Application Name: Daylight World Map
Description: Shows day/night regions in world map.
Publisher’s website: SPWebGames
Cost: Free (ad-supported
Version/date reviewed: v.2.31 / 6-15-11
Phone/OS: Droid X / Android 2.2
Daylight World Map is the Android version of the classic Geochron wall clock that shows day/night conditions on a scrolling world map, but without the multi-thousand-dollar price tag.
Shaded areas indicate night (sun below horizon, while light areas indicate daylight; the yellow dot is the current location where the sun is directly overhead. Red dots are cities (which can be turned on/off), and the crosshairs show the current selected location.
The control icons on the left/right are a bit cryptic. On the left, top to bottom, they are:
- Full-screen – Shows the map view full screen, without control icons or the ad.
- Zoom in
- Zoom out
- Info – Toggles an info box for the currently selected location:
- Settings – Lets you select the map background, turn cities on/off, and turn the info box on/off:
- Exit – Exits the program.
The right controls:
- Set location – Select this, and then choose either your phone location (at the top of the list), or the desired country:
- After selecting a country, you’re given an additional control to select the city:
- Date control – Lets you change the date for which the sunlight map is displayed (from the default, which is the current date).
- Time control – Lets you change the time for the sunlight map (default is now). It’s in UTC (Greenwich time), so you’ll need to know the offset in hours between your current time zone and Greenwich time.
- Time controls – The right/left arrow controls let you speed up/slow down/reverse time, and watch an animated view how the daylight zone changes. Tap on either of these buttons, and a “stop” button shows up below them to stop the animation. Tap on the “stop” button, and it changes to an “RT” button, “real-time”, that brings the display back to the current day and time.
As a bonus, it installs an Android widget that displays a mini-map on any Android screen that has enough free space. Long-tap on the widget, and it starts up the full app.
Other issues: Crashed once on me, but otherwise worked fine.
Final thoughts: A nice implementation of a day/night world map. I wish the icons were a bit more intuitive, and easier to view onscreen. But once you learn how they work, it’s not too tough to remember what functions they represent.