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Cellphone with GPS


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I am in the market for a new cellphone as the one I have dies every five minutes. I would like to purchase a new cellphone that has a GPS built in as well as a PDA system so that I can use it for geocaching. I am electronically uninformed so I am requesting any information as to what others use and whether they like the GPS/PDA combination.

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I love my Samsung Blackjack II

 

A crisp, clear color screen, scrolling Google maps, turn-by-turn directions, CacheMate, an accurate (though slow) GPS, Live weather radar, a fast web browser, it is a cool tool.

 

Last week I took it on an 8-day deployment to Iowa City for disaster-relief communications mission, it did about as well for geocaching as my 60CSx... though the only cache that I had time to hunt was a drive-up it did take me right to it.

 

Any weak areas were more than compensated for by the additional features.

 

If I had the extra bucks I would have gone for a Pocket PC device instead of Windows Mobile 6 so that I could do Wherigo caches.

 

I would avoid the IPhone, for several reasons. From the FAQ on smittyware.com (makers of CacheMate)

Will there be a version for...

 

iPhone - Not very likely. The reason for this is the fact that one of the features thats make CacheMate stand out (open import/export capabilities through plugins) isn't possible with the restrictions that Apple is placing on third-party applications (no plugins, no working with other software on the phone, and no writing data that can be read by other software). It may be possible to implement the rest of CacheMate's functionality, but the chances that that will happen are... again... not very likely.

 

Blackberry - There are no current plans.

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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The Blackjack II is one such phone. Built in GPS and it runs Windows Mobile so you should be able to run cachemate or GPXSonar on it (I believe!!) I don't have that phone but a friend does. I know for a fact that it runs Garmin Mobile XT, so the phone acts like a Nuvi GPS. (My friend has it working) Cachemate *should* work but I don't know for a fact that it does. Anyway, it's one model you might want to check out. Samsung makes it. It's definitely the Blackjack II though, not the original BlackJack.

 

Edit: I see TAR beat me to it. :ph34r:

Edited by DocDiTTo
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I've had a Blackberry Curve with GPS for about two months now. I can't imaging geocaching without it now. I do not carry my Vista or my Palm anymore. The resolution and accuracy of my Blackberry GPS is every bit as good as my Vista was. I use the Trimble app on ATT service with an unlimited data plan. Everything is under 90.00 a month. The Trimble app is awesome and being able to log and upload photos from the cache site is very cool. The Trimble folks were very helpful and walked me through all the set up and configuration.

 

I did find that the phone battery life is greatly increased if the GPS function is turned off when not in use. The first couple of days I forgot to do this and my phone was going dead every day. Now, even with a couple of hours a day GPS use, my phone will stay adequately charged for 4 to 5 days.

 

:laughing::D:D

Edited by tdl&claire
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The Blackjack II works great for paperless geocaching. I'm using Geocache Swiss Army Knife to filter the waypoints from the pocket queries. I then transfer the weeded file to my memory card and import the .gpx into Cachemate. My GPS device is a Garmin Forerunner 305, which can accept up to 100 waypoints, I think. It doesn't have the maps but it does have an excellent gps chip. I bought the Blackjack II to complement it. It's great to be able to look up the co-ordinates on Google Maps Mobile when I get stumped. I love being able to log the find directly from the field through Cachemate on the Blackjack II. The unlimited PDA/Internet features for the Blackjack II on AT&T are only $30/month. (By the way, it is a Smartphone. No Wherigo's.)

Edited by lolagotit
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I have a Sprint Mogul (PPC-6800) and it has a built in GPS. I have BeelineGPS software that works very well for caching using the GPS. My only complaint is that the screen is hard to see in bright sunlight. Add a screen protector and sunglasses and I found it less that useful for serious caching. Works great for a quick grab or if you forgot your GPS (ie on the drive home from work).

 

I haven't been able to get Wherigo to work on it yet as the player won't detect the built in GPS. I didn't put too much effort into though as there is only 1 Wherigo cache in my state, so I don't think I am missing anything.

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