Ultimate Caching GPS Handheld wishlist...

[sakko]

I was thinking... a lot of people seem to want to get a paperless cache system going. What if a GPS handheld had a built in keyboard? Such as a little blackberry-esque keyboard to punch in info and edit stuff. Wifi would be handy too so you could hit geocaching.com and download new caches etc...

 

Hmm now it's sounding like a PDA. Maybe that's a bad thing. What do you think would be the ultimate caching handheld?

[+JSWilson64]

I was thinking... a lot of people seem to want to get a paperless cache system going. What if a GPS handheld had a built in keyboard? Such as a little blackberry-esque keyboard to punch in info and edit stuff. Wifi would be handy too so you could hit geocaching.com and download new caches etc...

 

Hmm now it's sounding like a PDA. Maybe that's a bad thing. What do you think would be the ultimate caching handheld?

Keyboard would be nice. I've got a 60CSx and I really wish it had a "save settings" feature, so I could have one set of settings for driving, one for on foot, one for on the bike, etc. Rather than having to go to the Map page, change the fields I want displayed, then go to the tracks settings and change them, change lock on road, blah blah. Just give me ~3-5 stored unit states to play with.

 

I'd like to see the hand-held be part of a larger modular system. The 60CSx is great for hand-held use, but kinda small for the car. If I want a bigger screen, I can use nRoute, or some other product on a laptop. Not the greatest solution. So why not be able to plug it into a small LCD (one that's bigger than the one built-in) and display NAV that way...

[TomOfTarsus]

 

Keyboard would be nice. I've got a 60CSx and I really wish it had a "save settings" feature, so I could have one set of settings for driving, one for on foot, one for on the bike, etc. Rather than having to go to the Map page, change the fields I want displayed, then go to the tracks settings and change them, change lock on road, blah blah. Just give me ~3-5 stored unit states to play with.

 

I'd like to see the hand-held be part of a larger modular system. The 60CSx is great for hand-held use, but kinda small for the car. If I want a bigger screen, I can use nRoute, or some other product on a laptop. Not the greatest solution. So why not be able to plug it into a small LCD (one that's bigger than the one built-in) and display NAV that way...

 

I don't know about a keyboard it'd probably help (don't own any yet), but man! A modular system woul be just great! And do you realize all you're asking for w/regards to setup states is a tiny fraction of the memory these things have? It should be a piece of cake, if you worked for Garmin I'd give you a monstrous suggestion award. These are two of the best ideas I've seen on these forums yet.

 

C'mon folks, it's Christmas! Ask Santa, sky's the limit here...

 

I want better radios, maybe even VHF, in the Rino-type units (I know, FCC limitatins, but hey, it's Christmas!)

[+IVxIV]

Well,, using my Garmin Vista Cx features as a good starting point..

 

I wish it had builtin bluetooth so it would communicate with my smartphone.

I wish it had a 3-axis compass

I wish it could take advantage of the realtime traffic monitoring system so as to direct me around road blockages.

 

But I don't want it to grow any bigger than it currently is

[+trainlove]

GPS's last 12-20 hours on batteries.

PDA's last a couple hours.

I would not want to be so limited.

 

Now a GPS that could receive the European GPS equivalent called Galileo, and the Russian called GLONASS, and China's proposed Beidou navigation system, and India's IRNSS system along with the WAAS equivalents of EGNOS, MSAS, GAGAN and LAAS would be just peachy.

 

I think there are a dozen more acronyms to toss in but will refrain from that.

[+sbell111]

My ultimate GPSr would be a Garmin GPS VI. It would be basically a Vista HCx with a GPS Vish form factor.

 

The Colorado could be what I'm looking for if the screen view is changeable from portrait to landscape like the V's was. Use it in portrait-mode on trail, but as soon as you return to the car, change it to landscape, snap it into a Quest-like dock and take advantage of turn-by-turn routing with voice guidance to the next cache.

[+Jhwk]

+ all data from a .gpx file displayed

+ waterproof

+ talks with a sexy southern twang and tells me where to go (back to sensitivity training)

[+trainlove]

A voice recognition waypoint input mode so that one can input the 75+ caches during The Great Northern Tier Geocaching Tournament. Since those caches are unpublished until the tournament is over it takes about 30 minutes of entry time, which can be dangerous if you do it while driving to the first few caches, or requires you to team up and have someone else drive.

[xxgg]

Ultimate GPSr ?

 

Paperless? How about a paper flexible alike display?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology...607.html?page=7

 

Using such a technology, incorporating entire Google Map features like their new terrain feature for topo map viewing.

Plus all other regular stuff like touch screen, total waterproof, longer lasting battery life, voice guide even for handheld navigating, voice recognition? (have you guys tried it for computer? first you need to have a one of those clear voice tone, oh yea... you got cold? ain't gonna work for you anymore). Pay As Go Satellite phone feature for extreme emergency only as it cost bloody too much, i personally want some futuristic graphical user interface like you see in movies making the device that much more cooler. Heck, let's put a finger print security feature to unlock the unit before use, just in case you lose the device. Oh... no monthly fee GPS tracking too. Even more deadly accurate GPS chip for absolute dead on pin point location accuracy.

AND much much more which I can not think of due to my lack of imaginary mind.

 

We may just see some of these features in few years? maybe 10+ years. Heck, I thought we were gonna see some flying cars by year 2000 too. Oh well.

 

"DREAM ON!"

[+Renegade Knight]

I want my next GPS to charge itself from being jostled on the trail.

[cobra-ak]

Worldwide satellite displays or aerials down to street level, I travel a lot to remote places

[+T F T C]

1. Real-time connection via satellite internet to Geoaching.com for constant updating of geocaches on the screen. This eliminates needing to import waypoints. Liz Hurley's voice alerts you the moment a new geocache in your vicinity is added.

 

2. Microphone with voice recognition. Since you're already connected to Geocaching.com, you can log your find as soon as you find it by speaking into the microphone.

 

3. 7 megapixel camera to snap photos. Oh, since you're connected to Geocaching.com... upload them right away.

 

4. Waterproof, drop-proof.

 

5. iPhone size

 

6. Small slot for a pen/flashlight

 

7. Cell phone and mp3 player via bluetooth

 

8. Turn-by-turn autorouting, with voice prompting by Nicole Kidman.

 

9. Legs and a remote control so it can geocache while you sit at home.

 

10. Just kidding about #9. I'm serious about the rest.