Android Geocaching App - Part 2

Initial Menu and settings

Well onto part 2.  When it first boots and yout get past the spash screen with the little "be carful and don't die geocaching" warning at the bottom of the screen. 

Inital screen

Your initial screen has four seperate settings.

• Find nearby caches
• Search by location
• Search by GC code
• Trackables

If you hit your menu button a few more options pop up.

• Saved
• Settings

Find nearby caches (See Android Geocaching App - Part 3)

I was going to start with finding the nearby caches next but I decided to go through the other settings they will make the other settings easier in the process.  So stay tuned for the next part.

Search by Location

There are a few ways to search by location. You can enter an address, zip code, airport ID, or Lat/Long.  I expected the ability to search by the address, and also to search by a zip code, and Lat/Long was just obvious.  It was the airport ID that caught me off guard.  I am not sure where it would be used, but I guess it is nice to have more options. 

A search will bring up the nearest caches to the location.  I always hate using zip codes, whenever I search I do not get the center of town, but the center of the zip code.  That means middle of fields or in the hills.

Search by GC Code

This one is pretty obvious.  You can also use this to look at unpublished caches, you cannot log them if they are locked (I tested it) , but you can use this to look for them.

Trackables

This lets you enter a trackable number.  Eventually they will add it so you can pick up a trackable.  At the moment you cannot do anything but look up the trackable.  The only use that I can see is to be able to see the goal of the trackable. 

Saved (Menu button item) See part 4

The Saved selection takes you to a screen where you can download a pocket query.  I will cover this more in Part 4

Settings (Menu button item)

This opens the menu buttons screen and has a number of options that I think are vital to understanding the rest of the program

Name/Password

The name and password of your GC account.  You can alter it here if you need to.  Let a friend search?  Who know what reasons, but it is here

Submit field notes

You can choose to save your field notes and submit them all at once, or you may enter a place where you have no reception.  This setting lets you send the logs when you are able

Search Filters

You have two options here  Traditional and All.  If you are set on traditional all you will get in your search is Traditional Caches. If you select all you will get all the other options: puzzles, earthcaches, mystery, etc.

Show all/Hide finds

You can have it include your finds or hide them

Returned results

This is where you can set how many caches you want to pop up in your search.  I always set it for 20.  There area always a number of caches that I am ignoring and do not want to check out.  Or some I search for continually and cannot find. You can set the numbers for 5,10,15, or 20.

Units

Meters or Feet, your choice.

Map/Compass

When yo decide to navigate to a cache, this tells you what will come next.  It can take you directly to the Google map to navigate your way, or the compass mode.  There is a bug in some of Android phones that cause a crash on the map page.  If that happens to you this is a setting that you will need to switch.

dbase location

SD card/Phone.  You can select where it is saving your info. I have not seen a benifit either way.

Search for GPX

I will have to look for this one.  I tried a search with no luck.  But it could be that it needs to be in a certain location

next - Part 3 Geocache Navigation

Android Geocaching App - Part 1- Initial Impressions

Android Geocaching App - Part 2 - Searches, Trackables, and Settings

Android Geocaching App - Part 3 - Geocache Navigation

Android Geocaching App - Part 4 - Loading Saved Files

Android Geocaching App - Part 5 - Final thoughts

Groundspeaks Geocaching Andriod App Part 1 - Initial Impressions

Well here goes the run with Groudspeak's app.  This will be multiple parts focusing on the Android app and how it works, and what you can expect from it.

First I should point out that I use a Sprint Hero running 2.1.  I have tried a number of other apps, all with their ups and downs. I did not pay money for any of them.  I stuck with the free versions, or apps that were free.  So the chance to jump on the app was great for me.  We were told that it was coming out sometime during the week, so I would check the app store every few hours.   No luck at all.

Loading

Finally the app appeared in the store.  I downloaded it and it said there was 50-100 dowloads at the time. So woo hoo here I go off to the great beyond.  <poof> $9.99 vanished from the checking account and a few minutes later I was downloading.

No problems on the load.  Well there was one. Where I was at work had a poor download speed.  Well I guess there was not hurry.. I was at work after all.  Not much I could do there.

Impressions

It was running nicely.  I liked the splash screen, it reminded me of a place I camped a few months ago.  It smoothly ran me to the screen that asked me what I wanted to do: Find geocaches, different searches, and a trackables button. 

I zoomed through a number of screens, I had it search for the nearby caches and came up with a list.  Skimmed through a number of caches on the screen.  I clicked on one and the cache listings came up.  There were many different options that appeared, I looked through them and was able to get all the information from the cache page that you see on a page.  Description, hints, and other info. 

Clicking Navigate took me to a screen that let me look at the map of the area... with a line to a nearby cache.  The one at the destination.  It was a simple Google map. 

I took it out for a spin and found a cache.  I was happy with how smoothly it worked.  There was no delay. and I quickly noticed that on the map screen was a circle.  I eventually figured out that the circle around the dot that represented me was the margin of error.  It was pretty small, but there were times (inside and near buildings) that I could make it grow.

When I selected the option to actually navigate with the compass (from the menu screen) it took me right to the cache.  I am getting really good accuracy.  Far better than I expected, especially after I read about the iphone 3g gps issues.

Then it was a simple matter of logging the cache.  There are two options.  One that let me submit the cache as a field note, or just submit the log later.  Either could be a good option.  You may want to publish things later and write a longer note, or you may wish to do ir right then.  Depending on your skill with typing logs, or wanting to make it bigger later.

Final thoughts (part one)

It worked really nicely and I was happy to get my first cache with it.  I found two more that night, it worked smoothly and I did find some other little tricks that I will bring up when I continue with this.  But I would recomend it.

On that note.. some users are having issues with a few models.  Android phones often have a special UI over the Android operating system.  My Hero runs one called HTC sense, and also has some Sprint UI built in.  The Droid X has had a number of issues.  So you will spend some time working around them until the next update comes up.  Apparently they all have work arounds but you will want to be aware of it.

Android Geocaching App - Part 1- Initial Impressions

Android Geocaching App - Part 2 - Searches, Trackables, and Settings

Android Geocaching App - Part 3 - Geocache Navigation

Android Geocaching App - Part 4 - Loading Saved Files

Android Geocaching App - Part 5 - Final thoughts

The active caches from 2000

I am back with more of the oldest active caches.

I took the time to go through the listings and find the remaining caches from 2000.  If I have missed any let me know, or think that some should be mentioned let me know.  Jeremy was publishing caches in 2001 that were dated 2000. I made a cutoff at one point.

A few notes from the full list

• 108 caches from the first year.
• 15 caches from CA (10 of those in december)
• 8 caches in Gerogia
• 6 caches in Mass., Texas, Arizona
• 5 Caches in New Zealand, Austrailia, Utah, Oregon

Breakdown by months

• 7 from May
• 12 from June
• 7 from July
• 3 from August
• 7 from September
• 25 from October
• 17 from November
• 29 from December

Hopefuly you will be from a state with the three if you are trying to get one from each month GA, UT, MI.

The smallest GC code still active GCD in Airomanelli in Washington

Well enjoy the list.  If there are issues let me know and i will try and fix them.

Oldest Caches

I recently went on a hunt for the oldest remaining caches.

I found a list of the first 100 caches but not the oldest so I grabbed the original 100 list and updated it to the oldest remaining.  It is on the Navigation table on the left.

There were a few things that surprised me

• Only 5 stateside options for May 2000
• Nine options for June 2000 and three were in Idaho
• Six stateside options for July 2000 (two in Colorado)
• Only Three remaining caches for Aug 2000, Potters Ponds in Utah, a Georgia, and Michigan
• Georgia has the most old caches at 5
• Idaho has 4
• Colorado, Kansas, and Oregon each have 3

Just another numbers thing.. if i ever get around to it I may add more

Logging the Mingo Cache

Android app has arrived.

After a few months of waiting and moderating the Android forum on geocaching.com the moment finally arrived.  This afternoon the Android app appeared on the market.

I have tried a number of the other apps out there, and was always left kind of bummed at almost all of them.  From the geocaching.com websiteThis afternoon I logged on and finally had the app.  It took me a few seconds and it was on my phone and then I had to wait a few hours for quitting time.  Then off i went. The first cache was a bust.  but I could not find it anyway, and the second I went right to it.

I have been pretty please. It appears I have the ability to log it to my field notes, so i can make a longer cache note later, save a batch and upload 4-5 logs, or upload each log as I go.

I really liked how it looks and its ease of use. I was worried with all the other stuff out there that this one would not measure up.  It does.  and I am happy that is does.   It is the favorite of the ones that I have played with .