[serbanescu]

App Name: Helios

Explore the Sun with Helios, an unofficial client for Helioviewer Project. Helioviewer.org is an open-source project for the visualization of solar and heliospheric data which is funded by ESA and NASA.

Discover the latest solar events by accessing up-to-date high definition pictures taken by the best solar observatories.

Create your own videos of the most spectacular phenomena created by the Sun.

Collect the best images and videos in your Helios gallery and share your discoveries.

Download images from 35 solar image sources

The app provides easy access to up-to-date and archived image data offered by Helioviewer.org servers.

Several of these sources are offering up-to-date images, taken daily or multiple times per day.

All of the sources are also providing archived images going back several years.

Create movies with Helios

You may request the Helioviewer.org server to process a short movie of the Sun evolution over a set interval of up to 30 days.

After the movie processing is completed, it will be downloaded on your device.

Save and share the best images and movies

You can save the images and movies in the app gallery for later viewing and sharing (they can also be accessed by other programs).

The gallery can be kept on the SD Card.

IMPORTANT:

The app does not collect any info from the device and has no impact on privacy. Internet access permission is only used for downloading files from Helioviewer.org

The images are provided by the Helioviewer.org server in the highly compressed JPEG 2000 format. It takes several seconds to decode them before displaying.

The movies are not kept on the Helioviewer.org server as ready-made files - they are created upon request. That means that you will have to wait until the movie will be processed and downloaded. If there are other requests waiting to be processed, your own request will be placed in a waiting queue. Because of this, your movie requests will be executed in an interval varying from 2 minutes to half an hour or more.

Please note that Helios is just a client app and its performance depends on the behavior and performance of the Helioviewer.org servers.

Link to BlackBerry World Listing: https://appworld.blackberry.com/webs...tent/59943892/

Price: $0.99

Available for Z10, Z30, Z3 devices

We will be glad to answer your questions in this thread.
You may ask them also at [email protected]

[serbanescu]

See some screenshots and sample videos:

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[serbanescu]

Sample videos created using Helios, showing Sun evolution during last week:

[serbanescu]

We have put some work into this app, it would be great to have some feedback from CrackBerry members

[FF22]

Good luck with the app. Seems to have some really nice visual elements.

[serbanescu]

Good luck with the app. Seems to have some really nice visual elements.

Thank you!

The images that can be accessed and the videos that can be created are indeed spectacular. And the best part is that you can get both up-to-date and archived images - so one can see current events as well as explore past ones.

[smart548]

That is an android port and not available for Q Bad news for me..

[serbanescu]

That is an android port and not available for Q Bad news for me..

I am sorry we could not make it available for the Q10 & Q5 devices - the explanation being that Q10 & Q5 seem not to have enough video memory. We are still trying to find a solution for this problem.

As for the Android port part: we started the project as a native one, but after some work on the interface and network transactions modules, we ran into troubles with finding a native decoder for the image files. Helioviewer servers provide JPEG 2000 files - a format which allows for a high compression of large image files (many of the solar images have a resolution of 4096 x 4096 pixels). JPEG 2000 is not a popular format - your default PC or smarphone apps won't read it, it is not embedded into the OS like more popular ones - like BMP, JPEG or PNG are.

Developing an image file decoder from scratch is very time consuming and not economically viable for an unpopular format. So our solution to this problem was to use a Java decoder for JPEG 2000 files and that meant porting the app to Android. We kept the BB10 interface language so the user can navigate the app like a native one - without the need of the bottom bar. We tested it against BB10 devices to ensure 100% compatibility. To be honest, I think we did a great job in this respect

[serbanescu]

One more thing: the app allows the user access to original JPEG 2000 files (you have to activate this option in Settings). If someone is really passionate about original solar images, he/she can transfer them on a PC and study them on a large screen - which is great for 4096 x 4096 images.

In order to access the original files, go to Settings > Cache management (the "Settings" section of the app) and change the setting to "Clear cache manually". In this way you will prevent the "Helios / Temp" folder from being emptied every time you close the app - so all the original JPEG 2000 files can be found there. You may find "Helios / Temp" folder in the "Downloads" folder of your device.

[damienR]

Very Nice

Z30 Beast on Roids....

[serbanescu]

Very Nice

Z30 Beast on Roids....

Thank you!

[smart548]

I get what you say about the jpeg2000 'compressor', but I really cannot understand what is the problem (except for screen ratio) with the Q5 and Q10. The Q10 mount the same GPU as the Z10,while the Q5 one is even newer..Anyway: thanks for replying and good luck with your app

[serbanescu]

I get what you say about the jpeg2000 'compressor', but I really cannot understand what is the problem (except for screen ratio) with the Q5 and Q10. The Q10 mount the same GPU as the Z10,while the Q5 one is even newer.

We thought the same but the Q devices behaved otherwise during testing. I don't know why the OS cannot allocate the same maximum memory for image files on the Q devices like it does on the Z devices - maybe they limited it on purpose on the assumption that no one will use the Q devices to display 4096 x 4096 images

We are still trying to figure out a solution for this problem.

Anyway: thanks for replying and good luck with your app

Thank you!

[MrDoreth]

Woow Looks nice. Too bad that I can't purchrase it right.now will do it after my PayPal works

Posted with my awesome Z10

[serbanescu]

Woow Looks nice. Too bad that I can't purchrase it right.now will do it after my PayPal works

Posted with my awesome Z10

If you have problems using PayPal for buying apps from BlackBerry World, here it is what worked in my case:

FIRST STEP - On your PC

1. Log into your PayPal account
2. Make sure you have a valid credit card (or debit card) associated with your PayPal account


SECOND STEP - On your PC

1. Log into BlackBerry World on your PC
2. Select "Payment Options"
3. Choose "Modify" in the "Current Payment Option Selected" tab
4. Click on the "Pay with PayPal" button
5. Log into your PayPal account
6. Click on the "Approve" button at the bottom of the page


THIRD STEP - On your phone

1. In BlackBerry World - swipe from the top Settings > Payment Options
2. Sign into your BlackBerry ID if prompted
3. Delete "PayPal" as your payment method
4. Reboot your phone


FOURTH STEP - On your phone

1. In BlackBerry World - swipe from the top Settings > Payment Options
2. Sign into your BlackBerry ID if prompted
3. Add "PayPal" as a payment method

I hope it will work for you, too.

[smart548]

Thx for replying Anyway, for sure it won't help, but on my Q10 I can open BIG images: look

[serbanescu]

Thx for replying Anyway, for sure it won't help, but on my Q10 I can open BIG images: look

Thank you for the feedback! Could you share the original TIFF file? I would like to run some tests on it.

[smart548]

There you go

https://db.tt/wKEvRDp3

[serbanescu]

There you go

https://db.tt/wKEvRDp3

That's great, thank you!

[smart548]

You're welcome

[maxdaniels]

Great app, I played with it a little and is working well so far.

I've made a few short clips and these 2 I like the most:





It would be great to add a "solar events" section, in my opinion - a list of the most interesting events to look for.

[MrDoreth]

If you have problems using PayPal for buying apps from BlackBerry World, here it is what worked in my case:

FIRST STEP - On your PC

1. Log into your PayPal account
2. Make sure you have a valid credit card (or debit card) associated with your PayPal account


SECOND STEP - On your PC

1. Log into BlackBerry World on your PC
2. Select "Payment Options"
3. Choose "Modify" in the "Current Payment Option Selected" tab
4. Click on the "Pay with PayPal" button
5. Log into your PayPal account
6. Click on the "Approve" button at the bottom of the page


THIRD STEP - On your phone

1. In BlackBerry World - swipe from the top Settings > Payment Options
2. Sign into your BlackBerry ID if prompted
3. Delete "PayPal" as your payment method
4. Reboot your phone


FOURTH STEP - On your phone

1. In BlackBerry World - swipe from the top Settings > Payment Options
2. Sign into your BlackBerry ID if prompted
3. Add "PayPal" as a payment method

I hope it will work for you, too.

Didn't do it because I can't acces it at the moment make. I don't own a credit card... so I can't transfer money. I will wait and hope it will be solved asap.

Posted with my awesome Z10

[serbanescu]

Great app, I played with it a little and is working well so far.

I've made a few short clips and these 2 I like the most:





It would be great to add a "solar events" section, in my opinion - a list of the most interesting events to look for.

Great videos!

[serbanescu]

Sale for a week: price halved to $0.99

[FF22]

Okay, hard for me to pass up interesting graphics apps!!!