Nature Notes Hack 5.2

Screenshots

Description

NatureNotes allows you to record and share notes, photos, and audio recordings on any walk, tour, hike, or just a stroll around your neighborhood. If you are a serious photographer, advanced tools allow you to load pictures from another camera into the walk record. There are several options for sharing walks with friends or other NatureNotes users, including email, Web page creation, or sending a NatureNotes file to another user.

Easy sharing:

Take photos, save notes, and record audio on your Apple iPhone or iPad. The app offers powerful editing features to create a slideshow or Web folder that you can email to your friends or upload to a server.

Interactive maps:

Apple maps embedded in NatureNotes shows where you are at all times, as well as where you've been on your hike. Satellite view can show you the terrain with a data connection. If you repeat a hike you've taken before, you can use the interactive map to see where you are relative to your last hike.

Organization:

Divide your trip into multiple hikes, then put them under a single header. Use powerful header features to combine the subsumed hikes into a single slideshow, email, or web folder for sharing.

Creating multiple databases offers a system for organizing larger groups of walk records. Records can be copied directly to other databases for easy sorting and reorganization.

Photo merging:

Take photos with another camera and merge them directly into your NatureNotes recordings. A smart system using dates and timestamps places photos into their correct positions within previously-recorded records.

Even without a recorded hike, create a new record from a set of location-encoded photographs, and see exactly where you took the photos, using the embedded Apple Maps features. If the photos contain captions from another photo-editing program, the captions will be copied into NatureNotes titles for immediate labelling within NatureNotes. All slideshow features and email or Web sharing features can then be used with the new records.

Create a kml file for viewing the track in another tracking application, or a gpx file for loading a track with GPS data into photo editing applications.

GPS tracking:

NatureNotes provides detailed tracking data for your walks, regardless of whether you are in cellular range or not. Tracks can be exported as KML or GPX files for use in other applications.

Duplication and backups:

Take a complete set of records and copy them to another device, with a cable and computer, regardless of record sizes. In this way complete records can be shared or backed-up without loss of information or photographic resolution.

Version history

5.2

2023-07-17

Fixed an issue that caused a crash if an image folder was imported into an empty database.
Fixed an issue that caused a crash if an image had a caption or name shorter than four characters.

5.1

2023-06-21

The bird list was upgraded to version 13.1 (2023). Several interface improvements and bug fixes. If menus are open on a walk page, the menus now remain visible and operational when the device is rotated. The bird-relevant setting now works properly: The bird list and additional info buttons are hidden when this feature is turned off.

5.0

2023-05-21

Redesigned exported Web page with an optional interactive map showing the recorded track and locations of observations and images. PNG images can now be imported. Audio is now exported as MPEG for better compatibility with Web browsers. Various interface improvements and upgrades.

4.32

2023-04-04

Accessing the new photo import routine no longer freezes the app when backing up to a prior screen. Photos imported manually into new walk records are now working correctly. Other minor bug fixes.

4.31

2023-03-31

The new photo import routine now places the records in a correct chronological order. The number of imported images per walk record is now reported correctly. Image sequence counters were broken in the last version; this has been fixed.

4.3

2023-03-26

Slideshow operation has been improved. Importing photos from another camera into existing walk records has been rewritten. Additional bug fixes and stability improvements.

4.2

2023-02-22

Saving an edited field with prior values could cause instability and possibly a crash; this has been fised. Minor bug fixes.

4.1

2023-01-07

Map-generating algorithms were rewritten for increased efficiency and consistency.
Several bug fixes and interface improvements.

4.0

2022-10-12

The camera interface now uses the Apple designed camera, which provides standard controls for wide angle and zoom lenses. Minor bug fixes and interface improvements.

3.95

2022-09-25

Fixes an issue that prevented the image display submenu from working correctly.

3.94

2022-07-17

GPS coordinates are now saved with greater precision. Adjusted saving/cancelling operations for all screens with text views so that warnings are now posted if the user tries to cancel without having saved. The cancel and save menu items are also synchronized with whether the fields have changed from their original values either after entering the window or after the latest save. The fixGps screen has been improved so that new GPS coordinates can be more easily entered. Pressing the GPS coordinate field now copies the latitude & longitude to the clipboard. Miscellaneous interface improvements.

3.93

2022-03-18

Displaying a map now uses coordinates taken every minute instead of more frequent intervals to reduce computation
time.
Cancel buttons were added to functions that could take a significant period of time.
Set the creation date of exported files to match the original creation date of the corresponding records.
Added options to split or combine entire walk records.
Miscellaneous bug fixes.
The summary map function has been fixed. Interactive mapes were still available, but a static image containing the path and any annotations was not generated.
The sample walk record had become corrupted. This has been fixed.
Miscellaneous bug fixes and interface improvements.

3.92

2021-12-22

Copying, importing, and duplicating records, as well as producing web pages, could result in errors if text fields contained apostrophes. This has been fixed.
An issue with producing web pages from slideshow-only that could result in unacceptably long image processing times has been fixed.

3.91

2021-10-06

Various bug fixes and interface improvements. Both title and caption are now read while importing photos. Camera orientation starts with the back camera; its position is then retained unless it's manually changed. Imporing photos and audio files now uses GPS timestamps instead of observation record timestamps, as GPS data represent more accurately the full duration of the walk. An imported photo or audio can now be moved to either a different walk record or a new record, from its initial assignment.

3.9

2021-08-25

A database issue preventing some upgrades has been fixed. Minor formatting improvements.

3.8

2021-08-11

GPX files exported from a track now contain times formatted as UTC strings, for better compatibility with other applications.

3.7

2021-07-18

Processing emails and web pages will no longer crash if GPS data are requested and an image does not
contain GPS data.
Web page processing has been improved by processing titles and subtitles under an image as text,
instead of incorporating them into the image itself (the latter is the default method for email presentation).
Importing a walk now moves the new walk to the top of the walk list, instead of the position immediately
prior to the first header record.

3.6

2021-07-14

A problem with database processing blocked GPS data from being copied if walks were duplicated. This has been fixed.
Added an option to move all records from one walk record to another walk record with the same timestamp.

3.5

2021-07-11

Creating a summary map from a header record with no annotations was not working; this has been fixed.
Creating a walk map from an observation list now applies a title to the new record.

3.4

2021-07-01

A .gpx track file can now be produced under Track Options.

3.3

2021-06-27

Tracks were not being displayed correctly due to an adjustment in processing of track data. This has been fixed.
A new track editing screen has been added to a renamed "Track options" button. The editing screen can be used to remove GPS points that have errors or go beyond the limits of the actual walk record.

3.2

2021-06-18

Images imported into NatureNotes are now tagged internally as such, and can be resized (i.e., made smaller) or deleted as a group. These functions are available in both walk and header record options (left swipe, then select More...

This version incorporates numerous bug fixes and efficiency improvements. Much of the coding has been upgraded for iOS 13.

3.1

2021-04-15

Several bug fixes, stability and interface improvements:

The Plus sign button now adds either a new header or a new walk record. There are no longer separate buttos for
adding headers and walk records.

More efficient memory processing now allows large image folders to be imported without
crashing the app.

Exported web folder files are now given meaningful walk names based on the walk record title instead of just 'webFolder.zip.' Exported web folders can now be deleted in the Import/Export file management option of the main menu.

Gps/location titles are no longer duplicated under images if titles are requested as separate slides.

Image filenames exported into a web folder are now uniquely assigned based on an 8-digit walk ID. This allows
images to be imported into other applications without likely filename conflicts.

Several issues with duplicating, importing, and exporting walk records have been fixed.

3.0

2021-03-12

A database upgrade makes image data processing more efficient. Location informatiion is now accessed and downloaded from an Apple geocoder server, using saved GPS coordinates. A database 'rebuild' option is available for paid users to compress their database files. Interface and stability improvenemts.

2.19

2021-01-13

Emailing a walk may have resulted in a Web folder instead of a normal email with photos attached. This has been fixed.