service:
  • Acquiring Sats...: This indicates that the location service is initializing, trying to acquire signals from GPS satellites. Depending on your receiver, and how long ago you used it, this may take several minutes. For more information about how GPS works, Garmin provides a quick summary here.
  • Available: This indicates that the location service is working properly.
  • Tmp Unavailable: This indicates that the location service cannot find any signals, or has lost contact with the GPS satellites. This typically occur when indoors or in a city street surrounded by tall buildings.
  • Disabled: This indicates that the location service has been manually disabled (see My Location Settings below).
  • Not Installed: This is only availability message you will see in the Basic and JSR-75 clients, which do not support location based services.
The rest of the field displays the details of the most recently obtained location data.
Figure 05
Figure 05: The My Location Status Screen.

Pressing the softkey mapped to the command "Settings" will take you to the Location Settings screen, shown in Figure 06. Here, the check-box named Location Service determines whether or not the Location Service shall be started. Checking this box will start the location service when pressing the softkey mapped to the command "Back". If still checked when the program exits, the location service will start automatically the next time the NavXS Client is launched. In general: All settings for all program parts are stored when exiting the program, and restored the next time it is launched.

In the selection labeled Power Settings, the desired power usage can be specified. High power setting will generally yield more accurate data, while low power setting might save some battery time. NOTE: This may or may not have an effect, depending on your telephone and the way it implements the location services (e.g. GPS hardware / software)

In the check-list labeled Optional Outputs, optional output settings can be specified. Requiring altitude, speed and course may result in your telephone spending a bit more effort obtaining location data. The check-box labeled "Allow Cost" pertains to using Assisted GPS (A-GPS) as location method. When this box is checked, and if your telephone supports this method, data transmitted over the mobile phone network will be used to assist the GPS receiver in obtaining location data, and may thus lead to additional network costs. NOTE: de-selecting this has no effect on the exchange of navigation data and download of maps, which will still use the network to transmit data, possibly resulting in additional costs.

The Update Interval determines how frequently your phone shall attempt to obtain location data. Using a several seconds or minutes as update interval might save battery time, but won't be as much fun ;-)

The Timeout value specifies how long time your phone should try each time it attempts to obtain your location. Here a low value might, save battery time...
Figure 06
Figure 06: The My Location Settings Screen.

My Account

The My Account Screen displays the status of the Navigation Exchange Service. First time the NavXS Client is launched, this screen will look like Figure 07. Note the gray circle with the label No e-mail specified. In order to use the exchange service you have to log in to the service. Before you can do this, you will have to edit the account settings. This can be done by pressing the softkey mapped to the command "Settings". This will lead you to the Account Settings Screen. Figure 07
Figure 07: The My Account Screen.
On the Account Settings Screen (Figure 08), you can enter an Login (e-mail) and password for logging on to the Navigation Exchange Service. If you do not have an account yet, you can sign up here.

On the Account Settings Screen, you can also specify the Exchange Interval. This is the interval at which the NavXS Client will contact the NavXS Server, updating your current position and receiving the position of your online contacts. NOTE: Your position will only be visible to your contacts! See below how to add contacts.

When the Auto Login check box is checked before exiting the application, you will automatically be logged in to the exchange service the next time you start the NavXS Client, using the most recently entered e-mail and password.
Figure 08
Figure 08: The Account Settings Screen.
When the Account Settings has been properly set, you can log in to the service by selecting the Login item in the menu shown in Figure 07. (From the Account Settings Screen, press "Back" and "Menu", or "Options" on some phones, to show this menu).

Once logged in, the My Account Screen will be updated to show all your contacts. Online contacts will be assigned a nice green icon, as will the currently logged-in user, while offline contacts will be assigned a somewhat mor dull, grey icon. Should you have any messages waiting for you, they will be shown under Messages.

NOTE: The NavXS Client uses the internet to communicate with the Navigation Exchange Server. Unless your telephone supports WLAN, it will connect to the internet using GPRS or UMTS. This might add to your telephone bill. Many telephone companies exploit their customers by charging ridiculous prices for internet access, unless you order an additional "Data Pack" to your subscription. Make sure you have a "Data Pack" before using the Navigation Exchange Service! for an additional monthly charge of 5-10€/$ a month you should get all the internet access you need. Contact your mobile phone provider if you are unsure about this.
Figure 09
Figure 09: Online and Offline Contacts.
Via the second item in the My Account Menu, shown in Figure 07, you can add contacts to your contact list. The Add Contact Screen (Figure 10) provides a field User E-mail where you can type the e-mail address of the contact you want to add. Press the softkey mapped to "Search" to see if a user with this e-mail exits in the exchange service database. (Future versions might provide a more flexible search function, where you don't have to know the e-mail address in advance.)

The matching users (if any) will be listed in the check-list labeled Matching Users. To add the found user(s) to your contact list, press the softkey mapped to the "Finish" command. The selected user(s) will appear in your contact list with a special symbol signifying that the contact request is waiting to be accepted, as shown in Figure 11.

The user that you have requested will receive a notification like the one shown in Figure 12 (if he or she is not currently online, the notification will be shown next time he or she logs in). You will not be able to see the location of the requested user until he/she has accepted your add-contact request. The user you have requested can choose to reject the request. In this case you will receive a short message informing you about this, and the pending contact shown in Figure 11 will disappear from your contact list.
Figure 10
Figure 10: Adding Contacts.

Figure 11
Figure 11: Pending Contacts.

Figure 12
Figure 12: Receiving a Contact Request.
Via the fourth item in the My Account Menu you get to the Compose Message Screen (Figure 13). In the Recipients check-list you can select one or more of your contacts as recipients for a simple text message. In the Text field you can type the message content using your numeric keys just as you would writing a SMS.

Unlike an SMS There are no limits to how long the message text can be. Also there are no fixed charges, but you may have to pay your network provider for the data transfer. For example, sending 15000 messages of 1000 characters each month would accumulate approximately 30Mb of network traffic, which typically would cost 10€ with an expensive mobile phone provider...
Figure 13
Figure 13: Composing a Message.
When someone sends you a message, it will be listed on the My Account Screen under the Messages label, with the newest message on top. To clear the message list, select Clear Messages the menu. Note that all messages will be permanently discarded when you exit the NavXS Client (we may change this if we find any good reasons for doing so...) Figure 14
Figure 14: Receiving a Message.

Maps

The NavXS Client includes a digital map for visualizing the location of the user and all his/her contacts. Note that map tiles will be downloaded from the internet on-demand. As discussed in the My Account section: Make sure you have a data subscription before using the GPRS or UMTS to download tiles! While data is being loaded, a small text will be displayed, indicating load progress (map tiles remianing) and network usage since program start (Figure 15).

By pressing the softkey mapped to the "Settings" command shown in Figure 15, a Map Settings screen will be displayed. Here you can enter and modify several parameters to change the appearance of the map.

The Zoom Level field provides means for setting a zoom level directly (the zoom level can also be set step-wise using your phones keys as discussed below). The zoom level dictates the range of the map to be displayed. At zoom level 0 the entire world will be displayed in one map tile. At zoom level 1 it takes four tiles to show the entire world, at zoom level 2 sixteen tiles and so forth. Currently zoom level 17 is the highest zoom level supported. The current zoom level is always indicated in the upper right corner of the display, as shown in Figure 10.

In the Map Center fields a latitude and longitude value can be entered to quickly pan the map to a specific location. Note that the in the JSR-179 and Full Edition, the map will re-center on your current location once a new GPS position has been obtained, unless you de-select the Auto Center option.

The Size field specifies how many tiles should be visible at the same time. Telephones with small displays can set this to 1x1 or 2x2 to reduce unnecessary downloads of map tiles that lie outside the visible screen. For a display of 240x320 pixels, such as the one used for this guide, 3x3 tiles has proven itself to be a good value.

With the Map Provider list you can select from where your telephone should download the map tiles. As there are slight differences in the appearances of the maps from different providers, you can set this to match your preferences :-)

The Map Type determines the type of map to be loaded. Here you can switch between regular street maps and maps compiled from satellite imagery. TIP: If you want to minimize network traffic, the street tiles are generally smaller (in terms of bytes) than the satellite tiles.

The Distance Unit setting determines whether distances on the map are shown in meters/kilometers or feet/miles. Of course, most sane people will want to keep their units metric, but those with that imperial twist can always choose otherwise ;-)

When checking the Local Tile Cache check-box, the NavXS Client will try to store the downloaded tiles locally in your telephone's file system. The next time a particular tile is needed, it will be restored from the file system, rather than being downloaded from the internet. When enabling this, make sure you have set the Tile Cache Root and Tile Cache Directory appropriately.

The Tile Cache Root specifies which partition in the file system to use.

The Tile Cache Directory (optional) specifies a subdirectory on the selected root, on the form "subdir1/subdir2/", in which the cached tiles shall be stored.

In addition to the Map Settings, the map can be controlled using the phones numeric keys:
Key Function
0 Toggles contact info (see Figures 18 and 20).
1 Zoom in. Indicator shows the zoom level and area covvered at this zoom level. Apply selected zoom level with 5 or Joystick Center.
2 Pan up.
3 Zoom out.
4 Pan left.
5 Apply zoom (in) and center map on pan position. New tiles loaded if needed
6 Pan right.
7 No function yet...
8 Pan down.
9 No function yet...
# Quick Settings (see below)
Joystick Up: Pan up.
Joystick Left: Pan left.
Joystick Down: Pan down.
Joystick Right: Pan right.
Joystick Center: Apply zoom (in) and center map on pan position.
C / Clear: Cancels the pan and zoom in. The map will return to its center position and the zoom level will not change.

The map Quick Settings can be activated by pressing the pound key (#). Here you can change the map provider, map type and select on which of your contacts (or yourself) the map shal auto-center, without having to open the map settings menu. The quick settings are a 2-level menu. On the first menu (Figure 20), press 0 to get to the menu where you can select the contact that shall be used as map center (Figure 21). Similarly, by pressing 1 or 2 while the first quick-settings menu is shown, you can select which map provider or map type to be activated.
Figure 15
Figure 15: The NavXS Digital Map.

Figure 16
Figure 16: The Map Settings Screen (1/2).

Figure 17
Figure 17: The Map Settings Screen (2/2).

Figure 18
Figure 18: Zooming and panning using the numeric keys.

Figure 19
Figure 19: Contact Info (e-mail).

Figure 20
Figure 20: Contact Info (Time of most recently known location).

Figure 21
Figure 21: Map Quick Settings.

Figure 22
Figure 22: Map Quick Settings: Auto center on contact
Latest News:

November 26 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.7 available

November 20 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.6 available

October 06th, 2006
The NavXS Blog is online!

September 27 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.5 available

September 24 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.4 available

September 20 2006
On November 28th 2006 we will present our project at the Heidelberger Innovation Forum. Investors wanted :-)

September 18 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.3 available

September 16 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.2 available

September 13 2006
Java Mobile clients v0.2.1 available