Greasysnowball Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 (edited) Hello all, my name is Mikey. I'm very new to the geocaching concept. My boss was telling me about it one day on the drive back from a jobsite. At the time I didn't think much of it because I had no form of GPS. I recently got a smart phone and am interested in participating in this community if there is a decent GPS app. Once again I am COMPLETELY new to this. I am hoping to attempt my first Geo Cache on a vacation to Arizona I have planned in Sept. I used to live there and am hoping to do it with a friend I am staying with. Since this is my first smart phone I may need some slight assistance setting it up aswell. All help would be greatly appreciated! Hopeful to be a cacher, Mikey. Edit: If it helps at all my phone is a Droid 4 Edited August 5, 2012 by Greasysnowball Quote Link to comment
Basicems24 Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 This site has an app for smartphones. I just did a search in the app site for geocaching. I use this site's. I think it is called Geocaching.com. Quote Link to comment
+Fryguy1111 Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 This site has an app for smartphones. I just did a search in the app site for geocaching. I use this site's. I think it is called Geocaching.com. Which OS does your phone have? Is it an iPhone, Android, Windows or Blackberry? I use a Blackberry Torch and highly recommend CacheSense and given that, I would also recommend it for the Android OS as well. It's a fantastic product with amazing support directly from the developer himself. Unfortunately, I don't have an iPhone or a Windows phone, so I can't recommend anything for those OS's. Quote Link to comment
Greasysnowball Posted August 6, 2012 Author Share Posted August 6, 2012 This site has an app for smartphones. I just did a search in the app site for geocaching. I use this site's. I think it is called Geocaching.com. Which OS does your phone have? Is it an iPhone, Android, Windows or Blackberry? I use a Blackberry Torch and highly recommend CacheSense and given that, I would also recommend it for the Android OS as well. It's a fantastic product with amazing support directly from the developer himself. Unfortunately, I don't have an iPhone or a Windows phone, so I can't recommend anything for those OS's. I actually use the Android OS. Ill DL it and have a looksy around the system! Thankyou so much! I wasn't sure if there even was an app. I definately had my fingers crossed though Quote Link to comment
+Amorak Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 Look for an app that has offline maps. Unfortunately, the Groundspeak app does NOT have this feature. This its rather unfortunate since they charge $10. I bought the GS app, but now use a free app that is derided in the forums as violating the GS terms of use. Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 FWIW, Neongeo supports offline maps (although I don't really use that feature myself), and it complies with Groundspeak's TOU by using the API. Quote Link to comment
+Amorak Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 I tried Neon GEO for the time of the free trial period. I didn't get to know the app very well as I wasn't caching much at this time, but it seemed good. I just didn't want to spend another $5 after the $10 I spent on GS app. If your not using offline maps, then you must be burning a lot of data and battery. Quote Link to comment
+crunchewy Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 (edited) The official app does have offline maps. At least it does on iOS. Not on Android? It works quite well on iOS, although you can't store google maps offline. You have to switch to OpenStreetMap. Then you can store them offline. Unfortunately that means no offline google satellite/hybrid maps, but otherwise it works great. Edited August 6, 2012 by crunchewy Quote Link to comment
+niraD Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 If your not using offline maps, then you must be burning a lot of data and battery.Finding 4 caches in 1 day would be a big day for me. Finding 8 caches in one day would be a very big day. Finding 16 caches in one day was record breaking, and required charging my phone in the car and using the other geocacher's device for most of the cache-to-cache navigation. Quote Link to comment
+Amorak Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 The official app does have offline maps. At least it does on iOS. Not on Android? It works quite well on iOS, although you can't store google maps offline. You have to switch to OpenStreetMap. Then you can store them offline. Unfortunately that means no offline google satellite/hybrid maps, but otherwise it works great. That's right - no offline maps with GC Android app. Quote Link to comment
+crunchewy Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 That's right - no offline maps with GC Android app. Well that stinks. Hopefully it's just a matter of time before they get feature parity or close to it. Quote Link to comment
CraftyKel* Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I started out with the official Groundspeak app, but wanted offline maps, so I am currently trialling the free version of Locus and have downloaded a vector map of the whole of the UK for it and can go caching without any data charges. I have yet to take it out into the field, but from what I can see I reckon it's going to suit me pretty well. It took a few minutes to get used to the interface as I had gotten used to the Groundspeak app. So far it seems pretty good and although the free version works fine offline you need the pro version to use it to access geocaching.com in the field. I loaded it with 1500 caches from PQ's so not really an issue, but I am likely to purchase the full version because I like it and there are extra features for the paid version. Quote Link to comment
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