GeoWoodstock Offline Cachly Maps

Countdown clock is on and only a week until GeoWoodstock 2018! 

TaGeez and I spent that last two car rides to work listening to Geogearheads Attending Megas & Gigas and GeoWoodstock 2018 podcasts. Located at historic Coney Island in Cincinnati, we're heading to the amusement park with WikidKriket and Snakeylicks and looking forward to geocoins, virtual reality & gadget Lab caches, and, of course, the coveted GIGA icon!

Right now we're in the planning stages. Bought snacks and sunblock last night. Bookmarked lists of must-do's for the ride down. Checking out new reward Virtuals since our last visit. And preparing our pocket queries. Luckily we've been to Cincinnati several times recently so we've found many of the Favorited caches but experience tells us there are pockets of areas where we won't have mobile data (TaGeez has Spring, and I have AT&T).

Lucky for this iPhone user, Cachly has made available offline maps specifically for the surrounding environs of GeoWoodstock!

You can see where I have already saved these maps (gold star)

Cachly did it right - super easy!

1. In the Maps tab, click the Map Types icon 
2. Click Download Offline Maps
3. Click North America
4. Click United States
5. Available maps will appear. Scroll down and click on Geowoodstock 2018 to install.

When you need to access these maps, click the Map Types icon again and select your saved maps under the Offline Maps section. Although only 87 MB, once you are done with these maps, you can slide your finger over the offline map entry to delete it.

Michigan maps are downloaded for our trek to the Thumb this weekend, and, HEY! Canada maps, too! Very cool as we live less than 10 miles from Ontario!

Geocaching iPhone Apps: A Visual Comparison

I've been asked if I have given Cachly and Looking4Cache a fair chance. Here is part of my answer:

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 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.  

Let's be honest here - these apps (including the "Official app") have many of the same features in common. They search. They display caches by lists or on maps. You get cache details, recent logs, and the ability to log. There are offline capabilities and tools for trackables. Some are more responsive than others and some have an easier learning curve.

What is a big differentiater? The visual features of the interface are HUGE! Let's face it - I'm in my mid-40's, and I'm surrounded by 30-, 40-, 50+ year olds. Our eyes are not getting any younger. I prefer the classic app in this regard because the listing pages use colors and frames to section off the cache details and the font/darkness of the cache descriptions are easier to read.

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Geocaching iPhone Apps

A SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON GUIDE

Working Reference at Borders and Barnes & Nobles, people often asked which Dictionary or Thesaurus is better. It's a personal preference. Pick one word and look it up in each book - do a side-by-side comparison to determine which format works best for you. 

To help you with your iPhone app decision, I've put together a side-by-side visual guide for you. Before you make your final selection, however, visit the App Store to ensure that your selected tool does have the features you want in an app.

The Geocaching "Classic" app is no longer available in the App Store and will return March 23rd. The Geocaching "Official" app is free, but you have to pay for a Premium Membership ($30/year) to get the most out of its features. Cachly is $4.99 with no In-app purchases listed. Looking4Cache has both an Intro (free) and Pro ($6.99 and has in-app purchases). GeoSphere is $7.99 and is no longer actively supported.  GCDroid and C:GEO are popular Android apps and not available for iOS. There may be other iPhone apps, but these are the most common.

Classic - Official - Cachly
Looking4Cache - GeoSphere

Classic - Official - Cachly
Looking4Cache - GeoSphere

Classic - Official - Cachly
Looking4Cache - GeoSphere

Classic - Official - Cachly
Looking4Cache - GeoSphere

Classic - Official - Cachly
Looking4Cache - GeoSphere

Classic - Official - Cachly
Looking4Cache - GeoSphere

 It is truly a personal preference.  Hope you found this helpful and good luck in your hunt!

Saving my Geocaching Classic App

I admit. I think the "new geocaching app" by Geocaching.com is crap. No sugar coating it. I won't go into this here - suffice to say, I find myself turning to 'Classic' and Geosphere time and again.

So imagine my concern when my iPhone started malfunctioning. It randomly shuts down and plays games with battery levels. The forums have given me multiple options to repair, but the last ditch effort is a factory restore.

No biggie, right? Except, before you do a restore, you need to backup your iPhone to iTunes or iCloud. But an iPhone backup only saves app data and not the apps. And the Geocaching.com "Classic" app is no longer available (or supported) in the App store.

With the risk of losing it (and GeoSphere - it's no longer supported either), I've held off the restore.  But I found this easy-to-follow blog post from LifeHacker on What do I do when one of my favorite apps gets pulled from the app store.  Follow the easy steps to copy either Android or iPhone apps to a safe location on your computer or to DropBox. That way, if you ever do a restore or buy a new phone (which is my next option if the restore doesn't work), you are guaranteed access to your favorite apps.

I tried it, and the files appear to be saved to my personal drive. Hope this helps!

Intercaching: Walking the Nosey Noisy Noodle Noggin

As part of the 235 caches released on New Year's Day, the Detroit area has it's first Intercache!

An InterCache is an interactive geocache. It is a new way of creating a mystery geocache, where you can string together a combination of virtual and physical waypoints together. The entire geocache can be developed, edited, and played on your mobile phone's browser with no software required to download! Part virtual cache, part multicache, part puzzle cache, and part adventure.

DarrylW4 (of GeoGearHeads fame) & ReneeW25 released HNY-16 Walking the Nosey Noisy Noodle Noggin GC684NG. But before it went live, they asked me and TaGeez to take it for a spin. It was a fun adventure (even if the windchill was subzero - BRRRRRR).

To begin, you have to click a link on the cache page to access the website. With one exception (see below), it worked on all browsers on my iPhone and TaGeez's Android. Make sure your GPS functionality has been activated on your phone.

To me, this is like a cross between a letterbox and a Wherigo. Darryl and Renee ask you to take Fozzy for a walk around the neighborhood. You are guided by the webpage on your phone. Simply follow the clear instructions laid out on the page.

You read the story. Choose your destinations. Answer questions, where applicable. And move on until you reach the final.  The arrow directs you and let's you know if you are in range of your destination

PROS: 

• Unlike a letterbox, you know if you are heading the right direction. No ambiguous "take a left fork at the middling deciduous tree after passing a downed twig once attached to a piney outcropping on the slope."
• Unlike a Wherigo, no need to install a cartridge (normally troublesome on TaGeez's Android). Once started, this program ran without a hitch on both our devices.
• Prior to starting this, I reset my data usage statistics on my phone. This 15-minute cartridge used only 205 kb on my phone.
• Although we haven't created one ourselves, it appears to be easier to make edits and add photos. For Wherigos, if you use a 3rd party software to create them, they are pretty set in stone once uploaded to the official Wherigo.com website.

CONS:

• It's run on a smart device (phone, tablet, laptop) with an internet connection and GPS capabilities. However, if you don't have one, reach out to a friend and do it together.
• The arrow was a little wonky, and we found ourselves not relying on it. We relied more on the Intercache map and the distance counting down on the page.
• As mentioned earlier, TaGeez and I tried this on different phones using different browsers. For TaGeez, the intercache worked without problem using Chrome and Firefox. When he tried to use the Android default browser, the following message appeared: 

It was fun taking this Intercache for a spin and Fozzy for a "walk". I enjoyed the story line and the pictures. Fave point from me! I can't wait to see what our local cachers do next with this technology.

Riding the WAZE!

Ooh, AstroEricJ showed us a neat new app – perfect for Geocaching roadtrips!

WAZE is a GPS, Maps & Social Traffic app available for iPhones and Androids.  During our Chicago trip, we drove into a major rainstorm – you could barely see the hood of the car. Eric pulled out the app and saw other drivers (called Wazers) had posted trouble spots such as cars parked along the highway due to weather and lanes undrivable due to flooding.  He could also see construction, accidents, slow downs, closed roads, and policemen (FTF, anyone?)

I think this app might replace several I already have on my phone.

Yellow Pages: You can enter your search criteria and it will direct you.  It also has a Gas Finder feature.

Glympse: You can send friends notification of your arrival and connect with friends via the app.

Google Maps: On my phone GM is unresponsive.  WAZE does an excellent job updating as you drive.  Nice maps, too.

On the downside, it doesn't navigate to coordinates like a geocaching app.  It will suggest nearby addresses for selection.  So, if you are on an FTF run, it will get you as close as possible (while avoiding construction, slow downs, and possibly policemen—not that we ever speed, right?).

Smart Phone / Hidden Text Puzzle Tip

BSW2010 showed me a nifty trick.  He asked several of us why we hadn't solved one of his new puzzles (FTF was waiting!).  In answer to our "we think it's white text on the cache page and we can't solve it via smart phone", he said we were wrong.  There's any easy fix for this.

Today, while TaGeez and I were at a puzzle 'final', we found a container with a note stating the 'puzzle' on the cache page was a red herring and the true final was hidden somewhere else on the page.  Harrumph!  In the past I would've driven home to solve it on my desktop, but home was 15 miles away.  So I tried BSW's trick....

Go to the cache page where the suspected "hidden text" is located and copy all the text.

Then open up a blank email or your notepad or Evernote and paste the text.  When you copy/paste from a webpage to a word document, hidden or "white" text pastes as black text (see below). It worked!  We were able to plug in the "new final" and make the find!

And, oh... if you were wondering about BSW's puzzle.... it wasn't hidden text after all. The brat led us onto another wild goose chase!

Heartbroken in my GeoSphere World!

Any GeoSphere users here?

I'm a GeoSphere (iPhone geocaching app) fanatic. I really think this app is a major factor in my 3-year cache-a-day streak. Imagine my heartbreak when I tried to upload logs two nights ago and started getting intermittent "connection error" messages.

When I clicked on my Online Profile, my stats weren't updating. I unlinked from Groundspeak and re-authenticated. I uninstalled the app and re-installed. Now my profile information is completely blank! Anytime I try to update, more connection errors (left image)! No quick access to my Lists or Pocket Queries - ugh!

And if I try to use the Caches Online feature (right image), I get a new message! "A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 6 users are allowed for the NotFoundByUser filter". No caching on the fly!

Keep in mind I've tried this on my own wifi, work wifi and using cellular data.

I checked the GeoSphere forums. The developer isn't active and hasn't released an update in a year and a half. Apparently, this is a known issue since 2013! Most of the forum posts say they think it's an API connectivity issue with Groundspeak and nobody has a solution. Some have come back and said it's working now.

Not me.

My iPhone 5 running IOS 8.3 and GeoSphere 3.2 is broken. It's like a punch in my geocaching gut. 

UPDATE: Good news!  It's working again! After several days of repeated attempts, voila!  Went on the Forum and found I wasn't alone so we think it had to do with recent Groundspeak API changes.  Relief! In the meantime, I tested several other iPhone geocaching apps.... brrrrr!

Unlock File for iPhone Wherigo Player

AAARRGH!  If I had only paid attention!

There's a fun set of challenges nearby called the "Year-Round Challenge...." by mmc81. (I'm sure by now you realize I'm a challenge-junky, right?)  I was thrilled to grab the Traditionals, Unknown and the Multi challenges, but the others....?  Well, a year's worth of Earth Caches?  Not that many around here as well as Wherigos.... (sigh)

Yesterday a new Wherigo published - there's been an influx of them in the area due to the sudden popularity of Ranger Fox's Wherigo//kit (LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT).  TaGeez and I decided to go for the grab, and I took a look at my stats - AARGH!  If I had grabbed a Wherigo in December (there is a D/T 1/1 Wherigo just a few miles from here), I would almost qualify for mmc's Year-Round Challenge - Wherigo cache!

(sigh) Now I have to start over again. Ok, let's be honest. It's not that much of a hardship.. forcing myself to enjoy a Wherigo monthly!

On the plus side, I learned a really nifty trick using the Wherigo player on my iPhone.  In the past, when you complete a Wherigo cartridge using the iPhone, you get a super long confirmation code that didn't fit anywhere.  If you go on the Wherigo site, it doesn't accept the number to "unlock the cartridge".

Unlocking a cartridge marks it as successfully completed. It's a badge of honor to share your completed cartridges with the rest of the Wherigo Community. There are alternate ways to unlock your cartridge - from uploading your save file to using an unlock code from your cartridge or your friends.  [Source: Wherigo.com]

Last night, while fiddling with the iPhone app, I clicked the arrow next to the cartridge name (when I had actually intended to delete the cartridge because I was done with it).

It opened this screen where I could Upload unlock file or Report a problem - cool!  So I clicked Upload unlock file.

This part confused me at first.  It took me to the Wherigo.com home page within the app (even though the cartridge name was clearly labelled on top above the browser bar).  So, I decided to search for the Riddle Monkeys Treasure cartridge (make sure you are logged in before searching).

Ok, I found the cartridge listing so I clicked the link to open it.

Now, here you see the buttons on the far left.  When I initially opened this screen, the green button read Unlock (it now reads Completed because I took this screenshot later).  Click the green Unlock button..

Under Option 1: Upload your Save Game (preferred), I clicked the Upload your save game link.

It was very quick and the "success" message appeared on my screen.  I was able to go right in and enter a review for the cartridge.  Fabulous!  One less hassle using the iPhone app.  At this rate, I may never pull out my Garmin T450 for Wherigos again.

I'm not sure if this functionality works for the Android, but, TaGeez was super-geeked with the last Android update that his WhereYouGo app allows him to directly download cartridges to his phone (versus having to save them to a folder first).

I think it may be time to start planning my next Wherigo cache.  

Klikaklu - Another LBG

I was SO excited to head out to the Livonia event last night - we've been snowed in for so long, and I couldn't wait to hang out with my LTG geo-buddies.  This group meets at one of three Livonia-area restaurants (first Wednesday of each month).  We have dinner, enjoy a raffle and normally go out as a group for some caching.  As we are in the middle of Winter (and it's about 5 degrees F), we normally limit the caches to one, but, in warmer weather, we will cruise to 4-6 of them.  Older Cachers get to spend time with their best mates and newer Cachers will learn alot!

Mibbs, our hostess, is fabulous.  She normally makes cookies and is great about circulating around the attendees. Everyone feels welcome!  And she's also great about pulling out some type of game or exercise that really breaks the ice.

Last night's attendance was low due to weather, but, I must admit, it was probably one of my favorite meets!  After the group photo in the Laurel Park Mall's food court, Mibbs announced that the event cache was in the form of a scavenger hunt created by Commander Overloard!  What is it about scavenger hunts?  It evokes images of children laughing and sunny days and great explorations.  Everyone loves a good scavenger hunt.  And, although geocaching is a type of scavenger hunt, this was a nice change of pace.

So, all iPhone users were asked scan a QR code and download an app from the App Store called Klikaklu (pronounced "Click-a-Clue").  I'd never heard of it, but I soon realized upon opening it that it was a a modern-day scavenger hunt very similar to Sighter.

Using this app, you had to navigate to 10 stops.  At each stop, you had to locate an item, "capture" it using the camera on your phone, and, once verified, you were given the clue to the next site.

To capture it, you would click a button and your camera would open. You had to align the object's edges with white lines that appeared on your screen. Once you aligned it, you would get a MATCHED message.

We had a blast - as only some of us had iPhones, the others had to walk with us.  It was fun roaming the mall en masse.  We would look for items, capture the image, read the clue and take off to the next location.  A 10-stop scavenger hunt, mostly indoors, on such a brutally cold night!  Passerbys looked at us strangely and many approached to ask us what we were doing (I think our adventuresome spirit was contagious!)

As we navigated through the mall, I think each of us had a problem at one time or another.  My app crashed, but, when I re-opened the app, all my saved locations were intact.  Some people had a difficult time capturing one site - but the app allowed you to override and move onto the next stage.  It was really easy to navigate, and it seemed to have no problems tracking us inside the mall.

So, how did it end?  At the final stage, we received a message "now it's time to sign the log".  Too funny!  I think it took us so long to find the cache because there were so many of us looking for it we kept overlooking it!  And, not only was the scavenger hunt the "event cache", it was also a LAB cache!  Frito Bandito won the raffle and will be able to claim a find on this LAB cache.  Brilliant!

Just a few minutes ago, the event cache actually published.  It's called Can you follow my lead GC4XTAC.  You can use the Klikaklu app to locate the cache or, as it's a traditional, you can just go to the posted coordinates.  I know which method I'd choose again!

Favorite point for Commaner Overlord!

iPhone Keyboard Trick: The Degree Symbol

I learned a really cool keyboard tip on the GeoGearheads podcast show #94.  To enter a degree symbol on an iOS device (like an iPhone), hold down the number 0 button on the keyboard.  A pop-up window with the degree symbol will appear.  Handy when entering coordinates or discussing weather.  (Sorry for the sloppy mock-up image, I was in a hurry and didn't see anything online I liked).

You can find the GeoGearheads podcasts on iTunes or http://www.cacheamaniacs.com/ - they also have an official website at http://www.geogearheads.com/ .  You will learn a lot about iOS and Android devices (plus a little bit about everything else) on this show.

Oh, and another note of excitement: Today is my 600th straight day of caching!  Woot!