Introduction

"Space", said Douglas Adams, "Is big. Really big."

Welcome to Pocket Universe, an app designed to help you understand just how big space is (here is a tip: it's bigger than a trip to the shops - that's just peanuts to space), but also help you find your place in it, and enjoy looking around it. And even better: you can put it in your pocket.

Gazing at the night sky is one of life's simple pleasures, and this app can help. The single purpose of this app is to help answer the question "Uh, what's that?". In fact, that's why I wrote the first version of Pocket Universe, originally for a Handheld PC in the late 1990's, and this is why I keep working on it, over ten years later. All my life I've wanted to be able to say "Actually, that's the star Regulus" and for once be right.

So, somehow I've convinced you to part with your cash and buy Pocket Universe. What do you get in return? Amazingly, you get a hundreds of years of knowledge, hard-won by geniuses such as Galileo and Newton, not to mention thousands of years of myths and legends. You now have the ability to explore the sky and impress your friends and family with your amazing ability to tell them about any little light in the sky..

This app contains information on the 10,000 brightest stars and will display their position in the sky for anywhere on Earth. It overlay the outlines that make up the constellations, and will calculate the position of the planets in our solar system. It also contains a list of deep sky objects (such as galaxies and nebulae), ready for you to find with binoculars or a telescope.

There is a mini-encyclopedia aspect too, with facts and figures on our nearest neighbors, and some games to help you memorize stars and constellations. When you need more information, all you need is an Internet connection and you can jump straight to Wikipedia for the latest in-depth facts and figures.

I've tried to make this an app something you can quickly fire up and use within a few minutes, but also one you can take your time to explore. By including links to a regularly updated companion website, and by building in live-search features, Pocket Universe remains up-to-date and always ready to give you something new to look for in the sky.

I hope you enjoy using it!

John Kennedy, Craic Design

A quick note about different versions: Pocket Universe is available in a “universal” version that runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It’s also available in a version specifically for the iPad. The iPad specific version has a user interface that’s a bit better suited to the larger screen, and some extra features..

Chapter 1

Getting Started

Here is the best way to get started. Launch the app, watch the short animation, and then tap the settings button (the little i in the top right, or Settings button) to bring up the list of preferences. Scroll down until you see the Local Settings section. Tap the Set Current Location option (it will be highlighted in red if you haven’t done this before), and you’ll see a picture of the Earth. We’re now going to tell Pocket Universe where you are.

If the red pin is on the map just about where you are, great! Tap Done. If not, tap the Find Me! button, and your device’s GPS and/or network location technologies will do its best to track you down. This might take up to 30 seconds or so, so be patient.

If your location still can't be determined, either tap the globe to move the pin, or select a nearby city to get an approximation of your position. You can fine-tune the actual location later if necessary. Pocket Universe doesn’t know the location of every city on Earth but don’t worry if the app thinks you are in one city, when you are actually in a smaller one further away. The app will know where you are: it’s just displaying the nearest city it knows about. Often, Pocket Universe will find an ever closer city and display its name.

Once you have set your location, the next time you start the app, your location will be remembered. Now tap Done a few times to return to the main view.

On the Universal version, the main view will look like this:

This default start page displays the current Moon Phase, as well as useful information such as the current location, and the rise and set time for the Sun and Moon. If you haven’t set your location, this information will not be displayed. From left to right, the icons at the bottom will bring you to the Virtual Sky view, information on the Solar System, a quick guide to which planets are visible, an Orrery (Solar System model), and some Help to read if you get bored.

On the iPad specific version, it’ll look like this:

This default start page shows the Moon slowing spinning in space, and shortcuts to the various views available. The views available to you include the Virtual Sky mode, an Orrery view, information on the planets, a guide to what objects are visible tonight, Settings and other options, and a Getting Started help file.

For now, let’s go to the Virtual Sky view. On the Universal version, tap the little telescope in the bottom left corner. On the iPad version, tap the top-most button.

You should now see a 3D display of the sky. If you are using the app during the day, you’ll see an optimistically blue sky, and some trees on the horizon, like this:

If you are using the app at night, you’ll see a clear, dark sky and plenty of stars, like this:

You can now drag the view left, right, up and down, or pinch to zoom in or out. Double-tapping will quickly zoom in or zoom out.

Now for the cool bit. Tap on the Motion button. This is the button with the arrows at the bottom of the screen:

Toggle the automatic tracking motion on and off with this button.

Now hold your iPhone/iPod or iPad in front of you, the same way you might hold a pocket mirror. You should see the display move suddenly. If you lean back to look up to the sky, the display should move in the same way.

If you have a device with a built-in compass (an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th Generation or an iPad) you can also look left or right and again, the display will change to reflect what you are looking at.

During the daytime, you will see some fluffy clouds and maybe the sun, but obviously at night you'll now be able to line up your iPhone (or iPod Touch, or iPad) and put a name to almost anything you can see.

A note for iPod Touch (non-4th Gen) and iPhone 3G owners: these devices don't have a built in compass, so the app cannot detect which direction you are facing. Don't fear, you can simply drag the view left or right yourself. You'll need to find North yourself to start with, and you can do this either with a regular compass or the position of a known object in the sky - for example, the Pole Star, aka Polaris.

The iPhone 4, iPod Touch (4th Generation) and iPad 2 have extra hardware called “gyros” which can provide extra-smooth motion tracking. It’s worth turning this on and off from Settings to see the difference they make. They are on by default.

The left and right tracking requires your device has either a compass or gyro hardware. You can see in the following table what hardware your device supports:

Device | Compass | Gyroscopes | Camera
iPhone 4 | Yes | Yes | Yes
iPhone 3GS | Yes | No | Yes
iPhone 3 | No | No | Yes
iPod Touch 3rd Generation | No | No | No
iPod Touch 4th Generation | No | Yes | Yes
iPad 1st Generation | Yes | No | No
iPad 2nd Generation | Yes | Yes | Yes

So, if you are using an iPod Touch (3rd Generation) you will have to manually drag the screen left and right. If you are using the 4th Generation iPod Touch, the device will pan left and right automatically using the gyroscopes, but you will have to start the Motion Tracking mode while facing North - because there is no compass.

How do I find North?

If you need to find North, you can always use a compass.. but on a clear night, it’s usually easier to find the Big Dipper aka The Plough aka Ursa Major and The Great Bear, and follow the ‘pointer stars’ to Polaris.

Ursa Major is a very large constellation, which you should have no trouble finding. Depending on the time of year and time of night, it may be “upside down” compared to this image, but it’ll always be visible for Northern Hemisphere observers.

Find North using the Big Dipper (also known as The Plough, and of course, Ursa Major: The Great Bear)

Chapter 2

Troubleshooting

Nothing in life is perfect, and this is especially true for me. This, sadly, mean that Pocket Universe may contain bugs, or there may be something which isn't as obvious to you as it was to me. This section will hopefully explain how to get things working as well I as intended.

The App Won’t Start!

First make sure you have installed the latest version. You can tap the App Store icon on your device, and check for updates. If you are unsure if you have the latest version, you can always delete the current one from your device, and go to the App Store and re-download it. You won’t be charged for re-downloading the same app as long as your App Store account username remains the same.

Sometimes the amount of free memory on your device can be low, especially if you haven’t restarted it for a while. So if things seem weird, it’s always a good idea to restart your iPhone, iPod or iPad by holding down the power button, waiting until the “slide to power off” message to appear, and well, sliding it. It’ll take a few seconds to shut down, and then you can turn it on again. You won’t lose any data or apps by doing this, but memory will be released.

Still no luck? Make sure you have the very latest OS update on your device. You can check by connecting it to iTunes, and clicking the “Check for Update” button. The new OS versions provide more features, which are required by Pocket Universe.

If you have jailbroken your device, well, things might be a bit wonky as a result. Sometimes I get emails from folks saying “I’ve got a jailbroken device and I don’t want to update it - but now Pocket Universe won’t work, because it requires the latest version of the iPhone OS”. I’m not sure what to say about this: I always build updates using the latest version of the OS, because it means I can use new features to create a better app. For the vast majority of users, this is preferable.

If things are still not working, please contact info@craicdesign.com and we’ll try and talk through some other options to get things working.

The rise and set times are wrong!

Pocket Universe needs to know two things to be able to calculate accurate rise and set times: the time, and where you are. If you are seeing clearly incorrect times, make sure your device has its local time and timezone information set, and your location is set properly (from the Settings page). If you have done all that, try quitting the app and restarting it, to make sure the settings are being used.

The motion tracking doesn't work!

This one can be a little more tricky. First, remember that if your device doesn't have compass hardware, it can't track left and right, only up and down. This isn't quite as cool as when you have full tracking, but it's not the end if the world. With a little practice, you can quickly learn to keep the screen and the sky in sync as you turn from side to side. As long as you can recognize The Big Dipper / The Plough, you have your starting point.

If your device does have a compass, but motion is limited to up/down only, please go to Settings and tap Reset (the option at the bottom of the list) and restart the app (under OS 4, the new multitasking feature means you have to double-press the home button and then tap and hold on the Pocket Universe icon to really quit it).

If motion tracking still isn’t working:

1.First, please make sure you have turned on the Motion option from the Virtual Sky view. When on, the arrows button glows blue.

2.When you tilt the device back, or turn around on the spot, the view should change.

3.If it still doesn't move, go to Settings, and make sure the option Motion Adjustment is turned OFF.

4.If things still aren't moving, please try the suggestions in the section below encouragingly entitled Nuke the site from orbit.

Motion Tracking is way off!

If the Motion Tracking is working, but doesn't seem to match the sky, here are some suggestions. Firstly, remember that this feature requires the built-in compass to have a good fix. This means that if you are operating the app whilst inside a steel box, or near power lines, or whilst wearing giant metal rings, the compass might not get a good reading.

The compass can be picky, and the best way to check is to run the Compass app and make sure it's working both with your device held flat, and raised up in front of your face.

The compass can further fail to work well if the device cannot get a good location fix, so try to use it when it has a good view of the sky. If the Maps application can locate you, it should be working fine. If the program is using a guestimate for your location, a little (M) will be displayed beside the Azm/Alt text on the Virtual Sky display. This indicates that the compass is only reporting Magnetic North, and not True North, to the app. As a result, the view can be off by 10 degrees or more.

The app has a mode for this eventually, called Motion Adjustment. To activate this mode:

1. Go to Settings, and turn on Motion Adjustment. When this option is on, you can drag the screen to line up the view when you first activate Motion tracking.

2.When you return to the Virtual Sky view, and turn on Motion Tracking, you will see a message box saying “Tap To Define Motion Offset”. Tap this box before it vanishes.

3.The box will change to “Drag display and tap again”. Now you must drag the display around until it is pointing the way you think it should be pointing. It’s good to line this up on something like the Moon, or a landmark that is known to be to the North.

4.Tap the “Drag display..” box, and this offset will be stored and applied to the view every time you switch on Motion Tracking.

What is with the twitch?

If you see a little twitch when looking up almost overhead, this is side effect of the compass hardware, as it suddenly flips North/South and the compass tries to compensate. This effect is much reduced if you hold the device in landscape mode.

Note for users with gyro hardware: The iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and iPad 2 have extra hardware for tracking motion, called gyroscopes. These gyros provide much smoother movement, and also don't suffer from the high altitude compass flip. You can switch off the gyro from Settings to see the difference. When the gyros are used, the compass is read only once at the start of each Motion tracking session. If the alignment seems off, toggle Motion off and on again to trigger a new compass reading.

Nuke the site from orbit! (It’s the only way to be sure)

When all else fails, the best way to get things working is to follow these steps.

1.Make sure your device has the latest OS installed.

2.Shutdown the device, by pressing and holding the power button until the "Slide to power off" message appears. Then power if off (don't worry, you won't lose anything).

3.Switch your device back on, and try the app again.

If that still doesn't work, delete the app from your device.

Reinstall the app directly from the App Store, not from a backup on your computer. You will not be charged again for this - or any reinstall - as long as you use the same App Store account details you used to purchase the app in the first place.

These steps make sure sure the app is a fresh install, and hopefully this will get it working.

What is Motion Adjustment Offset?

The iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4 and iPad all have built-in hardware which acts as a compass. This means that Pocket Universe can “know” which way you are facing and update the display accordingly.

Unfortunately, sometimes, no matter what you do, the view rendered by Pocket Universe will be off by a few degrees (or more).

This can be caused by several factors:

1.You have not set your location properly,

2.The internal compass hardware is being confused by nearby metal objects (cars, large watches, metal case),

3.The internal location hardware cannot get a good fix, which means the compass hardware is actually returning the Magnetic North direction, rather than the True North direction. This might happen if your device can’t get a good GPS fix.

If this happens, first use the iPhone’s built-in compass app and make sure it aligns properly. You might need to wave it around in a figure-8 if this happens to get it configured. Take the device out of any external case, remove any large flashy diving watches and/or metal plates in your head, move away from buildings or metal structures, and get out of the car (as appropriate).

Stuff you guys, I’m going home and I want my money back!

Sorry to hear that I failed to impress you! The bad news is that developers cannot issue refunds, but the good news is that Apple can. If you look at your purchase history on your iTunes Account Page, you can find the App Store purchase history button, and get a list of all the apps you bought. Click on Report a Problem, and fill in a reason. Apple will get back to you pretty quickly.

Chapter 3

Support

This eBook will be updated as the app evolves, and more questions become “frequently asked”. In the meantime, you can always email my your questions and suggestions to support@craicdesign.com, or via Twitter at @CraicDesign.