JeremyA

Warning, this message contains shameless plugs, but you asked... I am not aware of any GPS units that work with the Mac natively out of the box. However, as mentioned by a previous poster, there is quite a lot of Mac software out there. And, if all else fails, there is always virtual PC. I have been trying to bring a few other things to the Mac platform by putting GUI's on UNIX programs. So far I have done cmconvert, which will convert GPX or LOC files downloaded from the geocaching website for use with the CacheMate software on a Palm OS PDA. I am currently working on gpsbabel, which converts between many GPS-related file formats, allows for some fairly good filtering options, and will upload/download with from a GPS unit. If you get a Garmin I would also highly recommend terrabrowser. There is also someone on these forums working on software to connect Magellans and Macs but I can't for the life of me remember its name (and all my searches failed). JeremyA EDIT: found it! Magellan Waypoint Manager - it looks pretty good, although I can't test it because I have a Garmin.

If I am understanding you correctly, you are referring to the fact that when you search geocaching.com for caches, check next to the caches that you want, and select to download as a loc file, the resulting file is always called geocaching.loc? If that is what you are asking about then yes, this is the correct behaviour. My browser will automagically rename then for me as geocaching1.loc, goecaching2.loc etc... However, you will get much better results if, instead of downloading in this manner, you sign up as a premium member and get the pocket queries. JeremyA

I haven't logged them yet because so many others have already, but I found it strange that the Sears tower in Chicago has two stations, one for the east TV mast and another for the west TV mast. I wouldn't have thought that having two such stations so close together would be very useful. JeremyA

Good to know... I know about the Missing Sync, and if this were to come bundled with new PalmOS PDAs then that would be fine. In fact I don't use Palm Desktop as I use iSync to sync my Mac's PIM stuff with my Palm - but this still needs the Hotsync Manager and Install Tool so ideally these things would remain. JeremyA

PalmSource aren't my favourite company at the moment - as they have just announced that they will be dropping Mac support from future versions of the Palm OS. Grrrrr. JeremyA

You've obviously never seen WindowsPE JeremyA

I think that gpsbabel will do what you want. JeremyA

Being a CacheMate fan, I'd suggest CacheMate with the Mac version of CMConvert. The spinner/plucker method will also work on Mac OS X, if you are that way inclined. JeremyA

Aaaah, not THIS Jeremy but THAT Jeremy <light bulb goes on> It all makes sense now.

Unless she already owns a copy of Virtual PC it would be cheaper for her to buy a copy of MacGPS Pro or GPSy both of which still support OS 9. Neither of these programs are freeware but that are a lot cheaper than Virtual PC. Jeremy p.s Virtual PC also requires installing an entirely new operating system. It is a PC emulator on top of which you install Windows.

My in-laws have one of the original iMacs and are running OS X on it with no problems. When Apple went from OS 9 to OS X, it wasn't equivalent to a Windows 95 to Windows 98 update, it was more like the Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 upgrade (try running those 'latest GPS programs' that you refer to on Win 3.1). Apple went from their old in-house operating system to a completely new operating system which is based on UNIX. As far as I am concerned this was an extremely good move, and was one of the reasons that I returned to the Mac platform after a few years away from it. Anyway, the practical upshot of this is that OS 9 cannot run most programs that run on OS X. It is actually possible to make programs that will run on both but not many people bother any more - the change from OS 9 to OS X was three years ago after all. There did used to be GPS software available for OS 9 and if you search hard enough you may still find it. But I imagine that, for most Mac developers, continuing to support OS 9 would be equivalent to Windows developers continuing to support Windows 3.1 JeremyA

Try here. I am also in the middle of an ongoing project to put a Mac OS X GUI on gpsbabel JeremyA

With a Mac and a Palm (there are some available at very low prices on eBay) you can go paperless very easily. The only thing that you can't do natively on the Mac is upload maps to a Garmin or Magellan unit (you could, however do this with Virtual PC). I started to put together a list of the software that I use with my GPS unit/Palm but it is unfinished because I got bored of that and set about putting a Mac OS X GUI on gpsbabel instead. JeremyA

Hmmm, I tried your exact input on my computer (Apple Powerbook running OS X 10.2.8) and it failed with geotoad-3.0.1. I downloaded the geotoad-3.0.6 and it worked fine. The only thing I can think of is - were you trying to run geotoad from the directory that it is in. I get a similar error to yours if I try to invoke geotoad from another directory. Otherwise, if I were you I would contact the developer of geotoad. JeremyA

It's still there when I try it. JeremyA

Yes, but it is a little tricky... What you will need to do is set up Pocket Queries along your route (you could also use something like Geotoad to download the all caches in each of the states you will pass through). Then use gpsbabel or one of its derivatives (maybe GSAK can do this?). First you need to make an arc file, this will take your route and convert it into the format that gpsbabel can use as a filter. Then use gpsbabel to combine all the Pocket Query files into a single file that is filtered by a distance that you set from your route. Gpsbabel will output a loc or gpx file (or one of about 20 other formats). JeremyA

Is there any software, Mac or Windows, that does what you describe? As far as MacGPSBabel is concerned, it is intended solely as a GUI front-end for gpsbabel. As such I am just giving access to functions that are already available in gpsbabel. Going beyond the feature-set of gpsbabel is not my intention, so I'm afraid that uploading hints to your GPSr isn't going to happen. My GPSr isn't even capable of showing that sort of data, that's why I have CacheMate - it carries the descriptions, my GPSr gets me there. JeremyA

Yes, my ******** server isn't updating properly. Try clearing you cache in your web browser and downloading it again. If that doesn't get you to 1.0b3.1 email me (jeremy at jfatherton dot co dot uk) and I will send you a copy. JeremyA

Hey, why would you want to compile your own copy of cmconvert when you have my front-end Only joking. There is an easy way to get the UNIX version and a not-so-easy way. The easy way is to right-click (control-click) on the MacCMConvert icon and select 'show package contents' from the drop-down list. Navigate to the resources folder and you will find the UNIX version of cmconvert already compiled for you (by me). If you prefer you can install expat on your computer (either through fink or download it from sourceforge and compile it yourself). Optionally you can also download and install libzzip which will enable cmconvert to work with zipped pocket queries. Then cmconvert should build and install without any problems. JeremyA

Can you you do me a favour and check the 'About MacGPSBabel' and check that you managed to get version 1.0b3.1 The reason I ask is that my webserver is doing strange things to me (like serving older versions of the software that don't exist any more), and the error you get *should* be fixed in beta 3.1 (well it worked earlier today anyway). Jeremy

Beta 3.1 of MacGPSBabel is now on my website - all being well this version will work with keyspan usb-serial adapters. JeremyA

The latest beta of MacGPSBabel does everything (and possibly more) that the windows front-end will do. The upload/download from GPSr should work too, however there was a problem with keyspan adapters that I have now fixed but haven't got round to uploading to my website yet - it would have been nice if you had contacted me to let me know that it didn't work for you (that is the point of releasing beta software after all). JeremyA p.s. despite the warnings in Terrabrowser I have never had any problems with it's GPSr upload/download, and I find it by far the best solution available for this.

Terrabrowser - similar USAPhotoMap but on Mac OS X. Does projections of waypoints onto Terraserver photos/maps + upload/download of waypoints to/from GPSr.

I've just uploaded a new beta of MacGPSBabel to my website: http://www.jfatherton.co.uk/MacGPSBabel/ It can now handle all of the file conversions that gpsbabel will do. If no one finds any bugs then I will turn this into the 1.0 release. thanks, JeremyA

It's not so much that your Mac can't handle the EasyGPS software - I'm sure that there is nothing too taxing in there (and it would probably be fairly easy for its authors to write a port). It's more that EasyGPS is written for computers that run the Windows OS and your new Mac runs the Mac OS. Try these alternatives: Terrabrowser Mac SimpleGPS or one of the not-so-free applications like MacGPS Pro or GPSy JeremyA