[Windows Phone 7 General] SharpGIS:
And here's a short message from the developer...

I'm the developer of A-to-B and I really appreciate the feedback.

I would first of all like to say THANK YOU for the amazing feedback! But I also know it's not quite there yet.

First a bit of background to the app: I daily work as a lead developer on the ESRI ArcGIS API for Silverlight, WPF and WinPhone7, and I have used this app for both learning, testing and demo purposes. It's really there on the market place to promote this API as well as the ArcGIS Online services (and that's really why it says "for demo purposes only"). So first and foremost, it's a showcase application, and being such I really want to keep making this better and better - both with respect to user experience and performance, but also wrt all the stuff you dont see (ie code-design etc), and also to try and come up with new great ideas for it.

Here's a couple of questions for you guys:

Have you noticed that you can "tap" the two right-most squares (ie destination and eta squares), to flip it to show other information? Does this work for you? Is it too hidden (the first time you run it, a help screen hints at this feature).

I have the option of controlling a million settings on how the route is calculated. For intance avoid poor-condition roads, ignore not-a-through street restrictions, one-way restrictions, 4x4 only roads etc. Would you really need stuff like this? (my concern is that if used wrong you can really get yourself into some trouble).

(I can say that I already put in "Avoid Ferries" and "Avoid toll-roads" options for the next release).

Here's some answers to some of the questions:

To answer a general question: Support for something more than North America:

I'm working on this and do have most of Europe covered in my private build. This will support both address search and routing. I have no plans on supporting anywhere else at this point in time (mostly because I'm limited by the services I'm using - and no I can't use Bing or Google's services, because they don't allow this type of app to use them).

Aaron McCarthy wrote: "Although its clearly in the beta stage it is pretty good for a V 1.0."

Thanks! I'd love to hear what you want from the app, that will bring out if out of the beta experince felt you got.

Also regarding your issue with "No map data": This is because of the service it relies on. Unfortunately for whatever reason, high resolution tiles are not available for some areas. I'm working on getting them to add this (since they obviously have the data). For now I suggest zooming out a bit when you hit this issue.

jabtano wrote: "Morten you made one very nice app wit a few minor tweeks this thing will rock well done dir well worth the effort"

Thanks! Again, feel free to share what type of tweaks you want, and I'll see what I can do.

cnico88: "Which map is it actually using?"

It's using ArcGIS Online services, available here: services (dot) arcgisonline (dot) com (most other map services, including Bing and Google doesn't allow turn-by-turn apps to use their data).

ArcGIS Online actually JUST announced that you can use them freely for pretty much anything, and with a transaction limit thats so high, I don't see why I would want to hazzle with Bing and Google's restrictions and transaction limits.

The easiest way to consume these maps, is using one of the ESRI ArcGIS Client APIs. I used the ArcGIS API for Windows Phone 7, available for free download (links doesn't seem to work for me here, so google it). Most platforms are supported including silverlight, wpf, wp7, android, iOS, flex and javascript.

"Will it support pinch to zoom?"

Pinch and zoom is supported in the "view map" menu. The thought is that you shouldn't really be doing this when you're in driving mode, so I opted for quick access zoom in/out buttons there.

ycavan: Regarding problems with finding your home address: You can always go to the "View map" menu, find your home address on the map, touch'n'hold on the location, then click the little "Route" bubble that pops up. You then have the option of adding that location as a favorite and name it "Home", for easy use next time.

Regarding Voice navigation: If anyone knows of a free engine I can use, I'd love to hear about it. Until then, you'll just have to settle with the "Ding" when a turn is coming up.

Keep the feedback coming! And also: PLEASE enable the "Feedback" setting in the settings menu. I get very useful usage and error data from this (don't worry: There's no personal data, location or routes sent - only usage stats and error stacktraces). I'm planning on sharing and blogging about this little "tracking framework" I built as soon as I get the server backend stuff cleaned up.