Release Notification Product Update HERE Platform for Business 12/2016 (D76)

Dear Customer,

please be advised that a new release (D76) of the HERE Platform for Business is now available on the Production environment (PRD).

This email includes release notes that describe the improvements to the services in the new release. This release includes updates of: Routing API, Traffic API, Public Transit API, Custom Location Extension, Fleet Connectivity Extension, Platform Data Extension, Route Match Extension, HERE Android SDK and HERE iOS SDK

As well, we will publish the release documentation on the Developer Portal.

Management Summary

The release is mainly a maintenance release; highlights are:

Truck routing improvement by introducing a penalty on u-turns at stopOver waypoints for trucks.
HERE Mobile SDK got offline capabilities for content from Custom Location Extension 2.0
Added new Truck Routing options and improved the truck routing algorithm in the HERE Mobile SDK
Multiple improvements in the HERE Mobile SDK related to routing, Venue Maps, positioning, voice guidance etc.

For more detailed information about the major improvements of the HERE Platform for Business Services and Products, see the sections below:

Routing API

Version 7.2.76

Introduced a penalty on u-turns at stopOver waypoints for trucks.
Consistency between 1x1 CalculateMatrix and CalculateRoute REST results.
Match pedestrian position to the closest surface road instead of a tunnel at the same coordinates.
Added PVID/link IDs to MobileSDK in order to support matching attributes from Platform Data Extension to a calculated route.

HERE Android SDK

Starter Edition version 3.3:

New Features:
- Added Text Autosuggestion Search.

Premium Edition version 3.3:

New Features:
- The HERE Android SDK is now packaged as an .AAR file. You no longer need to import .JAR and .so files separately.  
- Added offline capabilities to Custom Location Extensions 2.  
- Added Bike Routing as a beta feature.  
- Added Route Serialization as a beta feature.  
- Added the ability to force the HERE SDK to perform Routing and Search requests online or offline.  
- Improved fragment, map view, and waypoint support in 3D Venue Maps.  
- Added the ability to choose HERE Positioning as a data source.  
- Use sensors to improve accuracy of HERE indoor positioning.  
- Added support for CDMA networks in HERE Positioning.  
- Added new Truck Routing options and improved the truck routing algorithm.  
- Added the ability to set the Navigation Manager maneuver text output to a format compatible with Nuance TTS.

HERE iOS SDK

Starter Edition version 3.3:

New Features:
- Added Text Autosuggestion Search.
- Improved Swift support.

Premium Edition version 3.3:

New Features:
- Added offline capabilities to Custom Location Extensions 2.  
- Added Bike Routing as a beta feature.  
- Added Route Serialization as a beta feature.  
- Added the ability to force the HERE SDK to perform Routing and Search requests online or offline.  
- Improved fragment, map view, and waypoint support in 3D Venue Maps.  
- Added the ability to choose HERE Positioning as a data source.  
- Use sensors to improve accuracy of HERE indoor positioning.  
- Added support for CDMA networks in HERE Positioning.
- Added new Truck Routing options and improved the truck routing algorithm.
- Added the ability to set the Navigation Manager maneuver text output to a format compatible with Nuance TTS.

The following services had new releases with minor changes:

Public Transit API (Version 2.2.0)
Custom Location Extension API (Version 2.0.8)
Fleet Connectivity Extension API (Version 1.2.7)
Platform Data Extension API (Version 1.6.6)
Route Match Extension (Version 2.1.10)

IMPORTANT INFORMATIONS:

New requirement to document BT or Camera plist strings in iOS applications

There is a change in the policy to upload an app into Apple Store. As of iOS10 Apple scans app binaries submitted to the App store to check if code uses BT or camera and if so requires developers to include certain keys in their plist to describe reasons for using camera or BT. Since the SDK uses both camera (augmented reality) and BT (HERE positioning) all customers need to include these strings or they will get rejected from the app store which will cost them time (another apple reviews cycle). All of these keys need to be included even if the customer app does not use the related feature.

The following plist strings are required because the SDK may use the camera for AR:
<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>This is needed for the Augmented Reality feature</string>

The following plist strings are required because the SDK may use BT and "Always use Location" for HERE Positioning:
<key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
<string>This is needed to determine your current location</string>
<key>NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This is needed to determine your current location</string>