Native Symbian^3 geocaching app

[+filsed]

Hello,

 

Is there any plan to release a native symbian^3 application for geocaching? iOS and Adroid apps are released and I think Nokia is still planning to ship 150 million symbian powered handsets in near future so there is definitely some potential for Groundspeak to make some extra cash :-)

 

Cheers,

Filip

[+POMZ]

trying to find an app for my nokia m8 to allow me to use geocaching from my phone as well as my gps

[+TanTil]

trying to find an app for my nokia m8 to allow me to use geocaching from my phone as well as my gps

 

I've just released the first test versions of CacheMe which is also available for Symbian^3 from the CacheMe homepage.

Edited May 4, 2011 by TanTil

[+C.A.T.A]

I agree. I find it rather frustrating that I paid for the Geocache Navigator application on my S60V3 Nokia N82 and now that I have a Nokai N8 it is unsupported. I paid for a few months use. I contacted Trimble and was told to try the latest S60V5 version. It partly works but you are stuck on the compass screen as the other buttons do not work on the Symbian^3 operating system it seems.

 

Now I am not a coimputer programmer but surely the fact that it works, albeit a few buttons, would mean a simple tweak to get it working on an OS that, by all accounts, has sold millions already. I know S^3 is being phased out but the expectation is for millions more to be sold in the next few years. Surely the minimal effort involved will reap rewards?

[+C.A.T.A]

trying to find an app for my nokia m8 to allow me to use geocaching from my phone as well as my gps

 

I've just released the first test versions of CacheMe which is also available for Symbian^3 from the CacheMe homepage.

 

Hi,

 

I just took a look at your app and would like to provide some feedback using it on the Nokia N8. Not sure if you have a way of doing so on your website but if you did I missed it

 

A few impressions in no particular order :

 

* I was not able to immediately find a way to log a cache as found when looking through the application. I have come from using Geocache Navigator and I really liked their implementation.

 

* It has become habit to scroll through things on my N8 by sliding my finger down the screen. When reading logs for a cache doing this highlights the text and does not scroll. This makes the app feel out of place on this device.

 

* Data usage concerns me. Is there no way to get this app to use the maps already installed on the phone with Ovi Maps? I just got the feeling it was using a lot of data which will make me reluctant to use this on the road. Any idea of the sort of data usage? I know this might sound strange but perhaps an option could exist to not use any maps but just retrieve the cache information. This way I could read about the cache, get relevant information and use other means to find it's location.

 

* What must my the phone orientation be to get the compass to work properly? I held it upright and then parallel to the ground but on both occasion the compass seemed to jump around more than I would like to make me confident in the direction shown.

 

* What does the "actions" button do? I have pressed it and am unable to notice anything happening.

 

Thanks for the efforts though. Wish Trimble would just get the Navigator working properly on the N8!

Edited May 7, 2011 by C.A.T.A

[NordicMan]

I thought Symbian was on deaths door since the partnership with Nokia & Microsoft, Nokia plans on having WP7 as it's primary smartphone O/S

 

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/rip-symbian/

 

If your next question is, ok so where then is the official WP7 Geocaching app? Good question

[+C.A.T.A]

I thought Symbian was on deaths door since the partnership with Nokia & Microsoft, Nokia plans on having WP7 as it's primary smartphone O/S

 

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/rip-symbian/

 

If your next question is, ok so where then is the official WP7 Geocaching app? Good question

 

I will repeat again that Trimble already have an s60v3 and an s60v5 application so, once again I am not a programmer, I cannot imagine the changes required to get it working on S^3 would involve much effort.

 

Further to this Nokia may well have stated that they will start to use WP7 in the years to come but recent sales figures for the 1st quarter still show that Nokia was the top selling phone brand (and these phones all still used Symbian software!). This equates to many millions of units. By all accounts these phones will be owned and used by these people for the next two years, if they are on contracts. And the first WP7 phone is meant to only see light of day towards the end of this year or early next, so what about all the S^3 phones sold in the interim? Just ignored?

 

Surely this is a market that should not be getting sneezed at so soon. Besides this geocaching programmers seemed to ignore this platform prior to the announcement. Is it the usual American-centric attitude prevailing in an international game again? We all know Nokia is not big in the US but it is still big in many other countries.

Edited May 7, 2011 by C.A.T.A

[+C.A.T.A]

Out of interest, here are the numbers for you :

 

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12858_IDC_smartphone_shipment_figure.php

 

24.2 million smart phones sold by Nokia in the 1st quarter of 2011. That is 24 million users being ignored by the geocaching programmers....

[Team Ulgrid]

Look here!

QtCaching

[+C.A.T.A]

Look here!

QtCaching

 

Looks OK but unfortunately it is not a stand alone solution and needs a GPX file to be loaded on the device. I'll give it a more indepth look though. Thanks.

 

Just to add to the previous discussion relating to Symbian^3, Stephen Elop just reiterated that they would continue to update and support Symbian^3 devices until 2016!! Death's door seems a way off yet.

Edited May 26, 2011 by C.A.T.A

[Team Ulgrid]

Look here!

QtCaching

 

Looks OK but unfortunately it is not a stand alone solution and needs a GPX file to be loaded on the device. I'll give it a more indepth look though. Thanks.

 

Just to add to the previous discussion relating to Symbian^3, Stephen Elop just reiterated that they would continue to update and support Symbian^3 devices until 2016!! Death's door seems a way off yet.

 

You can input your own coordinates under the "find" Tab.

[+The Rubblers]

I agree. I find it rather frustrating that I paid for the Geocache Navigator application on my S60V3 Nokia N82 and now that I have a Nokai N8 it is unsupported. I paid for a few months use. I contacted Trimble and was told to try the latest S60V5 version. It partly works but you are stuck on the compass screen as the other buttons do not work on the Symbian^3 operating system it seems.

 

Now I am not a coimputer programmer but surely the fact that it works, albeit a few buttons, would mean a simple tweak to get it working on an OS that, by all accounts, has sold millions already. I know S^3 is being phased out but the expectation is for millions more to be sold in the next few years. Surely the minimal effort involved will reap rewards?

 

Hi, I also have an N8 and have got everything to work with the trimble app except the zooming in and out on the maps. You need to go into suite settings and do some adjustments and then hey presto a 99.9% working version.

Hope this helps

[philtricklebank]

 

Hi, I also have an N8 and have got everything to work with the trimble app except the zooming in and out on the maps. You need to go into suite settings and do some adjustments and then hey presto a 99.9% working version.

Hope this helps

 

Yes that is the only way to get the old version for Symbian S60v5 working on the n8 - otherwise the icons are too small for the touch to work - something to do with the higher resolution on the n8. However going back to using the D-pad for java apps feels like stepping back a version (back to when it used to be free). What the app needs is upgrading not just to get the same app working on Symbian^3 but how about Trimble listen to user feedback on their forum? Requests are there for displaying the searched caches on a map (use Nokia maps for offline use), seeing trackables inventories, writing logs in the field, searching for more than 25 caches etc. It has been about 3 years since I saw an update for Geocache Navigator - I have free apps from the Ovi store with 10 times that many updates since then.

 

To be honest I'm really annoyed with Trimble. They should be ashamed of themselves. Many users have paid for their app at £27 nearly for their older devices. Even software producers for apps costing less than £1 on the Ovi and Apple and Android stores provide frequent updates. I've used Trimble's forum, emailed them directly, all to no avail. I then saw on their facebook page that they said they "have no plans to support symbian". By that I think they mean symbian^3. An utter disgrace from them when they were charging so much in the first place. I would encourage disgruntled users to visit their facebook site and comment on their lack of support there - make a public disgrace of them - unfortunately you have to "like" their page before you can comment!

 

To claim that Symbian is dead is nonsense. Nokia are supporting until at least 2015, probably longer. They are still releasing phones based on the Symbian Belle platform. Symbian apps get 160% more downloads per day than Apple apps!! Link to source. So ignoring this is trimble's folly and I fell they have really let down their user base.

 

Anyone finding the GN app is looking dated try Cacheme from the Ovi Store by Till Harbaum. It really looks nice, and does almost everything GN did and more - such as adding field notes in the field. It isn't even at v1.0 yet so it shows great promise and at only £3! If only he can get offline use and offline saved caches working (something he emailed me to say he wasn't sure if Groundspeak would like), then it would be the perfect caching app.

[bish557]

I've been using the Cachme app from the Nokia store too and it's well worth the £3! very impressive, but like philtricklebank says, will be perfect when you can use the offline maps. I can't believe that the Nokia N8 gets so overlooked. All i hear is 'iPhone this and android that'! actually i'll be keeping my N8 for a while yet. Mind you, it doesn't help when there is no symbian reference on the Geocaching.com homepage for smartphones (http://www.geocaching.com/live/default.aspx)!

[+frecheschafe]

Even though it's a bit late, I'd like to chime in, even if it's only for those who find this thread through Google.

 

This thread is missing a reference to Geocaching Live. I know it's not a native Symbian application, but it works pretty well on Symbian up to Anna (at least while the servers are up and running, which is not always the case). There are reports that Geocaching Live does not work well on phones running Symbian Belle -- apparently, some people have succeeded in reinstalling it from a backup, but a fresh install is reported not to work. I don't know if Groundspeak is ever going to fix this. They did fix connection problems a few months ago, so they seem not to have forgotten that some people still use this program.

 

There's also ViewRanger GPS, which is pretty much a sophisticated front-end to display maps (both paid-for and free) on your phone. The paid-for maps are downloaded in advance, the free ones (notably OpenStreetMaps) are downloaded on the go or taken from a previous session. There's rudimentary Geocaching support, in that you can import a Pocket Query as a Point-of-Interest list, and display the cache descriptions on your phone. You can also enter coordinates manually.

Edited February 18, 2012 by frecheschafe