Panagiotis Koutsias' Blog

Blog moving to a better place!

2011-09-21T02:40:00.000+03:00

This is the end for this blog. I designed a better place for my blog at pkoutsias.com. Get over there, update your bookmarks and enjoy your stay!

Travel Pack v1.5 with Checklist

2011-09-11T17:08:00.000+03:00

Back from holidays, and I hope that you find my application useful! Back on topic, I have a new update for you with a new utility called "Checklist".

Yes, you guessed it right, version 1.5 of Travel Pack is out and Checklist is a things-to-do, pack-my-bag or whatever you want to call it checkbox list manager. You can have multiple lists with several checkboxes which are automatically saved on application exit.

There is a limit of 3 lists with 5 items each and some options limitation for trial users, but I think that you can easily evaluate the usefulness of this utility.

Here is a screenshot showing most of the features available:

I've already started developing version 1.6, so stay tuned for more changes and additions!

Travel Pack - Update

2011-07-25T00:31:00.003+03:00

After quite some time of inactivity, Travel Pack is updated to v1.4 which contains the tool "Flight Status"! Nothing funky here, just type your flight number and all available info will be displayed to you in a nice and comfortable way.
Status is fetched from Bing Search which fetches info from flightstats.com. Most recent searches will be shown automatically in the "Recent" page, where you can also manage them.

Here is a screenshot of a random flight:

Under the hood, I added an exception handling system which will let users choose if they want to report the exception to me, optimized some operations and integrated Flurry Analytics system.

That's all for now. I hope the next update with even more exciting features will be available soon!

Travel Pack updated to 1.2

2011-06-15T00:56:00.002+03:00

It's been some time since last update, but version 1.2 is ready and published to Marketplace. In this version there are some bugfixes, and some new features.

Unit Converter, Currency Converter & Translator now have a new page named Favorites in which you can find your previously added units, currencies and languages, respectively, for later use. As a legacy option, you can also set which values will be loaded on start-up for a ready-to-use experience. Unfortunately, this version is not backwards compatible with v1.1, so your settings will be lost on update. From now on, I will try to keep compatibility, or maybe try to port settings from older versions.

I'm already working on the next version for some minor bugs I didn't find and corrected in time, and I'm thinking of some new features. Finally, I hope you will enjoy this version, and don't forget to rate this app and give me feedback for next releases, because in the next version a new feature (or more than one) will be added!

New version for Travel Pack

2011-05-19T17:41:00.003+03:00

Version 1.1 of Travel Pack is submitted for certification on Windows Phone Marketplace. Hopefully, it will be available for download shortly!

This update includes:

Bugfixes in some utilities.
New one-page design for Weather and Nearby Places.
New features for Nearby Places: Now you can search for addresses, results have more information and you can call or visit their websites and route information is shown in a better, human-readable format.
Full support for Tombstoning, which means that application will be restored in it's state after losing focus (received calls, Windows button pressed, etc.)

Here are some screenshots:

I will start writing some new features soon, so stay tuned for more updates!

Total Rewrite + New Features = Travel Pack

2011-05-08T21:18:00.006+03:00

It's been a long time since I posted but I hope it's worthing it! I wrote Touch Utils from scratch with many visual changes, as long as new features, which is now available from Windows Phone 7 Marketplace! After some thought, I realized that this application would be much useful for frequent travellers, so I came out with the name Travel Pack. It costs $0.99 and has free unlimited trial with the basic functions so you can evaluate it before buying.

Below I'll try to summarize features alongside with screenshots:

Main Page

Simple Calculator
Just a simple calculator with memory, square root, exponentiation, percentage and other functions.

Unit Converter
High precision unit converter with 13 categories and more than 200 units to choose from which offers ability to set and load default units.

Currency Converter
Currency Converter has 34 Internet updated currencies from ECB, offering the ability to set and load default currencies.

Translator
Bing powered translator with 35 available languages and Text to Speech function.

Weather
MSN powered, location aware weather information with 5-day forecast and search function.

Nearby Places
Bing powered, map utility with search & route function and directions to easily find your destination.

Translator and Weather implemented

2011-04-04T19:47:00.004+03:00

This weekend I had some time available, so I implemented 2 more features in my Windows Phone 7 application. The translator uses Bing's translation service and supports 35 languages. Whene the translation completes, in some languages, user has the option to hear the translation with Microsoft's Text To Speech, making communication a lot easier. On the other hand, the Weather tool uses the phone's GPS device to find user's location and display weather information from the nearest weather station, provided by MSN's weather service. Also the user has the ability to query a custom search and choose the one he wants from the results. A 5-day forecast can be downloaded, too.

Currency Converter is ready too!

2011-03-31T22:34:00.002+03:00

Currency Converter has now finished development phase and is ready to be added to "Touch Utils" application which will, shortly, be available for download from Marketplace.

The only things left undone are new app's artwork and minor bug-fixes/interface changes.

Unit Conversion is almost ready!

2011-03-30T21:41:00.003+03:00

Ok, Unit Converter is ready with 13 categories and more than 200 units to choose from. Now I'm trying to find and fix any bugs, because some calculations require high precision. The new application wich will feature the Calculator and the Unit Converter will, possibly be named Touch Utils and will be shortly available from Windows Marketplace.

So, now, it's time to implement Currency Converter, and I have some interesting features in mind! Stay tuned!

Long time, no see

2011-03-22T18:20:00.007+02:00

It's been some time since I posted on the blog, but I was busy debugging Touch Calc and cleaning up part of the code.I also started programming Unit Converter which, most likely, will be implemented inside Touch Calc and not as a separate application. The interface is completed and aims to be as simple as Touch Calc's.

Probably, because of the merge between Touch Calc and Unit Converter, a new application with different name will be uploaded on Marketplace. I hope I will not need much time to complete the Converter, so I can continue with Scientific Calculator or Currency Converter.

Touch Calc v1.1 published in Marketplace

2011-03-13T01:02:00.005+02:00

Version 1.1 of Touch Calc is now published in Windows Marketplace. It is a bugfix -mostly- version which improves functionality of "+/-", "0" and "." buttons. Minor interface changes have been applied, too.

Touch Calc published in Marketplace

2011-03-12T10:21:00.003+02:00

My first Windows Phone 7 application finished testing phase successfully and is now published in Windows Phone Marketplace. Click here to visit Zune and download the application.

Version 1.1 with some bug-fixes is now in testing phase, awaiting approval.

Touch Calc for Windows Phone 7

2011-02-24T17:30:00.005+02:00

My first application for Windows Phone is ready! It is a simple touch calculator with basic functions including memory function, square root and percentages.

The application began as a learning project, but I wanted to take a step forward and provide it to end users, because I think it' s quite useful for everyday use.

I'm planning to implement scientific functions as well, so stay tuned!