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I've used a Galaxy Nexus for about six months. For the most part, it works very well for Geocaching (I use NeonGeo or the Groundspeak app). I don't find it jumpy so much as occasionally wildly inaccurate. Sometimes the phone simply refuses to lock on to satellites. Sometimes it is tens of feet off even when locked on to several sats. This seems to be typical of Samsung phones, from what I have read. I am in the habit of launching the GPS Status app and letting it get a lock before going on adventures. GPS Status supposedly downloads some assistance data to improve lock speed and accuracy. As for making it vibrate when near a cache, that would depend on the app. I don't recall seeing such a feature on the apps I've tried. I'm curious about the Nexus 4. Maybe LG puts more effort into the GPS subsystem than Samsung.

My only major annoyance with my Colorado 300 (yes, it has WAAS ) was its terrible performance on NiMH rechargeables. It's fine with alkalines, but there's a reason I bought some nice NiMHs. Its Wherigo player is decent, and the Rock 'n Roller is adequate once you get the hang of it (and modify the menu so that the things you want are only a few clicks away). I really like the screen. Edit: oh, yeah, it also freezes at "Loading maps..." after I upload GPX files from GSAK. Every time. Works fine after a power cycle. A Garmin handheld without weird, persistent bugs is like a day without sunshine.

I skimmed through Off Grid's post history, and he/she/they have a pretty clear history of taking things very personally and retaliating aggressively (verbally). I don't think confronting him/her/them with logic and reason will solve anything or de-escalate the situation. It's probably best to just let it go.

This is just amazing.

So "Error 588" is a GSAK error? You should probably check on the GSAK support forums. I'm using GSAK on Win 8 (the base version), and PQs work fine.

Neato. Nice to see some statistics! Keep 'em coming, please.

If you cached, you'd probably be able to appreciate more likely scenarios: I maintain five PQs that cover most of the area around where I live. I generate and download these ~3500 caches once every week or two and put them in my GPSr (Montana) which is usually in my car. I can pull out the Montana and locate a cache near me (or near work, or a relative's house, or...) without having to plan ahead. It's nice for on-demand caching. Same goes for long driving trips, or when traveling to a new city. I load up my GPSr so that I don't have to plan every single cache. I've got them all handy, and can find whatever suits my fancy at the moment. It's about flexibility.

This is also true for Benchmarks.

Sudoku are boring. Geocaching puzzlers are creative and the new ideas never stop coming. I can still get outside and have a nice walk looking for a bison tube in a streetsign. Talking with friends about puzzles and puzzle ideas is fun. Sorry for your frustration. I'm pretty happy with the way it is now. If you're not, perhaps it is you that should change your hobby.

So you're cool with poor locations, provided they're rarely found puzzle caches. I didn't say that, but if that's what you want to read I can't stop you.

The puzzle is more important to me. Nice hides are nice, but not expected. So many people just write off all puzzles, it doesn't make sense to take up a nice spot for a cache that will only rarely be found.

Firefox 18.0.1 here. Javascript enabled, on a Win7Pro x64 machine. Maps worked fine earlier today. The Groundspeak image tiles are coming up with 404. Using the "Find Broken Images" tool in the Web Developer FF extension, I found that the GS map tiles are "broken". Here's one near me: http://www.geocaching.com/map/map.png?x=3929&y=5878&z=14&k=bDLJ&st=TzrdD4P762EiZ0s8oqyGXkKP7JoLnuS1s55rhGPhelDAMGDLKTsAW-ZsXVNdh40rC7lLpFt4Bz204sy7juDmLQ2&ep=1 When I click on that, I get the standard GC.com 404 message. Interestingly, these images are "broken" as well: http://www.geocaching.com/css/fancybox/blank.gif http://www.geocaching.com/css/fancybox/fancybox-x.png http://www.geocaching.com/css/fancybox/fancybox-y.png http://www.geocaching.com/css/fancybox/fancybox.png http://www.geocaching.com/map/apple-touch-icon.png http://www.geocaching.com/map/css/themes/images/ajax-loader.png Edit: and now everything works again.

This works too: www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?id= Otherwise if you can find a site that converts decimal to GC's Base 31 scheme, you can use the coord.info link.

I'm embarrassed for my hobby. I hope some nice long vacations get handed out.

Oh, yeah, the GarminPhone. That didn't go so well. I should've remembered that; I have a Nüvi 295W, which is essentially a GarminPhone without the Phone.

It looks like these new Oregons will have a belt clip option like the Colorado, 60CSx, etc. had. This is my major beef with the Montana; its shape precludes a simple button on the back for belt clip attachment. The dual-touch screen makes me wonder if Garmin has started using more of the UI elements from smartphones. Like long-pressing, which can distinguish between two types of screen touching (short-press to select, long-press to edit). Or two-finger touch-and-twist to change map orientation. I'm hoping they're slowly migrating to having an Android powered device in a tough, waterproof case. I could use my favorite Android geocaching app along with Garmin's great GPS hardware! And Google Maps for navigation! Oh, wait, Garmin's maps are probably a huge source of profits. Never mind. Maybe I'll just get a GLO.

"O Evil Rant" anagrams to "A Nit Lover".

Out of curiosity, are Challenge caches a regional thing? Around here, there is probably an average of 2 new Challenges each month within a 50-mile radius.

While that is certainly true, I'm not sure it could get much worse. There are a lot of really tedious ones being created now. Currently, to find a good challenge, one must first filter out the puzzles, and then begin sorting out the challenges. With their own icon, one could sort them immediately, and by favorite points (for example).

I have only rarely used the official Geocaching app, but I have used a few others that used the API and Maps. For more than a year I used Neongeo with a 200MB/Month plan, and I never went over my allotment. I'm comfortable saying that most of your data usage will be for loading map tiles from Google. Uploading of logs and field notes doesn't take up much data at all. Downloading pocket queries will tend to gobble up data quicker, but: One thing that may have made the difference for me is that I used my home WiFi connection to do as much as possible. Map tiles are cached on the phone, so if you spend a lot of time scrolling around the map while on WiFi, you won't have to download those map tiles in the field. I tended to plan my trips on the phone itself, zooming in and out of cache areas and switching between satellite and plain maps. This tends to build up a nice cache of map tiles for the places you'll be going. It's a good idea to find out what tools your carrier gives you to monitor your data usage. For example, I can call (for free) *3282# from my AT&T phone, and I get a (free) text message that tells me how much data I've used for the month. Do that in the evening after a day's caching, and you'll get a good sense for how much it takes.

Apologies; I though I was posting in the Suggestions forum. Please move this topic there, or close it and I will start a new one in the correct place.

Around here there are so many Challenge geocaches, that I think it's time they had their own cache type and icon. The Superman icon from the retired challenges could be used. 1) The number and complexity of these challenges is growing. 2) They are a distinct category now, though they are all variations on a similar theme. 3) They have their own Guidelines 4) They have their own devotees 5) Instead of forcing COs to use the word "Challenge" in the title to distinguish them from puzzles, a new type and icon would make this distinction implicit It's time!

One of our reviewers required an explanation a while back, and now I put in a reviewer note for each one. I'm fine with it. In fact, reviewers are welcome to grab the final coordinates from all my puzzles if they want; all I ask is that they don't go after the FTF.

I couldn't disagree more. Since I started a little over two years ago, they've added: 1) Personal cache notes (I use 'em every day), and then increased their size 2) Corrected coordinates for puzzles 3) Corrected coordinates in GPX downloads 4) Favorite points (I was initially skeptical, but I think they're a Good Thing) 5) Souvenirs (I think they're a waste of limited resources, but a little bit fun) 6) THE API, which has changed how I go about caching and use every day in GSAK and my mobile phone 7) On-site basic statistics 8) Friends (though it's still less useful than it could be) 9) Finds highlighted in your own Bookmark lists 10) Upgraded maps (still have issues, and some lost functionality, but I really love live scrolling!) 11) PQ servers (and the website in general) seem to do pretty well under load, despite the explosion in users. And probably more, but that's off the top of my head. I often disagree with how Groundspeak prioritizes development, but I have to admit they've done some really nice things in the last two years. They've also done some boneheaded things, like Challenges, which were: 1) named poorly (there were already Challenges!) 2) integrated poorly (no big map of challenges near you, no way to have a "pocket query" of them, so you had to use a separate app instead of using your favorite device) 3) conceived poorly (no ownership?!) 4) launched poorly (lame ones out of the gate, coordinate format different than every other GS entity, no editing once published) 5) maintained poorly (it took a while to fix some of the launch issues, and they got few updates after that) The Android app was pretty good, though. It functioned well and was a nice, self-contained way to complete them. I'm a little concerned they just wiped away almost all traces of Challenges, though. Will they do that with their other active-but-abandoned things like Wherigo, Benchmarks and Whymarking? I really like the first two...

Yes, I know, but I wanted to keep it simple for newer folks. It can take a little while to get one's head around filtered database vs. unfiltered (and how to tell whether the database is currently being viewed through a filter), especially when you just want a quick map view.