BillionGraves 2.0 for iOS and Android

BillionGraves 2.0 is now available for iOS and Android.

This new release comes with many new features and fixes:

• Simple New Design
• An all new simplified design makes it much easier to use. The new layout looks great in both portrait and landscape views, and runs faster than ever!
• Support for iPad and Android tablets
• BillionGraves 2.0 is available to use on your iPad. You can search records, view nearby cemeteries and check on your upload stats. Picture taking capability only available on 3G/GPS enabled iPads.
• The update also runs on all Android tablet devices with all the features that run on standard Android devices. Picture taking capability only available on GPS enabled devices.
• Favorites
• BillionGraves 2.0 now features a favorites list in the Records View where you can store and save record information of your ancestors, family members, or other records that are important to you.
• The favorites list allows you to easily access gravestone record information.
• Facebook and Twitter
• You can now easily share all of your exciting BillionGraves activity with your friends when you check-in to a cemetery or upload images.
• Linking Images
• You may have noticed there are quite a few headstones with more than one side. In the BillionGraves camera you will now find that there is a link button that allows you to connect multiple images of the same headstone.
• Just take the first picture, press the "link" button and take the next picture, press the "link" button again for other sides if necessary.
• Multi-lingual
• BillionGraves for the iPhone and iPad now supports 3 different languages. English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
• Miscellaneous Fixes
• Uploading issues, "Force Quit" problems, and a few other minor bugs have been fixed.

Download the update today in Apple's AppStore or in the Android Market.

Linking Photos of the Same Headstone

The recent Android update included numerous bug fixes and one new feature: linking images. This feature is in response to the need we’ve found (and you’ve undoubtedly seen) to link multiple images of the same headstone so anyone looking for the ancestor buried under that stone can get all the information available.

Using this feature is very simple:

1. Take a picture of one side of the headstone.
2. Tap the linking icon (the two chain links in the bottom left corner).
3. Take a picture of the other side of the headstone.

After you take the second picture, the linking will turn off. If you need to link more than two photos, just tap the linking button again after the second picture and so on until you’ve photographed the entire headstone. (You might also use it when you can get most of a headstone’s information in one shot, but because of tree roots or other immovable obstructions you need another photo to get all the information. Another opportunity for linking is when one large stone bears the family name associated with a large group of small stones surrounding it.)

Right now this feature is only available on Android, but the update to the iPhone is on its way. If you have linked photos together, right now that linking will not display on the website. The developers haven’t had a chance to implement a way to view and transcribe linked photos together. However, the website will be able to remember that the images are linked, so once we have that up and running the linking will display. We didn’t want to delay getting this feature out to you, even if it can’t display on the website, because keeping a single stone’s information together is so important.

Linking on the website will continue to evolve and improve, but for now, it’s fully functional on Android devices and you should make use of it when it’s needed. 

On a completely unrelated note: You only have a few more hours to collect your 1,000th photo and earn your t-shirt. Hurry! Get out to the cemetery and map out those stones!

Testers Needed for a New Feature

In the past, we on the BillionGraves team have gotten a lot of requests to allow photo uploads from devices that aren’t smartphones. We’ve always answered by saying that we want the information on BillionGraves to be as precise as possible, especially on details like the location of a headstone. We’ve also been neck deep in making the smartphone–website transition smoother and making the smartphone apps the best they can be.

However, a couple of the developers have had some time to put together a way to upload photos that are saved to your computer from a non-smartphone device.

Once these photos are uploaded, they will display in the search results, but they will be secondary to photos that have precise GPS locations from the mobile app. If a headstone photo is first uploaded from another source, and then later someone uploads a photo of it using the app, those two photos can be merged under one record and you’ll be able to see in the search results that the headstone’s location is verified.

(Speaking of merging photos, we’ve almost finished our system to merge duplicate images and records. Once we have that in place and have caught up on the current collection of duplicates, each record will only appear in the search results once.)

Before we open the new uploader to everyone on BillionGraves, we want to test it with a smaller group of individuals to make sure everything is working properly. If you have a collection of headstone photos you’d like to contribute to BillionGraves and you’re willing to play the guinea pig for a bit, email support@billiongraves.com. We’ll open it up to a small group and once we’re sure it works, we’ll open it up to everyone.