Traces of the Past 1.0 Released for iPhone

There is a new genealogy-related App out for the iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, called Traces of the Past. It’s in the vein of Ancestry.com Tree-to-Go or MobileTree. It differs from those two applications in that unlike Tree-to-Go it’s not limited to Ancestry.com, and unlike MobileTree, it’s not confined to a membership-only website/database. It also doesn’t have family tree functionality, similar to say GedView.

Basically it acts as a front-end to genealogy databases/collections. It’s something you would use “on the go” if you needed to do a quick lookup or if you had some time to spare and wanted to be productive.

This puts it in its own class and I hesitate to lump it in with the other genealogy applications. I’m hoping to find the time to test it out at some point, as I think it does have a place on your iPhone, assuming you have memberships for the genealogy databases that it accesses, that require it. The fact that it’s not tied to any specific websites is a huge bonus in my view. Ancestry.com Tree-to-Go and MobileTree are both useful if you qualify or are paid up for their respective services, but if you don’t qualify or don’t pay for a membership, they are useless, and that’s where Traces to Go has the potential to shine.

Traces of the Past supports the following databases/collections (some may require payment/registration) and it looks like it can be updated to access other databases in the future:
* FamilySearch
* Footnote.com
* Findmypast.com
* EllisIsland.org
* Others

Screenshots can be found on the Traces of the Past page here at MobileGenealogy.com.

From a comment on their website, it looks like they are working on native iPad support, rather than just the 2x upscaling currently available.

It’s available for $3.99 in the Apple iTunes Store

Genealogy Gems Podcast App 1.5.2

The iPhone/iPod touch/iPad app for Genealogy Gems Podcast has been updated to version 1.5.2. The app provides an easy way to access the Genealogy Gems Podcast (Your Family History Show) by Lisa Louise Cooke, along with additional content such as:
* PDFs of tips and ideas from the show
* Genealogy Gems Wallpaper
* Bonus audio/video content
* Easily follow the show on Twitter
* Call-in audio comment feature (iPhone only)

Version 1.5.2 Changes:
* Bug Fixes
* Episode Search

Genealogy Gems Podcast App at iTunes Store ($2.99)

If you want to access the regular podcast for free, you can access it through the iTunes Store or through the Genealogy Gems Podcast website.

MobileTree Lite 1.3

The “Lite” version of MobileTree, MobileTree Lite, has been updated to version 1.3 today.

There are only a few changes:
- FamilySearch has given MobileTree the okay to store the username and password for new.familysearch.org. The username and password are stored securely on the device.
- Bug fixes.

Note: You may need to be a member of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in order to use this iPhone or iPod Touch app – it uses their genealogy database and this app requires login credentials for New.FamilySearch.org

Link to Apple iTunes store

GedView 2.10 Released, iPad Supported

GedView, a genealogy application for the iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, has undergone a significant upgrade as of the 2.10 release. It’s now the first GEDCOM-based genealogy application running on the iPhone OS that allows for full-screen mode on the iPad. Note that this is not the 2x upscaling that Apps written for the iPhone or iPod touch employ when used on an iPad.

GedView offers quite a few advantages over other genealogy apps on the iPhone platform. It allows you to import GEDCOM files through several means (WiFi, 3G, etc.) as well as exporting either through email or through a built-in webserver. It can handle the importing of multiple GEDCOM files into multiple database and you can easily switch back and forth between databases. You can also create new databases/GEDCOMs within GedView. It is not tied to any Mac OS X applications.

Changes:
- Improved date parsing, now handles month names in any language supported by the OS.
- Now makes use of _PLAC_DEFN as used by Legacy to add latitude/longitude information to places. Also supports reading latitude/longitude incorrectly placed on an address record
- Support running full screen on iPad.
- Numerous bug fixes.

It’s available for $3.99 USD (or £2.39 / €2.99) ($4.99 AU) at Apple’s iTunes Music Store

Adobe Flash and the iPhone/iPad

Somebody who knows my fondness for gadgets asked me the other day about the whole Adobe Flash thing on the iPhone (or rather the lack of). They wanted to know if it would be a problem, since they were considering purchasing an iPhone.

In my view, it hasn’t been a problem and I’ve been an iPhone owner for quite a while now. There are 50 million iPhones and half a million iPads floating around that don’t run Flash, and none of the iPhone’s current competitors support Flash either. I’ve had an iPhone for quite a while now, and it’s been a long time since I ran into a site that wouldn’t work on an iPhone. As a Windows Mobile and a Palm user in the past, I hated visiting certain sites on those devices simply because there was no thought given to mobile users and a lot of sites wouldn’t work on those devices. With the popularity of the iPhone, that’s all changed, and it benefits everybody on a mobile platform, because website designers and maintainers now take mobile devices into account. It helps that the mobile data networks have gotten better as well.

The majority of genealogy-related sites I visit on my iPhone are blogs anyways and usually have little to no Flash. I tied to shy away from some genealogy sites that are heavy on the bandwidth as my connection is usually not the best for dealing with such sites. Here in 2009-2010, we have it incredibly good though – we are getting browsers and screen resolutions that allow us to actually be able to browse the web in a productive manner.

As to why it’s not allowed, I think it boils down to Apple doesn’t want another company to build a development layer on top of the iPhone, because at that point it stops being an Apple mobile platform and it becomes an Adobe mobile platform. I think there are plenty of other solid reasons – HTML5 (Wikipedia) would be better in the long run since it’s an open standard, and most of us have probably suffered through problems involving Adobe’s Flash plug-in. I’m well aware that Adobe has been working to fix those problems on Windows and Mac OS X with the latest major releases, but I really like the idea of HTML5 getting rid of the need for third party plug-ins. I don’t play Flash-based games though, so my experiences are definitely not going to be the same as others.

I’ve read both sides of the argument, and both make valid points, but I would rather a lot of sites move to HTML5, because I like the idea of not worrying about what mobile device I’m using and whether I have this or that level of plug-in.

Being a genealogist I’m always a fan of open standards as well which would firmly put me in the HTML5 camp, and I’m a fan of anything that causes web designers to take a step back and look at things from the point of view of somebody on a small mobile device whether it’s an iPhone, Android, Palm, or Windows Mobile (Windows Phone 7).

G.L.

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