Short entry to inform everyone that we’ve just updated our iPhone app. There was this nasty bug in the logout sequence that made the application crash. No longer.

What’s more important to most users, the infopoint icons load faster now! So we recommend everyone to update it.

What’s New In Version 1.0.4

- General speed improvements in loading infopoint information
- “Logout” button bug fixed (application no longer crashes at user logout)
- Minor bug fixes

José Azevedo (the man who built the reputation for this place) was christened “Peter” by a British officer on board the H.M.S. “Lusitania II” in the early 1940s, because he thought José ressembled his son. It was later that José –now Peter– went on to join his father at the Café Sport, as the passage of ships bringing troops to Europe meant a lot more work and required his permanent presence there.

The rest, as they say, is history.

You can read the full story in this interesting article on their own website.

And here is the infopoint on BlooSee: http://bloosee.com/r/iyyX6H

Another great sea tradition in the area are the painting of the yachts crossing the Atlantic. It is considered bad luck to leave Horta without first painting the name of your boat on the wall and better luck to paint a fancy mural, so the place is now blooming with multi-colored names and paintings.

Here’s the infopoint where you can read all about it: http://bloosee.com/r/i34p5SE

Challenger Deep (Mariana Trench): http://bloosee.com/r/iddXsU

HMRG Deep (Mariana Trench): http://bloosee.com/r/iSzqEL

Some information from Wikipedia:

“The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s oceans, and the lowest elevation of the surface of the Earth’s crust. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands. The trench is about 2,550 kilometres (1,580 mi) long but has a mean width of only 69 kilometres (43 mi). It reaches a maximum-known depth of about 10,916 metres (35,814 ft) at the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in its floor, at its southern end.

(…)

At the bottom of the trench, where the plates meet, the water column above exerts a pressure of 108.6 megapascals (15,750 psi), over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level. If Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft), were set in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, there would be 2,076 metres (6,811 ft) of water left above it.

Because the Earth is not a perfect sphere, the trench is not the part of the seafloor closest to the center of the Earth – parts of the Arctic Ocean seabed are at least 13,000 metres closer to the center than the Challenger Deep seafloor.”

You can read the full article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Trench

And you can also find a bunch of interesting videos on the subject on YouTube (just make sure not to get confused with the Canadian pop-punk band called “Marianas Trench” :-):
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mariana+trench

To participate, sailors need to simply go sailing on the weekend of June 19th and:

• Sign up at http://www.summersailstice.com
• Join the Summer Sailstice BlooSee group at http://www.bloosee.com/groups/summer-sailstice/
• On BlooSee, tag the marina, Yacht club, anchorage or other infopoint you’ll be sailing out of with the word “sailstice” (edit the infopoint, or create it, and add the word “sailstice” to the tag field)

We would like to encourage you to post your sailing plans, invite others, or see what other sailors are doing in your area.

By signing up at http://www.summersailstice.com you’re also eligible to win prizes donated by The Moorings, Hunter Marine, West Marine, Hobie, Offshore Saiing, Woodenboat and many of your favorite marine businesses. Prizes include a free one-week BVI charter with the Moorings, a Hobie Kayak and over 400 other prizes.

Please join us on the Summer Sailstice, and invite others to participate as well!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloosee/id369962991?mt=8

On this 1.0 version you have the ability to see the same up-to-date infopoints that are on the website, all over the world. A button will center the map at your exact location, provided by the device built-in GPS.

You can filter what layers of infopoints you want to display, and whether the results are to be shown on the map or as a list. Then you can get a detail view of each infopoint to access the full description and the related photos. You can mark the places that you’ve been to and those that you like, directly from the application, and the results will be synced to the website.

Of course we’ll keep working on the application to include other features like a specially tailored dashboard, the ability to create infopoints, and more social features to relate to other users on the network.

Remember that our infopoints are also available as an augmented reality layer using the Layar application (http://www.layar.com) both on Android and iPhone, so you get a lot of ways of accessing BlooSee when at sea from your mobile device!

Sharing

You’ll notice the new Twitter and Facebook buttons for the infopoints, both on the map info balloon (under the “Share” drop down) and on the detail view. These, together with the “Share URL” will allow you to share information found on BlooSee on other platforms, send it by email, or use it on blogs or personal pages. Each infopoint has a unique URL you can now easily get, to link to it from any other site. So if if you want others to know about your favorite anchorage, a great diving spot, or a fun bar by the ocean, you have the tools to do it easily now. They’ll be directed to the global chart, and the data for the infopoint will pop up.

Been there, liked that

Another great thing we’ve included lately is the ability to check those places you’ve been to, and those that you like. At the click of a button you can easily create your own list of visited places, which will be added to your user profile so that others know. And the like button will let you mark those particular places you prefer (even if you’ve never been there but dream to!).

We’ll soon update the notifications system so that you know when others “like” the infopoints you’ve created, and we’ll re-do the user detail pages so that the displayed information shows all that in a clearer way. We’re working on it.

And we’re working on a few more exciting things, but we’ll let you know about those on our next update.

You may have noticed some changes on the system, as we’ve updated it to improve useability.

Better groups

First thing you’ll see is that we’ve split the former “Community” area into two new tabs: “Friends” and “Groups”. The latter has seen major changes: you now have the ability to create private groups, you can search groups by different criteria and, in general, we’ve improved all that has to do with groups and discussions so you can use them to build your own sea-loving community within BlooSee.

The “Friends” tab will be improved as well, with the ability to search for people you might know, using different criteria.

Improved dashboard

You’ll also notice that the dashboard shows now global statistics on infopoints and routes (we’ve gone beyond the 2,000 infopoints mark now!), as well as those created by you and your circle of friends. And for those, it will allow you to keep track of who is more active in terms of infopoint and route creation, uploading of pictures, etc.

General improvements

Changes don’t end here, as we’ve tweaked and optimized different minor aspects as well. On the “Explore” tab, for example, the taxonomy has been slightly refined once more. Call us perfectionists, but we want to make sure that users have the most comprehensive, logical, and clear way of adding geolocated information to the global chart.

BlooSee on your mobile device

We’re also happy to anounce that it is now possible to access the BlooSee geolocated information on an augmented reality application, Layar. For those of you who have an Android-based mobile phone or an iPhone, you can get the Layar application for free [edit: the Layar application cannot temporarily be found on the iPhone App Store for technical reasons, it should be available soon, but please note this is beyond our control]. Once you have it installed, simply search for BlooSee within the application. You’ll be able to access all of our infopoints, with their information overlaid on the real images from your phone. It’s pretty neat!

And, in case you were wondering, our very own iPhone application is in the works. We don’t want to disclose dates for things yet unfinished, but soon you’ll be able to download the first version of the iPhone app, with the ability to access the same map you see now on you web browser. And an Android version will follow.

Changes include:

• Improved the infopoint balloon: buttons are clearer, and contact info (tel., website, etc.) appear right under the description, so there’s no need to go to the full details to see them. Major improvement.
• Added a few categories under “Commercial services”: “Mechanical/Electrical services”, “Clothing and apparel”, and “Other services”.
• Improved the groups section. Still lots of work to do with Groups, but at least they are clearer/nicer now.
• Corrected minor bugs and improved a few other things.

Changes include:

• Extended data panel for infopoints automatically opens when adding/editing infopoints. Also, more types of infopoints have extended fields than before.
• Photo albums have a clearer navigation, where you first see all pictures as thumbnails, and then choose which one you want to start with.
• Message when accepting friends invitations has been corrected, with no overlapping of buttons over text — it will, however, be improved in the future.
• Much better search results, organized by type.
• A meaningful “404 page not found” message — it was a shame to have kept the old one for so long (ouch!).
• Long user names appear now correctly on Dashboard.
• Improvements on the comments interface.
• Other minor miscellaneous corrections.

And we’ll keep improving… but you knew that already!

The addition of a couple of types under Facilities (namely Yacht club, and Sailing school) is something we should have done a while ago, and some users were asking for them. So here they are.

But we’ve also re-thought the placement of certain types and put them under different categories than they were originaly. We believe it makes much more sense like this.

New set of infopoint categories

Finally, we’re very happy to have a couple of new and important categories: Art and history, and Ocean conservation. Hey, this is when we can actually say our system is for sea-lovers! Even though we know many users will want to use our system to exchange critical data (facilities, aids to navigation, dangers…) or practical information (services, hotels and restaurants, shops…), true sea-lovers will appreciate those two layers to learn about nautical traditions and history, as well as get conservation related info.

Humankind has been tied to the ocean since the origin of history, and the seas of the world have been the backdrop to adventures, explorations, battles, but also fears and hopes throughout the centuries. Isn’t it cool to be able to mark those places where special events took place, or where traditions and legends originated? (I, for one, have already started: http://www.bloosee.com/r/i3eySCy)

And regarding our ocean conservation layer, we’ve said many times the ocean is not a mere highway for our boats: it is a living entity that we need to protect as much as we enjoy. So on BlooSee, users will be able to publish particular spots to see certain types of species (whales, sharks, seals, seabirds…), but also mark areas needing special protection, tag spots with a pollution concentration level higher than normal, etc. From BlooSee we want to contribute as much as we can to having a “green approach to the blue world”, and this new layer is only the beginning.

All in all, we hope you’ll like our new layer set!