38 Changes from Sendero GPS V5 to V6.2 in 3 steps

The following list is organized from the newest to the oldest version changes beginning with v6.1 to V6.2; then, V6.0 to V6.1 and finally from V5 to V6.0.

Changes from Sendero GPS Version 6.1 to version 6.2
October 27, 2009
There are two major changes and 4 minor changes in Sendero GPS 6.2. There is no charge for users of version 6.0 or version 6.1 to upgrade.

1. Route calculation speed has been dramatically improved when route mode is set to turns only. There are no longer individual waypoints within a Turns-only route. You can still hear the individual waypoints by switching to the detailed route mode. You will see a 5 times or more speed improvement in route calculation in the Turns-only mode. 
2. Route loading and saving speed have also been improved when route mode is set to turns only.
3. The route distances, estimated time of arrival and percentage of route completed are now based on the road speed and distances designated in the map data. This pertains both to the total route distances and to the estimates of time to the next turn. Although this is an estimated time, it should be more consistently in the ballpark than it was previously. 
4. If audio or text are associated with a point of interest, which will be indicated by a beep when that POI is announced, you can press a hot key to play back the media.  On the BT press ENTER with DOTS 4-5-6 and on the QT press the slash key.  This is the key above the right arrow.
5. When editing a user POI, you can set it as a Destination, Virtual explore position or bring up the POI actions menu.
6. There are also several small software improvements to enhance the performance of Sendero GPS.
Updated manuals can be downloaded from http://www.senderogroup.com/public/62docs.zip

Changes from Sendero GPS Version 6.0 to version 6.1
September 15, 2009

There is one major change and six minor changes in Sendero GPS 6.1. There is no charge for users of version 6.0 to upgrade.

1.  POI Media content is back and even better than before! You can record voice tags for points of interest. You can also attach audio or Keysoft text files to a point of interest like a menu or time table. A sound cue will occur when you come across a POI with media content. See the manual for details on this very powerful POI media content feature.
2.  The build number of Sendero GPS is announced when you start the program.  For example Sendero GPS 6.1 Build 291.
3.  The Sendero SDK version number is now 6.1 matching the BrailleNote version. These version numbers were previously different creating some confusion.
4.  There is a new sound cue for the LookAround map change event.
5.  There is an audio logo when GPS is loading.
6.  There are some minor bug fixes under the hood.
7.  The minimum threshold to establish a heading has been increased from 0.5 mph to 0.9 mph. This should improve GPS headings among tall buildings.

Updated manuals can be downloaded from http://www.senderogroup.com/public/60docs.zip

Changes from Sendero GPS Version 5 to version 6.0
July 2, 2009

There are 25 improvements in version 6 including major and minor changes, as well as programming improvements under the hood. Many of these and other features are unique to Sendero GPS and some are not even available in commercial GPS products. 

The address module is completely revamped as are the POI search functions. See the new manual and audio tutorial for feature details.

2009 data:

1. Enjoy new 2009 maps and POIs along with zip/postal codes for some countries. The U.S. is now 11.6 GB versus the previous 10.1 GB in version 5. Maps for the US Virgin Islands have been added to the U.S. maps. More than 2 million public domain and user POIs augment the commercial points of interest bringing the total of POIs on a Sendero system for the U.S. to 15 million, far more than any other GPS product.
2. In addition to the Asia map bundle which includes (Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong) two new map bundles are available with the 2009 map update. The North America bundle includes the U.S. and Canada. Western Europe includes the UK and up to 15 countries as listed on the Sendero shopping cart. Each new or upgraded V6 product comes with your choice of one bundle or individual country if not available in one of these bundles.  

New Address features:

3. Search for addresses using zip/postal codes.  Search for addresses now by city or by zip/postal code.  When searching by zip/postal codes you will not be prompted for the city.  The postal codes for the 2009 UK map data currently supports up to 6 characters not the full 8 that are possible in the UK.  The postal codes for the 2009 Canada map data currently supports only 3 of the 6 characters.
4. Alpha/Numeric address support for those street addresses that contain characters as well as numbers.  Search by either the numeric portion or the complete alpha/numeric address.
5. Address ranges are now offered when you don’t know the address number. For example, leave the address number field blank and ENTER a street name. You can arrow through the address ranges for each block along the street you choose. For example, 200 through 299 F Street: 2 of 34.
6. List of cross streets is now in order from the start of the street to the end. This can be a handy way to arrow along a street looking for a familiar sounding cross street. You can then select that location for a destination, explore position or route.
7. When in the City field you have the option of either typing in the city name or complete address by entering the house number, street name, Colon a SPACE, the city name and ENTER. For example, 429 F: Davis.
You don’t have to put lane or Boulevard. If the match is found, you will go straight to the Address Action Menu. This allows you to ENTER a known address in one field rather than in three separate fields.
8. When in the Address number field, you can type the house number plus the street name followed by ENTER rather than typing those items in two different fields. This is a quicker way to perform an address match if you are certain of the address.
9. To help in those situations where you may be fuzzy on the details of a city or street name, there is an option to perform an exhaustive search. Instead of looking for the text you ENTERED at the beginning of the city or street name, the exhaustive search searches for a match anywhere in the potential list of names.
10. You can now back up to a previous field rather than having to quit the Address match. The last two items in the list allow you to back up one or two fields.
11. When performing an Address Lookup, your GPS or virtual position will determine which map, city or zip/postal code are displayed first in the list. Simply press ENTER to accept these selections or change them if you wish.  For example, if you are in Davis CA, when performing an Address Lookup, the state of California will be offered.  When you press ENTER, Davis will be offered as the city so you could just press ENTER.
12.  You can now hear the number ranking of each item in a list. For example, in the Map field, New York: 1 of 2. In a POI list, Peet’s: 1 of 25. The last item in the POI list is the option to continue the search, ENTER to continue or SPACE with E or ESCAPE to Exit.
13. To turn the list numbering off or on, press dots 3-4-5-6 on the BT or Shift 3 on the QT. You have to be in a list to issue this command toggle.


 New POI Features:

14. To help identify the location of a point of interest, you will now hear the street it is on with its name. For example, Davis Psychics, Bonus, E Street, 160 feet, right. This is particularly useful when searching for places like McDonalds or Starbucks which will have several locations nearby. You will quickly hear the name of the point and its street name. Starbucks, Coffee Shop, F Street, 0.22 miles, 1 o’clock.
15. Pressing F for a nearby POI search now creates a POI list rather than remaining in the main level of the GPS program. You can see details such as the POI name, category, subcategory, the street the poi is on and the city the poi is in. When viewing the Details of the POI by pressing SPACE with P or READ with P you will find a new item, this is the name of the POI file that point is in.  For example user.pdb will be displayed if you are viewing a user poi. You can also jump to a point with its first letter. For example, press P once to hear Peet’s and a second time to hear Perkos if the POI is contained in the current list. If your current position matches the city of the POI, it will be omitted from the POI details.  While you are in this list, only priority route announcements will be spoken like Approaching Turn or Turn now. The distance to the POI will be announced but that distance will not change as you move. 
16. Pressing Dot 4 on the BT or SHIFT with 3 on the QT brings up the nearest POI. It searches around you no more than one second. If there is no nearby POI within 800 feet or so, press SPACE with Dot 4 on the BT or Down Arrow on the QT to search further. You remain at the main level of the GPS program and the distance to the highlighted POI will change as you move.
17. When performing a search with Back SPACE with F on the BT or CONTROL with F on the QT, a beginning distance will be offered but no ending distance. Instead, the search will last for up to 10 seconds no matter the distance.

Other Improvements:

18. The SPACE with C on the BT or READ with C on the QT (Location details) command presents the user an even more detailed list of information about the current location. In addition to the previous items like address range, county, zip and so forth, one can now hear 16 total items including Neighborhood, speed limit and map being used. You can use the first letter of the item to hop from field to field, C for City, County and country for example.   Additional information has been added to the road class information such as Pedestrian only, Split Street, One-Way, Bridge, Tunnel, etc.
19. The Lat/Lon information is now handled in a list so you can hear each value separately. This is particularly important for speech users. You also have the option to toggle between degrees, minutes and seconds or decimals degrees. Press Y for Lat/Lon and use the arrow keys to check the values or choose the toggle. Press SPACE with E or ESCAPE to exit this list. 
20. The Route Information command, R I, now creates a list.  You will see items such as type of route and if the route needs to be saved.
21. When a route is loaded and the destination is reached, the default is for the route to automatically close. You can toggle this ON or OFF under Route Management, shortcut R M C. If you turn it off, the route will remain open after you reach the destination until you close it.
22. Improvements have been made in manual route recording.
23. There are a number of improvements in how information is presented on the Braille display for better readability. The word (Intersection) after the automatic announcement of intersections has been replaced with the letter X for Braille users.
24. A number of prompts have been changed. Turn behind has been changed to Turn around. You will come across others like Approaching Transition instead of Approaching turn ahead.
25. Under the Heading-Orientation menu item in GPS Options, there’s a sailing mode.  In sailing mode, directional information is expressed in terms of left/right, relative degrees and absolute compass direction. For example, the "Golden Gate Bridge is 1.3 miles south, 90 degrees left."  The above example assumes your current heading is west, you would need to turn left 90 degrees and start moving towards the Golden gate bridge.  Once you make the turn and your heading is updated, you will see "Golden Gate Bridge is 1.3 miles south, 0 degrees ahead." You will even hear if the relative heading is a few degrees ahead one way or the other. This heading mode is not only for sailing. Think of it as a left/right mode on steroids.
For more information, call Sendero Group at 1-888-757-6810 or email GPS@SenderoGroup.com
