Statistics and Databases 101

For those of us that continue to log our dives, one of the incentives and great rewards is to sit back and look at the results "in toto". It feels enormously satisfying being able to see all the total's of all our diving accomplishments in one place. So imagine looking at your total dive time on the statistics page of Dive Log on iPhone and seeing a smaller number than you expect. It's like getting "gypped" out of an experience.

Never fear, you didn't get gypped, it's all about notation. The time is expressed in days:hours:minutes. If you see 18:06:34 as your total dive time, this is not 18 hours, this is 18 days, 6 hours, and 34 mintues. Many people spend *a lot* of time underwater and so if we presented the time in hours, minutes and seconds, the hours number gets so large that it's impact is really lost. It makes more sense to display it in days first.

There is another implementation related issue in the Statistics section when you want to look at all the dives you've made in a particular place. In database parlance, a logbook entry can be a regular field, or it can be a pointer to another database that contains all the information about that field. So when you enter information into your log about Dive Site, City, and Country, Dive Log on iPhone will automatically enter the information into the Dive Site database, the City database, and the Country database and "point" to that information in your log. In the Windows desktop software, Diving Log 4.0, you have the option of entering this information in a linked/pointing way, or as a regular field on it's own. If you do the latter, it will *not* show up as a destination in your Statistics on the iPhone. If you are interested in your own Stats, always use the linking option in the desktop software. Why do we do it this way you ask? Simply speaking, performance. Using the built in database features allows your iPhone (remember, it *is* a phone not a desktop computer) to be much faster in answering your important Statistics questions.

So if you enter your Dive Site, City, Country information directly into your iPhone and then sync this information to your log on the desktop, you'll know exactly how many times you dove everywhere!

New App finally approved - Name My Tune!

It's only been 15 days, but it seems like forever.

Our new application is a departure from the scuba realm - it's a music quiz game called "Name My Tune". Just like the TV show of old, listen to a small part of a song and try to guess the song name. Great fun and an easy way to get the know the music on your iPod or iPhone. Put the song on speaker and play with anyone around you, or just take a moment and play against yourself for a little break from the day.

Here it is:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=323409488&mt=8

Our website has more information but, as always, feel free to contact us if you have any problems or questions.

Dive Log just updated on the iPhone App Store

Dive Log 1.1.2 was just published on the iPhone App Store. This version adds support for plotting a graph of the temperature during your dive. The temperature graph is displayed below the depth profile when temperature profile data is available. You can see a screenshot that includes the temperature graph here.

The temperature graph will only be displayed if your dive computer captures temperature data during the dive and that information is synchronized to Dive Log on iPhone by your desktop dive log application. On Windows PCs, Diving Log 4.0 will import temperature data from most computers and will synchronize that data with Dive Log on iPhone. On the Mac, both MacDive and Mac DiveLog will import temperature data from the dive computers that they support. In order to synchronize that information to Dive Log on iPhone you'll need to use the native import ability of Dive Log Manager 1.1 (or later). The UDCF format does not have any provision for temperature data so dives transfered using UDCF will not display the temperature graph.

Dive Log 1.1.2 also contains a number of small bug fixes. An issues was addressed that was seen by a very small number of users that had a particular combination of localization settings on their iPhone or iPod touch that caused problems when synchronizing with Diving Log 4.0. Another issue with parsing certain "Buddy lists" that were imported from desktop applications that could cause a crash (if the Buddy List on the desktop had an extra separator character like two commas in a row) has been fixed.

This update is recommended for all users. You should receive the update for free via the App Store on your device or iTunes. You can also get the update directly from iTunes here.

Dive Log Manager 1.1.1 is now available

Dive Log Manager 1.1.1 for MacOS 10.5 and above was just posted. This version has some minor corrections and improvements in the MacDive 1.5.1 native importer.

Since version 1.1 of Dive Log Manager there is an improved interface for importing data from UDCF files as well as the addition of native importers for MacDive 1.5.1 and Mac DiveLog 1.3.2 files. You can now select specific dives to import from the source file and add or merge those dives with your existing Dive Log on iPhone logbook. The addition of the native importers allows for much better data fidelity than is possible with the more limited UDCF format.