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Geocaching with a Mac


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For about 2 years i've been geocaching using a Garmin etrex, a palm pilot and my home pc. I bought a used Mac powerbook G4 and I am stumped on what software to use with this combination. I really would like to get the palm pilot working with the powerbook to have the freedom to use the internet on the road. Any ideas would be helpful.

 

Rod

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theirs not much out their. and unless your have a pc again you can't load maps without windows if you have pc program.

 

I'm using a new intel mac, and occasional have to install xp just to update my unit.

 

I hope you keep your pc all you need is a super basic one with network card and a harddrive bigenough to hold xp or vista now.

 

garmin was going to add full osx support but thats as good as it gets, nothing yet.

 

best of luck.

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There is a third-party program that I found some where that allows me to translate the .gpx files into a .pdb (palm database). Its called Mac CM Convert, it works very well too. Your going to have to look for it. For your GPS I heard of an app called GPS Babel. Since I've ben using macs as long as I can remember the only way that I know of for internet access any where is through a bluetooth enabled cellphone. I'm no completely sure but your model may have something like a PC card slot on the left hand side, you may want to look in to that. Hope this helps. By the way it's not necessarily apple's fault for the complications its' the market's fault. Most major software companies just don't think that macs are popular enough to invest time and money on programs and technology for them. If you got one of the new intel macs you would have been able to run windows natively on it; I don't think that would solve your mobile internet access problem though.

Edited by Aux10
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The most comprehensive solution would be to try to find a copy of Virtual PC, install Windows XP or 2000 in it, then do all your updating from there. This is not a cheap solution but it will give you full access to your GPS once you get the little kinks worked out. Virtual PC is pretty slow - I'd say, about 25% native speed - but it *does* work, and it's not bad with the Garmin software.

 

(I have installed Windows 2000 because it runs faster under Virtual PC than XP; I don't need any of the eye candy that comes with XP; all of the Garmin stuff runs just fine under it; *and* you don't have to mess with all that ugly Windows activation stuff. If you've got Windows 2000 lying around, use that! As for Vista - well, if you have it handy, give it a shot, but I'm not sure it will run under the aging and discontinued Virtual PC. Also Microsoft specifically only licenses its high-end Vista pro edition for use in a virtual environment such as Parallels, and that's one more headache you probably don't want.)

 

Anyone with an Intel Mac can purchase and install a copy of Parallels ($49-79). Windows within Parallels is very quick, almost native PC speeds.

Edited by JohnInDC
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Anyone with an Intel Mac can purchase and install a copy of Parallels ($49-79). Windows within Parallels is very quick, almost native PC speeds.

 

Why buy Parallels when you can just download and use (for free) Apple's Boot Camp software?

 

Then you'll have WinXP running natively on your Intel Mac instead of within a program. MUCH faster than on Parallels. Sure, you have to reboot, but I rarely use the PC side unless it's for geocaching.

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Personally, I like being able to nip into Windows and then out again without the reboot. Windows boots under Parallels in about 90 seconds, maybe less. (I also like having my Macintosh programs available while I'm doing Windows things.) And, perhaps I'm superstitious, or just overcautious, but I like the idea of keeping Windows and all of its nasty viruses, trojans, spyware and the like confined to a virtual environment consisting of a single disk image file on my Mac. You run Windows under Boot Camp and you are running a Windows box, not a Macintosh at all, and are - in theory at least - rendering your entire machine (OS X files too) vulnerable. (Natively, Windows can't read or write the Macintosh disk format, so at present the risk of harm to your OS X files is more theoretical than anything, but I prefer the peace of mind.)

 

Also if anything unpleasant should happen to my Windows installation under Parallels, fixing it is as simple as retrieving the image file from an earlier backup. No messy OS reinstalls required.

 

Those are my reasons.

 

Anyone with an Intel Mac can purchase and install a copy of Parallels ($49-79). Windows within Parallels is very quick, almost native PC speeds.

 

Why buy Parallels when you can just download and use (for free) Apple's Boot Camp software?

 

Then you'll have WinXP running natively on your Intel Mac instead of within a program. MUCH faster than on Parallels. Sure, you have to reboot, but I rarely use the PC side unless it's for geocaching.

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Oh, I completely understand why one would be concerned about all the nasty stuff out there. That is why i said I only use it for my geocaching stuff. I download my PQs and GPX files in general on my Mac side and save them to my WinXP partition. I then start up XP and use them. I almost never use the internet while on PC.

 

Personally, I like being able to nip into Windows and then out again without the reboot. Windows boots under Parallels in about 90 seconds, maybe less. (I also like having my Macintosh programs available while I'm doing Windows things.) And, perhaps I'm superstitious, or just overcautious, but I like the idea of keeping Windows and all of its nasty viruses, trojans, spyware and the like confined to a virtual environment consisting of a single disk image file on my Mac. You run Windows under Boot Camp and you are running a Windows box, not a Macintosh at all, and are - in theory at least - rendering your entire machine (OS X files too) vulnerable. (Natively, Windows can't read or write the Macintosh disk format, so at present the risk of harm to your OS X files is more theoretical than anything, but I prefer the peace of mind.)

 

Also if anything unpleasant should happen to my Windows installation under Parallels, fixing it is as simple as retrieving the image file from an earlier backup. No messy OS reinstalls required.

 

Those are my reasons.

 

Anyone with an Intel Mac can purchase and install a copy of Parallels ($49-79). Windows within Parallels is very quick, almost native PC speeds.

 

Why buy Parallels when you can just download and use (for free) Apple's Boot Camp software?

 

Then you'll have WinXP running natively on your Intel Mac instead of within a program. MUCH faster than on Parallels. Sure, you have to reboot, but I rarely use the PC side unless it's for geocaching.

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Well, that would prevent most of the problems for sure. And if like me you're behind a router inside your house, you'll be pretty well insulated from those scripts & stuff that *look* for a machine to infect.

 

One other thing, now that I appear to be writing ad copy for Parallels, is this new thing they call "coherence mode" - you invoke it, the Windows desktop disappears, and the Windows apps appear in your dock and on your own screen as though, almost as though, they were Mac apps. It is at that point almost perfectly the best of both worlds.

 

Of course this is all overkill if all you do in Windows is periodically update your GPS firmware!

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This thread might be of interest to all Mac users: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=157896

 

The only thing you currently NEED Windows for is put maps on your GPSr. Everything else can be done easily and quickly on OSX. Why even bother with Windows? It's just a headache.

 

Firmware upgrades?

 

I haven't had to update yet, but aren't these just files that need to be uploaded to your GPS? If I'm given a .zip file from the gps maker, I'll just download it, unzip it, then drag it onto the mounted volume icon (that is my GPSr) on my desktop. Please enlighten me if it's different.

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I am currently accepting beta testers for a Mac application that I am writing to manage geocaches.

 

If you're interested, check out my thread for details on how you can become a beta tester:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=157896

 

Until there's a native app from the vendors, you'll still need windows to update firmware and add/delete maps on your gps unit, but hopefully that's not needed too frequently.

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There's some confusion here and folks with differing GPS experience are talking past each other. Some GPSes can have their firmware updated just by copying files to them while they're mounted as a mass storage device. Nuvi and Zumo definitely do this. I'm pretty sure that Explorist will do it. Meridian will do it. The units that comprise the bulk of the population here (Garmin serial models and the X and C class es of products) will not; they require special software running on the host that is Windows-only.

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled "How can I cache with a Mac" thread.

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There's some confusion here and folks with differing GPS experience are talking past each other. Some GPSes can have their firmware updated just by copying files to them while they're mounted as a mass storage device. Nuvi and Zumo definitely do this. I'm pretty sure that Explorist will do it. Meridian will do it. The units that comprise the bulk of the population here (Garmin serial models and the X and C class es of products) will not; they require special software running on the host that is Windows-only.

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled "How can I cache with a Mac" thread.

 

You know...you're right.

 

We have a Legend C and a 60 CSx...both require the PC.

 

That is why my Intel iMac has OSX/WinXP...

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I'd cast my vote for National Geographic Topo. I've been using it with my 60CSx and it's way ahead of anything else out there for a Mac right now. It features GPX upload and download as well as interfacing very nicely with my 60CSx for track, route and waypoint upload/download. If you get the state version you'll have 1:24,000 topos of your state with a workable interface. That's much better than the 1:100,000 scale topo maps you'd be working with in the Garmin MapSource software.

 

Only downside is the price at about $80 per state. But if like me you do 90% of your exploring in one state I'd say it's completely worth it...at least until Garmin FINALLY comes through with OS X support.

 

Mark

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There's some confusion here and folks with differing GPS experience are talking past each other. Some GPSes can have their firmware updated just by copying files to them while they're mounted as a mass storage device. Nuvi and Zumo definitely do this. I'm pretty sure that Explorist will do it. Meridian will do it. The units that comprise the bulk of the population here (Garmin serial models and the X and C class es of products) will not; they require special software running on the host that is Windows-only.

 

We now return you to your regularly scheduled "How can I cache with a Mac" thread.

 

Thanks for enlightening!

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OK, here's what I've found...

 

You obviously need a USB connection, since Macs do not have serial ports. (Memo to Garmin: It's freaking 2007. Why on earth are you still packaging serial cables instead of USB?) If you already have a GPS USB cord, then you're good there. If you have a serial connection, you will need a serial to USB adapter. The ones from Keyspan (I'd have to look it up) are supposed to work very well on OS X.

 

I don't know how old your Powerbook is, so I don't know if it has USB 2.0 or not. Older ones will just have USB 1.1; while the 1.1 devices are supposed to work on 2.0, just at a slower speed, that doesn't always work. The reason I throw that in is because there are off-brand serial-USB adapters out there that may or may not work. Belkin has a USB-serial adapter, but unless you're able to do some command line work plus have quite a bit of luck, it just will not work. I'm using a Cables Unlimited one that did not work on my old USB 1.1 eMac; however, on my Mac Mini with USB 2.0. it works fine for connecting my Garmin eTrex Legend. I'm using GPSConnect for the connection and GPSBabel to convert the .loc files to .gpx versions. (BTW, the adapter works fine for connecting the GPS; however, it did not work for using my old serial-based Palm Pilot. I don't know if the Keyspan adapters will be able to do the trick. If you have a USB PDA, you should be fine.)

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(Memo to Garmin: It's freaking 2007. Why on earth are you still packaging serial cables instead of USB?)

 

Memo to ShadowPenguins: Garmin hasn't *released* a GPS in several years that was serial-only. If you buy an older model it comes with older features.

 

But I'm basically with you. Serial GPSes can not disappear from the planet quickly enough for me.

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