Geo App

[johnferran]

I guess I don't understand. I pay $10 for Geocaching App, and then pay $30 for a membership to use the App. Is this correct? And is there a better way to do this? I see many Geocaching Apps at the Apple store, but don't have any idea if they are any good. I see Commander Compass and Spyglass but they look complicated. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

John

[+kunarion]

The App works fine separately from Premium Membership. It will show nearby caches wherever you are, and you can load caches individually as you like. Premium Membership is for people who've decided they love Geocaching and wish to reach the next level with some powerful features. Things like Pocket Queries can be loaded into the App, providing selected lists of caches beyond merely the nearby ones.

 

But you don't need PM to use the App.

[+T.D.M.22]

I guess I don't understand. I pay $10 for Geocaching App, and then pay $30 for a membership to use the App. Is this correct? And is there a better way to do this? I see many Geocaching Apps at the Apple store, but don't have any idea if they are any good. I see Commander Compass and Spyglass but they look complicated. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

John

 

Better way to do it? First off get a high end GPS. Second get a premium membership. Third, get someone else to pay for those.

 

The app is $10 for one time. The premium membership is $30 per year. You can use either without the other, or both together. The way I see it is that the app is worth the $10 to me. And with the PM at $30 per year makes it one of the cheaper things I do. I can spend twice that on one video game. Three times that playing paintball for one day. I can't even fill my car up for that little. If it cost me less than a tank of gas, I think that's pretty cheap.

 

I don't normally have problem with the $10 app, but I cache mostly with a GPS. I use the app for when I go for an unplanned cache. Go to someone's house? No problem to pull out my phone and see if there is a cache nearby. I've even done that at a wedding. I have only used one other app, with poor results. But that may have been my phone at the time, as well.

Edited October 27, 2013 by T.D.M.22

[+Walts Hunting]

I am not sure but I think I read here that a basic membership only allows 3 cache downloads a day.

[+T.D.M.22]

I am not sure but I think I read here that a basic membership only allows 3 cache downloads a day.

 

Nope. Groundspeak released 2 apps. One is the full, paid app. The other is a free "lite" version.

With the full app you can do anything(unless you are a basic member, then you won't get PM perks, such as PQ's, and PMO caches, but you wouldn't have access to them here either.)

 

With the free version you are only allowed 3 downloads per day(Or maybe it's in a 24 hour period. Not sure) Groundspeak has said it uses a new calculation to pick which caches it shows you. THey have to be rated fairly easy, found recently, and possibly not a high number of DNF's. Pretty much caches that would be good for newbs to find. (Maybe even no micro's )

The unfortunate thing is-last I heard, it doesn't take distance into account. So there could be 30 caches, with a good one 20 feet away, between the user and one of the caches the program picks for you.

[+Walts Hunting]

Thanks for clearing that up. I just remembered the 3.

 

One more question. With the paid app and a basic membership does he get GPX or loc files?

Edited October 27, 2013 by Walts Hunting

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

It's easy to understand if you figure that you BUY the app, and pay membership fee for PM.

Nobody says you gotta do both.

 

The app was written by somebody and that somebody deserves payment for their labor.

Edited October 27, 2013 by Gitchee-Gummee

[johnferran]

OK thanks for your responses. I have no problem paying for the app, I just didn't understand that the premium membership was the $30.

John

[+mom2sage]

I used the paid app ($10) for a few months before becoming a PM. I became a PM primarily to access some members only caches. I would rec. starting with the app and adding the membership later.

[+Tassie_Boy]

And ignore the "get a high end GPS" comment from before. It's really not a requirement if you are just hunting. Use the offline lists if trying to Save data or if reception is not available and be sensible about using the GPS to conserve battery life/keep a charger in the car.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Tassie_Boy

[+Lieblweb]

 

One more question. With the paid app and a basic membership does he get GPX or loc files?

 

Not in bulk.

 

As a basic member, when you visit a cache page individually, there are 4 options. LOC, GPX, send to GPS, Send to Phone. You only download one at a time.

 

As a Premium Member, you can create Pocket Queries that will lump 1000 caches in one file ( bulk -more or less).

[+geodarts]

 

One more question. With the paid app and a basic membership does he get GPX or loc files?

 

Not in bulk.

 

As a basic member, when you visit a cache page individually, there are 4 options. LOC, GPX, send to GPS, Send to Phone. You only download one at a time.

 

As a Premium Member, you can create Pocket Queries that will lump 1000 caches in one file ( bulk -more or less).

 

When I log in as a basic member, the GPX option is not available to me. The paid app allows access to full cache information, however.

 

Among other things, premium membership allows access to pocket queries, gives you GPX files, and let's you use other caching apps without the 3 cache restriction. The latter is probably what keeps me a premium member. But the paid Groundspeak app may be all that you need.

Edited November 2, 2013 by geodarts