aka Monkey

I'm not too concerned about most of those. Bushnell has a good reputation and has been around for many years. Whether their support is any good remains to be seen. But the unit offers features that seem a long way away from what Garmin currently offers, and IMHO the interface looks much better than Garmin's (and oodles better than Magellan's). The 360 x 240 resolution ought to be beautiful compared to the 160 x 240 that Garmin offers on the 60CX. Regardless, I'm happy to see there's another serious player in the mix. Garmin has been resting on their laurels a bit on my opinion. They're very slow to come out with significant model updates (HOW long did it take them to add MicroSD card support?), and they haven't offered anything really innovative in the GPS market for a while. Color screens? Bleah, cell phones have had them for years. More memory? Heck, an iPod Shuffle has oodles more memory than what comes in the Garmin units. Competition will do nothing but spur everyone to innovate, and hopefully bring prices down as well. Look at what Apple has done to the computer market. Before the iMac everything was beige boxes, and now the other computer makers are scrambling to keep up.

I've seen some mention of the upcoming ONIX 400CR fom Bushnell, which looks very cool. However I was curious whether anyone knows whether it offers turn-by-turn driving directions the way the Garmin units do. If it does, it's starting to look a bit like a Garmin killer to me. I gather that the satellite maps use a special .pho format that you can drag-and-drop onto the SD card to install. If that's true, then you could potentially subscribe to their service for a single year (just long enough to download all the maps you need) and then let your subscription expitre until you feel like updating again.

Poorly.

Has anyone heard any news on when Garmin plans to release MapSource for the Mac? Their last official announcement said they planned to have all their software Mac compatible by the end of 2006. Could they possibly be waiting for the release of 10.5 for some reason?

Of course, this will all be moot when Garmin finally releases their software for OS X, as they promised to do last year.

Yay!

Unfortunately, the RSS page doesn't seem to list any of the MapSource products, only the individual units, so I don't think it will work.

I get tired of frequently checking Garmin's website looking for the Mac OS X version of MapSource. I thought I might go ahead and start this thread and subscribe to it, and others can do the same. That way, when Garmin finally releases MapSource for OS X if someone replies to this thread with the news, everyone can be notified at once.

I recently purchased some inexpensive 2-way radios and did some extensive research ahead of time. I ended up with the Uniden GMR1588-2CK radios. They come with rechargable Ni-MH battery packs and charging stands, weather radio, good range (not as good as indicated unless you're on the surface of the moon I suspect), and as you can see from the link they're pretty inespensive. Reviews on the Motorolas I looked at indicated that they never got anywhere close to the range they advertised, had really bad audio quality, and they were quite a bit more expensive. Cobra has a mixed reputation, with some of their products performing well below expectations, so I generally avoid them. I haven't had an opportunity to really test the range, but they work well otherwise and are very clear.

When I was a kid I read about GPS navigation in a magazine (Omni? Popular Science?) and thought it was really cool, this idea of knowing exactly where you are anywhere on the planet. I heard about it periodically over the years, and promised I would get myself a GPS unit if the price ever dropped to $100 (I couldn't justify it for any reason other than being cool, so I wasn't willing to spend more than that, and at the time they still cost many hundreds of dollars). Years later I was in EMS with my dad and saw the Yellow eTrex on sale for $150. Close enough. Selective Availability was turned off a few weeks after that, and to be honest I'm not sure where I heard about Geocaching, but it was about a year later. I found my first cache on September 15, 2001, a few days after the attack on the World Trade Centers. I remember how quiet it was with no planes in the sky, and it was a very strange experience writing in the log. The whole idea seemed so trivial at that time, but it brought a smile to my face and reminded me that the most important things in life are really the ones that make you happy, no matter how small or meaningless. It all seemed so innocent back then. Now, we have fights about numbers and ratings, caches are placed in parking lots, and it seems like every cache I find is filled with broken toys and golf balls—all of it exemplifying the selfishness and thoughtlessness of people. The hikes are often enjoyable, but the caches themselves so often leave me disappointed. I hope someday Groundspeak is willing to make some changes to the activity, but as popular as it is now I don't really see it happening. And since there's little money to be made in the sport, I don't have a lot of hope for seeing competant rivals spring up anytime in the future (yes, they're out there, but they still aren't anywhere near as good as Geocaching.com, despite its faults). Heck, all Jeremy would really need to do is open GeocachingPro.com, and make a few changes to the base system (a cache rating system being the most fundamental one). Charge people $100 a year to join. I'd be one of the first to sign up, if I could be sure that the next cache I seek isn't going to be by a highway and filled with expired coupons and business cards. You know, a cache that would put a smile on my face, like it did in the beginning. Good Lord, am I pining for the days of yore? I must be getting old... Are there any other old-time cachers out there (2001 or earlier)? Does the sport seem much different to you, or am I just remembering the way things never were?

As a Mac user, I have to acknowledge that I really can't blame them. Mac users make up less than 4% of the market. It's a lot of time and money to develop for such a small percentage, particularly now that Intel Mac users can boot into Windows. Kudos to Garmin for making the jump, even if it isn't until the end of the year.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but MacSimple GPS doesn't work with USB, does it?

I have a G5. MacGPSBabel doesn't work yet unfortunately... I'm running it on my G5 desktop machine and it works OK connecting to my 60CSx using the USB cable. If you can spare the dough, I'd strongly recommend MacGPS Pro. It's not terribly expensive, and it works well with Garmin USB devices. He offers a money-back gauarntee if you don't like it.

What kind of iMac do you have (G5? Intel? Other?)? I've found that MacGPSBabel works well for converting files and communicated with my 60CSx over USB very well. MacGPS Pro communicates with it too, although it's a paid program.

So, I have to ask... if people keep reporting about Magellan's horrible tech support, and Garmin's great support, why do people keep on buying Magellans? I suppose it's why only 4% of the population uses Macs. The rest of you prefer to come home every day, take off your shoes, hang up your coat, and then punch yourselves repeatedly in the face. Have fun. We'll be waiting to welcome you when you're ready to enjoy your lives.

Grammar is a fairly simple set of rules. Anyone without a learning disability should be able to learn them. A person who does not do so generally indicates one of two things to me: 1) They are incapable of learning them, which is an indicator of intelligence. 2) They don't give a dadgum, which is an indicator of attitude. Between the two, I am able to judge whether I care about what the person has to say and whether their comments are likely to have any importance. But then again, I'm arrogant and pretentious.

A recent study showed that wearing a tinfoil hat to protect you from government mind control rays not only won't work, it might actually amplify the signal. What caught my eye, though, was that the frequencies which are amplified are the same frequencies as used by GPS. Could wrapping your unit in a double-thick layer of aluminum foil increase the reception? Aluminum Foil Hats

I posted a message suggesting that people donate to the US group which helps fight cruelty to animals, but my post was deleted by the moderator. Apparently charitable solicitations are forbidden by the board rules.

Am I correct in my assumption that the cache itself doesn't require a stamp to be a letterbox hybrid, merely that you should sign the log with a stamp?

FTF means First To Find.

This is my preferred caching vehicle unless we're headed off-road:

Good things to find in caches varies from person to person, but popular items are: * Signature items * Batteries (lithiums are great finds) * Interesting coins * Interesting rocks/fossils Bad things to leave in caches: * Golf balls * McToys * Anything broken * Anything which can leak * Advertisements such as business cards As someone else pointed out, leaving food is a bad idea, however leaving gift certificates (NOT coupons) can be appreciated. I found one for a free Jamba Juice, it was one of our favorite finds.

Really? So, don't you find it a bit ironic that you have an avatar of a Native American? My understanding is that Miles Standish was to the Native Americans what Cortez was to the Aztecs. Only shorter.

They shouldn't even be sold. Everyone agrees that the last thing you should do is cut into the bite, as it doesn't effectively remove any venom and simply adds insult to injury. Plus, you end up messing around with that when you should be headed to the nearest ER.

This topic has come up on numerous occasions. One of the few acknowledged celebrity cachers is Wil Wheaton from Star Trek TNG. Although looking at his profile he hasn't cached in a loooong time, so I'm not sure he counts.