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Best Android geocaching app?


Patuxent

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Unfair to who(or is it whom?)? Please explain. I don't see unfairness as the problem. Android is open source, unlike iPhone. As a developer, I am curious how Groundspeak can control open source developers. I am sure there are precedents, but all I can think of is people going after users. mp3 pirates, for instance.

Groundspeak shouldn't try to control open source developers. They should encourage them. Vendor lock-in is a bad idea.

 

Geocachers has created the content, so the content should belong to geocachers. If I put out a cache, I generally want to make it available to everybody.

 

Besides, trying to distribute and still control content doesn't seem to work so well for the music-, film-, book- nor software-industry...

 

(Sorry if this is a bit OT, but it still concerns the "bestness" of android apps...)

Edited by josteinaj
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Unfair to who(or is it whom?)? Please explain. I don't see unfairness as the problem. Android is open source, unlike iPhone. As a developer, I am curious how Groundspeak can control open source developers. I am sure there are precedents, but all I can think of is people going after users. mp3 pirates, for instance.

Groundspeak shouldn't try to control open source developers. They should encourage them. Vendor lock-in is a bad idea.

 

Geocachers has created the content, so the content should belong to geocachers. If I put out a cache, I generally want to make it available to everybody.

 

Besides, trying to distribute and still control content doesn't seem to work so well for the music-, film-, book- nor software-industry...

 

(Sorry if this is a bit OT, but it still concerns the "bestness" of android apps...)

 

I concur but if there's one thing I've learned about this content hosting company is tha they do whatever they can to make a buck and save a buck.

 

I mean, seriously, UNpaid volunteers at this point?

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I concur but if there's one thing I've learned about this content hosting company is tha they do whatever they can to make a buck and save a buck.

 

I mean, seriously, UNpaid volunteers at this point?

 

Yes there are. The UNpaid volunteer is the man behind the app I was talking about I'll guess.

And YES I pay for geocaching.com, so don't say they are unpaid.

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I concur but if there's one thing I've learned about this content hosting company is tha they do whatever they can to make a buck and save a buck.

 

I mean, seriously, UNpaid volunteers at this point?

 

Yes there are. The UNpaid volunteer is the man behind the app I was talking about I'll guess.

And YES I pay for geocaching.com, so don't say they are unpaid.

 

I pay as well but the reviewers and forum moderators, as far as I know, are NOT paid by Groundspeak. They are volunteers.

 

Personally, I don't volunteer my time in a for-profit company. But that's just me.

 

The person who is designing the app that is not allowed to be mentioned is donating his time (at this point) to help others. That's admirable. So is any volunteer work for that matter.

Stifling volunteers from helping out people (ie stopping the free app from publicizing) isn't quite as admirable.

 

JMO

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Keystone,

 

Just curious, why have you gone through this thread and remov

ed all mentions of the app we've been discussing?

 

PS Looks like ya missed one. :-)

I made the edits at Groundspeak's request. The application in question violates the Geocaching.com Terms of Use Agreement. It provides automated access to the geocaching.com website without permission from Groundspeak. Groundspeak is currently working with the developer to resolve this issue. In the interim, we are asking that this application not be promoted in the Groundspeak discussion forums.

Do you want to discuss the TOU? He added a link to the gc.com usage agreement and informed people that they are accessing the gc.com site. Is that good enough? Isn't a usage agreement meant for usage by users not developers? I reported this thread to the admin and I was wondering what Groundspeak would do. I guess I agree with Groundspeak's methods. Just to be clear, if I use the app, I as a paid member am in violation of the TOU?

 

Are you addressing me? I did not realize that the discussion of that app violated the TOU which is why I was asking Keystone about his actions. He explained it after I wrote the above, and I understand now.

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I concur but if there's one thing I've learned about this content hosting company is tha they do whatever they can to make a buck and save a buck.

 

I mean, seriously, UNpaid volunteers at this point?

 

Yes there are. The UNpaid volunteer is the man behind the app I was talking about I'll guess.

And YES I pay for geocaching.com, so don't say they are unpaid.

 

I pay as well but the reviewers and forum moderators, as far as I know, are NOT paid by Groundspeak. They are volunteers.

 

Personally, I don't volunteer my time in a for-profit company. But that's just me.

 

The person who is designing the app that is not allowed to be mentioned is donating his time (at this point) to help others. That's admirable. So is any volunteer work for that matter.

Stifling volunteers from helping out people (ie stopping the free app from publicizing) isn't quite as admirable.

 

JMO

 

If you are placing caches and listing them to geocaching would that be donating to a for profit company?

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Are you addressing me? I did not realize that the discussion of that app violated the TOU which is why I was asking Keystone about his actions. He explained it after I wrote the above, and I understand now.

I was addressing Keystone's reply to you, not you. I had a feeling Keystone was uncomfortable speaking for Groundspeak so I asked him if he wanted to discuss it. Apparently not and that is understandable.

 

On topic: The beauty of writing Android apps is that any app can not only be used by a user, the app can set itself up as a provider. The location provider(GPS and cell tower location) and the direction provider(magnetometer) do a lot lot of the work in a geocaching app. The open source geobeagle takes it further as it can use a third party go between app like GPS Status to do the arrow pointing based on location and direction. Apparently using the browser provider is considered automatic access by Groundspeak. I say apparently because Groundspeak may just be concerned that large quantities of data are not overloading the servers. I don't think they planned on everybody constantly accessing gc.com from the field. I thank Groundspeak for giving us the gpx format and pocket queries instead of using the dreaded Captcha's other sites use for searches.

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I think that everyone needs to understand where GS is coming from. They are trying to protect their investment and time, to make sure that IF their information is used, that it is used in a way that is appropriate and accurate. The way that the #### program works is not in their best interest. It completely takes them out of the loop and makes it invisable where the information is coming from.

 

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the new app, but at the same time I see both sides. The developer started off with the idea of 'I am making this because I wanted something that works without the needs of going TO the website on a cell phone', then it has turned into almost a challenge to keep it working even against GS wanting him to stop. I will say that I admire his determination, but I think that it is going a bit far. I want him to succeed because I like the app, but I don't want this to become a Rebel App that no one is supposed to use or even talk about because GS has forbid it.

 

I have seen that he has been working on trying to get around some of the big issues that GS had with the app, Trademarked Logos and Icons. Both of those have been fixed, and the app now uses his own Logo and Icons (which I like better then the Geochaching ones anyhow). But there is still the How he is getting the information. I am sure there is going to be a bit of an issue with this, but overall, as long as neither side get the 'Holier then thou' attitude, then we can end up with a solid VERY usable app.

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You guys do realize that you can still play this wonderful hobby/sport without sending a penny to Geocaching/Groundspeak,, right? it's up to each individual to decide if they want to raise the participation bar. $30/yr for a Premium membership seems cheap to me, just to be able to use the pocket query feature. Personally I don't know if that $30/yr is helping the "rich Groundspeak execs" fuel their yachts or whatever :laughing: All I know is I reviewed what the $30 was getting me and decided it was worth it. If you're pouting because a specific app for a specific device/OS isn't getting the red carpet treatment you think it deserves, then don't pay..

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I am flip flopping on this issue a lot so don't quote me. Today I read something on the developers web page that made me flip Groundspeak's way.

 

"Coming soon---Storing caches and images to memory to allow offline geocaching"

 

I am guessing that in other words currently the app goes out to gc.com every time he switches pages because he has no persistent data! This is extremely bad programming practice and if this is the case and I was a programmer at GS, I would be really ticked off. Phone data and gc.com data are not free. The bandwidth costs money. Persistent data is the major way of conserving bandwidth. GS can not stop someone from accessing the gc.com site so they simply stopped people from advertising an app that abuses access. I am hoping the adding of persistent data will make GS happy. GS might even have suggested the change.

 

I am guessing Android phones require unlimited data access. I know Google Maps does not allow any app to make the map data persistent. You must load fresh map data every time you zoom or pan.

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I am flip flopping on this issue a lot so don't quote me. Today I read something on the developers web page that made me flip Groundspeak's way.

 

"Coming soon---Storing caches and images to memory to allow offline geocaching"

 

I am guessing that in other words currently the app goes out to gc.com every time he switches pages because he has no persistent data! This is extremely bad programming practice and if this is the case and I was a programmer at GS, I would be really ticked off. Phone data and gc.com data are not free. The bandwidth costs money. Persistent data is the major way of conserving bandwidth. GS can not stop someone from accessing the gc.com site so they simply stopped people from advertising an app that abuses access. I am hoping the adding of persistent data will make GS happy. GS might even have suggested the change.

 

I am guessing Android phones require unlimited data access. I know Google Maps does not allow any app to make the map data persistent. You must load fresh map data every time you zoom or pan.

 

I'm really not following your logic. You're claiming that any application that accesses gc.com as data is needed rather than downloading it before it's needed and storing it is 'extremely bad programming practice?' Why? Networks today are cheap so are very commonly used to avoid increasing local storage. That, in a nutshell, is the major component of cloud computing. With your definition of 'bad' every web browser is bad. Google is bad. Heck, gc.com is bad because they encourage this bad behavior.

 

Further, how is it better to download the data for 500 caches and only actually use 5% of that data? What a huge waste of network bandwidth, local storage and server (ie, gc.com) computer power. On-demand data gathering can be very good.

 

As long as were guessing, I'm guessing that gc.com strongly wants to avoid apps that store gc data rather than accessing the gc.com web site on-demand since those apps caching data allow users to avoid viewing the ads that gc.com sells. That's probably one of the reasons that Groundspeak is opposed to screen scrapers since those screen scrapers allow users to avoid viewing the ads and could lead to less ad revenue for Groundspeak.

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Free speech generally means the Government can't block you. But these forums belong to Groundspeak, and they have the right to censor posts as they see fit.

 

Early users will remember a time when mentioning 'Dave Ulmer' in a post could result in the complete post being deleted.

 

One could ask why they don't push some cabbage towards the developer of the rogue app and make it the official one. I guess maybe they've invested too much into their own already.

 

Either way, I am looking forward to the official app and hope it will be as good as the official iPhone one.

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After reading some of this (haven't reviewed this thread in a while), I figured I'd hunt down the app in question, and make my own determination first-hand. Pretty sure I found the right one, based on some of the evidence.

 

On the plus side, it's a VERY nice-looking app, and is quite intuitive. On the minus side, I am completely and totally against the way it works, to the point where I won't use the thing. Data-scraping someone's site is bad business- it's a bypass of the intended use of the site. Like it or not, the GC website is a private outfit- the First Amendment doesn't apply, it begins "Congress shall make no law", and GC isn't Congress. Pay them or not, when you post on their site, you grant them rights to that data- if you don't like it, don't do it.

 

I'm really looking forward to the Groundspeak Droid app. I'll give it the same chance as the rest I've looked at. What I'd really wish for at this point is the 'app that shall not be named' to change from scraping-based to GPX-file-based, so I could drop PQs in it, like CacheMate works. It'd be my favorite if that happened, but as is, it's getting deleted.

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What I'd really wish for at this point is the 'app that shall not be named' to change from scraping-based to GPX-file-based, so I could drop PQs in it, like CacheMate works. It'd be my favorite if that happened, but as is, it's getting deleted.

 

Why not use CacheMate? The Droid version works nicely. It doesn't do live searches since Groundspeak does not allow any application other than their own to do so, but it does what it does well.

 

By the way, GeoBeagle does a nice job with PQ management too. And the app 'Find Geocaches' allows live search data to be fed to GeoBeagle. Not sure if 'Find Geocaches' is a screen scraper, however.

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Why not use CacheMate? The Droid version works nicely. It doesn't do live searches since Groundspeak does not allow any application other than their own to do so, but it does what it does well.

At present, CacheMate is my app of choice- it's pretty nice, does a great job. The other app is a bit more intuitive as UIs go, and nicer looking. The mapping on it is sweet.

 

By the way, GeoBeagle does a nice job with PQ management too. And the app 'Find Geocaches' allows live search data to be fed to GeoBeagle. Not sure if 'Find Geocaches' is a screen scraper, however.

And that is the reason GeoBeagle is also on my phone. It's not a scraper, it's a page link. Once you find the cache you want, you import it, but it imports a bare waypoint.

 

There's good and bad in them all, mostly good. I've got to applaud all the developers for their efforts.

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Have been reading through these threads as well as some in other forums that have been ended by the moderator. I'm another premium member that has been using Geobeagle but I'm patiently waiting for the official GS version for the Android. I'll gladly pay for it as I do my premium membership, not only for the benefit I get, but to support GS and geocaching. I've seen several references to the fact that there will be an official GS version for the Android very soon in these posts. Has anyone received an email reply from GS to confirm that? I emailed several months ago and got a response that sure seemed like it was not a priority. Would love to see the app come out as the weather breaks here in Ohio. It seems like there are a lot of premium members interested in this as well. Hope it's becoming a bigger priority for GS and Geocaching.com.

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The best places to hear official progress reports on the officiial geocaching app for android are to check on Josh Lytle's and OpinioNate's posts in these forums, and to follow Geocaching on Facebook and Twitter. The last word from Josh is that his team is putting the finishing touches on the app so it can move to beta testing.

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(...) I'll gladly pay for it as I do my premium membership, (...). Has anyone received an email reply from GS to confirm that? (...) Would love to see the app come out as the weather breaks here in Ohio. (...)

Yes. I got this response last november:

Yes, we do have plans to develop a geocaching application for the Android platform. It may be a while before it is released, however, since we are also focused on a number of other projects. So until then give your browser a try. If its a good as the one on the Iphone it will work fine to access the database.

Lucky for you, you live in USA so you'll be able to buy the app though the Market. I hope they'll distribute it through other means as well, like handango, mobihand, slideme, getjar, cyrket, etc. or even better - a direct download apk paid for with paypal.

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The best places to hear official progress reports on the officiial geocaching app for android are to check on Josh Lytle's and OpinioNate's posts in these forums, and to follow Geocaching on Facebook and Twitter. The last word from Josh is that his team is putting the finishing touches on the app so it can move to beta testing.

 

Who is the best person to contact to find out if we can beta test? I'd be excited to help.

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I am flip flopping on this issue a lot so don't quote me. Today I read something on the developers web page that made me flip Groundspeak's way.

 

"Coming soon---Storing caches and images to memory to allow offline geocaching"

 

I am guessing that in other words currently the app goes out to gc.com every time he switches pages because he has no persistent data! This is extremely bad programming practice and if this is the case and I was a programmer at GS, I would be really ticked off. Phone data and gc.com data are not free. The bandwidth costs money. Persistent data is the major way of conserving bandwidth. GS can not stop someone from accessing the gc.com site so they simply stopped people from advertising an app that abuses access. I am hoping the adding of persistent data will make GS happy. GS might even have suggested the change.

 

I am guessing Android phones require unlimited data access. I know Google Maps does not allow any app to make the map data persistent. You must load fresh map data every time you zoom or pan.

 

I'm really not following your logic. You're claiming that any application that accesses gc.com as data is needed rather than downloading it before it's needed and storing it is 'extremely bad programming practice?' Why? Networks today are cheap so are very commonly used to avoid increasing local storage. That, in a nutshell, is the major component of cloud computing. With your definition of 'bad' every web browser is bad. Google is bad. Heck, gc.com is bad because they encourage this bad behavior.

 

Further, how is it better to download the data for 500 caches and only actually use 5% of that data? What a huge waste of network bandwidth, local storage and server (ie, gc.com) computer power. On-demand data gathering can be very good.

 

As long as were guessing, I'm guessing that gc.com strongly wants to avoid apps that store gc data rather than accessing the gc.com web site on-demand since those apps caching data allow users to avoid viewing the ads that gc.com sells. That's probably one of the reasons that Groundspeak is opposed to screen scrapers since those screen scrapers allow users to avoid viewing the ads and could lead to less ad revenue for Groundspeak.

Like I said I flip flop. I was thinking every time the app switched to the search results page the app did another gc.com search because it "had no caches in memory". Upon further reading, I think Android saves some data in what Android calls "activities". Switching to the search results activity, then, probably doesn't require another gc.com search. I guess Android does conserve some bandwidth automatically. I think the PQ's are mailed at low bandwidth usage times. It is the peak data transmission rates not the data quantity they have to handle with more servers.
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Application this application that. Best we users can hope for is a Google buyout of GS.

What we need is needed is a decent GPSr device that provides wireless Geocaching. Remember it was the removal of Selective Availability that started this gold rush.

Therefore when my cell phone has become the communicator with a video camera lense and now has a GPSr with a crappy resolution of 50ft. It just does not cut it! No application is going to solve a bad GPSr.

 

All that been said, hopefully someone has gone to the pains of testing a few devices: Is there a telephone device out there that can give 10ft or better resolution and includes a compass? An HTC or Moto or maybe even a Sony device? What can we expect from the 4G iPhone expected later this year?

We need smaller Pdop! :anitongue:

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Application this application that. Best we users can hope for is a Google buyout of GS.

What we need is needed is a decent GPSr device that provides wireless Geocaching. Remember it was the removal of Selective Availability that started this gold rush.

Therefore when my cell phone has become the communicator with a video camera lense and now has a GPSr with a crappy resolution of 50ft. It just does not cut it! No application is going to solve a bad GPSr.

 

All that been said, hopefully someone has gone to the pains of testing a few devices: Is there a telephone device out there that can give 10ft or better resolution and includes a compass? An HTC or Moto or maybe even a Sony device? What can we expect from the 4G iPhone expected later this year?

We need smaller Pdop! :anitongue:

The accuracy of my HTC Droid Eris is better inside a building than my etrex Legend on a bald mountain with clear sky. It's awesome.

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Just because the iphones gpsr sucks doesn't mean they all do. My droid is accurate to 4 ft. My omnia only had problems in thick vegetation.

 

I have only done one cache with my HTC Hero. It took longer to settle out than my 60cx but once it did they both showed the same "2 meters west" when I was standing at GZ. This was under medium tree coverage. The only concern I have is with durability. It appears to me that my garmin can take a licking but I'm not prepared to put my phone through the same.

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I have only done one cache with my HTC Hero. It took longer to settle out than my 60cx but once it did they both showed the same "2 meters west" when I was standing at GZ. This was under medium tree coverage. The only concern I have is with durability. It appears to me that my garmin can take a licking but I'm not prepared to put my phone through the same.

 

That's the experience I've had with my Moto Droid too. The GPSr in the Droid is roughly as accurate as my Garmin 60CSx, but the Garmin is much more rugged. My 60 has been dropped on rocks, been underwater multiple times and is frequently gritty with mud. My droid got splashed at the bathroom sink and stopped working for 12 hours and now has the little 'got wet' indicator activated so my warranty is void. There are times with using a cell phone to geocache makes sense, but other times when a more rugged device is the answer.

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Just because the iphones gpsr sucks doesn't mean they all do. My droid is accurate to 4 ft. My omnia only had problems in thick vegetation.

 

I have only done one cache with my HTC Hero. It took longer to settle out than my 60cx but once it did they both showed the same "2 meters west" when I was standing at GZ. This was under medium tree coverage. The only concern I have is with durability. It appears to me that my garmin can take a licking but I'm not prepared to put my phone through the same.

 

Can you tell what app you downloaded to get the gpsr going on the Hero? I have GPSTest but can't figure out how to get it to work and I haven't figured out how to get caches into it and tell it to goto or search.

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Just because the iphones gpsr sucks doesn't mean they all do. My droid is accurate to 4 ft. My omnia only had problems in thick vegetation.

 

I have only done one cache with my HTC Hero. It took longer to settle out than my 60cx but once it did they both showed the same "2 meters west" when I was standing at GZ. This was under medium tree coverage. The only concern I have is with durability. It appears to me that my garmin can take a licking but I'm not prepared to put my phone through the same.

 

Can you tell what app you downloaded to get the gpsr going on the Hero? I have GPSTest but can't figure out how to get it to work and I haven't figured out how to get caches into it and tell it to goto or search.

 

I am using I have geobeagle on my hero and it appears to work well, it is available in the market at no charge. you need to turn the gps on (i added a shortcut so there is an "gps on / off" icon on my home screen) and you will see the gps in the task bar, it looks like a satellite dish. Once the gps is on, run your browser and head to geocaching.com. once you are in the cache you want to look for "For online maps" just under the hint section and click on google maps. the phone should prompt you to "complete this action using..." and select geobeagle and your off.

 

Geobeagle also supports other formats (LOC GPX...) and you can check out their project page, it contains a complete tutorial, videos, contact info...

 

http://code.google.com/p/geobeagle/

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I am using I have geobeagle on my hero and it appears to work well, it is available in the market at no charge. you need to turn the gps on (i added a shortcut so there is an "gps on / off" icon on my home screen) and you will see the gps in the task bar, it looks like a satellite dish. Once the gps is on, run your browser and head to geocaching.com. once you are in the cache you want to look for "For online maps" just under the hint section and click on google maps. the phone should prompt you to "complete this action using..." and select geobeagle and your off.

 

Geobeagle also supports other formats (LOC GPX...) and you can check out their project page, it contains a complete tutorial, videos, contact info...

 

http://code.google.com/p/geobeagle/

 

Another application available in Android Marketplace is 'Find Geocaches.' This little app does a live search and passes the data to GeoBeagle. Little easier than the Web Browser Shuffle.

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I am using I have geobeagle on my hero and it appears to work well, it is available in the market at no charge. you need to turn the gps on (i added a shortcut so there is an "gps on / off" icon on my home screen) and you will see the gps in the task bar, it looks like a satellite dish. Once the gps is on, run your browser and head to geocaching.com. once you are in the cache you want to look for "For online maps" just under the hint section and click on google maps. the phone should prompt you to "complete this action using..." and select geobeagle and your off.

 

Geobeagle also supports other formats (LOC GPX...) and you can check out their project page, it contains a complete tutorial, videos, contact info...

 

http://code.google.com/p/geobeagle/

 

Another application available in Android Marketplace is 'Find Geocaches.' This little app does a live search and passes the data to GeoBeagle. Little easier than the Web Browser Shuffle.qr

 

Sounds good, although I could not find 'find geocache' in my market. It may not be available in Canada or atleast until we get an update. I am also waiting to try Google goggles....LOL

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Sounds good, although I could not find 'find geocache' in my market. It may not be available in Canada or at least until we get an update. I am also waiting to try Google goggles....LOL

 

It's 'Find Geocaches' by pgray16. http://sites.google.com/site/pgray16/find-geocaches . pgray16@gmail.com Don't know if that's a US-only app or some other restriction. You may be able to get it from the developer. And, I have no relationship with pgray16. I just found his app a useful addition to GeoBeagle.

 

Goggles is a cool idea. Not sure how useful it is, but the idea is intriguing In any case, it's available via the Market too (at least in the US).

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[reference to unauthorized application removed by moderator] is the best android app on the market. Nothing even compares to it. To use anything else, IMO, is a waste of time.

 

Happy Hunting :D

 

[MODERATOR NOTE: The application has an advantage over its peers, whose developers respect the Groundspeak terms of use. Do not discuss this application in the Groundspeak Forums.]

Edited by Keystone
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I tried out Geobeagle, but I can't get it to import PQ files. It tries to, but says there's nothing there. And there no longer is as it deleted the file! :wub:

 

It was cool to have it show up as a link when I clicked the "preview" button in gmail for the ZIP file though. Cachemate works similarly, but was actually able to load the file.

 

Kinda nice note, CacheMate lets you transfer the license from the old Palm version. Handy. It would be nice if I could configure CacheMate or another app to detect the PQ emails and auto-add them to the database. Perhaps only if the screen is sleeping and/or plugged in.

 

I also tried the app which shall not be named. Pretty nice, I wish there were an official app. Even better would be to allow "user keys" so that I could, for example, allow an app access with my paid account. That way only paying users to gc.com could use the API. As a developer, I would find that quite nice indeed.

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I tried out Geobeagle, but I can't get it to import PQ files. It tries to, but says there's nothing there. And there no longer is as it deleted the file! :anibad:

 

It was cool to have it show up as a link when I clicked the "preview" button in gmail for the ZIP file though. Cachemate works similarly, but was actually able to load the file.

 

I believe there is a bug that involved the Android gmail app, attachments and some apps, like GeoBeagle. Don't recall the details, but you can do the PQ to GeoBeagle download by using a browser to access your gmail account rather than the gmail app. Yup, it's inconvenient.

 

If you're using GeoBeagle, the little app 'Find Geocaches' is useful and it allows you to do live searches and feed them to GeoBeagle. Makes GeoBeagle almost as good as the app we can't discuss.

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I tried out Geobeagle, but I can't get it to import PQ files. It tries to, but says there's nothing there. And there no longer is as it deleted the file! :anibad:

 

It was cool to have it show up as a link when I clicked the "preview" button in gmail for the ZIP file though. Cachemate works similarly, but was actually able to load the file.

 

I believe there is a bug that involved the Android gmail app, attachments and some apps, like GeoBeagle. Don't recall the details, but you can do the PQ to GeoBeagle download by using a browser to access your gmail account rather than the gmail app. Yup, it's inconvenient.

 

If you're using GeoBeagle, the little app 'Find Geocaches' is useful and it allows you to do live searches and feed them to GeoBeagle. Makes GeoBeagle almost as good as the app we can't discuss.

 

I'll give that app a try. I fired up GSAK and will download some PQs, that's probably easier for the short term anyway for non-live data.

 

I find it odd that CacheMate can download files fine but GeoBeagle can't.

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I tried out Geobeagle, but I can't get it to import PQ files. It tries to, but says there's nothing there. And there no longer is as it deleted the file! :anibad:

 

It was cool to have it show up as a link when I clicked the "preview" button in gmail for the ZIP file though. Cachemate works similarly, but was actually able to load the file.

 

I believe there is a bug that involved the Android gmail app, attachments and some apps, like GeoBeagle. Don't recall the details, but you can do the PQ to GeoBeagle download by using a browser to access your gmail account rather than the gmail app. Yup, it's inconvenient.

 

If you're using GeoBeagle, the little app 'Find Geocaches' is useful and it allows you to do live searches and feed them to GeoBeagle. Makes GeoBeagle almost as good as the app we can't discuss.

 

Shhhhh you discussing it........ lol

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I believe there is a bug that involved the Android gmail app, attachments and some apps, like GeoBeagle. Don't recall the details, but you can do the PQ to GeoBeagle download by using a browser to access your gmail account rather than the gmail app.

 

There's an app called Blackmoon Attach Save Lite in the Market that will let you save any attachment to your device, so you may want to give it a try.

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Yeah, I personally would love it if finding a new cache nearby was as simple as the program imploring use of a modified version of Google Maps. It would save having to open a browser up, scrolling on the screen and then trying to zoom in on the map with such limited controls. Anyone know if a "geocache filter" on google maps could be done in the same way that this site does it but in an interface?

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Yeah, I personally would love it if finding a new cache nearby was as simple as the program imploring use of a modified version of Google Maps. It would save having to open a browser up, scrolling on the screen and then trying to zoom in on the map with such limited controls. Anyone know if a "geocache filter" on google maps could be done in the same way that this site does it but in an interface?

 

I believe that all the programs that do this violate Groundspeak's TOU, but perhaps someone will provide a 'legal' example. The only mobile app for Android that does all this, that I'm aware of, is the one we can't talk about. And, evidently, the future app from Groundspeak.

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...The only mobile app for Android that does all this, that I'm aware of, is the one we can't talk about. And, evidently, the future app from Groundspeak.

 

How soon?

 

I'm not a Groundspeak employee or volunteer and don't even play one one TV. However, a semi-official comment a day or two ago was that the app was getting some alpha testing now and would begin beta testing soon. Sometime in Spring seems like a good guess.

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...The only mobile app for Android that does all this, that I'm aware of, is the one we can't talk about. And, evidently, the future app from Groundspeak.

 

How soon?

 

I'm not a Groundspeak employee or volunteer and don't even play one one TV. However, a semi-official comment a day or two ago was that the app was getting some alpha testing now and would begin beta testing soon. Sometime in Spring seems like a good guess.

 

Cool. I did find another program [reference to unauthorized application removed by moderator]

Edited by Keystone
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As long as were guessing, I'm guessing that gc.com strongly wants to avoid apps that store gc data rather than accessing the gc.com web site on-demand since those apps caching data allow users to avoid viewing the ads that gc.com sells. That's probably one of the reasons that Groundspeak is opposed to screen scrapers since those screen scrapers allow users to avoid viewing the ads and could lead to less ad revenue for Groundspeak.

I have the iPhone app (I'm in this thread doing research for a Droid user) and I'm happy to say that there is no advertising in the official app. I'd also like to say that the iPhone app is extremely easy to use. All you do is hit the Find Nearby Geocaches button and you're off. The experience is virtually the same as using the web site, except that the satellite photos are slightly blurry when you zoom all the way in.

 

If the Android version is the same basic app you'll all be very happy, assuming you're willing to spend the US$10. If not, GeoBeagle is good as well as free, and if you add in Find Geocaches for $2 the combination sounds like it's about the same functionality as the official app (although I've not yet actually used Find Geocaches yet).

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I use FIND GEOCACHES ($1.99) along with GEOBEAGLE (free). You need to have both because they work together. They have been GREAT. When my Delorme seems to fail me I use the Droid as a back up or together to see if both are on target and I have been VERY happy!! The owner of the app is very helpful if you have a problem (which I did and he uploaded an update and refunded my $1.99).

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