MnGCA

speedysk1 · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:16 pm Post subject: Geocaching Android App Available

This was just posted to Facebook from Groundspeak:

uffda320 · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:26 pm Post subject:

Too late. Most Droid users are already using c:geo. Someone needs to inform Groundspeak that $10 for an app is way too much.

speedysk1 · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:47 pm Post subject:

Pear Head · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 4:48 pm Post subject:

I JUST started using c:geo last week. It's not bad at all but does have it's quirks, mostly with the UI.

I agree gc will probably muscle it out now, which is unfortunate. The real unfortunate part is that gc will probably muscle it out simply to force users to convert...
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Hmm...

uffda320 · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:54 pm Post subject:

I think the Droid users would be happier if there was a free trial version for the new app, so we could try it out. What the Groundspeak people should've done is hired the guy that created c:geo and let him create the "official" Android app. From what I can tell, the official app mirrors what c:geo already does.

I think what it comes down to is iphone users are used to paying $ for their apps...Droid users aren't.

minnesotabrad · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 7:04 pm Post subject:

I was lucky enough to beta test the Groundspeak Android app and will say in the beginning it had a lot to be desired but the product they have now works very well. I have used it a lot and have been happy with how they improved it. I would not say that it mirrors what c:geo does it is more comparable to the iPhone app.

sir_zman · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:18 pm Post subject:

bought it as soon as I saw the tweet about it. I'll try it out this weekend and let you know what I think about it.

speedysk1 · Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:37 am Post subject:

sir_zman · Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:53 am Post subject:

Tried it out over the weekend and it worked great. It was usually a few feet different than my GPSr, and a bit slower to update, but all in all it got me into striking distance (15-20 feet of the cache) and allowed me to log the find right from the phone.

As to some previous comments; I agree that since they offer a free trial version for the iPhone, it would have been nice to try it out on the Droid before buying it; but there is one big difference between Android and iPhone when it comes to paid apps...on the Android market, you can return any paid app within 24 hours for a refund; you can't do that with the iPhone...so that really does work as a trial period...if you don't like it, request a refund and remove the app.

Arcticabn · Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 3:29 pm Post subject:

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3654

New Droid owner and bought the Groundspeak app. Looks cool so far but I doubt I'd ever log from it. Can you imagine MY logs containing "Logged by Droid using Verizon"? NOT.

Surfer Joe · Minnesota Reviewer Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 199

sir_zman · Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:43 am Post subject:

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3654

See? I am a total noob and will eventually figure it out. I assumed the apps added that by default.

seamusbleu · Geocacher Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 188

I bought it right away. It doesn't look too bad to me. I wish it had a "radar" style navigation view. I'm used to using Geocache Navigator on my old Noka N95, and it had a option to show a radar-scope view that had a short bread-crumb trail that gave you an idea of the direction you were moving. It helped to overcome the phone's gps accuracy quite a bit.

I don't find $10 for this application to be a big deal. They are likely to offer quite a few updates and improvements. Having live access to the geocache descriptions and logs is so worth it to e.

Unfortunately, my phone has a GPS issue (Samsung Vibrant); hopefully there will be a fix forthcoming soon. For now, I pair the accuracy of my Etrex Vista HCx with the cache information from my phone.