Rockfax App in Beta Testing

The Rockfax App is in the final stages of preparation and currently out with beta-testers (become a beta-tester). We anticipate this process taking a couple of weeks and then the App will need to be cleared with the App Store and the first version will be on release.

App-RF-News-blog

This represents the end of 3 years of work for us, and for Stephen Horne in particular. The has involved creating both a stand-alone app with all its functionality, and processing all the data that we have in our back catalogue of books. Currently this latter work is only part way through although we do have information from 12 areas ready for release with the App and another few that should follow soon after.

Ready for Release with the App – 

Ariege, Dolomites, Dorset (Sport and Trad), Dorset Bouldering, Eastern Grit, Gower Sport Climbing, Lofoten, Northern Limestone, North Wales Climbs, Peak Limestone, Pembroke, Siurana, West Country Climbs

Following on soon after –

Costa Blanca, Kalymnos, Clwyd (with the new book), Mallorca (with the new book)

In preparation –

El Chorro, Haute Provence, Cote d’Azur, Languedoc Roussillon, Western Grit, Northern England

(Unfortunately the work required to extract the data from the older books is disproportionately difficult and takes significantly longer).

The Rockfax app itself will be a free download with plenty of free content including a sample crag for most areas. It has an extremely useful map which locates you and adds all the information from the UKC Directory and UKC Logbook crags list so that you can now find a crag, shop, wall, accommodation, etc. easily when you are out and about. The App also contains the UKC and UKH Photos of the Week making both previous UKC Apps redundant.

iPhone6-working-screenshot-map

The majority of the Rockfax crag and route information is by way of paid in-App purchases for individual crags or bundles or crags. The first release does not have the option to buy a full area guide but this will be being added in the near future and full guides will be available at decent discount, likely to be around 2/3 the price of the equivalent book.

You are given the option to log into your UKC account so that you can start managing your UKC logbook direct from the App. Currently we have comments and photos being sent the other direction from the UKC Logbook system to the App so thousands of routes have photos available, and there are many comments. In future grade and star votes will also be displayed in the App, and allowed from the App.

The finished App is expected to be available in a few weeks time – announcements will be made both here and on UKC. If you would like to become a beta-tester for us then check this thread on UKClimbing for information on how to get involved.

We are working on an Android version and hope to have more news on this over the next few months.

 

0

Leave a Reply

Cart

loader