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How about a more usuable map for iPhones on the site?


Cryptosporidium-623

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If you've played with the geocaching.com website from the iPhone, you know what using the scrollable map doesn't work too well (basically you have to move with the arrows and then tap refresh all the time).

 

I like the idea of something like iGeoCacher for paperless, but want I REALLY WANT is something where if I'm in a location I'm not normally in, I can simply whip out my iPhone, pull up a full screen map, move and drag it around (like the built-in maps) and find some nearby caches.

 

Any possibilities of supporting something like that in the future? Thanks.

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I also agree.

 

What I'd like to see is a iPhone app from GS developed specifically for Geocaching. One that can pull live data from the servers, utilize the G3 unit's built-in GPS and Map application. Heck, I would even pay for the app.

 

I think we are all hoping for GS to do something for the iPhone. The tricky part here is that a 3rd party app can't do this, they need to either do it themselves or sanction someone. Many other features can be done via GP (edit GPX! doh) files, but this is one of those things that they will need to be involved with. Only time will tell, but I can't imagine that they are just ignoring the iPhone market.

Edited by slycrel
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On a per cache basis, if you scroll down to the "Google Maps" link (not the Geocaching.com Google Map one), the iPhone should open up your Maps application and point it at the coordinates where it will have placed a pin.

 

BUT, for me, when it opens a coordinate as:

 

42.000000 -71.00000

 

The map goes to:

 

0.00000 0.00000

 

This is unlike when searching for this location on maps.google.com. If I then edit the coordinates to:

 

N42.00000 W71.00000

 

It goes right to where it should have gone in the first place.

 

Jeremy et al., is there any way to change the Google Maps link to the N/S, E/W labeled coordinates rather than the +/- labels? This would make viewing Google Maps on the iPhone a bit easier.

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.vcard contact downloads for the iPhone 3g that put Cache locations and links back to cache pages into the contacts database would be nice.

 

Maps on the iPhone desperately needs to support some sort of XML interchange of co-ordinates allowing a whole archive of local caches to be dumped into it and browsed offline at ones leisure. I can dream, right?

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I may be reading into this wrong, but it would appear anything that happens on the iphone has to go through Apple first. It seems they have a strangle hold on what and how it gets developed..

 

Application-wise? Yes.

 

In this case, my specific request is a usability issue with Safari and Maps (two built-in applications from Apple on the iPhone).

 

In Safari, if you navigate to geocaching.com and select a specific cache, then you are given the page just as anyone else sees it through their computer/browser.

 

On the page is a link for "Google Maps" among the list of mapping options.

 

Here is an example of a Google Maps link to a cache near me that I just FTF. ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=42.34267+-71.10082 )

 

Clicking that link in Safari on the iPhone will close Safari and open the Maps application with "42.34267 -71.10082" in the search bar but the application will incorrectly center on "0 0" at the equator on the prime meridian instead of the coordinates. The user must then manually change the search to read "N42.34267 W71.10082" and the Maps application will then perform as expected.

 

If instead the link is written as: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=N42.34267+W71.10082

Then, the Maps application correctly interprets the coordinates and centers on the cache location where it has placed a pushpin for directions/etc.

 

While this could easily be labeled as a failing of Maps to best interpret +/- flags on the coordinate data, I was hoping that the N/S/E/W flags could be added here to better play nice with the way the iPhone Maps application is handling the link from Safari. Using N/S/E/W in the maps.google.com query would not adversely affect any current desktop/browser users of the Google Maps link on the Geocaching site, but would give iPhone users a very good bridge over to their other functionality on their side by enabling a jump from viewing the website to getting a full screen mapping application with the coordinate information input correctly. For an iPhone 3G, this also means being able to then go directly to using the phone as a simple cache seeking GPSr (all without need of a geocaching specific application).

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