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Great iPhone App 3.0! Now can we get started on Droid!

JohnE5

By JohnE5
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JohnE5

+JohnE5

Posted
Posted

Geocaching.com has just released their 3.0 iphone app. Is this what they were doing instead of working on a first version app for the droid? I bet we'll see v4.0 before the droid version comes out.

 

If GC isn't going to make it a priority, stop blowing smoke and tell us! I've been waiting patiently to find out if I need to drop Verizon to get an official app. Now a new version for iphone!?!?

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hairball45

+hairball45

Posted
Posted

I'm with you John, I have a BlackBerry Storm and I'm using Cacheberry on it. It works great, but I wouldn't mind seeing live cache views on the berry. I think Geocache Navigator does that, but not at the tune of $40 per year. Hey, that's more than my premium membership. Anyway, I'd like to see full featured caching apps for platforms for other than the wonderphone. I don't really get the facination with that particular device.

hairball

 

(was E-6 once upon a)

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Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
Posted

As a Droid owner, I can relate to your impatience! But as a Groundspeak employee, I can also tell you that it is a lot easier to update an existing product/platform than it is to produce a new one for a new platform. Rest assured that work is progressing in parallel on the two platforms (sorry, nothing at this time for Blackberry).

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Skippermark

Skippermark

Posted
Posted

I'm not a developer, so I have no idea if it's true, but people have said its harder to develop for the Android than the iPhone because with the iPhone you have one phone type with all the same hardware, one OS and that's it.

 

With the Android, you have multiple phone manufacturers using different hardware, requiring more work.

 

That said, one would think the program would send a command to the OS and then the OS would "talk" to the hardware in the way needed, but what do I know. :blink:

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Tequila

+Tequila

Posted
Posted

My husband and I both use Cachemate on our droids and we love it!

Cachemate pull caches from the site? Or do need to load a GPX file?

 

I haven't used Cachemate since I got my Oregon (and an iPhone).

 

Two years ago is did not "pull" anything. You had to use a program like GSAK to create a Cachemate file. Google it and you should be able to find the documentation.

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Cache O'Plenty

+Cache O'Plenty

Posted
Posted

Droid user here. Cachemate installed and works great. Yes, you can visit cache page and download limited info (GC#, coordinates). You then can log it to "field notes". GPS works but compass rose is cumbersome. Certainly replaces my old version of Cachemate on a Palm Tungsten! Developer is working on a linkage between Cachemate and Google Turn-by-turn navigation (both apps are available but not linked)

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JohnE5

+JohnE5

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Still trying to figure out how the existence of an official iPhone Geocaching application equals "iPhone worship". ??

 

And for the record, I don't have an iPhone and I'm not an iPhone fan.

Well the app in and of itself doesn't but the phone has its own forum and has a place on the home page. How many other phones have 1. An official app just for that phone. 2. A dedicated forum 3. A huge spot on the main page?

 

Why no Cachemate forum? Everyone else seems to use it.

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Allanon

+Allanon

Posted
Posted

Still trying to figure out how the existence of an official iPhone Geocaching application equals "iPhone worship". ??

 

And for the record, I don't have an iPhone and I'm not an iPhone fan.

Well the app in and of itself doesn't but the phone has its own forum and has a place on the home page. How many other phones have 1. An official app just for that phone. 2. A dedicated forum 3. A huge spot on the main page?

 

Why no Cachemate forum? Everyone else seems to use it.

Because GC.com doesn't make Cachemate...they do make the iPhone app...how hard is that to understand?

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niraD

+niraD

Posted
Posted

FWIW, I've been happy with GeoBeagle on Android. It can't scrape data from the geocaching.com web site, since that would violate the TOS. But it can link to the search results page at geocaching.com (and other sites) with your location automatically specified. And it can register for Google Maps events, so when you click on the Google Maps link at the bottom of a cache description, the Google Maps event (which includes the cache GCxxxxx number and coordinates) can be passed to GeoBeagle.

 

And of course, it can handle PQ data, which I have emailed to my Gmail account. I download the PQ data to my device using the Android browser.

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DieselBenz

+DieselBenz

Posted
Posted

I too am still really hoping to see an official Geocaching app for Android. I personally have both an HTC hero with GeoBeagle, and an iPhone with the Geocaching app.

 

The iPhone software is nice but could be so much more powerful if available for the Android phones. I've found that the GPS on my Hero is significantly more accurate than the iPhone, plus the android has a built in compass that is very useful. Pair that with a platform that's not policed by the Nazis at Apple and the sky is the limit.

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Frank Broughton

+Frank Broughton

Posted
Posted

Ha! Thanks Frank! You totally made me literally laugh out loud. :rolleyes:

 

Glad to be of service Mama! :unsure:

 

Once I was eating breakfast while checking emails and some of the forums I frequent and I did as you did - but I ended up with a mouthful of oatmeal all over my monitors (dual monitor setup). I am still finding dried oatmeal on my desk. :)

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StaticTank

+StaticTank

Posted
Posted

Geocaching.com has just released their 3.0 iphone app. Is this what they were doing instead of working on a first version app for the droid? I bet we'll see v4.0 before the droid version comes out.

 

If GC isn't going to make it a priority, stop blowing smoke and tell us! I've been waiting patiently to find out if I need to drop Verizon to get an official app. Now a new version for iphone!?!?

 

They are working on one! I can't wait. For now I use GeoBeagle but I am looking forward to Groundspeak's App!

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5 Caching Campers

+5 Caching Campers

Posted
Posted (edited)

Too bad there wasn't just an open source platform for a fee so everyone could take advantage of it.

 

Now that would, in fact, be ideal. Heck, Groundspeak doesn't even have to opensource anything... just open up the API that the iPhone app uses. They can even make it so that it doesn't work unless the user is logged in with credentials from an account with a premium membership, for all I care. Let one of the many geocaching fans out there do the hard work of building an app ;).

 

BTW, this is actually my #1 gripe w/Groundspeak. For the keyholders to such a high-tech game they sure have a low-tech web1.0 attitude about their website and the data we submit to it.

 

Still trying to figure out how the existence of an official iPhone Geocaching application equals "iPhone worship". ??

 

The existence of the app, in and of itself, doesn't. The fact that it is the only mobile platform that is able to receive up to the second live data from Groundspeak's servers does. And it's not like there aren't other platforms that aren't capable of it... Android, BlackBerry, and webOS (Palm) all have phones with data, GPS, and a decent processor... yet none of them can get live data in an easy to use mobile format (yes, on my Pre I can, and have, accessed the full web page in order to get cache info and to log a cache... no, it's not ideal).

Edited by CSI:Cache Scene Investigators
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Cache O'Plenty

+Cache O'Plenty

Posted
Posted

Well, if I read your comments correctly, my Droid can access the live database (cache pages) via the web and then download the basic info (coords, GC#) directly into Cachemate (for Droid).

 

From there, I can use the built in compass, navigation and SMS field note logging features. Not perfect as it won't (yet) download the cache data descriptions, etc.

 

But, yes, I'm waiting for GC's Droid app too.

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5 Caching Campers

+5 Caching Campers

Posted
Posted

When I had my BlackBerry, I used CacheBerry. I ran pocket queries, dumped them out to GSAK and loaded the GPS from that. I also created new GPX files (with smaller amounts of caches, but more logs and corrected coords for puzzles I'd solved). I then loaded those GPX files into CacheBerry. If I was out in the field and though my GPX was out of date for some reason, I could use the "Website" menu item to visit the full cache page. If I was already logged into the website, I could then click the GPX button and refresh my offline version of the cache. If, for some reason, the website had forgotten who I was, then I could log in and refresh the GPX. Logging in, of course, is a pit of pain. Especially with a long username. This process also took a fair amount of pre-planning so I could ensure that I had a GPX file for the area I was planning to cache in.

 

There's no doubt in my mind that if the iPhone API was open to third party developers, Bruce (the CacheBerry developer) would have had a menu option to "Refresh cache" which would automatically grab the latest data from geocaching.com and update the offline database. There could also be a "View caches nearby" which would grab the current GPS location and grab a list of caches and show them in a nice, easy to read (unlike the full mobile webpage... esp on a BB Browser) yet still fully featured (unlike the WAP site), mobile interface.

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5 Caching Campers

+5 Caching Campers

Posted
Posted

I now have a Palm Pre. There's a couple Geocaching apps for it in Homebrew, but they still suffer from some of the same limitations.

 

The simplest, by far, is Geocache Locater. It simply grabs the current coords and sends you to the search page on geocaching.com. I've used it a couple times, but it's far from ideal. The Pre's browser is plenty capable of displaying full cache pages and navigating the site, but even with pinch zooming, finger panning, etc it's a pain to read a full web page on a small screen. (As an aside, the most recent time I used it I got a second to log on a mass FTF... I stood right next to the reviewer as he published a new cache at the event we were attending. My wife followed the masses to sign the logbook while I fired up geocache locator to find nearby caches. I think I had it logged before people even got their email notification about the cache, though I don't know for sure as we were outside the area that we get alerts for).

 

There's also one that's a pay app, which at this point in time I can't afford... too busy spending money on things for other people. It also works with GPX files, but I don't know much more than that about it.

 

There's a third app that just popped up, but I haven't had the time to play with it. I think we've only managed to get out caching twice since I got the Pre and ditched the BB.

 

Not a single one of these, however, are able to grab live data from geocaching.com and display it in an easy to use mobile format. There's a reason that Facebook, Google, etc. make special web pages for these devices (Android, iPhone, webOS)... they're more capable than a normal mobile phone, but their display size makes full size web pages less ideal.

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Skippermark

Skippermark

Posted
Posted (edited)

Geocaching.com has just released their 3.0 iphone app. Is this what they were doing instead of working on a first version app for the droid? I bet we'll see v4.0 before the droid version comes out.

 

If GC isn't going to make it a priority, stop blowing smoke and tell us! I've been waiting patiently to find out if I need to drop Verizon to get an official app. Now a new version for iphone!?!?

 

They are working on one! I can't wait. For now I use GeoBeagle but I am looking forward to Groundspeak's App!

I'm all for choices (since I may ditch my iPhone for a Droid someday), but there are issues with version 3.0 of the iPhone app that were reported 3+ weeks ago and still haven't been addressed.

 

It's not that I don't want them to create an app for the Droid. I'd just rather see them fix the current problems with the iPhone before starting another project that will probably need some love and care after being released.

 

The iPhone app is pretty much "there," and anything else that gets added would be "fluff" stuff and definitely not critical to using it. There are a few bugs and usability issues that came along with version 3 that need to be fixed. After that the iPhone app could go "on hold" for awhile so developers could dedicate their time to writing the Droid app rather than having to try to write that while trying to fix iPhone issues and end up with 2 apps not working right.

Edited by Skippermark
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eagsc7

+eagsc7

Posted
Posted

My husband and I both use Cachemate on our droids and we love it!

Cachemate pull caches from the site? Or do need to load a GPX file?

 

I haven't used Cachemate since I got my Oregon (and an iPhone).

 

Two years ago is did not "pull" anything. You had to use a program like GSAK to create a Cachemate file. Google it and you should be able to find the documentation.

 

Blackberry user With Cachemate:

 

Yes, and no. First, I load the gpx file from GSAK to the phone, then CacheMate interpolates the data. I then can sort by nearest, hit the GOTO function, and then as I'm going to(or standing there), I can utilize the mobile web interface to search for caches closest to me. Of course, then it gets tricky gettin the data from the site to the phone to search for one that wasn't published in the last few days... Thus the reason, I still use my Trusty eTrex Vista HCX.

 

The Steaks

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eagsc7

+eagsc7

Posted
Posted

Hun?! What exactly does that mean?

 

How does the mere existence of an official iPhone Geocaching application (and any subsequent application updates) equate to iPhone worship?

 

Because the BlackBerry has been around Longer than the iPhoney, and we're STill waiting...

 

M10B: Seriously, an Android app Before a BB App... Thats just kookey!

 

Steaks

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Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
Posted
M10B: Seriously, an Android app Before a BB App... Thats just kookey!

 

Hardly:

 

August 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

 

When you consider that this report is for August and the Droid, which in most recent measurements accounts for 24% of the Android market now, didn't even hit the market until November, it's easy to see that Android is taking off and has surpassed BB (RIM), which is steadily losing its market share.

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m_and_w

+m_and_w

Posted
Posted

Give bcaching.com a try. It offers small, clean and fast mobile web pages for access to geocache data.

 

Like most other 3rd party apps it relies on pocket queries but you can set up your PQs to be completely automated with your personalized bcaching email address and refresh your account daily (at least for your most visited areas; when planning to go elsewhere you still have to plan ahead and run a PQ for that area).

 

It works great on my Droid :D, but also supports any modern mobile web browser.

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supertbone

+supertbone

Posted
Posted
M10B: Seriously, an Android app Before a BB App... Thats just kookey!

 

Hardly:

 

August 2009 Mobile Metrics Report

 

When you consider that this report is for August and the Droid, which in most recent measurements accounts for 24% of the Android market now, didn't even hit the market until November, it's easy to see that Android is taking off and has surpassed BB (RIM), which is steadily losing its market share.

 

My guess is that the reason Groundspeak has not developed a BB app is pure business. The creator, Trimble, advertises the product on GC.com. That means revenue. If Groundspeak releases a competing free version on the BB that would kill advertising dollars, and that is not even taking into account the development dollars dedicated to creating a BB app or any money Trimble could be paying to access the geocaching API.

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CheshireFrog

+CheshireFrog

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

The existence of the app, in and of itself, doesn't. The fact that it is the only mobile platform that is able to receive up to the second live data from Groundspeak's servers does. And it's not like there aren't other platforms that aren't capable of it... Android, BlackBerry, and webOS (Palm) all have phones with data, GPS, and a decent processor... yet none of them can get live data in an easy to use mobile format (yes, on my Pre I can, and have, accessed the full web page in order to get cache info and to log a cache... no, it's not ideal).

 

For any Pre owners, head over to PreCentral and check out Precaching. It's still a work in progress, but it's already impressive, and the announced upcoming features are exciting. Best of all, it's currently free.

Edited by CheshireFrog
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djwhitey

+djwhitey

Posted
Posted

 

The existence of the app, in and of itself, doesn't. The fact that it is the only mobile platform that is able to receive up to the second live data from Groundspeak's servers does. And it's not like there aren't other platforms that aren't capable of it... Android, BlackBerry, and webOS (Palm) all have phones with data, GPS, and a decent processor... yet none of them can get live data in an easy to use mobile format (yes, on my Pre I can, and have, accessed the full web page in order to get cache info and to log a cache... no, it's not ideal).

 

For any Pre owners, head over to PreCentral and check out Precaching. It's still a work in progress, but it's already impressive, and the announced upcoming features are exciting. Best of all, it's currently free.

Pre Owners: Get Go To Tool Lite [free] from the App Catalog (there's also an $8 paid version). Send your GPX file to your phone via USB, the app imports it. It'll sort imported caches by nearest to you, give you bearing etc. Once you pick the one you're hunting, it goes into compass mode... a little jumpy at times but pretty reliable. Averages 15ft or so of accuracy for me. It also has buttons that link to LOG find [Web], get DETAIL [Web], NAV directions [GMaps] or SAT view [Gmaps].

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thegreengreengrassofhome

+thegreengreengrassofhome

Posted
Posted

As a Droid owner, I can relate to your impatience! But as a Groundspeak employee, I can also tell you that it is a lot easier to update an existing product/platform than it is to produce a new one for a new platform. Rest assured that work is progressing in parallel on the two platforms (sorry, nothing at this time for Blackberry).

 

Is there going to be anything for Windows Mobile?

I had offered to write a library for windows mobile which matched the iPhone API for Groundspeek which I could use, and they could sell, but that seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, (someone else writing code for you to sell for free!)

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northernpenguin

+northernpenguin

Posted
Posted

As a Droid owner, I can relate to your impatience! But as a Groundspeak employee, I can also tell you that it is a lot easier to update an existing product/platform than it is to produce a new one for a new platform. Rest assured that work is progressing in parallel on the two platforms (sorry, nothing at this time for Blackberry).

 

Is there going to be anything for Windows Mobile?

I had offered to write a library for windows mobile which matched the iPhone API for Groundspeek which I could use, and they could sell, but that seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, (someone else writing code for you to sell for free!)

 

From what I've heard, Groundspeak has lost interest in Windows Mobile. You can see a half-baked geocaching app for WM at live.geocaching.com but I suspect that project has basically died on the table. I use GCzII as my 'unofficial' Geocaching app but since it's not sanctioned, Groundspeak can kill that puppy off whenever they feel like it.

 

I don't really have a problem with Groundspeak supporting the iPhone the way it does, and I can understand that there is an awful lot of work to support all the various OS's (Windows Mobile 5,6,6.5 / Android / Blackberry 4,4.5,4.7,5.0 / Symbian / Java / WebOS / Whatever the next company cooks up). The problem comes with availability for the consumers.

 

<rant>

 

I bought a Windows Phone when I did because, frankly the iPhone was not available to Canadians. The Canadian shipping date for the Google Nexus One is listed as "When Hell Freezes Over" I believe. A lot of places are like Canada and will lock you into a three year contract to get the phone. That means I can get the Geocaching.com iPhone App in ... 2012. Groundspeak ticks me off here because lets roll the clock back say two years --- oh look the developers were all over in the Windows Phone camp --- live.geocaching.com, Wherigo, etc. So if I go buy an iPhone in 2012 I'll find out the Geocaching app is only available for the Nexus Two at that time. *sigh*

 

</rant>

 

Now for some workaround options for those of us that aren't willing to drop our existing devices, pay a contract termination fee then rework our minds around that other device:

 

Make a mobile site, like the touch.facebook.com site (not that old WAP interface). If you use something like Google Gears, I'm pretty sure you can even gleam GPS coordinates from the device -- working on Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile. Java is another option but that's only really Blackberry / Nokia in the real world (live.geocaching.com works with Java too). Even if we don't 'detect' location, give people the ability to enter in co-ordinates and enter logs and such with a mobile browser. That keeps the traffic going to Groundspeak and hey throw an ad or two on the page to get some revenue for the traffic.

 

Alternatively -- licence the API to developers (charge a _reasonable_ fee if you must) and sanction some of the third party tools that want to query the website. I can also understand this is something that may be a nightmare for the support staff so ....

 

Option Three: BUY some of the third party guys out and slap a Groundspeak logo on the product. Blackstar for Blackberry. GCzII for Windows Mobile.

 

---

 

Oh and one more option for the Windows Mobile crowd. If you're running an HTC branded device, or an Omnia .... Android ports are about 60% complete for these devices. I can boot my Touch Pro2 into Android 2.1 but the cellular radio doesn't work just yet. Give the boys at XDA Developers a few more months and we can just load up the Android app while we're caching.

 

Android on HTC

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AZcachemeister

AZcachemeister

Posted
Posted

I just got a T-Mobile My Touch (android phone), so now I am waiting (impatiently) for the promised android Geocaching app. I am not from Missouri, but you will have to excuse me if I am a bit skeptical about seeing actual results. :lostsignal:

 

Cachemate does a great job with waypoints received via PQ and processed through GSAK, but with an upcoming cross-country vacation, the ability to get the details for nearby caches from any location will be a necessity...well, only as much as Geocaching is a necessity. :)

 

We are now 33% through Q1. :)

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tech22

+tech22

Posted
Posted

I enjoyed using a 3rd party app on my droid today that would let me pick the cache on a sat map and then google navigate me turn by turn to the site. I will be disappointed if the Groundspeak version doesn't offer the same navigational capability regardless of the geocaching website integration or pq filtering since it's readily available...

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JohnE5

+JohnE5

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Geocaching.com has just released their 3.0 iphone app. Is this what they were doing instead of working on a first version app for the droid? I bet we'll see v4.0 before the droid version comes out.

 

If GC isn't going to make it a priority, stop blowing smoke and tell us! I've been waiting patiently to find out if I need to drop Verizon to get an official app. Now a new version for iphone!?!?

The 4.0 iPhone just came out....

 

What do I win?

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AZcachemeister

AZcachemeister

Posted
Posted

Geocaching.com has just released their 3.0 iphone app. Is this what they were doing instead of working on a first version app for the droid? I bet we'll see v4.0 before the droid version comes out.

 

If GC isn't going to make it a priority, stop blowing smoke and tell us! I've been waiting patiently to find out if I need to drop Verizon to get an official app. Now a new version for iphone!?!?

The 4.0 iPhone just came out....

 

What do I win?

 

A lifetime supply of Righteous Indignation! :)

 

Patience, grasshopper...we are just now applying the final few coats of Gel-Gloss. :)

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