[BurningPlatform]

PanoRIMio is a native feature rich Panoramio viewer for BlackBerry 10, providing easy and quick access to tens of millions of Panoramio pictures from around the world, probably easier and quicker than on Panoramio itself. Countless images are at your disposal within seconds and can be viewed in a multitude of ways, either for a chosen precise location or for a tag / keyword.







Multiple location input options (address or place of interest, coordinates in either decimal or DMS format, map, current location from GPS) let you easily select the exact place you want to see pictures of, and you can additionally choose a range in kilometers (1-50 km) around the selected point to include images from.

Don't want to browse by location? There is also a "Tag / Keyword" option that shows images by tags or subject - just type e.g. "HDR" to view tens of thousands of beautiful HDR pictures, or "sunset" to see countless sunset sceneries, or even "Car crash" for images of car accidents from all around the world. Or anything else you'd like to see.









Select from four gallery types to view the images in your preferred way: filmstip-like vertically scrollable list, tile grid, or slideshow with configurable interval, or the classic map layer. Both display orientations are supported.

Whichever gallery type you choose, just tap on an image in a list or grid to show the details page with high-resolution image that can be resized and panned to see more detail, as well as all important data of that image: title, author, coordinates, and upload date.

Google Map button shows you the exact location which the photo was taken at on Google Maps (switchable between roadmap, satellite, hybrid and terrain views) and (where available) also Street View button is shown providing one-click access to street view panorama of that place.







At any time and in any view, you can long press an image to open its original (as uploaded by its author) size in the web browser, where you can save it, share it, set as wallpaper, etc. During a slideshow, short tap pauses the slideshow and displays current image's details, another tap resumes it.

Features:

• native, small and fast, both Z and Q devices are supported
• multiple location input methods to see images by location: address or place name, coordinates (decimal or DMS), map, current location from GPS
• choose range (1-50 km) around selected location to include images from
• "Tag / keyword" input for viewing images by tag / subject rather than location
• four gallery types: vertical list, tile grid, slideshow (with configurable interval), map layer
• Google Maps and Street View integration showing the exact place pictures were taken at
• details shown for every image, including: title, author, upload date, coordinates. Direct links to author's page and image's page at Panoramio are always provided.
• one tap access to original (usually multi-megapixel) size of the image (save, share, set as wallpaper, etc.)
• more features coming soon.

Price: $1.99

Link: PanoRIMio - BlackBerry World



All comments and enhancement / improvement suggestions are warmly welcome.

[menshawy]

Very nice and welcomed addition to the native apps collection

[eldricho]

Looks nice! Thanks for developing for BlackBerry 10 and good luck with your app

Posted via CB10

[FF22]

I will also add my wishes for good luck with the app. Each time I use Google Earth to locate where my photo was taken, I am quite amazed at all of the Panoramio photos available.

[BurningPlatform]

Thank you guys. Some new features planned for next versions are searching by both tag and location at the same time (e.g. 'sunset' images but only from specific place), and maybe an image uploader.

[FF22]

Thank you guys. Some new features planned for next versions are searching by both tag and location at the same time (e.g. 'sunset' images but only from specific place), and maybe an impage uploader.

And a million hits later on "sunset at the Grand Canyon!"

[BurningPlatform]

Not even a single sale in two days. AMAZING. Developing native software for Android-compatible platforms makes absolutely no sense...

[eldricho]

It's just that the new arrivals section in BlackBerry World is flooded with crap apps now, people aren't really scrolling through it anymore and discovering the awesome native apps. Have you tried contacting CrackBerry and letting yhem review it already? That could rake in some sales

Posted via CB10

[FF22]

Not even a single sale in two days. AMAZING. Developing native software for Android-compatible platforms makes absolutely no sense...

While I sympathize, please don't lose heart that quickly. It does have to be discovered and probably is a niche product.

I have to say, that whenever I see a new app earnestly developed that is not exactly main stream and in high demand I hope that the developer, such as you, does well with it.

edited to add: you guilted me into it!!!

edited to further add: the images of the Grand Canyon (I did not even include "sunset") are breathtaking.

[BurningPlatform]

Guys,

First of all, I must say that this is a really great site with nice and helpful people. Not so common these days :-) Thank you very much for your friendly comments.

As for the app, it's not just this one. In May I released GeoCoder and I only sold 6 copies by now. Or SunCalc - 12 copies in total since June, half of that on the first day and then 6 in two months. So these are very disappointing figures. On Symbian and MeeGo those apps were selling in hundreds of copies. A couple of other apps, like StarFinder or MoonCalc sell much better (a few hundred copies I guess), but still that number cannot be compared with Symbian and MeeGo where I sold thousands (and got dozens of user reviews/ratings whereas on BB10 I get 1-2 per app in the very best case, which is very sad as I always count on feedback which helps me improve and enhance my apps -- reviews also help promote applications in the BB World so it's sad that majority of users don't do them).

Which is what leads me to a conclusion that Android compatibility is to blame for that. Of course, my apps are quite a niche ones so it would be silly to expect huge sales, but the above mentioned figures are really hopeless. So the only valid explanation that comes to my mind (assuming that BB10 users are the same species as Symbian/MeeGo users, and as such they should be interested in the same kinds of applications in similar proportions) is that BB10 users buy so much less native apps because they use Android equivalents instead (many of them free with ads, or cracked, or whatever).

Another thing is that it is probably much harder for people to find native apps in that OCEAN of Android crap filling up the BB World, compared to the Nokia Store where there were only native Symbian and MeeGo apps so finding/discovering apps was much easier.

I don't mind Android compatibility per se, and I use many Android apps on my Z10, too. I just think that BlackBerry should do something to better promote and distinguish native applications. Those Android apps literally filling up the BB World are mostly such an unbelievable crap, while those REALLY useful and valuable Android apps are NOT in the BB World anyway, so in my humble opinion it actually makes little sense to have any Android apps in the BB store. Now that they preinstall the Amazon store on BB10.3, why not get rid of that Android junk and tell Android publishers to publish it there, and leave the BB World free and clean for native software only... I guess that everyone would benefit from it - both developers and users.

eldricho, you're right, it might be a good idea to try to get some of the apps reviewed by Crackberry. It surely does help a lot. My MoonCalc app was once listed in one of recent Crackberry App Roundups and it instantly boosted its sales, but only for a couple of days, then it went back to normal (i.e. hopeless) level. But this seems to confirm that the biggest problem is that users simply cannot find those apps unless they get some additional promotion. I'll try to contact Crackberry and see if they'd be interested in reviewing some of my apps. Thanks for your suggestion.

F2, many thanks for being my first PanoRIMio user, even though guilted a bit into getting it :-) I hope you like it. If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them as I want to further enhance this app (which is probably the only native Panoramio viewer for BB10 at the moment, that's why I made it actually). And if you find this application worth it, please give it a rating/review at the BB World....

Once again, many thanks guys for your comments. I'm a Qt guy, I developed for Symbian and MeeGo, now I'm also porting my apps to Jolla and looking forward to Ubuntu Touch, but BB10 is definitely my favorite platform and I really hope that it'll succeed and manage to build its own, strong native ecosystem and not just has to rely on Android compatibility. Hopefully also users understand that they need to support native developers a little bit, even though native apps sometimes cost more than their Android equivalents, for as simple reasons as that Android developers sell their apps to a BILLION of users and BB10 developers to around 1000 less... But without own native ecosystem no platform can survive in a longer term.

[FF22]

Okay, my first suggestion is to enlarge the fonts. Where you ask "enter tag, e.g. sunset....." is both tiny and a very pale gray. Similarly, the typed in Search Term is very small. I admit that my eyes are old but I read without reading glasses. On my Z10, the list is just slightly cut off under "Show images for" although scrolling reveals it. And that might be by design since I'm sure on the Q-series scrolling is required.

But, of course, I'm a sucker for natural beauty and National Park images and my first searches for Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce were most rewarding. I will also admit I do not contribute to Panoramio - I don't do any social media. But I'll add some more color to the thread taken with the z10 in the last 3 weeks.

[adamlau]

I'll be your second buyer. But that hot pink icon ring is not personally appealing to me, nor does it blend in well with the greens and blues of 10.3. Minor subjective issue...

[BurningPlatform]

F2, the way the list is shown is handled this way by Cascades. It only shows certain height (depending on device / screen size) and then it takes scrolling to reveal the remaining part - it is cut off not after certain number of items but after certain number of pixels/lines. This is a native Cascades behavior of DropDown element and there's no way to change it. On Q devices lists are even shorter and take more scrolling. As for fonts, I will make the application use font sizes as configured by the user in devices's Display settings - this way everyone will be able to adjust them to his preferences.

adamlau, I will change the icon's colors to something more subtle.

[bobo616]

Hi,
I would have tried this as although it is niche it seems good but the price was too high, I know �1.50 isn't much but for these sort of apps I may not use often I would either like to have a free version with ads or a 75p price. Sorry

Posted via CB10

[adamlau]

Cannot tell if the background spotlight is a design effect or if my screen pixels are going bad. If it indeed a design effect, why did you not choose to go with an all black background?



Tag/keyword menu option is truncated...



Also would like to see an option for miles vs kilometers.
Perhaps case text elements as follows: Map location > Map Location, Gallery type > Gallery Type, et al. Clearable history? Otherwise, thank you for introducing me to Panoramio through PanoRIMio!

[BurningPlatform]

Cannot tell if the background spotlight is a design effect or if my screen pixels are going bad. If it indeed a design effect, why did you not choose to go with an all black background?

Well, I simply liked such a subtle background more than an all black one. But that's really no problem, in a few days I'll submit an update with an additional Settings screeen where you'll be able to switch between that background picture and a solid background if you prefer so.

Tag/keyword menu option is truncated...

As I explained in my previous post, this is a native behavior of DropDown element in Cascades. Depending on screen resolution (or actually aspect ratio) it shows lists of certain max fixed height. Only lists up to 4 items are fully shown on Z devices. Lists longer than 4 items are truncated (and at least on the Z10 in such an ugly way, i.e. in the middle of the 5th item - the intention probably was to show that there's something more) and take scrolling. On Q devices lists are even shorter (3 items if I remember correctly) due to the screen being shorter. This cannot be modified, except for replacing the DropDown selection with a different type of control. In general, Cascades allows much narrower customization of its default elements than standard QtQuick.

Also would like to see an option for miles vs kilometers.

I'll add it. I did think about it but eventually I skipped it because I thought that in most cases people would only need to set a ROUGH range rather than with up to a few hundred meters precision (especially that in many cases images are geotaged with a rough precision, too) and the difference between km/mile remains within that precision. But again, that's not a problem - I'll add an option to switch between km/miles to the aforementioned Settings screen.

Clearable history?

Can be done (as well as many other planned features), if I only sell more than two copies.

Otherwise, thank you for introducing me to Panoramio through PanoRIMio!

I find Panoramio very useful not just to watch some nice pictures, but also a great way to discover places, choose trip/vacation destinations, etc. If I plan to go somewhere, a quick look at some Panoramio pictures of that place is enough to see if it's really worth going to and what's interesting to see there. And they're real user-submitted pictures, so they show how places really look like. With tens of millions of images available, it's difficult to find a location that is not covered... There was no native BB10 Panoramio client so I made one, IMO not worse than existing Android clients.

[BurningPlatform]

Hi,
I would have tried this as although it is niche it seems good but the price was too high, I know �1.50 isn't much but for these sort of apps I may not use often I would either like to have a free version with ads or a 75p price. Sorry

This is what I call the Android effect. On Android-compatible platforms users expect that native applications cost as little as Android apps, period, without taking into consideration the fundamental difference that a platform like BB10 has around FIVE HUNDRED TIMES LESS users (and thus potential buyers of any given native app) than Android, and therefore in the very best case brings five hundred times less sales - even if the price is the same. And if the price is the same but sales 500 times lower then.... guess what the developer's revenue is. Right, it's 500 times lower.

People using different smartphone platforms are the same species, so they have similar interests, in similar proportions. If I make e.g. an astronomical app, both on Android and BB10 some -say- 0,001% of users will be interested in buying this kind of app. The problem is that 0,001% of Android users means 12,000 purchases (twelve thousand), while 0,001% of BB10 users means 100 purchases (one hundred). So if that app costs $0.99 an Android developer will earn $11,880 (less 30% of store's commission, but still thousands of dollars), while BB10 developer will earn $99 (less 30% of store's commission) i.e. $63 in total.

I don't think it takes any further explanation of why developers of native applications on small platforms like BB10 price their apps a bit higher than their Android equivalents. It has nothing to do with those developers being greedy. Unless you think that total earnings of $63 for a typical niche native app (that took 1,5 months to develop and fully test/debug) is more than enough for a native BB10 developer and will make him stick to BB10 for years.

And with "free with ads" applications it looks even worse, because it takes tens of thousands of ad impressions to get any measurable revenue from such ads. While quite easily achievable on Android's 1.2 billion user base, on small platforms like BB10 it can bring any reasonable earnings only in case of very few really hot strictly main stream apps. For a typical niche app (that only thousands - not millions - of people download) it is completely pointless as it would take months to earn a few dollars (that you would never receive due to payment thresholds being many times higher).

Anyway, it is OBVIOUSLY users who decide if they want to pay a little bit extra for native apps or not - nothing can force them. It's just that they need to undestand (for the sake of their platform's future) that small platforms like BB10 at least initially need to be supported by their users, or else they will never grow and build their own strong ecosystems. Every native developer, if he keeps earning $63 per app (either because of people not willing to buy his apps due to "too high prices" or because of being forced to reduce the prices below any profitability margins on such a small platform) will sooner or later just give up and move to Android, iOS or whatever else where he'll start earning reasonable amounts.

This is NOT complaining, it's just an attempt to explain that you just can't expect a 500 times smaller platform (of your very own choice) to provide you with all the benefits of a 500 times bigger platform (including the prices of apps being exactly the same), there have to be some limitations and drawbacks until the platform grows and strengthens to any comparable levels. Of course, users are free to ignore it and refuse to pay for native apps, but it won't do any good to the platform's future as native developers will eventually leave it and it'll remain just an Android emulator.

I didn't set the price of $1.99 for that app because I'm greedy, but to get revenue that will at least cover the cost of ELECTRICITY used to develop this app. And the only Panoramio viewer with a comparable feature set and quality that I could find at Google Play didn't cost much less - those cheaper or free were mostly much simpler and on BB10 they'd work slower and have some other drawbacks like e.g. that most of them "cache" all images in a way that then they fill phone's gallery (Pictures app) with all Panoramio images you've ever watched. The choice is yours.

P.S. I don't want to be considered a moaner, I'm just saying what probably almost every other BB10 developer thinks but majority of them don't want to talk about. Android compatibility imposes such an unfair and hardly bearable competition that it makes developing for such platforms a real challenge. It's sad that users don't even realize that those who develop for BB10 do it mostly for reasons OTHER than profit.

[bobo616]

Thank you for the explanation on pricing. I completely understand where you are coming from which is why I am more than happy to support native development but some apps I have gone looking for and others I have stumbled upon and take a gamble on if they look interesting, yours is the latter and I just felt the $1.99 was a bit steep for something I may not use. I understand in the grand scheme of things this isn't much but it would be if I was charged this for all the apps I was curious about but I understand this doesn't really help you.

I hope the native apps get highlighted more in places like crackberry and BlackBerry World to try to help and as there is less competition for native apps this may help you in the long run.

Maybe a pro version with paid features may also help users like myself who are unsure if they want to buy but I understand this could take away from overall sales as well.

Posted via CB10

[BurningPlatform]

Thank you for your reply, bobo616. It is perfectly obvious that if you're not really planning to use an app of this kind regularly then you don't want to pay for it. My comment was more of a general nature, not really about you or this app, but about all my apps published for BB10 in the last 1,5 years. We've got Android compatibility causing that users do not want to pay for native apps more than for Android apps (which is really hard to achieve for a BB10 developer given the hundreds of times smaller user base), we've got the app store filled up with such an amount of cr*p (mostly originating from Android) that native apps are hard to find and new native releases disappear within hours, we've got a very poor advertising service which (combined with the tiny user base) makes it impossible to release "free with ads" versions of applications as they wouldn't bring any revenue - which in turn further lowers sales as people don't want to buy without trying first (especially that they have a lot of "free with ads" Android apps to choose from), and so on.

It is really bad. Either BlackBerry does something about it (at the very least provide native apps with better promotion / visibility) or BB10 will never manage to establish a really strong native ecosystem, as only a handful of authors of strictly main stream products will be able to make any decent profit and for all the countless developers of niche apps it will remain a pure hobby with earnings in the 6-pack of beer range.

Many Qt developers develop for BB10 due to currently not having any other choice. But if Ubuntu Touch comes out and offers better opportunities (one of them being lack of Android compatibility), if Jolla grows a bit and finally allows paid apps, maybe also Tizen eventually ships and allows Qt development, I'm afraid that a lot of developers will leave BB10 - and that not because they don't like this OS (as it is really great) but because they need to eat and pay their bills and BB10 does not let them earn anything. Already now on Ubuntu Touch developer forums I can see many developers formerly known from Symbian/MeeGo, who initially tried their luck on BB10 but then disappeared.

I find it truly bizarre that 7 apps (three astronomical, two mapping/location, and some more) bring on BB10 a monthly revenue of $40-50 while on Symbian and MeeGo (and that in their decadent times) they were providing similar amount..... but daily. Something's really strange here...

See how Windows Phone (IMO such an inferior, ugly and generally uninspiring OS compared to BB10) managed to build during the last few years an ecosystem of 400,000 native apps and tens of thousands of developers - that's probably thanks to NO Android compatibility.

[FF22]

As I mentioned in Reply 5 above, each time I see a unique but probably niche NATIVE app, I kind of feel bad. I can't afford to buy them all and yet I almost certainly feel that they will be somewhat lost in BBWorld and not be discovered. As an Ambassador I try to read the threads and offer some greeting or reply and hope that "THIS APP" whatever it is, will make it and the developer rewarded. But from the sounds of it that happens too infrequently.

While I suspect that you are right about sales, I guess one way to be more successful with an app is too see what people seem to want and cater to that, even if it's not an app that you really want to offer. But even there, I'm not sure how much people are willing to pay.

I can again, just offer good luck and I will write a review in the next few days. If nothing else, the natural beauty found amongst the images can give folks some peace.

[spiculated]

bought the app. Love it keep up the good work

Posted via CB10

[bobo616]

I really do sympathise and Ubuntu touch, jolla and Tizen are other os's I am interested in but I fear android and ios have such a grip it will also be difficult for them as well. I personally don't like the all or nothing approach of android which is why I always use native apps where possible.

I hope things improve for you and other native developers like you.

[Heinz Katchup]

Not even a single sale in two days. AMAZING. Developing native software for Android-compatible platforms makes absolutely no sense...

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

Maybe if your app gave people the ability create panoramic shots by stitching images together. Then you might see more interest.

Posted with X10 via CB10

[FF22]

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

Maybe if your app gave people the ability create panoramic shots by stitching images together. Then you might see more interest.

Posted with X10 via CB10

10.3.xxxx contains a panorama mode so that feature will probably be unnecessary in a 3rd party app in a couple of months. Besides, the Panoramio site contains regular photos of far flung places and attaches them to a map and is not limited to panoramic shots.

[adamlau]

Perhaps support for sharing/uploading images to Panoramio? An option to start with a random or predefined location similar to the Panoramio site?