Feature suggestion for caching offline on smart phone and tablets

[+Turtle_Sask]

Recently I have been looking at some of the tablets on the market that I could potentially use for Geocaching, and many other aspects like school etc... Now when looking at some of the options out there, I did notice that many did not have the 3g or 4g data plans on them, just the wifi. And so that was kind of a downer, but then again even if you have a 4g network it does not always have a connection to the internet especially when you are in a rural environment. So this is where I have recently come up with a solution. Before you go out on your rural Geocaching adventure you take a look on the map with all the geocaches on it and take a screen shot! Then when you are out there with no internet connection (Google maps do not work) you can look back at the map that you took your screen shot with.

 

Now here is where the suggested feature comes into play. As of right now when you are looking on the map you are only allowed to see the info for one cache at a time by clicking on it. Now let’s say you have 10 caches on the map you would like to go for but on the map you can only get the name of one cache. So picture this; you are out on some trail with 10 geocaches on your phone/tablet (Assume there not all in one straight line), you took that screen shot of all 10 caches, you see all them on the map but you only know the name to one of them because you can see the one cache that you clicked on. With my proposed feature there could be a option to display the name of all the caches on the map! This would be really handy for me and im guessing a lot of others because those caches could involve a lot of bushwacking if not found in the right order. but if you can see the names of them all on the map/screenshot you can see which one to go for first second third and so on. Then match them up with the ones you saved offline and you have an effective caching session.

 

Thoughts?

[+Lieblweb]

I see a potential issue with your idea - and that is overlapping. Depending on how many caches are on your map - the 'information' (names & what-not) would overlap each other and be somewhat confusing.

 

Why not create a pocket query "Find Caches along a route" and you can narrow it down to the difficultly and terrain you'd prefer. You should be able to download that PQ to you device and look at the pocket query map.

 

You run GSAK?? You should investigate in using GSAK and perhaps there's some sort of macro available. MY husband used GSAK to plot our county challenge trips....pretty impressive that worked out.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Lieblweb

[+Turtle_Sask]

I see a potential issue with your idea - and that is overlapping. Depending on how many caches are on your map - the 'information' (names & what-not) would overlap each other and be somewhat confusing.

 

Why not create a pocket query "Find Caches along a route" and you can narrow it down to the difficultly and terrain you'd prefer. You should be able to download that PQ to you device and look at the pocket query map.

 

You run GSAK?? You should investigate in using GSAK and perhaps there's some sort of macro available. MY husband used GSAK to plot our county challenge trips....pretty impressive that worked out.

 

I agree that the names and info would confuse and be too jumbled up, thats why I mentioned only the names of the caches and nothing else.

 

Im also not sure what your other points have to do with my proposition. I do have Gsak and finding caches is not the problem. I do PQ all the time and am really familiar with GSAK. the reasoning for the screen shot is to be-able to see them on google maps without a connection to the internet. taking a screen shot with just the cache names would be really beneficial!

[+UMainah]

I see a potential issue with your idea - and that is overlapping. Depending on how many caches are on your map - the 'information' (names & what-not) would overlap each other and be somewhat confusing.

 

Why not create a pocket query "Find Caches along a route" and you can narrow it down to the difficultly and terrain you'd prefer. You should be able to download that PQ to you device and look at the pocket query map.

 

You run GSAK?? You should investigate in using GSAK and perhaps there's some sort of macro available. MY husband used GSAK to plot our county challenge trips....pretty impressive that worked out.

 

I agree that the names and info would confuse and be too jumbled up, thats why I mentioned only the names of the caches and nothing else.

 

Im also not sure what your other points have to do with my proposition. I do have Gsak and finding caches is not the problem. I do PQ all the time and am really familiar with GSAK. the reasoning for the screen shot is to be-able to see them on google maps without a connection to the internet. taking a screen shot with just the cache names would be really beneficial!

 

You could download an app that supports Offline Maps.

[+The A-Team]

You could download an app that supports Offline Maps.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't use my phone to find caches, but doesn't the official app support offline maps? I thought you were given the option to save offline map tiles when you saved a PQ for offline use.

[+Turtle_Sask]

You could download an app that supports Offline Maps.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't use my phone to find caches, but doesn't the official app support offline maps? I thought you were given the option to save offline map tiles when you saved a PQ for offline use.

 

If that is true then the app would be definetly worth it! Is there anyone out there who has usen the app offline and was able to see all the caches that you have stored offline and see all the caches on the map? If so then im going to buy the app!

 

Thanks for the replies!

[+frinklabs]

You could download an app that supports Offline Maps.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't use my phone to find caches, but doesn't the official app support offline maps? I thought you were given the option to save offline map tiles when you saved a PQ for offline use.

 

If that is true then the app would be definetly worth it! Is there anyone out there who has usen the app offline and was able to see all the caches that you have stored offline and see all the caches on the map? If so then im going to buy the app!

 

Thanks for the replies!

 

I used this feature. I was up north of Sault Ste. Marie and lost my data connection; the offline tiles worked perfectly.

 

EDIT: Spelling

Edited January 24, 2013 by frinklabs

[+Turtle_Sask]

You could download an app that supports Offline Maps.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't use my phone to find caches, but doesn't the official app support offline maps? I thought you were given the option to save offline map tiles when you saved a PQ for offline use.

 

If that is true then the app would be definetly worth it! Is there anyone out there who has usen the app offline and was able to see all the caches that you have stored offline and see all the caches on the map? If so then im going to buy the app!

 

Thanks for the replies!

 

I used this feature. I was up north of Sioux Ste Marie and lost my data connection; the offline tiles worked perfectly.

 

Do you mean that you could zoom in and out on all the stored caches? and that was the official GC app?

[+frinklabs]

You could download an app that supports Offline Maps.

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't use my phone to find caches, but doesn't the official app support offline maps? I thought you were given the option to save offline map tiles when you saved a PQ for offline use.

 

If that is true then the app would be definetly worth it! Is there anyone out there who has usen the app offline and was able to see all the caches that you have stored offline and see all the caches on the map? If so then im going to buy the app!

 

Thanks for the replies!

 

I used this feature. I was up north of Sioux Ste Marie and lost my data connection; the offline tiles worked perfectly.

 

Do you mean that you could zoom in and out on all the stored caches? and that was the official GC app?

 

Yes and yes.

 

You have to go into the Pocket Queries list in the app, then tap the Save For Offline Use, and make sure the Topo Maps slider is set to "On"

 

In a perfect world (and as requested in another thread) you would be able to add custom tiles from the free excellent Natural Resources Canada topo maps. But not yet.

[+Don_J]

I see a potential issue with your idea - and that is overlapping. Depending on how many caches are on your map - the 'information' (names & what-not) would overlap each other and be somewhat confusing.

 

Why not create a pocket query "Find Caches along a route" and you can narrow it down to the difficultly and terrain you'd prefer. You should be able to download that PQ to you device and look at the pocket query map.

 

You run GSAK?? You should investigate in using GSAK and perhaps there's some sort of macro available. MY husband used GSAK to plot our county challenge trips....pretty impressive that worked out.

 

I agree that the names and info would confuse and be too jumbled up, thats why I mentioned only the names of the caches and nothing else.

 

Im also not sure what your other points have to do with my proposition. I do have Gsak and finding caches is not the problem. I do PQ all the time and am really familiar with GSAK. the reasoning for the screen shot is to be-able to see them on google maps without a connection to the internet. taking a screen shot with just the cache names would be really beneficial!

 

Since you are familiar with GSAK, you may also want to look into GDAK, which is an Android app that reads GSAK databases.