Diving Log 5.0 for Windows Released

Diving Log 5.0 for Windows emerged from it's beta test cycle yesterday ready for general use. This is the eagerly anticipated successor to Diving Log 4.0. As with the previous version, Diving Log 5.0 offers full bi-directional synchronization capabilities with Dive Log on iPhone. You can download Diving Log 5.0 from here. There are also links to resources on the download page to provide additional information about upgrading from Diving Log 4.0 and details about the new features of Diving Log 5.0.

Dive Log on iPhone and Diving Log 5.0 were designed to work together. The current version of Dive Log on iPhone will continue to work with this release of Diving Log. All the data entered on the iPhone or on the desktop are synced between the two applications so that no data is sacrificed no matter where you edit your logbook. This release of Diving Log 5.0 makes it even easier to interact with data captured on your iPhone. For example, images that were captured on the iPhone and associated with a Dive Site or Country could not be viewed on the desktop in Diving Log 4.0. However, with Diving Log 5.0 you will be able to see those images on both platforms. Diving Log 5.0 now offers the capability of customizing your on-screen logbook layout. This enables you to make the signature field (that you can capture on the iPhone) front and center in your desktop logbook display (see this post for details).

Another great feature that Diving Log 5.0 enables is importing dive computer data into existing dives (check out the details here). Now you can capture your dive details (site name, GPS location, weather conditions, gear, etc.) at the dive site on your iPhone using Dive Log and later "merge" those details with the data captured on your dive computer during the dive when you get back to your desktop computer. You'll now have a complete record of your dive without having to try to remember how much weight you used or who the dive master was days after the fact.

Diving Log 5.0 runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. You can also run Diving Log 5.0 in Boot Camp or via virtualization (ex. VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop) on your Mac. I personally run Diving Log 5.0 using Windows 7 and VMWare Fusion 4 on my MacBook Pro. You can read about my experiences with this set up (using earlier version of VMWare and Diving Log 5.0) here.

Diving Log 5.0 was the result of a complete rewrite of Diving Log 4.0 using the latest development tools. We'll look forward to seeing all the great new features that this new platform enables for Diving Log 5.0. Congratulations on a job well done!