Mac Software - iCaching vs. MacCaching

[+VegasRockstars]

Hi all -

 

I am pretty new to geocaching but I am totally enjoying it. I have a Magellan eXplorist 310 and an iPhone running the Geocache app. I've been looking at iCaching and MacCaching apps to manage my geocaches. Does anyone have any experience with either of these?

 

If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts, pros/cons. I'm wondering if there are any notable differences.

 

Thanks!

[+CacheFreakTim]

Hi all -

 

I am pretty new to geocaching but I am totally enjoying it. I have a Magellan eXplorist 310 and an iPhone running the Geocache app. I've been looking at iCaching and MacCaching apps to manage my geocaches. Does anyone have any experience with either of these?

 

If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts, pros/cons. I'm wondering if there are any notable differences.

 

Thanks!

 

I use Mac Caching which is super simple if all you want to do is load caches or pocket queries onto your GPS. For anything else I usually use my Windows box to load GSAK. Some people on here have had success loading GSAK using WINE on their Mac but I have yet to try it. It works well in a virtual machine like VMWare Fusion or Parallels.

[+AeroMechAZ]

Hi all -

 

I am pretty new to geocaching but I am totally enjoying it. I have a Magellan eXplorist 310 and an iPhone running the Geocache app. I've been looking at iCaching and MacCaching apps to manage my geocaches. Does anyone have any experience with either of these?

 

If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts, pros/cons. I'm wondering if there are any notable differences.

 

Thanks!

 

I use Mac Caching which is super simple if all you want to do is load caches or pocket queries onto your GPS. For anything else I usually use my Windows box to load GSAK. Some people on here have had success loading GSAK using WINE on their Mac but I have yet to try it. It works well in a virtual machine like VMWare Fusion or Parallels.

 

Using Maccaching, is it possible to load individual caches to the GPSr (regardless of manufacturer) akin to GSAK on a Windows platform?

[+northernpenguin]

I have iCaching but I'm still using GSAK in Parallels to load my GPS.

 

Why? Because there are two key things I can do with GSAK that I can't do in iCaching yet.

 

1) Export child waypoints as POI files. I can do this quite easily with the Garmin Export macro, and this gets me around the sillyness of blowing my Garmin's waypoint limit with child waypoints when loading 5,000 caches that have 2500 waypoints embedded.

 

2) Filter by route/arc file. So I can export caches along a route like a pocket query. I can take a long road trip and do the database work in GSAK (or iCaching if it supported it).

 

When iCaching gets the above I'll likely retire my GSAK use, as I particularly don't like how the Garmin gets detected in Parallels (plug, unplug three times, wait for GPS to load ....)

[+sduck]

GSAK is relatively easy to install and run in winebottler, using it like a native mac app. Newer versions don't work so well, but version 7.7.4 works well, as long as you don't have hardware specific needs that aren't covered. With a newer gps like the garmin oregons and such, it works well. You won't get the direct connectivity with geocaching.com that you would with newer versions, but if you can live without that, it's worth considering.

[+northernpenguin]

GSAK is relatively easy to install and run in winebottler, using it like a native mac app. Newer versions don't work so well, but version 7.7.4 works well, as long as you don't have hardware specific needs that aren't covered. With a newer gps like the garmin oregons and such, it works well. You won't get the direct connectivity with geocaching.com that you would with newer versions, but if you can live without that, it's worth considering.

 

Well I've been running GSAK 8 for a while now so my database is already GSAK 8 format. I also have a bad taste in my mouth from running GSAK under WINE in the past so ... I'm not going there. When I flip out of GSAK I'll be running something that's a MacOS native binary. Good to know the older version is working for you though.

 

It's too bad that Groundspeak is no longer accepting API partners so it'll pretty much be iCaching if you want API access, which means at the moment I have to hope they add the functionality I'm looking for.