Navionics and Android updates

[laika]

After an "over the air" upgrade to Android 4.4, Navionics stopped working on my phone. It dies after the "I accept" button on the "This program should not be used for navigation and we accept no responsibility for anything" screen. My phone is a nexus 4, not rooted, and the reference phone for recent Android development so along with my report to Navionics I also asked whether their app was known not to work on 4.4.
A week after reporting it a support person asked me for the information I had already supplied in my initial mail and which I resubmitted. They then informed me that the 3 year old product that I have is no longer supported and has been replaced with a new one which I must re-purchase. No acknowledgement of my question about 4.4 support.

Do I expect infinite updates? No. That would be unreasonable. Although their product FAQ does explicitly state:

Q: What about updates?
A. Navionics Mobile software applications are frequently updated to provide even greater features and functionality. When a new update is available, it overrides the previous version in the Android Market and users are notified that an update is available for download. Navionics Mobile updates are currently FREE.

No mention anywhere of limits on support life.

Navionics's argument though is that despite their current app being called the same thing (UK and Holland) and covering the same area it's actually a different app, so I have to re-purchase.

I don't use the phone app for navigation but I do use it for approximate tide times (when not near boat and almanac) and fantasy trip planning while on public transport.

Just something to bear in mind if considering updating your phone's OS and you rely on it as a backup nav device. Navionics aside, my phone is much smoother and apparently faster with 4.4 than 4.3.

 

[captainhaddock]

I ran into this problem with Navionics a few months ago. Fortunately, it is possible to obtain a full refund for the app through Google play store. Everyone should do this to discourage Navionics from treating their customers in such a cavalier fashion, in future.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Odd. My phone and tablet both have the latest Android system update 4.2.2 and the latest navionics update to the product bought 2 years ago and in both cases the navionics works fine as of right now. Could it be that you were using to old non HD version of navionics - the original one? And using it on an HD phone?

 

[LadyInBed]

"I don't use the phone app for navigation but I do use it for approximate tide times (when not near boat and almanac) and fantasy trip planning while on public transport."
Slightly off topic but if that is all you want, the android apps FR Tides & UK Tides will more than fit the bill.
The tides are accurate, presentation good and the developer is efficient - I pointed out a problem with Poole double highs and it was fixed in three days.

 

[markdj]

Happened to me about a year or more ago when they released a new version, expected everyone to upgrade. The fact the old one doesn't work and the new one is virtually identical doesn't help either. And they haven't added navigation or editing waypoints, I moved to MX Mariner.

 

[laika]

"I don't use the phone app for navigation but I do use it for approximate tide times (when not near boat and almanac) and fantasy trip planning while on public transport."
Slightly off topic but if that is all you want, the android apps FR Tides & UK Tides will more than fit the bill.
The tides are accurate, presentation good and the developer is efficient - I pointed out a problem with Poole double highs and it was fixed in three days.

Misses out the part about planning of next year's trips whilst on the tube, but I'll check it out, thanks

Odd. My phone and tablet both have the latest Android system update 4.2.2 and the latest navionics update to the product bought 2 years ago and in both cases the navionics works fine as of right now. Could it be that you were using to old non HD version of navionics - the original one? And using it on an HD phone?

Phone is non-HD, as is the app. 4.2.2 may be the latest android available from the manufacturer of your tablet but current for recent "pure" google products (including my last-generation googlephone) is 4.4. Navionics was working fine on 4.3 but stopped after the upgrade to 4.4. This was intended as a heads up to anyone upgrading from 4.3 to 4.4 (but on re-reading comes across as a whinge which wasn't really my intention).

If iNavX was available for Android I'd have a go at that next time

 

[ianfr]

On my Nexus 4 the Navionics app stopped working after the update to Android 4.4.

A couple of days after an update was applied automatically from play store. It has been fine since.

I also have the Plan2Nav app which came out after the Navionics, as I have CMap in my plotter.

This continued working after the 4.4 update but broke when 4.4.2 arrived.
Jeppesen tech support answered my query promptly, but the issue was actually the Anti Virus software installed.

After replacing the AV and reinstalling Plan2Nav everything is working fine.

Sometimes, as in the case with Plan2Nav, it is not the application at fault.

Regards

Ian

 

[Contest1]

I have the old non hd app on my Nokia fone and a clone version on my Samsung tablet and used both for basic nav.
When the fhone app stopped working year before last I got advise on the forum to delete the chart folder.
Tried this twice since and a new chart folder reloads.
Might be worth a try.
Mines still working.

 

[laika]

My navionics still doesn't work with 4.2.2 but despite the tardiness of the initial response, Navionics have (I think) very politely clarified the position. As I understand it they replaced their old apps with new ones which seem to have the same name 2 years ago. I had thought maybe this was a regular occurrence to force you to re-purchase (despite the FAQ saying updates were free and no mention of a time limit) but apparently it was a one-off major re-design which has been receiving free updates since release. Assuming this is the case I'll probably re-purchase given the lack of (to my knowledge) a better product for android

 

[laika]

As I understand it they replaced their old apps with new ones which seem to have the same name 2 years ago. I had thought maybe this was a regular occurrence to force you to re-purchase (despite the FAQ saying updates were free and no mention of a time limit) but apparently it was a one-off major re-design which has been receiving free updates since release. Assuming this is the case I'll probably re-purchase given the lack of (to my knowledge) a better product for android

Perhaps I spoke too soon. I note that the existing UK&Holland is still available but found out at the boat show that they're replacing it with a new thing: free app which you then make in-app chart purchases from. I was going to install it today to see how the chart costs compared with the old app but "Navionics Boating" seems to want permission to make phone calls, which I don't like the sound of...

 

[2nd_apprentice]

"I don't use the phone app for navigation but I do use it for approximate tide times (when not near boat and almanac) and fantasy trip planning while on public transport."
Slightly off topic but if that is all you want, the android apps FR Tides & UK Tides will more than fit the bill.
The tides are accurate, presentation good and the developer is efficient - I pointed out a problem with Poole double highs and it was fixed in three days.

Doesn't do tidal streams though

 

[laika]

I was going to install it today to see how the chart costs compared with the old app but "Navionics Boating" seems to want permission to make phone calls, which I don't like the sound of...

Navionics support are slow but they do seem to respond eventually (after a couple of weeks I'd given up). For anyone interested, the "Control Phone" permissions required by the app for installation on android is down to a feature of "Navionics Boating" which allows it to call marinas for you. The security paranoid amongst us will be concerned that a compromise of the app would allow a malicious attacker to be dialling numbers we don't want dialled but arguably "Navionics Boating" isn't going to be up there with prime attack vectors of interest to the black hat community.

In the wake of subtly changing to a "new" app every couple of years, I wouldn't be overly optimistic about the duration of free updates for Navionics but I'm guessing that given the price compared with paper charts it'll still be appealing to many.

 

[kitkat_navi]

Since this thread is one of the first results google finds when looking for a fix for the older Navionics app crashing on Android KitKat and newer firmware, I'm posting my findings here.

The cause for the crash is the fact that Google deprecated the ARGB_4444 bitmap configuration that is used by the Navionics app and with KitKat and later the app actually receives an ARGB_8888 bitmap. (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Bitmap.Config.html)

Navionics could easily fix the crash, but why should they support paying customers, when they can force those customers to pay for the same thing again.

These are the steps needed to create a fixed APK of the old Navionics app:

1. You need to get the old crashing APK from somewhere. A rooted device with the app installed is probably the easiest way.
2. Download APK Studio (https://apkstudio.codeplex.com)
3. Decompile the APK into an editable project
4. Find the file that uses an ARGB_4444 bitmap (smali/it/navionics/map/NMapView.smali)
5. Replace ARGB_4444 with RGB_565
6. Recompile the project into a new APK

You should now have a fixed version of the Navionics app.

This fix does have the side effect of messing with the colors of the map, but I can live with pink land Fixing the colours would require someone writing a block of Smali-code for converting each pixel of the image, but in my opinion this would be a waste of both CPU-time and battery on the device. Navionics of course could fix this properly since they have the source code for whatever native(?) implementation it is that creates the pixels in the first place.

My Navionics app is called "Baltic Sea" and the package name is "it.navionics.scandinaviaE". I'm pretty sure the other geographical areas use the same app and only the name and package change.