Tide Calculator

[JohnK]

It's still an important market, it just doesn't have the market share it did.
The stats show both major platforms increasing, but it's not that simple. We're talking about people who will actually BUY apps, rather than just owners of a device.

If you’re going to create an iOS app I won’t.
But if you’re only going to do Android then I’ll have a go at an iOS one.
In reality mine would probably start as free as it won’t be great but no competition for you as most people don’t have both devices.

[oldgregg]

5 minutes ago, JohnK said:

 

If you’re going to create an iOS app I won’t.
But if you’re only going to do Android then I’ll have a go at an iOS one.
In reality mine would probably start as free as it won’t be great but no competition for you as most people don’t have both devices.

 

I think I'd probably cover iOS.

The way we build apps there is not actually much difference in effort to also deploy to iOS.

[JawsOrca]

2 hours ago, oldgregg said:

I think I'd probably cover iOS.

The way we build apps there is not actually much difference in effort to also deploy to iOS.

Maybe you could do a sponsored app for the forum in return for some advertisement.. I may know some other companies who maybe up for an advert or two ;)

[oldgregg]

Yeah that's a possibility, what did you have in mind?

[Smoggy]

Considering most boat owners add a quid to their toll payment and get the BA tide booklet you probably won't find that many takers for the basic tide functions, I find for my regular haunts I tend to adjust times automatically without thinking much about it.

Without a built in offline tide table I wouldn't bother, the spiny wheel jobbie is useful and easy to clip to the tide book.

[Bound2Please]

27 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Considering most boat owners add a quid to their toll payment and get the BA tide booklet

But we have a lot of members that are NOT boat owners, so very handy for holiday makers as well as boat owners.

[Smoggy]

40 minutes ago, Bound2Please said:

But we have a lot of members that are NOT boat owners, so very handy for holiday makers as well as boat owners.

Very true.

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

Considering most boat owners add a quid to their toll payment and get the BA tide booklet you probably won't find that many takers for the basic tide functions, I find for my regular haunts I tend to adjust times automatically without thinking much about it.

Without a built in offline tide table I wouldn't bother, the spiny wheel jobbie is useful and easy to clip to the tide book.

The BA tide booklet is useful as it also gives tide rise and fall information on a daily basis. A plethora of other information too. We keep one on the boat and also one at home for planning purposes. 

[vanessan]

45 minutes ago, Bound2Please said:

But we have a lot of members that are NOT boat owners, so very handy for holiday makers as well as boat owners.

I’m sure hirers would find the wheel very useful but it would have to be priced right I think. 

[JohnK]

I’ve done a bit of research for my own benefit and it appears tide data is a bit of a minefield.
I THINK seven days ahead is available free of charge so you’d have to have data available at least once a week.
I think I’m going to have a go at creating an iOS app but I doubt it will ever appear on the App Store, it’s a different league of programming for me.
I’m thinking as a start having a display of high and low tides at different locations. If that works then maybe a graphic showing an approximation of the flows across the Broads.

[Bound2Please]

The institute of oceanographics  do tide tables up to about 10 - 15 years ahead, well at least they used. Cant see them having stopped doing so. So the predicted tides are available well in advance. What no tide table can take into account is the weather and air pressure on a particular day very much in advance.

[JohnK]

The institute of oceanographics  do tide tables up to about 10 - 15 years ahead, well at least they used. Cant see them having stopped doing so. So the predicted tides are available well in advance.

The complexity is accessing it from an app without breaking somebody’s rules.
Many sites rules don’t allow commercial use of their data. Apple don’t like you reading http sites rather than https and as far as I can find anyone who makes the data available via an api wants to charge for it.
There are ways round all of the above but I like to do things properly.

[Bound2Please]

3 minutes ago, JohnK said:

 

The complexity is accessing it from an app without breaking somebody’s rules.
Many sites rules don’t allow commercial use of their data. Apple don’t like you reading http sites rather than https and as far as I can find anyone who makes the data available via an api wants to charge for it.
There are ways round all of the above but I like to do things properly.

 

I never said the The institute of oceanographics data was free, it used to come on A3 sheets, when I used to get it from them to organise fishing matches

[JohnK]

I never said the The institute of oceanographics data was free,

Don’t think I said you did

[LondonRascal]

Personally speaking I think the only way this is viable is as an 'add on' to a wide scope App that was supported trough affiliated links and advertising.

For example you have an App that the major boatyards support - and every time you use the App one of their adverts will pop up making you have to close it before you can proceed, at other random times you would then have adverts pop up based on your locations like:

'You're near Ferry Inn at Horning. Show this App to get a free drink ! Lets' go" [tap to navigate]

And the 'features' would be a GPS based speedo, Map, Tide Tables and 'quick links' to moorings, electric hook ups and the like. It would mean that 'everyone' would have a slice of the action and help support the App - from pubs to boatyards but the focus would be on numbers of downloads and adverts not so much the great feature rich content because that is nice but takes the real time and money to get right and I cannot see how a stand alone tide App could make much or be widely taken up by thousands of boaters.