Aus App Field Guides

By Birding-Aus, on January 13th, 2015

I have Pizzey and Knight on a Samsung phone and find that the screen freezes so that when I try to look at a bird I can tap – sometimes for 2 mins, without a response- so it is unreliable. I thought it was the android phone, but have heard of other people having this problem. I also have a problem finding the bird I want on the screen as they have placed 3 or 4 birds on the one screen and without swapping glasses, I cannot read the text – even after changing the text to the largest available. Thus I don’t know which of the 3/4 birds I want to look for.Once the single bird is on the screen, the text is lovely and clear, but frustrating having to tap on 4 other birds, to get to the one I want. I have Morcombe on my Ipod and it works well. It is always responsive and the text is large enough to be able to find the bird required with one tap. I think I prefer the calls on PK. Both have there pros and cons and having bought Pizzey for my phone so that I don’t have to carry two devises with me, I am carrying two devices anyway! Carol Abbott

Birding-Aus mailing list
Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org
To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org

jmorlan

January 14, 2015 at 3:32 am

On Tue, 13 Jan 2015 13:50:53 +1100, “Guy Gibbon” < guy@gibbonmm.com.au> wrote: I have P&K on my iPad and one huge annoyance is that although the opening screen displays fine in landscape mode, the main menu displays only in portrait mode, not in landscape. Then when I select “field guide” the family list is also forced into portrait mode as are the field guide plates. Selecting a particular species allows the individual illustrations to be in landscape, but the menu to go back to the field guide disappears. So to go back to similar species you are forced back into portrait mode. The handy arrows that allow going back and forth to other species are also invisible in landscape mode. It’s like the app was built for a small device like a phone, with tablet features added only as an afterthought. The landscape interface is very poor and I think may contribute to the opinion that the app is “hard to use.” Another issue is that the sensitive screen areas on the field guide plates where you select the species are quite small. Furthermore they are invisible until you actually touch them, so I often fumble around trying to find the link to the details for the bird I am after. These sensitive spots are not always placed intuitively and that also may contribute to the “hard to use” opinions. As far as content, I don’t know how accurate it is. It has a good reputation but, the plate showing two subspecies of Lesser Sand Plover is very misleading and inaccurate in a number of ways. — Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA “It turns out we’re very good at not seeing things” – Jack Hitt

guy

January 13, 2015 at 12:50 pm

Hi everyone Reading the comments on the Pizzey app it would appear there are a few misconceptions and perhaps lack of familiarity with the app. Overall the app is not simply a bird list with a few functions attached, but a comprehensive and integrated program with seven interlinking modules. Bird sounds can be played directly off the bird list in the Bird Guide. It couldn’t be any simpler, more direct or easy to access than this. In fact the bird sounds can be played from any list including your personal lists. Particularly useful is to make a personal list of birds you would like to find at a location, and then to use this shortlist for sounds in the field. Other functions available directly off the list include Add directly to your list (tap to add), or Add with editing the sighting details, open the Bird Page, view Similar Birds, or open the Field Guide page. To view the bird images you can use either the Field Guide or Bird Guide. The Field Guide displays the full pages of the book and is best viewed on a larger device, but usable on a smaller device. It has the advantage of quick access to a family group, and direct functions include Play Sound, Add to list, Bird Page and Similar Birds. For smaller devices you can use the Bird Guide to access individual bird pages by tapping on a name in the bird list. The bird pages include comprehensive data by field guide standards, including good text, preferred illustrations, outstanding photos, quality sounds and colour coded maps. Perhaps not appreciated is how useful the maps are, indicating resident, breeding migrant, non-breeding migrant, subspecies ranges, months of occurrence, endemic and red data species. Other modules include My Location for a local area list based on GPS location, My List reports sub-lists to a life list, Similar Birds lists similar species and Compares them side by side, Identification shortlists possible species in a few easy steps, and Birding Sites describes 270 birding sites functions for bird list, weather and show on map. There’s lots more the app does and includes, but that can be explored on http://www.gibbonmm.com.au. Finally, the app no longer requires a 30-day licence check. This only ever applied to the Android app and you simply need to update your app from the play store to enjoy this. Regards Guy Gibbon guy@gibbonmm.com.au — This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

abbt

January 13, 2015 at 8:21 am

I have both on iPhone and iPad and both are perfectly stable and work easily and reliably. I have experienced no instability problems. My preferred default App is Pizzey. As well as the standard excellent illustrations from the book it usually has additional images, often (always?) photos. Distribution maps are larger and I suspect that it has a greater number of calls / songs for many of the species. I also suspect that there are more songs of sub-species on Pizzey, but you would need confirmation of this. Andy

davidtorr

January 13, 2015 at 8:12 am

Latest release has removed he 30 day internet check – which was a real pain as I discovered early on in a remote location. It still crashes occasionally (as do other apps) but in general I find it pretty good. Disclaimer – I do not have Morecombe and I was a tester for Pizzey so did not pay for my copy! Mine is on an Android tablet On 13 January 2015 at 09:09, Rod Warnock < rw5666@gmail.com> wrote:

rw5666

January 13, 2015 at 8:09 am

Carol,my experience with Pizzey and Knight on a HTC has not been good and is roughly similar to your experience added to that the requirement to be regularly on the Internet as the app also requires to connect with the Google Play Store licence server at least once in 30 days. When working it is great but it is spasmodic. Rod Warnock On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 7:59 AM, Carol Abbott < ausmeisie@gmail.com > wrote:

davidstowe

January 13, 2015 at 7:29 am

Hi Carol, Try Searching for the bird you want in the Bird Guide section rather than the Field Guide section. You might find that easier? Cheers Dave

Birding-Aus

Aus App Field Guides

6 comments to Aus App Field Guides

Mailing List

Book Search

Meta