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Geocaching application for Android?

ran183

By ran183
in How do I...?

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CanUK_TeamFitz

+CanUK_TeamFitz

Posted
Posted

Hey I was just wondering if there are plans for a version of the fancy Geocaching application coming for Android. Thanks!!!

 

I'm thinking of going for an android phone in the future so I'd be quite interested in this. Having said that, Android is an open source OS that you can download and run in vmware, so you can pretty much develop your own API, if you have any skills in that area of course.

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ran183

ran183

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Posted (edited)

Awesome thanks guys!!! I'll check them out!!!

 

if you have any skills in that area of course

 

I actually downloaded the Android SDK yesterday... then quickly realized that I had no idea what I was doing lol

Edited by ran183
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DesignShark

DesignShark

Posted
Posted

Awesome thanks guys!!! I'll check them out!!!

 

if you have any skills in that area of course

 

I actually downloaded the Android SDK yesterday... then quickly realized that I had no idea what I was doing lol

 

There is a new version of geobeagle that makes things so much easier to track. The devs are updating the project regularly, Make sure you go to the developer site, they get you to download radar which is nicer to use than that compass.

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ardoreal

+ardoreal

Posted
Posted (edited)

Droid user here voicing support for an Android app :blink:

 

I would not hesitate at all to buy a geocaching app from Groundspeak once it's available.

 

[edit]

 

I figured I should throw a bone to the devs about Android in its current state.

 

Droid is a first-rate phone. It's best-of-breed among Android devices. It's also nearing a million sales.

 

http://gigaom.com/2009/11/30/droid-q4-sales/

 

Far more than expected. Many people are flocking to it and a surprising number of savvy users are abandoning ship over at AT&T for Verizon. Surely when "there's a map for that" Groundspeak might want people to have more access to cache data out and about :laughing: What good is such an incredible device as an iPhone when it own't get data, oh but I see Groundspeak has spent quite a bit of effort for the offline capabilities of the iPhone so people can get all their cache info via wifi before they go hunting :laughing: A Droid user would have all the cache info right there at the cache most likely.

 

Many analyst are seeing the trend happening that Google is eating Apple's lunch with Android, and many are making the call that Android is getting ready to take the number two spot behind RIM in smartphone share. It also looks like those 3GS sales are tapering off whilst Droid, Eris, and Hero are exploding.

 

I love Groundspeak, I love the work that was done on the iPhone app. Having been a former user I can appreciate the good taste the devs have shown. I really think you guys might take a stab at Android, you may like it when you cross over. :laughing:

 

I know consumers are loving it.

Edited by ardoreal
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NYPaddleCacher

+NYPaddleCacher

Posted
Posted

Take a number ardoreal! I'm waiting for a Geocaching Palm Pre app.. :blink:

 

If you look at statistics which indicate market share percentages of smart phone purchases you'll find a variety of results depending on whose doing the survey. From my research (related to my job) I've found the Gartner stats to be pretty reliable. For Q3 2009, world wide smart phone market share:

 

Nokia : 39.3%

RIM (Blackberry) : 20.8%

Apple : 17.1%

HTC (G1) : 6.5%

Samsung : 3.2%

Others : 13.1%

 

Thus, it would make the most sense for Groundspeak to develop a J2ME based geocaching app that would run on Blackberry or something that would run on Nokia (Symbian O/S) phones.

 

Some of the Smartphone stats can be deceiving. For example, the AdMob stats measure stats based on the device detected via their mobile ads. That only measures what phones people are *using* with apps which have mobile ads, not what phones people own.

 

At another recent study at Harvard it was found that a high percentage of users of a mobile site were from iPhone users but when they asked students what kind of phone they owned, it turned out that Blackberries outnumbered iPhones 4 to 1. The explanation that I've heard is that the user experience is better when accessing the mobile site with an iPhone, so those using other devices might try the site once, find it too slow or that the screen size doesn't work well on their device, so they never come back.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath for a Palm Pre native app.

 

Personally, I think it would make more sense to look at developing a location aware web application that would run in mobile browsers which support the HTML5/CSS3 specifications and use the Geocation API like Fennec (the mobile version of Firefox). Fennec runs on some Nokia devices and development is underway for Symbian O/S, Windows Mobile, and Android. It probably won't ever make it to the iPhone of Blackberry's but if browsers for those devices support the Geolocation API it doesn't really matter.

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AbMagFab

+AbMagFab

Posted
Posted

Since it is open source, why don't you tech guys out there make one app for android, and maybe even together with Groundspeak?

 

I would love to buy an android phone if I could get a great geocaching app similar to the iPhone app.

 

Oh, that's right... developing for the Android is painful... Developers continue to avoid/abandon Andriod.

 

Unfortunately, until Google (or someone) improves the SDK, there won't be much commercial Android development. And the more non-commercial stuff you get outside the "store", the more likely a nasty mal-app is going to spread itself around.

 

The next few months will be telling.

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NordicMan

NordicMan

Posted
Posted

Take a number ardoreal! I'm waiting for a Geocaching Palm Pre app.. :D

 

If you look at statistics which indicate market share percentages of smart phone purchases you'll find a variety of results depending on whose doing the survey....

 

Yes and if you just look at other statistics you'll also notice there are a LOT more Chevy's driving around than Porches.. does that mean Chevy is better?

 

Just kidding :D I do understand your point

 

In that car context, if I was a merchandise vendor intending on making money I'd concentrate on making stuff that'll work on Chevy's first :)

 

But as far as Geocaching apps for various O/S smartphones goes, it's not like there is just one guy in a room creating all the apps and everyone is waiting patiently for that one guy to hurry up & finish THEIR phones app :) I am sure every smartphone group has skilled developers ready & waiting to create their masterpiece, and all they need from Groundspeak is approval to do so as well as some technical information on now to integrate their app to this system. Isn't that basically it?

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ardoreal

+ardoreal

Posted
Posted

Since it is open source, why don't you tech guys out there make one app for android, and maybe even together with Groundspeak?

 

I would love to buy an android phone if I could get a great geocaching app similar to the iPhone app.

 

Oh, that's right... developing for the Android is painful... Developers continue to avoid/abandon Andriod.

 

Unfortunately, until Google (or someone) improves the SDK, there won't be much commercial Android development. And the more non-commercial stuff you get outside the "store", the more likely a nasty mal-app is going to spread itself around.

 

The next few months will be telling.

 

I call BS on that :)

 

Android’s platform and developer tools are excellent. Leveraging Java and the Eclipse IDE are major winning factors for Android. Apple’s developer tools are shockingly bad by comparison. The Objective-C language and platform APIs are cumbersome and poorly organized. Overall when developing for the iPhone I felt like I was back in 1993. These factors combined in my estimation make application development about three times more expensive when developing for iPhone. The only area where Apple’s developer tools excelled was in profiling and heap analysis.

 

He wrote this on his blog at http://greensopinion.blogspot.com/2009/07/...evelopment.html back before Eclair was released. Many other developer opinions are similar, not to mention Gameloft's "we're leaving" followed by "we're coming back!" articles.

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Keystone

Keystone

Posted
Posted

I am closing this bumped thread for two reasons:

 

1. The semi-official advice I gave out earlier is now woefully out of date. Check the discussions in the GPS and Technology forum or the Geocaching for iPhone forum to follow the current status of Groundspeak's Android Geocaching application, expected to be rolled out by the end of this month.

 

2. The topic was bumped for the purpose of promoting an application that violates the website terms of use and Groundspeak's intellectual property rights. Discussion of this application is not permitted in the Groundspeak forums.

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