W.A.P Caching

[+Rocky Balboa]

The topic about GPS mobiles got me thinking this week and i am considering creating a W.A.P site accesible by phones, where it would be possible to check by county/place name if you were near to a cache. This would prove helpfull for anyone who doesnt have expensive software and laptops. If you were on a day trip somewhere and wanted to do a cache you could simply check through this source.

 

What does anyone think about this? would it be apreciated or unused? looking forward to any constructive comments on the subject. Dan.

 

Dan Wilson (Team Dan and Pid)

[+The Hornet]

Dan , I think this would be a great idea. Many's the time I've felt the need of a quick cache while I'm out and about but didn't have my full kit of laptop, internet, printer etc. with me.

 

A simple WAP site would be great. It has been discussed before at http://opentopic.Groundspeak.com/0/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1750973553&f=6770936793&m=9040933494 and a couple of sites are already in existence. However none really work too well in the UK.

 

More power to your elbow.

[+Lassitude]

I would use it.

 

I understand the scripting used to pull down the cache details from Geocaching.com that other sites use(such as the Palmable indicies site)is a bit of a contentious issue so be careful.

 

Thanks

 

Chris

 

LASSITUDE- (noun) Tiredness and apathy: a state of weariness accompanied by listlessness or apathy[15th century. Via French from Latin lassitudo , from lassus 'weary'.]

[+dylanhayes]

The cool thing that WAP devices can do that PCs can't is know approximatly where they are. I have seen a few location based wap apps, and geocaching would be really cool to do that way. Location based apps are probably the closest thing WAP has to a killer app, yet it is hardly used. I think the trouble is

a) location based stuff is pretty approximate, but probably good enough for this sort of thing

AFAIK there is no open standard for getting location info from a phone to a webserver and such location based services I have seen have been associated with a mobile network which gives them that data. Thus to get that data would be very complex as you would need to code for each possible network assuming they would even give you the data. In an ideal world this would be easy and free. I suspect given that mobile companies are hard up for cash, they will not give this anyway, even though it could actually be the sort of thing which actually makes WAP worth having.

 

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