Too many toys to play with, what do I do?

[+the pooks]

The late night ramblings of a confused technophile:

 

Back in the good old days, life was simple - I had a Magellan Explorist 500 with rather basic maps and made paper printouts of caches I want to find. There was a road map for finding your way around in the car. I had a very basic cellphone that could make phone calls and very little else, so I bought a Palm pilot for the paperless caching and that was good... I bought a camera to take photos of all the places I see, and that was also good.

 

Then I decided to jump on the technological bandwagon and bought a smart(ish)phone (Nokia 5800). That rendered the Palm pilot redundant for the paperless part and there was also an overlap between the GPSr and phone. It is only battery life and track logs that still gave the GPSr purpose in life. The camera had also become non-essential, as the phone has a camera that works for emergencies.

 

On a bit of an impulse I bought a second hand Garmin Oregon. Now life is getting really complicated! The phone can do what the Oregon can and vice versa. There are various versions of routable maps and paperless caching on both units. No longer does a piece of equipment have a single pupose in life. Now what do I do? I'm getting really confused and don't know which gadgets to use! The bottom drawer is getting full of redundant equipment - gadgets, chargers and connectors. I'm a bit sentimental, so I do not throw anything away, and I feel sad when something still works but is not used. This is starting to feel wasteful.

 

The people around me got frustrated, for during the process I forgot about the most basic form of communication - talking.

 

I think as must get back down to basics. It seemed so much simpler then.

[+30inEden]

Ha-ha. All the new technology is suppose to make our life easier! Now look at what they have done. We started out with a Garmin Nuvi 205W and print outs. It was fun, but we did not find that many caches. After a while, I found Trimble's Geocache Navigator and installed it onto my Nokia X6. Only then did we start hitting caches, and 95% accurate! It was unbelievable. The camera in the phone is all I use as it takes decent enough pictures for us.

 

Recently discovered GSAK and all the wonderful macros so now we use the Garmin for the routing and Paperless Caching to get close to GZ, jump out and use the Nokia to locate the cache.

 

More is not always more

[+DamhuisClan]

My Android can do everything:

1) Hunt the cache with the GPS

2) Paperless with the c:geo app

3) Take photos with the build in camera

 

This is fine if we/I do a single cache on the spur of the moment, but I still prefer a separate device for each purpose.

So If we go out caching I can keep my still camera (which doubles as a video camera if need be), and I can hand my GPSr to one of the kids and give one of the older kids my cellphone to get the cache details.

 

Why not donate some of your older unused devices to newbies to try out?

Edited June 23, 2011 by DamhuisClan

[+Lieblweb]

Wait.... Your just discovering the nature of technology?

My home computer is 2 years old and it's already out of techno newness. We still have an old Garmin from 10 years ago. Takes 15 minutes to find a signal (laugh)

 

I love the phone for instant logging and finding caches without PQ's. I. Love the gps for it's battery life, and ruggedness.

Edited June 23, 2011 by Lieblweb

[+Hesamati]

Pooks whatever you do don't leave your phone at home as it gives us other cachers access to a smart(ish)cacher when we get stuck...

[+trevorh7000]

Heres what you do Pooks.

 

Pack up the oregon in its box and ship to me.

 

Looking forward to a nice new GPS

 

Thanks Pooks

 

Trev

[+Bremar Josrut]

I've just started Geocaching (4 July). I'm using my Black Berry 9300 which I use for my finds. My wife and I are debating whether or not to purchase a GPS handheld device or not. What are your thoughts?

[+CapeDoc]

I've just started Geocaching (4 July). I'm using my Black Berry 9300 which I use for my finds. My wife and I are debating whether or not to purchase a GPS handheld device or not. What are your thoughts?

Yow will know when it is time to buy a handheld device. Situations will arise when you will know that the phone is just not good enough in tough environments. Till you hit those situations, the phone will be fine.

I have gone the other way around. I started with a Nuvi (lost it while bundu bashing on a mountain), replaced it with a handheld (Oregon) and now do most of my caching with an iPhone! I find that I so enjoy the user interface with the iPhone, that the handheld feels very "clunky". Information, maps, additional waypoints, photos, logging caches is all so easy on the phone, that I way prefer using it to the Oregon (which is pretty good in itself) However, battery life on the iPhone is awful and the gps is not very sensitive. So if I am doing "everyday" caching I use my phone, if I am on long walks, in Ravines, under deep tree cover or in the rain, then I am very happy to have my handheld as a fantastic back up.

 

(It's nice to have both options!)