[catusjack]

I use Cartes du Ciel on my desktop and wondering if anything like that is out for the Playbook yet.

[Curado Kev]

yes, there is one for the playbook called "What's Up" and it works pretty nice !

[Darlaten]

yes, there is one for the playbook called "What's Up" and it works pretty nice !

There is also one called "Stars for Playbook" that is very good. It used to be free but now costs something (cant remember what), but it is something to look at. There is a demo as well.

[RubiKean]

x2 on whats up. its a very nice app and looks like the developer has some nice things planned for future releases.

[FF22]

Stars for Playbook is by the same guy as What's Up. I'd say it was worth the $0.99 for it.

[catusjack]

Thanks - will check it out.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[andouille]

Stars for Playbook is by the same guy as What's Up. I'd say it was worth the $0.99 for it.

I was wondering about that because they have basically the same icon! When you try the What's up demo they talk about what's up plus, I guess the plus is Stars???

[FF22]

I think What's Up is the PRIMARY offering. I wrote the programmer at the support address and he did reply when I had a slight issue with Appworld (not his issue). He wrote back. So you could contact him for more info.

[BuzzStarField]

I think What's Up is the PRIMARY offering.

As the author of this app, I can speak with some authority. What's up is indeed the primary offering and is priced at $0.99 for a limited time. I want to eventually release versions of the app for various BlackBerry smartphones and it seemed to me that now would be the best time to lose the reference to PlayBook in the name. A this point, I cannot give a timeline for porting the code from Adiobe's Actionscript3 to Java nor have I determined which BB phone will be targeted first. I will say that this is a big job and I wish that RIM had made it just a little bit easier for poor little developers like myself to support their brand.

Meanwhile, the Stars app is being offered for free and includes a 5-day DEMO of some of the advanced features found in the premium edition. The advanced features will be turned off and the app will revert back to basic no-frills functionality at the end of this period.

[shawnOST]

I purchased What's Up app last night and it is a very nice app, now I just have to wait for a clear night to explore it's capabilities. Also the list of future enhancements make this app an absolute steal for $0.99.

[BuzzStarField]

This is the developer's shamleess plug for What's up, a newly released star chart app currently available for PlayBook only. It displays the real-time positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and the 5000 brightest stars. It is easy to set up, works anywhere on the planet and does not need an internet connection to perform its main function.

Features:

• GPS support for setting geographic coordinates
• Advanced text search including phonetic search
• Multitouch gesture support for zooming and panning
• Innovative "Quick Links" providing seamless integration with Wikipedia articles

Only $0.99 at App World

The app has only one major shortcoming (and it's not my fault). I encourage everyone to email RIM marketing and insist on APIs so that developers can access the device's on-board magnetometer. Without a magnetic compass, it is just not possible to compete with "point and view" augmented reality apps available on lesser tablets.

[Mojoski]

Just bought myself a copy of What's Up, based on the great feedback on App World and the willingness for Buzz to come here and talk to his users about next steps, etc.. Thanks for reaching out to your users!

Will be looking forward to trying it out sometime soon under the night sky!

Mojoski

[TheScionicMan]

Your plug worked... I just bought it. Starting to feel bad that my daughter is asking me about the stars and we can barely identify the big and little dippers.

EDIT: If you have the Stars app installed, you should uninstall it BEFORE upgrading to What's Up. I deleted it after and it took What's Up with it. A quick reboot/reinstall fixed it. I've seen this with a few apps.

[RubiKean]

thanks for your effort buzzstarfield! the first time i was shown an app like whats up was when i had my storm1. a friend had an android smartphone and gave me a demo. im not sure what the app was called but i must have played with it for 2 hours. it was really one moment where i was very disappointed with my blackberry because i knew there was nothing like it for the bb... and felt there probably never would be.
i downloaded stars the day it came out hoping it would be half as good as what i saw 2 years ago. my expectation was far exceeded. now that you have released whats up i am even more impressed and can not wait for the future releases. great job and thank you for one of the highest quality apps available for the playbook.

[BuzzStarField]

Your plug worked... I just bought it. Starting to feel bad that my daughter is asking me about the stars and we can barely identify the big and little dippers.

EDIT: If you have the Stars app installed, you should uninstall it BEFORE upgrading to What's Up. I deleted it after and it took What's Up with it. A quick reboot/reinstall fixed it. I've seen this with a few apps.

You do not have to uninstall Stars before downloading What's up. This is the problem that F2 referred to above.

The paid app correctly overwrites the demo version but preserves the settings so you don't have to reset your longitude and latitude.

The bad news is that App World is not smart enough to send the obsolete demo app to the uninstalled app list. Instead, the old app lurks on the active list, tempting you to delete it. If you take this action, you actually delete the new version and end up having to re-install it.

The good news is that is just a cosmetic problem - the list resets itself when you restart app world (or refresh the list manually). The install process does manage to change the name and icon correctly on PlayBook's desktop -- so you can safely ignore the bad news part.