JeremyA

Try upgrading to MacGPSBabel 1.2.5 (the release not the beta) and then use 'Geocaching.com .loc' as the input format (.loc files are NOT 'Geocaching database' format). JeremyA

Terrabrowser (if you have OS X 10.3 try the beta of version 1.5) might do what you are looking for. I list a bunch of other Mac-friendly software at http://www.jfatherton.co.uk/MacCMConvert/ JeremyA p.s. The new version of MacGPSBabel (1.2.5) might work directly with the USB.

We finally got MacGPSBabel 1.2.5 out of the door today, which has the vCard support. Convert a GPX file to vCard format and you can put it in your iPod's contacts folder to view the caches on your iPod. Jeremy

You actually don't need this step - MacGPSBabel will take multiple input files... Just keep on adding files until you are done and then upload them all to your GPS in one go. As an aside - in test versions of MacGPSBabel running on OS 10.3.8 we have had some success with communicating with the USB Garmin GPSrs. There are still a few bugs to iron out and I could do with some more people to test it - so anyone running OS X 10.3.8 with a USB Garmin who wants to try USB communication should email me and I will send you a test build. JeremyA

I think that the problems you are experiencing would be best addressed by the author of CacheMate. Although the he does frequent these forums I would suggest that you are more likely to get a timely and useful response if you report your problems through the Smittyware website. There you will find both a dedicated forum for CacheMate and a technical support email address that will allow you to contact the author directly. JeremyA

I keep a list of some Mac OS X geocaching-related software. You can read it at: http://jfatherton.0catch.com/MacCMConvert/geomac.html As you use a magellan, Magellan Waypoint Manager might be particularly useful to you. JeremyA

Mac support!

Cachemate will export waypoints as 'Geomarks' which are special address book entries that show up as waypoints in Mapopolis. JeremyA

It sounds like you need to install a driver for your serial/USB adapter. If no software came with it you might find the driver is downloadable from the manefacturers website. Jeremy

Hi, Perhaps, rather than looking for something else you might like to help me find out why MacGPSBabel is causing your system to freeze. It certainly shouldn't do this and I would like to try to fix it for you, but I can only fix bugs if they are reported to me. JeremyA

Not quite for dummies, but I list a selection of Mac software useful for geocaching at http://www.jfatherton.co.uk/MacCMConvert/geomac.html. For your Magellan you might find Magellan Waypoint Manager a good bet. JeremyA

You can get a cable that will do the Vista to Zire 71 connection here - there is no lighter-socket connection on this one though. JeremyA

Using a usb-serial adapter like those available from Keyspan, IOGear and a number of other manefacturers (I use an IOGear one) you will be able to upload/download waypoints and tracks to/from an eTrex Legend (though not the newer LegendC). If you want to upload maps to the Legend you will need to use either a PC or VirtualPC on your Mac. I find the basemap on my Legend fits my needs and so I have never bothered buying extra maps for it. Jeremy

I have been using Terrabrowser for a while now. It sounds like you have one of the alpha versions of Terrabrowser 1.5 - The author has been doing public development with this new version and each new alpha adds new features, but not everything is available yet. If you get Terrabrowser 1.1 all of the features (including printing I think) will be functional. When you pan off of a map it is something to do with the way the USGS server works. Coverage for the topo maps and aerial photos is for the whole of the US - usually if you carry on panning you will get the maps back, otherwise flipping between the photos and topo maps will usually get you going again. You can also try zooming out as the photos have higher resolution available than the maps. The exception is the colour aerial photos - coverage for these is restricted to a few urban areas, although I think that they are increasing the coverage all the time. JeremyA

I have no idea how to do the maps, but I know that Garmin USB support for waypoints/tracks on the Mac is being actively worked on in the gpsbabel camp - maybe you would think of throwing some of that $30 their way Going on a slight tangent - I have been working on and off on a project that ralann here got me in to. The idea is to write a geocaching database application for Mac users. I have a 'proof-of-concept' type program already running that can take a PQ, let you view its contents, manipulate it with gpsbabel (ie run filters) and then export to cachemate and/or your GPS unit. I am not a professional programmer, so progress has been slow. As such, it has been my intention to start an open-source project in the hope that other programmers might get on board and help make it happen. I don't think that it is really ready for release to the world yet, but if anyone here that knows Cocoa programming (or would like to learn Cocoa programming) would like to have some code to play with they should email me. JeremyA

Yes, urm well... that's probably my fault. I messed something up in MacCMConvert and I haven't had the time yet to fix it. Hopefully I'll get it sorted out soon. JeremyA

Pretty much the same solutions as work on the PC work on the Mac... You can use Cachemate on your Palm (with cmconvert on the Mac), or spinner (you need to use the online version) and Plucker. Cachemate is probably the easiest route to take. JeremyA

Well that would be a good excuse if these specs weren't freely available on Apple's website, but they are. It seems more likely to me that Garmin don't do Mac OS programming because they perceive that the rewards in terms of extra custom would be less than the cost in terms of man hours etc. that they would have to put in. Equally they don't want to make it easy for third-party programmers to write software to get maps etc. onto their units because selling the maps is one of their major revenue sources. JeremyA

I've updated MacCMConvert to include basic support for cm2gpx. Better integration will follow but it seems to work well as it is. thanks, JeremyA

I can confirm that this compiles and runs on OS X (10.3.5) - I'm looking at incorporating it into MacCMConvert. thanks, JeremyA

That page seems to include a bit of a slip-up by palmOne - near the top of the page it says: GPS Units for Tungsten T3 /T5 / Zire 72 /Treo 650 The T5 hasn't even been announced yet - I guess that this means it's coming soon. JeremyA

No, Garmin has not seen fit to write any Mac software yet. So, for getting maps to a Legend your choice will be find someone with a PC or use Virtual PC. No and probably not. You can use a re-radiating antenna with a legend but so far my reception has always been good enough that I haven't felt the need to get one Welcome! There may be something on my (still unfinished!) webpage that will help you: http://jfatherton.0catch.com/MacCMConvert/geomac.html JeremyA

I can help with the first part... Going by the downloads of MacGPSBabel vs. gpsbabel just from www.gpsbabel.org (and not including downloads from VT or MacUpdate as that would be cheating), I get the Mac market share for GPS related software to be about 8.6%. The Groundspeak forums have 33,751 members at the time of posting. So if you post about Mac software here you are potentially talking to 2917 people. Of those, how many have a Lowrance iFinder? - That I don't know. JeremyA

Not really what you're asking for but here's how I would do this: Just carry camera and GPSr. Before you start clear all tracks and waypoints from the GPSr. Start your journey. Whenever you take a photo, mark a waypoint on your GPSr. When you get home upload the pictures from your camera and use something like gpsbabel to get the track and waypoints to your computer as two GPX files. Now load both of these GPX files up to GPS Visualizer to view them both superimposed on a map/aerial photo. To be really clever you could even write a script that catalogued the folder containing the photos and edited the GPX file of waypoints so that each waypoint had a URL pointing to the photo on your hard-drive. Then, when viewing the map at GPS Visualizer you could click on the waypoints to view the photo associated with that waypoint. JeremyA

From the CacheMate website at Smittyware: MemoPad Import/Export From the cache list view, you may import information from a specially-formatted MemoPad record by selecting Import Record from the list view Record menu. A list of visible memo records will be displayed for selection. Memo import is currently disabled for Palm OS Cobalt devices, due to compatibility issues. The memo format for importing consists of the cache name, waypont name, and coordinates on the first 3 lines, followed by sections for the cache description and hints. The description and hints sections are both optional, and must be preceded by lines reading "Desc:" and "Hints:", respectively. Between the first 3 lines and the description/hints sections, terrain and difficulty ratings may be optionally included, on lines starting with "Terr: " and "Diff: ", respectively. A template demonstrating this format is in the included file MemoTemplate.txt. There is an option in the Preferences dialog for automatically deleting memos that are imported. If this option is not enabled, memo records that are imported are left in the Memopad database. Cache information and logs are exported separately, using the Export Record and Export Log options in the record view Record menu. The exported information is in the same format used for importing, but the description and hint text will be in separate memo records if they are both specified. Exported logs contain all of the information displayed in the Log section of the record view. From the list view, cache logs for all records in the current category may be exported using the Export Logs option of the Record menu. Caches for which there is no hunt date set will be skipped.