BirdTrack

I downloaded the new version of the BirdTrack app today. It is extremely different to the old app, in fact for all practical intents and purposes it is completely different. I struggled with it at first, unlearning the old ways of doing things and making a bog of it. In the end I decided the best thing to do was to have a wander round and record what I was seeing as I was going along, get a bit of practice in the new way of things. It was a good idea: in a moment of epiphany when I was really struggling I realised that I needed to just forget everything I knew about the old app and come at the new one as if the old had never existed. The learning curve quickly flattened out and I'm comfortable I've got to grips with it now.

The new app does a lot the old one didn't do. For one thing you can record all the non-bird species you could only do on the web version of BirdTrack, saving me having to carry a notebook round for all the records I'd have to append to lists when I get home. 

The map function was a shock at first but it actually works proactively: it locates where you are, automatically suggests the nearest site and also offers the nearest alternatives. But the best thing about the map function is that it's stable, it was constantly crashing the old app.

Adding records is easy enough, there are a few additional steps in the process which offended my old business process development bones but they facilitate some additional recording functions so they can be forgiven. 

The one annoyance is caused when you set up a new list and find you have nothing to record at that location. In the old app you could just delete the empty list. In the new one you have to add a bogus record so the list can be saved as a draft and then deleted. Once I worked the trick out it's easy enough to do but it took a bit of working through to get there.

Anyone like me who's got used to the old ways of doing things will have to go through a period of readjustment. But it's worth it. There's more useful functionality and the whole thing feels more stable.

*** Update 4th September ***

I've given the app a good run over the past few days. It works a lot better for my rather mobile version of birdwatching than the old app did.

The annoying thing about not being able to delete an empty list is only really an issue if it's the last site of the day. The rest of the time it's easy enough to go back from the record entry screen and change the location and time to start a new list.

One big downside I've found is that while the app behaves itself perfectly well normally if I put my 'phone on battery saver the app eats power at a rate of knots, at least twice as much as usual and sometimes a lot more. I think this is a side-effect of the dynamic updating conflicting with the battery saver. It was a big deal the afternoon I noticed it but now I know it's more than manageable.