GPS MAgellan GC Explorist and iphone?

[metalchickphd]

Hello! Its been years since I have done this and still have the Magellan GPS GC Explorist and i also have an iphone... is it worth it to still use the gps does it even still work? 

[RuideAlmeida]

57 minutes ago, metalchickphd said:

... is it worth it to still use the gps does it even still work? 

 

 Sure!

[robertlipe]

Yes, it should still work. You should still be able to copy pocket queries (specially formatted GPX files) to it, just like you could back in the old days. If you upgraded to a premium membership (a few $/month), you'd be able to specify the types of caches you like and round up files containing just those types, with details, hints, and logs, and just copy (drag and drop) them to your receiver with any software on pretty much any mainstream operating system. As for host OS software, the thing just shows up as a disk drive in your computer and you can copy/delete files to/from it as you wish; no special drivers needed. ]

The manufacturer, Mio, has long abandoned the handheld market generally and the geocaching market specficially, so don't enter into any breath-holding bets on when you'll see updates for "new" features that may be even 7-8-10 years in our past at this point. Notably, don't bother looking for new maps. The MIO world is just frozen in time in 2008 or so. A prior thread, 

, shows that there was a firmware update in mid 2011 that made it a bit more likeable, but if you can't find it/don't care, it doesn't look to be a life-changer. Just messing with the unit, you stand some non-zero change of converting it to a potato so if you liked the way it  worked back then and really don't care about the update features, there's some rationale for not updating it.

All that said, it had what was a great antenna/GPS receiver (SirfStar III or IV, depending on what litigation was raging at the time) for its era and it's much more likely to survive a tumble down a rock embankment and into the drink than your iFone. You're probably less likely to cry if it shatters.

Smaller children may more enjoy/be more trusted the green-rubbery device with a color screen that's droppable than your $$$ phone. Ditto adults with vision or fine motor-skill issues or wearing gloves. The buttons are just plain big and clicky, exactly like mobile phone OS buttons aren't.


I won't lean hard into pitching a 14-15 y/o tech product. Its certainly not the optimal device for everyone. If you have it, are familiar with it, and expect it to work in 2024 about like it worked in 2010 or so, you should be pleased. The ecosystem around it has held up pretty well. It should work pretty much as well as it ever did.

Enjoy.
or recycle it. I'm not your dad... :-)