Pda Compatibility

[Fledermaus]

Since I do not use a PDA and have no knowledge of them, will someone please tell me what I should and shouldn't do to make cache pages compatible with the average PDA user? Keep in mind that we live in a world of Color and not B&W.

 

For the present, most of my cache pages involve graphics and color. It appears to me that there are a lot people out there that can't stand to see colorful pages, not to mention graphics, whether they are animated or not.

 

I have been around since before the age of computers and have seen them grow up from little toys to expensive and complicated machines. The early computers couldn't do color or sound, but now that's childs play for the cheapest of them.

 

Much like the early days of computers, PDAs are limited in their capabilites, from what I have determined. So, aren't they now in the infancy phase of their developement? Perhaps, PDAs will growup and be capable of doing what you now see on your home computer screen?

 

If all cache pages are to be written with the PDA in mind, then they would be, for the most part, plain and colorless! I live in a world of color and will continue to develope my skills in those fields, as they pertain to my cache pages.

[+AtoZ]

At least when I load a .gpx file to my PDA, POCKETPC2002, it does not get any graphics and the text is just text. I use GPSView which calles up the Internet Explorer on the PDA. Not sure if this helps but it doesnt seem to hurt.

cheers

[+Bull Moose]

Your pages convert to PDAs fine, Ray. (Except for the Enchanted Forest, but that's a special case.)

The only problem I've ever had is if one of the colors wasn't "Plucker friendly" and the page crashed, but that's a Plucker problem.

 

When the pages are delivered in GPX via PQs, they are pretty PDA friendly at that point.

[+Confucius' Cat]

(copied from another thread, since this thread has been opened, it is more appropriate here.)

 

I've used a PDA and share your concern. It is especially troublesome when a highly detailed picture is used for "body background" because (at least on the PDA I had) the text was superimposed directly over the background and rendered totally unreadable.

 

Basically I think this is a Microsoft ® flaw, but I guess you can't do much about it. I doubt Mr. Gates is going to recode his software for a few cachers.

 

I have several cache pages of my own that way. I think it is cool, but I can see where it might be a disservice to some. If I get complaints i will probably remove my "body backgrounds".

 

A global option, tied to a user's profile and easily clicked on or off, to display cache pages in text only format would be a very cool improvement to the site- not only for PDA users but also for people who live in antiquated small towns whose cable companies are defunct and whose phone companies can't spell D-S-L. Welcome to Waldron, Saaaalute!

 

(new text)

As far as it being "the early days" of PDAs, that is irrelevant to those who have already spent their money. They have to live with what they have. Since the same company wrote Internet Explorer ® for both PDA and desktop computers, it would seem logical that the software would handle graphics in the same manner, but that was definitely not the case in the unit I tried (HP's newest).

 

Another "flaw" of the PDAs is their relative slowness. This makes it a pain when there are a lot of graphics on a page. Internet users are sometimes spoiled. Some don't realize that others have dinosaur connections and they take for granted that because they can download a file in a few seconds on their cable modem that everyone can see their work just as fast when in reality there are some of us poor slobs that have to wait HOURS to load some pages.

 

Like you said, PDA is an emerging technology. To be PDA compatible, you need to think like a dinosaur. Color though is not generally a problem at least for a color PDA.

[+Muirwoody]

Cachemate on PDAs ignores the graphics. Cachers who use PDAs appreciate an early statement in the description if there is a graphic that's important to finding the cache. Look at this colorful cache GCK419 and this is how my PDA displays a part of it

 

[+NightPilot]

Plucker does put in the graphics and color, though, if you tell it to. It also has links to many different sorting options. The only drawback is that you can't edit the pages (although some would say that's a feature, not a drawback).

 

There is a rumor that Maeglin is finally going to enter the 21st century and get a color Palm, and upgrade Cachemate to do color and perhaps graphics.

 

Edited for typos. Gotta stop typing faster than my brain and fingers can handle.

Edited August 22, 2004 by NightPilot

[Fledermaus]

Here's an idea! How about Garmin stepping into the 22 Century and combine a GPS, FRS and PDA into a single package and calling it a GFP, without loosing the high performance that each can deliver? You could then hunt caches, tell others you are lost and write the story for others to read about how you got lost, whether or not you become part of the flora and fauna.

 

Just a pipe dream, right? No, I'm not smoking "grass", just cutting it a lot with my lawn mower! Now there's a thought! Cross-breed both kinds of grass. You can cut it, smoke it and hunt for caches that aren't there. Just kidding folks, I don't even smoke cigarettes and I broke my crack pipe yesterday.

Edited August 24, 2004 by Fledermaus

[+NightPilot]

Garmin has already done most of that, just not the FRS. The iQue is a PalmOS PDA with an integrated GPS. Seems to work well, but it's a tad pricey.