iPad, Desire and Navicore

Falling short…

Since I got my iPad, the only thing I’ve really lamented is it’s lack of GPS and 3G.  Being the Wifi (read: cheaper) model, I had to make do with WiFi only.  As usual, my tendency to over-analyse and get the most out of anything I have got the better of me, and I started to look into how to plug the gaps in capability.  The spur was the lack of an official Geocaching app on the android OS as of yet.  Supposedly, there’s an Android version coming ‘Soon’ (and has been for about six months!).  At the moment, it’s definitely in ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ territory.

Navicores and Desires

As you may or may not know, I recently took the leap from my trusty iPhone to the ‘other side’ – i.e. Android.  Specifically, I went for an HTC desire, and haven’t regretted the switch.  Seems as though the switch was a good call at the moment.  Android, you see, is much less locked-down than Apples iOS, which although it is excellent in itself, is rather crippled, mostly to keep the control of the OS firmly in Apple’s grasp.  Android, on the other hand, whilst not being completely open, is getting much more in that direction.  Out of the box, Android is less locked-down, with just a little techie work required, in a process called ‘rooting’, to make it more-or-less completely open (in an OS-sense).

With a cool little app called ‘Wireless Tether’ installed on the rooted phone, it created an ad-hoc wireless network for your device (laptop, iPad etc) to join.  Once joined, your device can use the internet connection of your Android phone, avoiding the need to take out a separate plan for your iPad. Bear in mind this may be against the terms and conditions of your mobile contract, but take it easy, and avoid using for VoIP and other network-angering activities too often, and you may escape notice – depends on how vigilant your provider is…

So that’t the 3G side of things sorted.

Where am I?

Next comes the GPS.  The iPad Wifi is equipped with Bluetooth, which should make it a doddle to pair a standard Bluetooth GPS unit with it, right?

Wrong!

Apple, in their infinite wisdom, have decreed that you can only use your Bluetooth for very limited activities, specifically, headsets, headphones keyboards and, ummmm, well, not much else really.  My lovely little Navicore SiRF III Bluetooth GPS unit has been languishing in a drawer for about the last two years or so.  Luckily, some clever developer has come up with an alternative Bluetooth stack for the iPad (and iPhone), which enables these devices to support accessories that they previously couldn’t.  This wonderful bit of code is known as ‘BTStack’.  The caveat?  Well, Apple wouldn’t like you doing this, so your iPad needs to be Jailbroken.  This is ridiculously easy to do (just google for it), and enables you to install homebrew apps.  The particular app in question is called ‘BTStack GPS’, and is available via Cydia (the homebrew app installer that gets installed when you Jailbreak the iPad).  It is one of the few ‘paid’ homebrew apps, and after furnishing the developer with all of $5.00 via paypal, you get your full-capable version of BTStack GPS.  A free version is also available, though all this does is display the position within the BTStack GPS app itself, and doesn’t pass it on to other apps.

Once installed, all you have to do is run the app, and pair it with your Standard SPP GPS receiver.  Once paired (and your reciever has a GPS signal), it causes the iPad to act as if you have built-in GPS.  All apps I’ve tried so far work flawlessly with it, including the official Groundspeak Geocaching app.  This is, currently, just the iPhone version running on the iPad, but it is sufficient until Groundspeak sort out an iPad version.

So there we go.  A WiFi iPad with 3G and GPS Connectivity.  Simple!

Geocaching App

Finally, the official Geocaching.com iPhone app is available on the iPhone App Store.  It costs a grand total of £5.99 in the UK ($9.99 in the US).  The app promises to be the first to link directly into the Geocaching.com website and bring you real-time cache details based on your current GPS coordinates (unlike the previous 3rd-party apps which relied on offline databases).  Added to this the ability to look up trackables, this is building into a potentially great app for Cachers all over the world well… where the iPhone is available anyway!).  You can save chosen caches to a ‘saved’ area to view offline. 

Soon to be added will be the ability to log finds from the app and more detailed linking of multi-caches.  I’m yet to try it, but as soon as I get to try it out ‘in the wild’ so to speak, I’ll let you know how it goes.  If they added to this the ability to download multiple caches, or pocket queries, then this would be a killer paperless Caching app. 

Cheers!

For full details, see the geocaching.com forum entry here.

Review to come when the App is available…

Those who’ve tried geocaching will probably know that one of the major limiting factors to ‘on-the-go’ caching is accessing the information about each cache.  The original idea was that you find the cache on the Geocaching website, and print out the information about it to take with you when you go out to find it.  This info may have clues as to its whereabouts, or just general interesting info on the cache location.  However, its usually required in some form or another.  

‘On-the-go’ caching requires that you have access to several things :-

1. A GPSr preloaded with the caches for the area you’re in.
2. Access in one way or another to the info on those caches. 

Effectively, this enables you to whip out your GPSr, find the nearest caches, and use your iPhone to look up the details.  

The first part is fairly simple.  You just have to be prepared enough to upload a PocketQuery GPX file containing all the caches to your GPSr via your favorite caching app.  There are quire a few of these available.  I use GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) on the PC (via VMware on my Mac), as there doesn’t yet seem to be a Mac app that is comparable in feature set.   Until a GPSr with a mobile network connection becomes available, then this is really unavoidable.  To generate PocketQueries, you need to be a premium member of Geocaching.com, which costs $3 (about £1.60) a month (I think!).  

The second part is a bit more difficult.  There are two ways to do this – Online or Offline.  The online method requires you accessing the Geocaching.com website whilst you are on the go, which obviously requires some sort of mobile device.  You can access the full geocaching.com website via the iPhone, or wap.geocaching.com (a cut-down text-only version) on less-capable phones.  There are also other options for viewing info online – e.g. http://m.cmiyc.com/  (an online Pocket Query Viewer – developed more for pre App-store iPhones) and This is fine where you have a connection to the mobile network, but the nature of Geocaching is that it often takes you to places that you don’t get a signal (happened to me yesterday!).  The net result of this is that you are basically cut off in many places.  

The offline method needs a bit more thought.  With this you need to be able to view the info without any sort of network connection being required – i.e. from the storage space of your device.  I’ve tried several methods of doing this :-

• Via PDF files – exported from Geocaching.com and put on the iPhone to be viewed with one of the file viewers available (I use AirSharing – it’s free and works very well).  This means exporting the PDFs oneby-one and transferring them over – hardly the best way when on the go.
   
• Via HTML exports from GSAK – GSAK can produce HTML exports of its database of geocaches.  In other words, you can produce a nice, indexed list of geocaches that matches those you send to your GPSr.  Use a file utility (again I use AirSharing) to transfer and view these HTML files.  This works fairly well.  However – I’ve found a problem that makes the actual cache info pages jump to a point halfway down each, which I haven’t yet been able o sort out.  Also, I find that Airsharing tends to be a bit slow when viewing these files.  However, if I can sort out the jumping issue, then this is a definite possibility.  These can also be viewed by transferring to a PocketPC (Windows Mobile) PDA too.  
   
• By using my iPod and exporting the info in the GPX files to text via MacCaching.  This is quite good, but involves me having to use another, separate app to GSAK – again complicating things.  Also, this is a text-only method.  Sometimes this can be restrictive, as there may be images that are required for finding the cache, or the reformatting that happens can make the entry hard to read.  

So – a minefield of options thusfar (and I probably haven’t covered half of them here!). 

A new contender to the offline throne on iPhone has recently surfaced.  iGeocacher (http://www.ayefon.com/geo/index.cfm) is a native app for the iPhone which takes GPX files (which you initially have to upload to web space, or use the author’s own server), and stores them locally in a SQL-type database.  This is then accessible offline.  Hurrah!  The damage?  £8.99 in the UK (not sure how much in the US – could anyone confirm?).

So – how well does it work?

iGeocacher Screenshot

Well… the answer is – pretty well!  This is the first Geocaching app that has been designed around the idea of offline viewing of the cache info.  This means that once you’ve been through the rigmarole of getting your caches onto the iPhone (which you do via any network-accessible URL, or by registering for free at the app’s homepage – all the instructions can be found there too), the interface is surprisingly nice.  You can search, group, and sort your caches.  You can utilize the 3Gs in-built GPS to show the caches in order of distance from your current location.  You can also plot the caches onto a map directly on the iphone using the google maps app (which does require a network connection to download the maps as usual).

Cache Info Page

 When you click the relevant geocache, the info appears in a nicely formatted way, showing the location coordinates, the cache info entry, and the last few log entries (depending on how many you chose to include during your Pocket Query generation on geocaching.com).  The entry even shows any included HTML elements (i.e. usually pictures) if you have a network connection.  Even if you don’t, these are usually not required, just useful.  

The hint is hidden, and can be revealed by pressing the hint button.  A nice little touch is being able to click the ‘Log’ button at the top of the page, which (again, network connection permitting), sends you to the log page for that cache on Geocaching.com, where you can log your find quickly without having to go through the whole search thing on the site.  This may seem like a small point, but it’s the searching and navigation to the relevant caches that takes the time through a mobile interface like the iphone.  

So – first impressions?  Well… I’m yet to use it in the field, but I have a feeling this little app is going to be extremely useful in the future.  I’ve been looking for an easy way to keep a database of cache info to hand, and I think this has just about done it.  Shame Apple have decided to hide the file system of the iPhone from us (officially anyway), so you have to go through the URL method to load the GPX info into the app, but once this is done, the rest is easy.  

If you’re still unsure, take a look at the site (again, it’s at http://www.ayefon.com/geo/index.cfm) – there are a pile of videos to watch.  The usefulness of this app makes it well worth your £8.99, and I can guarantee that you will find this an asset when out and about.  It ain’t perfect by any means.  The ability to see if there are trackables in the cache would be an asset, along with the ability to go straight to the log page for the trackable in question.  Also, a simple ‘Found’ button, which automatically moved the cache into another group would also be great.  Lastly, a way of automatically showing which caches you have already found when you upload them to begin with.  I’ll probably think of other things as I go along, but to be honest, this is a very good app already.  Looking forward to updates!

Cheers!

I never thought caching in a city would be so interesting. The thing is, in London, the sheer volume of caches is incredible. Ioaded up the Garmin eTrex with the waypoints for the 500 caches closest to central london, then took a look at the map and was blown away at the density of them. By the time we got there (after much tube-based frustration – I’ve never been ‘de-trained’ before!), we only ended up doing four, as time was getting on. It’s given me the taste for it though, and I’m screaming to go back for a whole day or so to carry on now!

We stated around Leicester Square, and walked from there to our first cache (link), at St Giles-In-The-Field church. There. we were thwarted by none other than a tramp having a kip on the bench (which ended up being where the cache was hidden).

Sparhawk Replacing the Cache

So we moved on to a few more in the city. The first was at the old Tramway Tunnel near Holborn Tube station (link). This was amazing, for no other reason than it was so exposed (see the pic of Sparhawk replacing it!). It’s amazing that tens of thousands of people a day pass this way and nobody notices it! Means you have to be quite stealthy putting it back though.

The next caches were micros (35mm film canisters or smaller) with just a log for you to record your visit. These tend to take you to interesting places, which you may not find otherwise. The first was at an old water pump in Gray’s Inn (link), and the last was situated underneath the largest stained glass window in London (allegedly!) at St Ethelreda’s church, which is hidden away in the City (link). We then made our way back to St Giles to find that the resident had moved on, and we could retrieve the final one of the day.

First (and last) Cache of the day

This trip has certainly served to change my views of urban caching. It takes you to places (like any other sort of caching!) that you’d never go to. In London, one of the big joys of it is that you can find a cache, then punch in the next nearest on the GPSr and it’s not generally more than about a third of a mile away! I’m really looking forward to getting into this a bit more, and will be back down the motorway the first chance I get. Its also opened me up to the idea of placing some caches in more urban areas. I suppose i’ve never really thought about the fact that some people just dont have the transport to get out to more remote places easily, and it’s great for these people to have easy access to the same volume of caches as the rest of us do. I may place a few micros around Newport or Cardiff, and see how they go.

Sparhawk at the Cave Entrance

Been meaning to post this for a while, just haven’t got around to it!  A while back, the wife and me, along with two very good friends, went on a geocaching day out, and went to find a cache at ‘Chartist’s Cave’ in the Brecon Beacons.  I’m always up for finding a cave, and to have a cache to add to it is always a good thing.  After a walk of about an hour, and with the guidance of the GPS, we found the cave (see below for a map).  This place is well worth a visit.  It’s really isolated, and takes a good GPS or a compass and map (preferably both!) to find with any sort of ease.  If you approach form the east, it is better, as you could easily be a few metres from the west side, and not even know it was there.   The cave itself is actually pretty big, and unfortunately, we didn’t have enough battery power left in the torch to fully explore the interior before the light faded, and we were left in more or less complete darkness.  Near the entrance to the cave, there was a nest of swallow chicks, and we noticed the parents coming in and out of the cave to feed the chicks, who made a right racket every time the food arrived.  I decided to shoot off a few pics, and I’m glad I did, as I got a few really good ones that day.  

Feeding the Babies

Below is a map showing the locations of both the parking and the cave itself.  The cave is at Coordinates 51°49’43.73″N  3°16’00.67″W, and the parking at 51°50’20.94″N  3°13’11.93″W.

Zoom into and around the map for a closer look.  Have fun, but be careful!

This is an example of the sort of thing it can produce :-

Have a mess – you can click on the labels, and the route I put on it, as well as zooming and moving around in the normal way. Clever stuff eh?  By the way, that’s a view of the Brecon Beacons (Corn Ddu and Pen-Y-Fan).  

This is one little web app I’ll be making good use of

http://geopherlite.blogspot.com/

At the moment it’s quite basic, with no GPX or LOC support, which means you have to enter coordinates manually.  Once it has support for those files, and support for saving cache details etc, then it could turn ito a nice little app.   I’ll check it out an report back soon…

Above are a pair of pictures taken yesterday in Three Cliff bay on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.  They are the newest entries in the ‘Landscapes and Seascapes’ section in the galleries (to be found to your right!).  Was fantastic light this afternoon.

However, that’s actually (for a change), not the complete point of this post.  I’m justgoing to introduce something that has prompted another new catagory on this site.  It’s an activity/sport/pastime (depending on who you ask) called Geocaching.  I discovered it by accident during mytravels around the interweb, but it has begun to take up a hell of a lot of my time.

It’s fun…

It’s good for you (in that you walk bloody miles!)…

…and it’s addictive. VERY addictive.

It involves the use of a handheld GPS reciever (like the one I’ve recently aquired for walking purposes) to find ‘caches’.  These caches are usually little boxes, hidden in some location, full of all sorts of ‘treasure’ (usually useless but interesting junk).  The idea is that you find it, take something, and leave something, before moving on to the next.  The point of this is to usually take you through or to a place you wouldn’t usually go.  I’ve now completed nine, and I’ve got to say I’m hooked.  they’re in all sorts of places (one I did yesterday was in the middle of a 1Km-long disused railway tunnel in the Wye valley!!).   I’ll be going into more detail about all this in the next few weeks, but until then, visit www.geocaching.com for more details.  I swear – if you start, you wont be able to stop!

Until then – keep your eyes on my stats in the lower part of theside bar.  As I find more, it’ll tick up and up.