PrediSat

PrediSat is an Android app that grabs Iridium flare and satellite pass data from Heavens-Above.com and formats it for the small screen of the phone. It also includes a few features to make satellite watching easier, such as alerts, countdowns, and night mode.

Links

PrediSat in Android Market (Android-only link)
PrediSat on AppBrain
Heavens-Above (the source of satellite data for PrediSat)

Pro version

The Pro version (to be released) adds some advanced features on top of what is available in the free version. It may also include early features that will later be added to the free version.
Price will be $1.
Some features currently planned for first release:

• Ads disabled by default, can be toggled.
  
• Sightings log.
  
• Adjust backlight brightness for night mode by numeric value, useful since different phones have a different minimum brightness.
  
• Set multiple alert times (comma separated).
  
• Automatic creation of alerts according to a set magnitude.

Changelog

^ = Error report from a Froyo user
Dates are based on GMT.

v1.0.5 [under development]

• Try setting timezone automatically at launch if not set.
  
• Fixed parser to work with trimmed HTML, usually by carrier for optimization. (Thanks to SkepticBarista!)
  
• Fixed expired alerts being triggered on service modification/start if alert time is set to 0.
  

v1.0.4 [2010-09-02]

• Fixed event timer timezone not being calculated properly for timezones different from phone.
  
• Significantly reduced possibility of alerts being skipped because of lag.
  
• Workaround for crashes caused in parsing, tries loading cache instead.
  

v1.0.3 [2010-08-31]

• Save coordinates when opening preferences.
  
• Fixed alert time not applying to existing alerts when changed.
  
• ^Fixed crash when both pass periods are selected & one of them returns no passes.
  
• ^Fixed crash when alert is triggered & ringtone was not configured.
  
• Fixed DST sometimes being 'forgotten' while running in background as service.
  

v1.0.1 and v1.0.2 [2010-08-28]

• Fixed two crash bugs in the web browser.
  

v1.0.0 [2010-08-28]

• Initial release to the Android Market!
  

Started development on 2010-06-29

Known issues

• Clock is often off by more than a few seconds even when synchronized with carrier. Planned solution: Use an NTP server.
  
• DST used is same as phone, so time is inaccurate if configured for a timezone currently using a different DST offset.
  
• Timezone detection is extremely limited due to inconsistency between definitions in Java and Heavens-Above.
  
• Repeatedly closing when launched. (reported by Spencer via Market comment) - Unable to fix without stacktrace or reproducible steps.