UGH! All that work to save a copy of the app for naught!
When we opened up the Geocaching.com "Classic App" this week, this new message shouted the death knell of the app.
40 DAYS UNTIL IT'S DEMISE!
I'm heartbroken. I can't hold back... the new app is crap. And I've tried several of the other iPhone apps (Cachly, Looking4Cache) but none make me want to use them. They are serviceable. And since GeoSphere is no longer supported, this will affect my geocaching future.
What is preventing an app like Cachly or L4C from working for you?
ReplyDeleteIs there some critical feature missing?
Is it just that it's different and after many years of using the legacy app you don't want to change?
I'd be surprised if the legacy app 'made you want to use it' when you first started. You just used it and became comfortable with it and it's quirks.
Good questions, David.
DeleteThe legacy app was very intuitive – very easy to use. GeoSphere was a much steeper learning curve, but the benefits were worth the effort.
I’m a technology trainer by trade. I gather requirements, advise in the building of new tools, test, document and train our end users. My job is to entice new users to adopt technology (teach old dogs new tricks). I get excited over new tools so I went into Cachly and L4C with great enthusiasm. I willingly paid for them and gave each of them at least a month’s use before reverting back to Classic and GeoSphere.
Keep in mind that I have a 5-year cache-a-day streak so each tool was minimally a 30-day commitment. And, yes, before you ask, I did supply feedback to the Cachly developer, who was impressively responsive.
IMHO - L4C does not have a seamless flow to it. It was quite a learning curve (like GeoSphere), but I did not find the benefits outweigh the effort. It was hard to use on the fly (“Ok, coming up on that exit. Do we get off here? Is there something worth the stop? Oh, DAMN! Too late”). GeoSphere, although no longer being supported, offered so many more features than L4C with a quicker response time (though this may vary depending on phone and cell service, I’m sure).
For Cachly, I’m in my mid-40’s, and the maps and the font are hard on my eyes. The cache listings and descriptions have the “clean look/feel” that so many of our new tools have been designed to entice the younger user, but it’s hard for me to focus to read the text or navigate the map when I’m moving (like walking across a field or a passenger in a car). I have had my eyes tested, and I have tried enlarging the font. Enlarging the font…
1. Cuts off too much of the text and the map, making scrolling cumbersome
2. Does not enlarge all the text within the app
3. And is inconvenient when I have to enlarge the font every time I use this app because I don’t need the text enlarged to use my other apps (and takes time away from spontaneous caching).
I prefer the classic app in this regard because the listing pages uses colors and frames to section off the cache details and the font/darkness of the cache descriptions are easier to read.
It is truly a personal preference.