I'd like to take this opportunity to outline the next 12
months ahead and give you a feel for what we are working on
and where we expect to be by this time next year. This
is one of those situations where you don't want to give
false hopes but you don't want to be silent for any length
of time either. Software that doesn't exist is
called "vaporware" and vendors can tell you things and get
your hopes up and try to gain your business based on these
false promises but if you don't actually have the software
on your computer, it doesn't exist! Talk is one thing,
action is another. I take pride in my company running
an ethical operation, I don't like to give false hopes and
we simply cannot do it all, I never said we could, but we
are trying to focus on what we can do and what will benefit
the majority of our customers.
In presenting a roadmap for what's to come I have to be
careful as anything I tell you falls into this vaporware
category. I've been hesitant to give details of what
we're working on for multiple reasons. 1) It's not
available to you yet and 2) We obviously don't want others
seeing what we're doing just yet and 3) It can and will
change between now and the time it's released. As many
know I hate giving out dates as it's the kiss of death for
software development! Software development simply
takes longer than even developers imagine so I tell our team
that we are to take our time, do it right, test it
thoroughly and when it's done, we release. There's
nothing worse than having to put out an update every week
which only indicates poor quality and testing.
Running silent for a long period of time is also not good
as you, the customer, get uneasy about what the heck we're
doing. So I'd like to take this opportunity to tell
you what we have been doing, what we are working on, and
where we expect to be in the next year. We are in no
way neglecting our software or you, the customer, quite the
contrary! We have been hard at work on the next
version of Logbook Pro. Logbook Pro vNext (we don't
have the official title/version yet) is a complete ground up
rewrite setting a new baseline and platform for which to
build upon based on the latest Microsoft .NET technologies.
Logbook Pro vNext has been in development for nearly two
years now and IS in the hands of a group of 30 private beta
testers sworn to secrecy. It is NOT complete or
anywhere close to being complete. The hand selected
beta members are helping shape the logbook of the future
before it is developed, not after. They are following
along our every step of the way testing every feature as it
is designed and participating in the requirements of the
development process.
Logbook Pro's next version is unlike anything ever
developed and will set the new bar for aviation logbooks
including flight, ground, maintenance, instructor, etc.
Logbook Pro vNext will support the single user from student
through airline pilot as well as the new multi-user
enterprise features including group and user management,
role based security and other enterprise features.
Logbook Pro vNext enables organizations such as flying
clubs, corporations, or even airlines to use Logbook Pro
with an enterprise database such as Microsoft SQL Server.
Logbook Pro will also offer multi-logbook functionality
allowing pilots to segregate their data such as keeping a
civilian logbook and a military logbook and working with
them separately or combined. We now have the most
comprehensive worldwide airport database with over 33,000
facilities allowing you to enable distance and night
calculations, time zone integration, and more. Logbook
Pro includes the most robust Outlook style personal
information management (PIM) system to manage calendar data
and people. We will offer full support for digital
documents, endorsements, sign-offs, forms management,
images, etc. We are also offering the first ever
system for creating your own reports from scratch using a
powerful report designer. The ability to help others
is important so we have also focused on data
interchangeability, the ability to export items such as
currencies, reports, and share your creations with others.
We don't want you to be limited by our creativity so we've
opened up the entire development community offering the
ability for other developers to add functionality to Logbook
Pro as well.
Logbook Pro vNext will take advantage of Web 2.0 offering
advanced online communications capability for communicating
with us and other online assets such as the airline schedule
importer. We are working not only on a PC version but
we will also offer a browser version of Logbook Pro allowing
you to access your Logbook Pro data from any web browser at
any computer in the world using the same interface, data,
and capabilities. In addition to the browser support
we are also planning a mobile web system so you can use ANY
PDA with a web browser, no software installations to deal
with, access from anywhere and manage your logbook via a
cell phone or Wi-Fi connection. We will be completely
rewriting our PDA solutions (Logbook Pro and APDL) after the
PC edition is code complete adding support for more
platforms as well. We'll be expanding the
synchronization systems for PC-to-PC and PC-to-Web databases
as well as enhancing the PDA synchronization experience.
Logbook Pro's next version will offer a new
user-interface making it easier than ever to navigate your
data, customize the layouts, filter your data, and create
reports of your data. We are going to provide
subscription based services such as web backup and other
useful services. We are excited about what we've been
working on and what private beta testers are working with
today. However, we have a long way to go yet and hope
we will have a public beta nearing the end of 2008.
The road ahead is an incredibly exciting one and we can't
wait to show you what we have been working on for so long
now. It will be worth the wait!
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