Feature request (iPhone app): GPS toggle within iPhone app

[+soucy]

Hi,

 

I would really love to see a GPS toggle within the iPhone app. I only use my iPhone to log caches and never as my primary GPS tool. However having GPS always enabled while using the app really drains the battery. Please add a toggle to allow turning GPS off.

 

Regards,

TH2009

[+Lieblweb]

Hi,

 

I would really love to see a GPS toggle within the iPhone app. I only use my iPhone to log caches and never as my primary GPS tool. However having GPS always enabled while using the app really drains the battery. Please add a toggle to allow turning GPS off.

 

Regards,

TH2009

 

That's something within your phone settings...... and besides that, you can put the phone 'to sleep' and the GPS shouldn't be doing anything. Press the button on the top of the phone (on right side) and this will put the phone to sleep (per say).

[+soucy]

That's something within your phone settings...... and besides that, you can put the phone 'to sleep' and the GPS shouldn't be doing anything. Press the button on the top of the phone (on right side) and this will put the phone to sleep (per say).

 

I want to be able to toogle GPS while I am using the geocaching app! I am using the app to save my pocket queries and log found caches. But I do not use it as a GPS device to find the caches. To save battery life I would like to be able to disable GPS use within the geocaching app.

[+The Grateful Cacher]

That's something within your phone settings...... and besides that, you can put the phone 'to sleep' and the GPS shouldn't be doing anything. Press the button on the top of the phone (on right side) and this will put the phone to sleep (per say).

 

I want to be able to toogle GPS while I am using the geocaching app! I am using the app to save my pocket queries and log found caches. But I do not use it as a GPS device to find the caches. To save battery life I would like to be able to disable GPS use within the geocaching app.

 

Are you absolutely sure that the GPS is on, if you're not searching for caches? I use an iPhone to cache with, and I can tell you that the battery life is significantly reduced when I'm using it to search for a cache, as opposed to just using the app to look through the caches.

[+JesandTodd]

That's something within your phone settings...... and besides that, you can put the phone 'to sleep' and the GPS shouldn't be doing anything. Press the button on the top of the phone (on right side) and this will put the phone to sleep (per say).

 

I want to be able to toogle GPS while I am using the geocaching app! I am using the app to save my pocket queries and log found caches. But I do not use it as a GPS device to find the caches. To save battery life I would like to be able to disable GPS use within the geocaching app.

 

Yes! This is a much needed feature!! If I'm reading logs or a long description (like for a multi) then I don't want to put the app to "sleep". Lol. How is that helping!

 

.

 

Are you absolutely sure that the GPS is on, if you're not searching for caches?

 

That's what the little purple arrow next to the battery means....

[+The A-Team]

I would really love to see a GPS toggle within the iPhone app. I only use my iPhone to log caches and never as my primary GPS tool.

If you never plan on needing the GPS in the app, just disable it for this app in Location Services. At some point, you ran the app and it said "This app wants to know your location". You must have said yes. To go back and change this, you can go to Settings > Location Services, find Geocaching in the list, and toggle to Off.

[+JesandTodd]

So, navigate towards your cache. It's 0.3m away. Go to settings, location sevices, find geocaching, toggle off. read cache description as you are walking. go to settings, location sevices, find geocaching, toggle on. re-navigate now that you are closer. Get to GZ, need to read logs...settings, location sevices, find geocaching, toggle off. read logs....and so on and so forth., go to settings.....

That.is.lame.

 

Either we want to make this app better and strive for improvements or we don't. If the OP never needs the GPS then this is a good work around. But I need the GPS, so this doesn't work for me.

 

Having to switch back and forth back and forth back and forth to save battery because the GPS is working all time is inefficient and impractical.

Edited May 18, 2012 by JesandTodd

[+soucy]

I would really love to see a GPS toggle within the iPhone app. I only use my iPhone to log caches and never as my primary GPS tool.

If you never plan on needing the GPS in the app, just disable it for this app in Location Services. At some point, you ran the app and it said "This app wants to know your location". You must have said yes. To go back and change this, you can go to Settings > Location Services, find Geocaching in the list, and toggle to Off.

 

I still use the location from time to time to sort my pocket queries according to my location. Therefore a toggle within the app would be great. Going into the settings every time to turn it on/off is just too much of a hazal.

[+The A-Team]

I would really love to see a GPS toggle within the iPhone app. I only use my iPhone to log caches and never as my primary GPS tool.

If you never plan on needing the GPS in the app, just disable it for this app in Location Services. At some point, you ran the app and it said "This app wants to know your location". You must have said yes. To go back and change this, you can go to Settings > Location Services, find Geocaching in the list, and toggle to Off.

 

I still use the location from time to time to sort my pocket queries according to my location. Therefore a toggle within the app would be great. Going into the settings every time to turn it on/off is just too much of a hazal.

Fair enough. I just thought I'd mention it in case you never needed the GPS.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

 

Either we want to make this app better and strive for improvements or we don't.

 

It's not that simple. As a programmer and technology strategist I often have to determine whether the amount of development time and resources required to implement a feature/improvement is worth doing based on the benefits of doing it. Groundspeak has a finite amount of programming resources. If there's a work around to accomplish a certain task, and implementing a feature in the app or website would require a great deal of time, it's unlikely that they're going to allocate resources to do the programming.

[+JesandTodd]

It's barely a work around. And the battery issue is a major issues when people are deciding if they want to use this app. I would think this would be a high priority...

[+soucy]

It's not that simple. As a programmer and technology strategist I often have to determine whether the amount of development time and resources required to implement a feature/improvement is worth doing based on the benefits of doing it. Groundspeak has a finite amount of programming resources. If there's a work around to accomplish a certain task, and implementing a feature in the app or website would require a great deal of time, it's unlikely that they're going to allocate resources to do the programming.

 

As a programmer and software architect I am wondering why Groundspeak did not implement such a GPS toggle in the first place. Battery life is one of the highest issues when it comes to mobile app development. Therefore having the GPS powered at all time during the users app interaction even though only some parts of the app require GPS (such as navigation, sorting by distance ...) is in my eyes a mayor design flaw.

[+Lieblweb]

I use my phone the same way as you do - I use it primarily to log the finds & send the logs. Sometimes I use it to read descriptions, take pictures, etc. When I'm done logging a cache, I put the phone to sleep and that will stop the GPS from (in the APP) from working. I've never had any battery issues on a full day of caching.

 

The ipones can be really weird in terms of Apps & location services as well as push notifications & such. All of which can drain the battery. I have almost ALL my push notifications turned OFF and most all my location services turned OFF. The only location services I use are for the geocaching app, Map Apps, and Facebook. When I'm geocaching....the only thing 'running' on my phone is the geocaching App. All other Apps are closed. So - if your phone is 'running' multiple Apps at the same time, you will get a drastic battery drain pending your setups.

 

I'm just trying to understand why you have such a battery drain....

[+soucy]

I've turned off most of the services too. The iPhone doesn't have a real multi tasking. Apps can only be active in the background for 10 more minutes. After that they are killed. I think the main reason is that I've a three year old iPhone 3GS. Maybe after three years the battery is just done.

 

That's why I am trying to turn off as much stuff as possible. Like the gps within the Geocaching app. But since I want to sort my queries according to my location it's a hazal to switch into settings and back every time I need to toggle the gps.

[+JesandTodd]

The 4s is a much bigger battery hog than the 4 and 3GS. I also kill all apps in the background prior to caching.

 

Why is my phone using so much battery? Because I use it, lol. Pretty simple there.

[+Lieblweb]

I've turned off most of the services too. The iPhone doesn't have a real multi tasking. Apps can only be active in the background for 10 more minutes. After that they are killed. I think the main reason is that I've a three year old iPhone 3GS. Maybe after three years the battery is just done.

 

That's why I am trying to turn off as much stuff as possible. Like the gps within the Geocaching app. But since I want to sort my queries according to my location it's a hazal to switch into settings and back every time I need to toggle the gps.

 

Can't you just sort your queries using your handheld GPS?

 

When we're at GZ and make the find (with our handheld) - my husband signs the log and I open up the geocaching App and hit "Find Nearbye Geocaches" and its always the one at the top of the list. Click on it and log it.

 

If we're ever in an area where cell signal is poor - we simply log our finds on the GPS and utilize field notes whenever we get home.

[+soucy]

When I'm out Geocaching I don't add all possible caches into my handheld GPS. I just go from cache to cache and enter die coordinates (using the iPhone and the Geocaching app). I also like to read the descriptions and hints when I'm out caching and not beforehand at home. To safe battery life I would love to disable the GPS within the app. But since I also want to use "Find nearby caches" from time to time a toggle within the app would be nice since switching to settings - location services is just not a perfect solution.

 

What I am thinking of is for example another indicator (maybe an icon "gps") beside the green/red "online/offline" icon which you can click to toggle GPS on/off.

[+BernieH]

I agree with TH2009, why can't we choose when to turn gps on.

 

But lets expand on that, why not have gps in auto mode where it is automatically off when not needed, say on the cache description screen but then turn gps on when you go to a map screen.

[+thebruce0]

See, this is one the absolute biggest draws for me to the Geosphere app. The developer implemented a GPS toggle right from the get-go, and it is unbelievably useful. The fact the official app doesn't have that is a major turn-off, and one of the only reasons I reserve its use for active location searches. I use the Geosphere app for loads of map features, maintenance, logging, planning, and field puzzling, none of which require use of GPS. The only time I have GPS turned on (a fraction of the time) is when I'm actively navigating towards a waypoint. Otherwise, off it goes.

 

Yes, the ability to flip off the GPS is a major feature, not complicated, and I'll add my voice to the chorus of support for having it implemented in the official app

 

Sleep mode doesn't always turn off the gps - it all depends on how the programmer implemented the background tasking. Geosphere, for instance, keeps the gps active when it's on even if the screen is blanked. But if the app is minimized, the GPS isn't active. Munzee, IIRC, turns off the GPS when the screen is blacked. EveryTrail, if actively tracking GPS location, will keep the GPS active even when it's minimized and backgrounded so you can use other apps while it continues to store your track log. It's a pretty dynamic system

 

Groundspeak, let us flip off the GPS please

Edited May 23, 2012 by thebruce0

[+thebruce0]

Oh, and also, an LED toggle for night caching and still being able to navigate with the app (instead of switching apps)

[+JesandTodd]

I agree with TH2009, why can't we choose when to turn gps on.

 

But lets expand on that, why not have gps in auto mode where it is automatically off when not needed, say on the cache description screen but then turn gps on when you go to a map screen.

 

Yes, it should *only* be activated on the map screen...