team thunder bear

Funny, out of all the smartphone owners I know not a single one wastes money on a data plan, most people use wifi, everyone has wifi at home and just abut every coffee shop, fast food place and increasingly more and more public areas such as parks have free wifi. Not to mention many peoples work also has wifi, hotels all have free wifi, the list goes on, there is absolutely no reason to waste the ridiculous sums of money that a data plan costs. Also you most certainly do not have to get a data plan to get a smart phone, you won't get the $0 offer or whatever the deal is but most people are smart enough to realize they will have bought 5 of those phones with the money they will waste on the data plan over the next 3 years of their contract... or perhaps I just know a lot of smart people. As for which apps cache maps for offline use, lets see... all of the ones I've tried? NeonGeo, c.geo, cachebox, they all save the maps and zoom levels you view and display them when you're offline, c.geo even lets you save static map images for offline use AND use offline maps. I'm not saying it should have the entire country cached for offline but you should be able to chache cities or area's that you want to visit for offline viewing. Even c.geo has much better features then the gc.com app and its FREE! The gc.com app is a complete rip off and they should be ashamed charging $10 for it.

So I got the GC.com Android app and am more then a little dissapointed in it, it cost $10 and has the worst feature set out of pretty much every geocaching app on the market but yet it costs the most, even the free ones have more options and better function. My biggest gripe is with the lack of any sort of offline feature (unless I'm missing something?), there is no offline map support, the live map does not cache itself to be used while offline like it does in most other apps, even saving caches to the offline list is a pain because you have to do them one at a time. Why is this app $10? It should be free or $1 at most, I just don't get it. Most people do not have a data plan, one of your first priorities should have been to enable a feature rich offline map system where the live map gets automatically cached at multiple zoom levels and with a wide feather around the current location you are viewing so when you go offline you'll be able to view the map, of not just your location but the surrounding areas as well, instead of stare at a gray screen wishing there was a map there and wondering why you just spent $10 on this app. Well, thats my rant, if you guys are gonna charge that much for something at least make it worth the money.

We dont have data on our smart phone so cant use it for that, even so I wouldnt want to as it will inevitably get broken if you use it for that, plus where we want to go I doubt there will be much of a signal. The other thing is wer're going camping in a couple weeks and want to do some caching while were up there so really need to get one soon.

Thinking Magellan might have a better Canadian map with Magic Maps, no?

Very interesting, any recomended maps I should look out for on there? Doesnt look like theres a whole lot for Canada.

Hmm, does the etrex 20 support free maps? Or the Magellan Explorist 310? Are you looking to sell one of your 10 unites? lol

Hi Starbrand, thanks for the reply, the etrex 20 looks good I just hate that it doesnt have the compass, friends of ours have a unit without the compass and its a pain trying to get your bearing sometimes since it wont tell you your direction unless your walking. Have you updated your Endura to the latest firmware version and all that? Also, do you have to buy the Lowrance maps or can you load other maps oonto it?

Hi again guys, Still looking for that gps, Ive narrowed it down to a few but I dont have enough experience with these to really know which is the best. One big feature that I would like is to be able to load free maps onto it (barely have enough money for the unit let alone the crazy prices they want for maps). Our budge is $200 tops w/ shipping, would honestly prefer to keep it closer to $150 if at all possible. So far the units Im looking at are: Lowrance Endura Out&Back - Great price, looking at the specs its quite impressive but some have said its not a good unit, why? Also can you add your own maps to it? I tried contacting Lowrance about it but never heard back, not impressed. Magellan Explorist 310 - Can get it for a bit under $200 though Im not sure how it differs from the 110 or GC, only difference I can see is the ability to add maps, but do they have to be magellan's maps? Also lacks electronic compass which is a big negative. Garmin etrex 20 - Looks like a solid gps but again lacks electronic compass, the 30 has the compass but costs $100 more, wish I could find it on sale. Thoes are the 3 Ive found so far that look decent, any other suggestions? any thoughts on which of thoes is best?

Thanks for thewarning about the Lowrance, the DeLorne does look nice and I had checked it out before but the price is a little prohibitive, I really dont want to spend more then 150, these things just arent worth that much and I'd feel dirty spending any more then that on a $50 bit of hardware. So whats bad about the Lowrance unit? Specs wise it seems quite good, there seems to be some firmware updates which enable 20m tomops and what not.

Im not really into paying retail price, ever, so for 100 I plan to find something much above that price retail. The Dakota 20 looks tempting but from what Ive read the screen is very hard to see in strong daylight, the etrex 30 looks good but a bit pricy for what it is. the GC just is 'almost but not quite', its missing some features I want and reportedly a pain to work with for getting maps on it and what not. I still think as far as bang for your buck the Lowrance Endura Out&Back is best, just wish amazon would ship to canada or I could find one somewhere else for that price.

Read mixed reviews about the GC, it looks like a decent enough unit but looking for something a bit more. My eyes aren't the greatest so the biggest the screen the better, 2,7" would be a nice starting point (a touch screen would be nice too but not a deal breaker), high number of channels, WAAS, Electronic Compass, 3 meter accuracy. Just the little things that round out a solid GPS.

Hi kricav, Thank very much for the reply, Ive looked at the GC and I dont think it has all the featured I'd want in a gps, Im looking for one which will satisfy for the foreseeable future, but I really appreciate your offer!

Hi Everyone, My wife and I are just trying to get into GeoCaching but are finding the cost of a decent GPS prohibitive, we're looking to buy a decent reletivly inexpensive unit that we wont quickly outgrow. The Lowrance Endura Out&Back looks like a decent unit, they sell them on amazon for 115 but they wont ship to Canada so sort of out of luck there. Open to any brand/model as long as it is good for geo caching. Ideally Id love to get a DeLorme PN60 if I can get one for the right price. Thanks!

Thanks for tall the replies guys, Yes we do have a smart phone but dont have a data plan, even if we did its hard to get signal out in some of the places we plan to go plus they arent built to take a lickin and inevitably it will get dropped or fall in the drink and that will be the end of it, I just dont think its a good idea to use a smartphone for this. I really want a paperless unit but it seems only the newer models have this option and thoes seem to be the really expensive ones, again the Lowrance Endura Out&Back looks like it would be great but amazon.com wont ship here so Im out of luck with that one. Ill have to check out that GPS garage sale forum and see what I can find there.

Hi Chief301, thanks for the reply. Well it seems anything decent costs 400-500$ and I could buy a tablet PC for that price (and the markup on thoes is huge) which has 100x the hardware of one of these relatively basic units so I really dont understand where they are getting these prices from. Our budget is around $100, hoping to find something used or a really good deal on something online but so far not coming across much. So far the best bang for the buck looks like the Lowrance Endura Out&Back, can get it for 115 on amazon.com the problem is amazon.com wont ship to Canada so thats not much good. Also might be able to get a Magellan Triton 1500 for under $100 used locally but Im a little hesitant, cant find many positive reviews on it.

Hi Everyone, So my wife and I have been out geo caching with some friends a couple times now and want to get into it ourselves, looking to buy a GPS but quickly realizing how insanely expensive a decent one is. I was hoping someone could point us in the right direction for finding a good gps at a palatable price, or if you know of somewhere thats having a 'blow-out' sale. We've pretty much exausted all the resources around here trying to find one, no store has a decent sale around here, nothing really on kijiji or craigs list, not a single pawn store in a 50km radius has one either, cant believe how hard it is to find one! Thanks Guys!