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Reviews => Other Reviews => Topic started by: GunLink on September 08, 2012, 08:28:04 PM

Title: LateNiteIT's Project Appleseed AQT Score Android App
Post by: GunLink on September 08, 2012, 08:28:04 PM
We've been playing around with a couple of Project Appleseed (http://gunlink.info/forums/index.php?board=87.0) related android apps that are available online from a developer called LateNiteIT (http://www.lateniteit.com).  See our review of the AQT Timer App here (http://gunlink.info/forums/index.php?topic=733.0).

One app is an AQT (army qualification test) scoring app.  Project Appleseed uses a "quick and dirty AQT (http://store.rwvaappleseed.com/page4.html)" to assess participants' shooting skills.  The test is shot in four stages:


The scoring of the Quick & Dirty AQT differs slightly from the standard AQT.  For instance, the score of the fourth stage is doubled because only half the number of shots are fired.  Also, since there are fewer rapid-fire targets in stages two and three, the expert qualification score is raised to 210.

The Appleseed AQT Score app (available from the Google Play store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_matthewryanc.AppleseedAQTScore) as well as other sources (http://www.appbrain.com/app/appleseed-aqt-score/appinventor.ai_matthewryanc.AppleseedAQTScore)) helps out by making it easy to score your completed targets.  Perfect if you want to make extra sure that you're scoring correctly or if you're lazy or bad at math or any combination of the above.

(http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n609/GunLink/Web/score1.jpg)  (http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n609/GunLink/Web/score2.jpg)

The app is easy to use.  Each stage has a picture of the target(s) that you're shooting at.  When there are multiple targets on one stage, the one that you're currently scoring is highlighted.  Below that are big, friendly buttons with the possible scores (0, 3, 4, 5), touch the button to score a shot.  Once the number of shots for a given target in a stage have been entered, the scoring moves on to the next target in the stage.  Likewise, once all shots for a given stage are entered, scoring moves on to the next stage.

While you are scoring the target, it keeps a running tally of your score.  The app also lets you know what the highest score that you would be able to get given what you've scored so far.  That is, if your first shot scores a 4 rather than a 5, your highest achievable score goes from 250 to 249.

This scoring app does what it's supposed to do and does it pretty well, especially given that it's a free app.  Of course, scoring the targets is just a matter of simple arithmetic, adding together a few low numbers for each target, but sometimes you might just be having "one of those days" where basic math doesn't go so well.  This could be especially true if you've been laying on the ground in the dirt and mud with the sun/rain/etc beating down on you, concentrating on practicing good marksmanship skills.

We can, however, see some potential features that could be included in future releases.  We didn't like that you have to use the menu key to exit (and confirm exit) from the app.  Using the device's back button seems to close the app but a check of running apps on the device shows that this isn't true.  It wouldn't be so bad since this feature might save you from losing your place if you accidentally hit the back button, but during that "false close" the app resets the score.

Another feature that would be nice is clearer indications of what score you're currently entering - which shot for which target in which stage.  That information is generally available on the display, but making it clearer would be nice.  Maybe a "currently scoring" section of the display that says "Stage number ___, Shot number ___ of ___ on target ___ of ___".

Also, the current total score is displayed, but the total score for the individual stage isn't updated until all shots have been entered.  Having it update the stage score after each shot (or, at least, after each target of a stage) would be a helpful feature.

The developer notes for the app say that that they used Android App Inventor to create the app, which accounts for it's relatively large size (almost 4MB installed) for what is basically a calculator.  The ability to move it from internal storage to an SD card would be a nice touch.