The 'free app' threatens my marriage (seriously!)

[+BosseG 1]

Please add me to the line of geocaching premium member veterans who think the "free app" sucks big time and require the "classic" app back. I will not repeat the

arguments, since they have been stated many times here already.

 

However, I have an additional argument: the withdrawal (and eventual death) of "classic" is a serious threat to my marriage. I will manage without the iPhone app, I have GPSr and alternative means. My wife, however, hates the "free app". She enjoys our hobby and has been happy using "classic" for many years. But she is not as dedicated as I am and don't wish to use a GPSr or "weird" apps. She does not just want to be a hanger-on to her nerdy husband. She wishes to participate actively, with her own equipment. Whith "free", I'm afraid that's going to cause irritation and friction.

 

Scrap the "free app" and bring back "classic", please! No amount of "fixing" will help - the "free app" is poorly designed from the foundation and up. Take it from a software developer and a veteran premium member. And the wife, also a veteran premium member. I believe I also speak for my daughter, another premium member.

[+Tee4Par 0]

Please add me to the line of geocaching premium member veterans who think the "free app" sucks big time and require the "classic" app back. I will not repeat the

arguments, since they have been stated many times here already.

 

However, I have an additional argument: the withdrawal (and eventual death) of "classic" is a serious threat to my marriage. I will manage without the iPhone app, I have GPSr and alternative means. My wife, however, hates the "free app". She enjoys our hobby and has been happy using "classic" for many years. But she is not as dedicated as I am and don't wish to use a GPSr or "weird" apps. She does not just want to be a hanger-on to her nerdy husband. She wishes to participate actively, with her own equipment. Whith "free", I'm afraid that's going to cause irritation and friction.

 

Scrap the "free app" and bring back "classic", please! No amount of "fixing" will help - the "free app" is poorly designed from the foundation and up. Take it from a software developer and a veteran premium member. And the wife, also a veteran premium member. I believe I also speak for my daughter, another premium member.

 

Seriously??????

[+Mars08 1]

You speak for me too! And the muggles I tried to recruit - they are running screaming away from the Whole "adventure" now...

[ohgood 2]

Please add me to the line of geocaching premium member veterans who think the "free app" sucks big time and require the "classic" app back. I will not repeat the

arguments, since they have been stated many times here already.

 

However, I have an additional argument: the withdrawal (and eventual death) of "classic" is a serious threat to my marriage. I will manage without the iPhone app, I have GPSr and alternative means. My wife, however, hates the "free app". She enjoys our hobby and has been happy using "classic" for many years. But she is not as dedicated as I am and don't wish to use a GPSr or "weird" apps. She does not just want to be a hanger-on to her nerdy husband. She wishes to participate actively, with her own equipment. Whith "free", I'm afraid that's going to cause irritation and friction.

 

Scrap the "free app" and bring back "classic", please! No amount of "fixing" will help - the "free app" is poorly designed from the foundation and up. Take it from a software developer and a veteran premium member. And the wife, also a veteran premium member. I believe I also speak for my daughter, another premium member.

 

jail break or root (depending on platform) and install the application you prefer. don't let the mother ship dictate which application you enjoy

[+igator210 97]

Or use one of the third party apps that seem much more developed.

[+cerberus1 1865]

However, I have an additional argument: the withdrawal (and eventual death) of "classic" is a serious threat to my marriage.

 

Wow.

Many times it's money, sharing, and sex.

 

- Next on Geraldo ... "An app ruined my marriage".

[+Viajero Perdido 464]

?!?

 

You don't need to jailbreak/root just to install a non-Groundspeak app!

 

But unfortunately for iPhone (this is the iPhone forum), there aren't that many alternatives. Not like Android.

[+igator210 97]

?!?

 

You don't need to jailbreak/root just to install a non-Groundspeak app!

 

But unfortunately for iPhone (this is the iPhone forum), there aren't that many alternatives. Not like Android.

 

I've used Looking4Cache for the past three years and love it (though it does have a bit of a learning curve). I know a lot of people like Cachly. Both of those seem more developed that the official app.

[ohgood 2]

?!?

 

You don't need to jailbreak/root just to install a non-Groundspeak app!

 

But unfortunately for iPhone (this is the iPhone forum), there aren't that many alternatives. Not like Android.

 

I'm not referring to a non official application. I'm talking about installing the application you want, without worry that the mother ship might delete it

[+Twinklekitkat 34]

Based on suggestions in the forums I purchased Cachly last night and love it. I will be deleting the terrible free app and will now be using this one exclusively. I will keep Classic though because I just can't part with it.

[+tim.devos 1]

That's why I did the suggestion of making the "old" app open source so the community can develop this further but Groundspeak did never respond to this. (See forum thread under Android). In my opinion that would a win / win situation for Groundspeak as well as the community. The forum is full of complaints about the new app and I never met one single geo-cacher who likes the new app above the old one.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm a premium member myself and I have no problem in paying Groundspeak for their service but even for Premium members the new app is useless. I still use the old app but if Groundspeak stops supporting it and forces me to go to the new I have no other option than to use a 3rd party app of which the developers listen to the user base.

 

I'm in the software industry myself and this is clearly a weak point of Groundspeak. They release new software with less features and a lot of bugs. And even on that they introduce "features" (like the clustering) which we can not turn off in order to mask the slow performance of the map. They should really listen to the user base like other software developers do like e.g. c:geo, cachly etc.

 

So to summarize: Please return the old app and make it open source.

 

P.S: And no, I don't believe what they say that the old code is "bad". A good software team refactors this gradually to now a days standards without removing features or introducing new bugs.

[+BosseG 1]

Based on suggestions in the forums I purchased Cachly last night and love it. I will be deleting the terrible free app and will now be using this one exclusively. I will keep Classic though because I just can't part with it.

 

Cachly looks promising. I'll try it out. Thanks for the tip!

[Tassie_Boy 4]

P.S: And no, I don't believe what they say that the old code is "bad". A good software team refactors this gradually to now a days standards without removing features or introducing new bugs.

 

What I've heard around the traps is that the classic app was purchased by GS from a third party, the third party developers had to do any upgrades to the software and it was going to cost them big money to start putting new features like the messaging system in, so they brought it all in house and developed the intro app turned geocaching app.

 

So no they can't just release the code and make it open source because it's not their's to release.

[+tim.devos 1]

So no they can't just release the code and make it open source because it's not their's to release.

 

I hope they did not make the mistake of not being the owner of the source code when signing the contract with the 3rd party developer.

 

Anyway, it would help a lot if they where more transparant at Groundspeak and that they start listening to their user-base. I see many seasoned geo-cachers complaining and that is not a good sign.

Edited July 16, 2016 by tim.devos

[+Sherminator18 14]

Based on suggestions in the forums I purchased Cachly last night and love it. I will be deleting the terrible free app and will now be using this one exclusively. I will keep Classic though because I just can't part with it.

 

I use Cachly too and it does everything I would want a geocaching app to do. Also the developer is very responsive to issues and feature requests. Well worth the $5 in my opinion.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Sherminator18

[+Ltljon 3]

Based on suggestions in the forums I purchased Cachly last night and love it. I will be deleting the terrible free app and will now be using this one exclusively. I will keep Classic though because I just can't part with it.

 

When you use the app is it doing Pocket Queries like it would on your gps? Are you using your phone instead of your gps?

I'm seriously behind the times on technology.

[+Team DEMP 114]

Based on suggestions in the forums I purchased Cachly last night and love it. I will be deleting the terrible free app and will now be using this one exclusively. I will keep Classic though because I just can't part with it.

 

When you use the app is it doing Pocket Queries like it would on your gps? Are you using your phone instead of your gps?

I'm seriously behind the times on technology.

 

Cachly supports being used just like the Geocaching.com app but it also supports offline and pocket queries. I'm a newer Cachly user but here's what I see as some significant advantages of Cachy over the current GC.com iPhone app:

 

• Puzzle caches - Cachly shows solved puzzle caches at their corrected coordinates on the map while GC.com app shows on the map at the original coords. This was the initial reason I even looked at Cachly.
• Personal cache notes - Create/view/update on iPhone or web site
• Supports all log types - Needs Maintenance, Needs Archive, etc
• Show all cache/log pictures (aka View Image Gallery) vs scrolling through logs and selecting each picture
• Favorite cache
• Navigate to cache via Waze (as well as Apple/Google maps)
• Pocket Queries (PQs) or live access
• Offline use/logging
• Display GC.com cache page for selected cache
• Much more

And though I haven't done hundreds of caches with the app, even if you use just a couple of the noted items it is a more productive app. I haven't come across a function on the gc.com app that isn't on Cachly.com.

 

I wonder if GC.com wouldn't be better off buying Cachly as a replacement for the one they have vs incremental investing in the current app to catch up. Before I got Cachly, I was wondering if the constraints around the current application was the Live API that is being used but it's not and it's just the currently limited functionality in the GC.com iPhone app.

[+NLBokkie 17]

+1 for Cachly. I'm really happy using that app instead of the standard GC app.

[+thecoastfamily 0]

Can you log your finds, did not finds, etc. directly from the Cachly app?

[+Team DEMP 114]

Can you log your finds, did not finds, etc. directly from the Cachly app?

 

Yes, you can log online realtime (just like the GC.com app) or offline. Can also log with a type that the free app does't yet provide - Needs Maintenance, Needs Archive or Write note.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Team DEMP

[+igator210 97]

I haven't tried Cachly yet, but for 3 years I've used Looking4Cache. So far, just about everything that people have asked the official app to do, L4C already does. This isn't meant as an endorsement, but rather just letting people know there are a couple of options.

[+roundcircle 0]

Can you log your finds, did not finds, etc. directly from the Cachly app?

 

Yes, you can log online realtime (just like the GC.com app) or offline. Can also log with a type that the free app does't yet provide - Needs Maintenance, Needs Archive or Write note.

Can you log your finds with the local date?

[+Team DEMP 114]

What do you mean "log with local date"? When you go to log a find, the screen defaults to logging for the current date but you can click on it and select any date.

 

The log screen allows date, Found/Not Found/etc, the body text for your log message (with option to encrypt), whether you favorite it, save as a field note, add a coordinate, and drop/visit a trackable. You can also add 1 or more images at the time of posting the log.

[+roundcircle 0]

What do you mean "log with local date"? When you go to log a find, the screen defaults to logging for the current date but you can click on it and select any date.

 

The log screen allows date, Found/Not Found/etc, the body text for your log message (with option to encrypt), whether you favorite it, save as a field note, add a coordinate, and drop/visit a trackable. You can also add 1 or more images at the time of posting the log.

Does the screen default to the date of the phone (local date), or the date of the server? The GC app defaults to the date of the server, which for me is almost always yesterday.

 

In the GC app you can't change the date. You've said that with Cachly you can change the date, which will do what I want.

 

Thanks.

[+Twinklekitkat 34]

Looking at my Cachly app the date for the log says the exact same time as my iPhone. That means, to me, that the log is set in my time zone. I don't normally log caches on my phone but do them as field notes. But, I do recall logging on my phone once using Cachly around 10:30pm and the log was dated with the correct date. However, the logs for the trackables I also logged at the exact same time posted with the next day's date. I did mention this to the developer but have not tested it again. As mentioned earlier, I do most all my logs as field notes and complete them later at my PC.