coldstream1

Getting a Mac to work with a Garmin GPS is a lot easier these days than when I first started geocaching. If you want to load maps you will still need either a PC or run Windows on your Mac (it makes me feel dirty every time I do it!). Garmin has been promising a Mac version of Mapsource for over a year now, but it has yet to be delivered. I have hope though since they seem to be starting to roll out some Mac stuff. You can now get Mac versions of the POI Loader and WebUpdater. The tool I like best to load my Pocket Queries on to my Garmin is a simple little app called LoadMyTracks. It won't manage your waypoints, but it the best tool I've found for loading information on to the GPS and is also useful for pulling off waypoints and track info. If you want a more full-featured waypoint manager, check out MacCaching — I don't use it myself, but it might be just what you are looking for. As far as paperless caching, I can't recommend CacheMate enough. It does exactly what you would hope, and comes in Palm or Pocket PC flavours. Hope that helps!

Are you able to get the Mac to recognize your GPSr with Parallels? I can run Mapsource without any difficulty, but can only get the USB connection to work if I boot into Windows via Boot Camp. Am I missing something? It would be great to use just Parallels...

I don't think the basic (free) version of Google Earth opens GPX files (or if it does, I can't figure out how to do it here on my Mac). I believe only the Plus version or better can handle GPX files. Can someone confirm this?

Wow, all of these suggestions sound great, but lets come back down to earth. All I want is an app that will allow my OS X Mac to communicate with my USB only Garmin GPS. If you can come up with something that will do that, then I will be the first person to buy it, regardless of what other features it has. Oh, and I would definitely like to be a beta tester if you are working on something that will do this. Thanks!

The answer to my question is probablly so obvious, I should have posted this question in the newbie thread, but here goes: Is there a way to "hide" the caches I have in Mapsource so that I am able to see the map without the caches obsurcing the view? I have 500 caches (waypoints) loaded into Mapsource for my area, but when I zoom out on the map in Mapsource I can't see a thing because all of the cache icons layer on top of each other and cover the map. Am I missing a simple menu command that allows you to "hide" these from view? Or is there some trick I can use to achieve the same effect? Also, is there a method to edit waypoints in a batch within Mapsource? (i.e. changing the icon or comment for a selection of multiple waypoints rather than doing each one individually). Thanks so much for the help!

Hi everyone, I'm a geocaching newbie with a few finds under my belt, but I have a question about WAAS and when I should use it. I have a Garmin Legend C GPSr with WAAS, and can choose to either enable or disable it. My question: if WAAS helps improve accuracy, why wouldn't you want it enabled all the time? I think it drains battery life faster, but other than that, is there any reason why I shouldn't just leave it enabled all the time? Thanks for your help!

I’m not convinced that OS X doesn’t have something to do with the problem. I have been able to connect my Legend C via USB to my Mac running Virtual PC 6 and it works fine – but only if I boot in OS 9.2. If I try the same set-up in 10.3.6, my Virtual PC doesn’t recognize that my GPS is connected. Other USB devices work fine, but not the Legend C. Very frustrating! I thought having a native USB connection on the GPS would make things easier with my Mac, not more complicated!

I'm a bit confused... Are you talking about a creating a USB driver for Garmin GPS devices? I recently bought a new Legend C and was pleased to see it has a USB connection, thinking this would make it easier to connect to my Mac. Sadly, that has not been the case. Am I to understand that you are working on something that would allow OS X to recognize a Garmin GPS connected via USB? I sure hope so! Thanks!