Today the new versions 1.5 of WorldView and WorldView Live have been released. Both represent a major step forward creating the best webcam application. Over the last months I spend lots of weekends refactoring about 50% of the app and writing so many things from scratch. And I couldn't be happier with the result.

Beside adding new features, the majority of the changes result in a much faster handling off the application. It is so much faster to use, even when using an iPod touch 1st generation on firmware 2.2.1. This is the slowest combination of software and hardware that is out there and even having several hundred of bookmarks isn't too much to handle for the app while keeping responsive on user interactions.

The new features were kept small in amount, the next major version 2.0 of WorldView will be a much bigger step forward in that aspect. So what news do we have here: rather simple, but when having lots of bookmarks very handy is the ability to search within your bookmarks. For your communication needs sending webcam images via Twitter has been added as well as the possibility to add links to the tweet or the mail which open the corresponding webcam with WorldView on your iPhone or iPod touch. When having firmware 3.0 or newer installed on the device, you can now also change the app settings from within the app. So switching map style from Google to Cloudemade or vice versa is only a few taps away.
This change resulted in a UI change in WorldView Live for handling so called manual webcams. To edit or add manual webcams, it is now required to switch to edit mode first!

So what are the real changes behind the curtains? Speed, speed, speed and speed. We were able to dramatically improve startup time, incorporate VERY smooth scrolling of the lists, reducing internet traffic and data which results in faster loadings of the lists. There are so many smaller edges that have been adjusted which result in a very smooth user experience when using the application.

WorldView was aimed at travelling the earth via webcams. The new version 1.5 raised the bar again in this aspect. But watching webcams is not everything when looking at a place, so expect many more new ways to explore in version 2.0 :-) Oh, by the way: WorldView free edition passed 1.300.000 downloads!

For your reference, this is the complete offical change list:

General:
About 50% of the app has been rewritten from scratch! Lays the foundation for lots of improvements in this version.

New Features:
- Search within the bookmarks
- Send webcam images via Twitter
- Add links to Email and Twitter messages which will open the webcam directly within WorldView
- Edit app settings within the app

Performance improvements:
- Faster startup
- Smooth list scrolling
- Faster list loading, using less internet traffic
- More efficient fullscreen image loading
- Faster bookmark backup & restore functionality

UI Improvements:
- Added croatian language
- Edit application settings from within the app in the bookmark tab (Firmware 3.x)
- Improved layout of webcam presentation in list views
- Manually added webcams via URLs are automatically updated on startup if the last updated is more than 15 minutes ago
- Better support for landscape list view and rotations between Portrait and Landscape lists and fullscreen (Firmware 3.x)
- Error messages shown when downloading a new image failed
- Warning message shown when a webcam access from webcams.travel has been reloaded but no new image is available (webcams.travel infrequently updates the webcam images, live images are accessed directly from the webcam)
- Determining the age of a webcam image when accessing it directly from the webcam is done by using the webcams timestamp (some webcams time settings are wrong though!)
- Various minor UI glitches fixed

Changes:
- You need to activate edit mode to add and edit manual webcams (Webcams that you want to add via a HTTP URL)
- Manual webcams now only work via HTTP
- Images of manual webcams can now also be send via Email and Twitter (via fullscreen view)
- Google Maps now default when firmware is >= 3.0. This can always be changed from/to Cloudmade in the app settings
- Passwords for manual webcams and twitter account are now stored securely in the keychain
- Lots of additional bugfixes