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Gps device or smartphone?


cakeordeath80

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Simply put, I would advise you spend a bit more than a single day geocaching to make the decision to spend more money.

 

There are ways to conserve battery, i.e. don't leave it (the data link/GPS)on all the time. Use it when necessary to bring up more caches or are ACTIVELY engaged in your search(es).

Look at the map to preview where you want to go to, then turn that stuff off and go there, reactivating upon arrival.

Many folks cache exclusively with a phone... but then, they have learnt how to avoid eating up the battery, too.

 

Get to know geocaching first, then enter into making that decision. It just might save you some money!

 

Learning your device and how to use it is part of geocaching. Take note that a dedicated GPSr only functions as does your phone for geocaching when it is loaded with the data... it cannot download more caches without using a computer terminal -- with the exception of one really expensive (and as yet buggy) model.

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I do most of my geocaching with my phone, and yes, the GPS antenna sucks up a lot of power. I once managed to get 5 hours of geocaching on a single charge, but that was with a group where I was relying on other people's GPS devices most of the time, and I was using my phone mostly to post field notes for the caches we found, and only occasionally to identify ground zero or to read the cache description/hint.

 

As Gitchee-Gummee indicated, there are ways to deal with the battery issue. I got an eXplorist 310, which has better battery life, is more rugged, is more waterproof, and has better performance when the GPS signal is poor. I use it when I don't want to use my phone for whatever reason.

 

Some people get Bluetooth GPS receivers, because the phone's Bluetooth antenna uses a lot less power than its GPS antenna. Some people get external battery packs and portable USB chargers for their phones.

 

Yes, the various solutions cost money. But the longer you can make do with what you have, the more informed your decision will be when you finally decide to spend money.

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Thanks for the info. We plan on doing this a lot. We already walk a lot with the kids and dogs so we just thought this would be a good way to explore new places and keep the kids interested. My phone seems to keep battery better than his. The other issue we have found is signal. How can we get around the lack of 3g?

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Thanks for the info. We plan on doing this a lot. We already walk a lot with the kids and dogs so we just thought this would be a good way to explore new places and keep the kids interested. My phone seems to keep battery better than his. The other issue we have found is signal. How can we get around the lack of 3g?

 

Ahhhhh Yes...... there are soooo many threads on this forum about phones VS handheld GPS's. Sounds like its time for you to invest in a handheld GPS.

 

You're already feeling the affects of the phones limitations. A lot of people will tell you hints/tips and gadgets to buy to help you get the most from your phone.

 

Save yourself the time & headaches and buy yourself a handheld GPS. If you're enjoying exploring the outdoors while geocaching...a handheld GPS will have battery power a lot longer than the phone will (and you can carry spare batteries). A Handheld GPS should never experience signal problems when you're outside. You won't be disappointed. You're already a Premium member, so you might already be familiar with pocket queries.

Edited by Lieblweb
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The other issue we have found is signal. How can we get around the lack of 3g?
With my Android phones, I've never had a problem in areas with no cell/data signal. Sometimes I switch to Airplane Mode when I'm in areas with poor cell/data signal, which disables the cell/data antennas, but leaves the GPS antenna on. My geocaching apps have worked fine like that, as long as I preloaded geocache data when I had a data connection of some sort.

 

I believe that Airplane Mode works differently for iPhones, that it also disables GPS. But I've heard that there is a way to disable the cell/data antenna without disabling GPS; I just don't know the details.

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Thanks for the info. We plan on doing this a lot. We already walk a lot with the kids and dogs so we just thought this would be a good way to explore new places and keep the kids interested. My phone seems to keep battery better than his. The other issue we have found is signal. How can we get around the lack of 3g?

 

Ahhhhh Yes...... there are soooo many threads on this forum about phones VS handheld GPS's. Sounds like its time for you to invest in a handheld GPS.

 

You're already feeling the affects of the phones limitations. A lot of people will tell you hints/tips and gadgets to buy to help you get the most from your phone.

 

Save yourself the time & headaches and buy yourself a handheld GPS. If you're enjoying exploring the outdoors while geocaching...a handheld GPS will have battery power a lot longer than the phone will (and you can carry spare batteries). A Handheld GPS should never experience signal problems when you're outside. You won't be disappointed. You're already a Premium member, so you might already be familiar with pocket queries.

 

+1.

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Thanks for the info. We plan on doing this a lot. We already walk a lot with the kids and dogs so we just thought this would be a good way to explore new places and keep the kids interested. My phone seems to keep battery better than his. The other issue we have found is signal. How can we get around the lack of 3g?

 

Ahhhhh Yes...... there are soooo many threads on this forum about phones VS handheld GPS's. Sounds like its time for you to invest in a handheld GPS.

 

You're already feeling the affects of the phones limitations. A lot of people will tell you hints/tips and gadgets to buy to help you get the most from your phone.

 

Save yourself the time & headaches and buy yourself a handheld GPS. If you're enjoying exploring the outdoors while geocaching...a handheld GPS will have battery power a lot longer than the phone will (and you can carry spare batteries). A Handheld GPS should never experience signal problems when you're outside. You won't be disappointed. You're already a Premium member, so you might already be familiar with pocket queries.

 

+1.

-1! These guys are well known phone haters. What you are experiencing has nothing to do with phone limitations.

 

As niraD suggested, there are great ways to make your cell phone work better for geocaching. The links in my signature may give you some good ideas. Battery life is deffinatly an issue, but can be overcome. For iPhones, a external battery powered phone charger will do the job well. You can even get rugged cases that have an extra battey in them. This would provide both more juice, and physical protection for your phone. If you have a phone with a removable battery, buy one or two spares.

 

The 3G issue, again niraD was correct. When you are planning to cache in areas without or with limited wireless data coverage, pretend you phone is a handheld GPS, and pre-load the caches into the app. I don't have an iPhone, and don't use the geocaching.com app, so I can't tell you how to do that, but it can be done.

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

The Garmin Montera has WiFi and runs android. So, you could do that with a Garmin Montera. They are pricy though...

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-1! These guys are well known phone haters. What you are experiencing has nothing to do with phone limitations.

 

As niraD suggested, there are great ways to make your cell phone work better for geocaching. The links in my signature may give you some good ideas. Battery life is deffinatly an issue, but can be overcome. For iPhones, a external battery powered phone charger will do the job well. You can even get rugged cases that have an extra battey in them. This would provide both more juice, and physical protection for your phone. If you have a phone with a removable battery, buy one or two spares.

 

The 3G issue, again niraD was correct. When you are planning to cache in areas without or with limited wireless data coverage, pretend you phone is a handheld GPS, and pre-load the caches into the app. I don't have an iPhone, and don't use the geocaching.com app, so I can't tell you how to do that, but it can be done.

 

See, I told you. The tips & suggestions have arrived.

 

If I was a phone hater, then why would I have one??

 

So, I have to ask: Do you own a handheld GPS? Have you ever geocached with a handheld GPS?

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

I managed to do a 5 state road trip with no defined route with my gps. I have an Oregon 650 and used project GC and GSAK to quickly load 50,000 caches onto it. The 650 holds up to 4 million caches.

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

I managed to do a 5 state road trip with no defined route with my gps. I have an Oregon 650 and used project GC and GSAK to quickly load 50,000 caches onto it. The 650 holds up to 4 million caches.

 

I, too, have the Oregon 650... and I live in South Florida... while I know the 650 can hold 4 million caches, if I do a PQ here, with the GC limit of 1000 caches, it barely covers a 10 mile radius, or less...

 

I'll have to investigate Project GC, and GSAK, and appreciate the tip, but it STILL sounds a lot more cumbersome than just popping on the app on my Galaxy S5.

 

As they say, that's why they make chocolate AND vanilla...

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-1! These guys are well known phone haters. What you are experiencing has nothing to do with phone limitations.

 

As niraD suggested, there are great ways to make your cell phone work better for geocaching. The links in my signature may give you some good ideas. Battery life is deffinatly an issue, but can be overcome. For iPhones, a external battery powered phone charger will do the job well. You can even get rugged cases that have an extra battey in them. This would provide both more juice, and physical protection for your phone. If you have a phone with a removable battery, buy one or two spares.

 

The 3G issue, again niraD was correct. When you are planning to cache in areas without or with limited wireless data coverage, pretend you phone is a handheld GPS, and pre-load the caches into the app. I don't have an iPhone, and don't use the geocaching.com app, so I can't tell you how to do that, but it can be done.

 

See, I told you. The tips & suggestions have arrived.

 

If I was a phone hater, then why would I have one??

 

So, I have to ask: Do you own a handheld GPS? Have you ever geocached with a handheld GPS?

I have 3 handheld GPS. I have geocached with them.

I think that I have posted a fair and ballanced assessment of the strengths and weeknesses of each option. Read the link in my signature "SmartPhone vs Handheld GPSr" if you would like to be informed.

Edited by Andronicus
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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

Have you ever geocached in another country? Unless you have paid for a data plan with roaming from your service provider you're going to run up some serious data roaming charges if you attempt to use the app as you do locally. A few days of geocaching without a data plan in another country and the data roaming charges might exceed the cost of a mid range handheld GPS. An international data plan is, of course, not free. The basic plan with my carrier is $30 a month for only 120MB of data. Exceed that and you pay another $30 for every 120MB. Of course, that is on top what you pay per month already.

 

With a handheld GPS, there is:

 

No monthly service fee.

You don't have to pay for an additional app

Better battery life (almost all run off replacable AA batteries)

More rugged (without having to purchase an external case)

If you have a Garmin, you can get free OpenStreetMaps for just about anywhere in the world.

 

Smart phone fans will tell us battery life can be increased with an external battery pack. Of course, that's an additional expense. A smart phone can also be made more rugged, again, with the additional expense of an external case.

I have an iPhone and a Garmin Oregon and I use both for geocaching. The iphone works fine for most caching in places where I don't have to use data roaming. I will create PQs and download cache listings to the phone when I travel but I won't turn on data to download additional caches and map data in real time. When I've geocached in other countries (20 different countries on four continents so far) I use my Garmin. I download the routable open street maps for Garmin, which have worked everywhere from China, Malaysia, Europe, and Africa, and transfer pocket queries and I'm good to go.

 

 

 

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

Have you ever geocached in another country? Unless you have paid for a data plan with roaming from your service provider you're going to run up some serious data roaming charges if you attempt to use the app as you do locally. A few days of geocaching without a data plan in another country and the data roaming charges might exceed the cost of a mid range handheld GPS. An international data plan is, of course, not free. The basic plan with my carrier is $30 a month for only 120MB of data. Exceed that and you pay another $30 for every 120MB. Of course, that is on top what you pay per month already.

 

With a handheld GPS, there is:

 

No monthly service fee.

You don't have to pay for an additional app

Better battery life (almost all run off replacable AA batteries)

More rugged (without having to purchase an external case)

If you have a Garmin, you can get free OpenStreetMaps for just about anywhere in the world.

 

Smart phone fans will tell us battery life can be increased with an external battery pack. Of course, that's an additional expense. A smart phone can also be made more rugged, again, with the additional expense of an external case.

I have an iPhone and a Garmin Oregon and I use both for geocaching. The iphone works fine for most caching in places where I don't have to use data roaming. I will create PQs and download cache listings to the phone when I travel but I won't turn on data to download additional caches and map data in real time. When I've geocached in other countries (20 different countries on four continents so far) I use my Garmin. I download the routable open street maps for Garmin, which have worked everywhere from China, Malaysia, Europe, and Africa, and transfer pocket queries and I'm good to go.

 

No, I have not had the pleasure of caching in another country... yet... however, I AM well aware of the added costs of using my cell in another country, so I would, in that case, most likely use my Oregon 650.

 

I don't have to pay an additional fee to use my phone to hunt caches, it comes with the phone plan.

 

I also didn't have to pay for an additional app, the free apps work well enough.

 

Battery life is nearly a wash, I can run my cell all day without charging, but I also DO have an external power pack that can charge my phone as well as my tablet, which I bought for purposes other than caching.

 

More rugged? Probably the Garmin, although I wouldn't want to drop it OR my cell on a rock, however my Galaxy S5 is fairly sturdy AND allegedly waterproof for a period of time... however, I wouldn't want to drop either into a lake to try them out.

 

As far as maps go, I have all the maps I need pre-loaded into either the apps, or through Google on my phone...again, all free.

 

All that being said, even though I use my phone for 95% or more of my caching, the Oregon DOES come in quite handy when the phone falls short.. IF I have the caches loaded into it!

 

Use em both... there's no right way, or shame! :)

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

Have you ever geocached in another country? Unless you have paid for a data plan with roaming from your service provider you're going to run up some serious data roaming charges if you attempt to use the app as you do locally. A few days of geocaching without a data plan in another country and the data roaming charges might exceed the cost of a mid range handheld GPS. An international data plan is, of course, not free. The basic plan with my carrier is $30 a month for only 120MB of data. Exceed that and you pay another $30 for every 120MB. Of course, that is on top what you pay per month already.

 

With a handheld GPS, there is:

 

No monthly service fee.

You don't have to pay for an additional app

Better battery life (almost all run off replacable AA batteries)

More rugged (without having to purchase an external case)

If you have a Garmin, you can get free OpenStreetMaps for just about anywhere in the world.

 

Smart phone fans will tell us battery life can be increased with an external battery pack. Of course, that's an additional expense. A smart phone can also be made more rugged, again, with the additional expense of an external case.

I have an iPhone and a Garmin Oregon and I use both for geocaching. The iphone works fine for most caching in places where I don't have to use data roaming. I will create PQs and download cache listings to the phone when I travel but I won't turn on data to download additional caches and map data in real time. When I've geocached in other countries (20 different countries on four continents so far) I use my Garmin. I download the routable open street maps for Garmin, which have worked everywhere from China, Malaysia, Europe, and Africa, and transfer pocket queries and I'm good to go.

Of course you can do all that stuff with a phone as well, either before you leave, or via wi-fi. And you still never have to connect it to a computer. Still way easier than a standalone GPSr.

 

The fact is 60% of Americans already have a smart phone, so the monthly payment is not really an issue for these people. The <$10 for an app is almost free compared to purchasing a standalone GPSr.

 

Really, the only advantages of a standalone is Battery life, ruggedness, and sensitivity. The first 2 are easy and cheap to overcome with a phone, so are not really much of an advantage.

 

I have geocached out of country. I paid $20 CND for 100MB. I didn't use any of it for geocaching. I did all my maps, satellite images, cache details, routing etc via WiFi from my hotel.

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Ok this is posted by an Australian.

We have 103 find's to date most done with the iPhone .. I have found a GPS to be more accurate especially when the phone reception is crap (note G3 is better that G4 for country area's at this time)

Towering Inferno ( Warrnambool Australia ) was my GPS / phone challenge the GPS was loaded with the cache straight out of the box no playing with settings and was accurate to 5-8 feet where the iPhone 5 was 5-8 metres.

I have a cache out on a back beach with only 2 find so far and another aborted attempt, phone coverage out there is crap, the first to find used his phone and almost gave up because his phone was all over the place, the aborted attempt gave up because his phone - a different brand to FTF was also all over the place (the other one to find it was with me so I gave him some hints)

I did a trip with 2 other cachers me with the phone and one with a GPS after 6 hours of caching (including an hours travel each way) I had used 80% of my battery and that was not using the phone for most of the find's (13) we had that day but we did use the phone to decide where to go next.

The major Australian phone operators boast that they have 90% coverage - thats based on population i.e. the east coast and major towns & cities, get out in the country and accuracy will drop.

If you are going to be caching in and around town on a nice sunny day your phone will be fine, if you want adventure get a GPS.

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Ok this is posted by an Australian.

We have 103 find's to date most done with the iPhone .. I have found a GPS to be more accurate especially when the phone reception is crap (note G3 is better that G4 for country area's at this time)

Towering Inferno ( Warrnambool Australia ) was my GPS / phone challenge the GPS was loaded with the cache straight out of the box no playing with settings and was accurate to 5-8 feet where the iPhone 5 was 5-8 metres.

I have a cache out on a back beach with only 2 find so far and another aborted attempt, phone coverage out there is crap, the first to find used his phone and almost gave up because his phone was all over the place, the aborted attempt gave up because his phone - a different brand to FTF was also all over the place (the other one to find it was with me so I gave him some hints)

I did a trip with 2 other cachers me with the phone and one with a GPS after 6 hours of caching (including an hours travel each way) I had used 80% of my battery and that was not using the phone for most of the find's (13) we had that day but we did use the phone to decide where to go next.

The major Australian phone operators boast that they have 90% coverage - thats based on population i.e. the east coast and major towns & cities, get out in the country and accuracy will drop.

If you are going to be caching in and around town on a nice sunny day your phone will be fine, if you want adventure get a GPS.

some phones (typicaly previous generation phones) need cell coverage for their GPS to work properly. My first smartphone (HTC Touch (aka Vouge) was like that). New phones do not need cell coverage to have good accuriate GPS location. In fact, often to save battery, I will put my phone in airplane mode.

Edited by Andronicus
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Ok this is posted by an Australian.

We have 103 find's to date most done with the iPhone .. I have found a GPS to be more accurate especially when the phone reception is crap (note G3 is better that G4 for country area's at this time)

Towering Inferno ( Warrnambool Australia ) was my GPS / phone challenge the GPS was loaded with the cache straight out of the box no playing with settings and was accurate to 5-8 feet where the iPhone 5 was 5-8 metres.

I have a cache out on a back beach with only 2 find so far and another aborted attempt, phone coverage out there is crap, the first to find used his phone and almost gave up because his phone was all over the place, the aborted attempt gave up because his phone - a different brand to FTF was also all over the place (the other one to find it was with me so I gave him some hints)

I did a trip with 2 other cachers me with the phone and one with a GPS after 6 hours of caching (including an hours travel each way) I had used 80% of my battery and that was not using the phone for most of the find's (13) we had that day but we did use the phone to decide where to go next.

The major Australian phone operators boast that they have 90% coverage - thats based on population i.e. the east coast and major towns & cities, get out in the country and accuracy will drop.

If you are going to be caching in and around town on a nice sunny day your phone will be fine, if you want adventure get a GPS.

some phones (typicaly previous generation phones) need cell coverage for their GPS to work properly. My first smartphone (HTC Touch (aka Vouge) was like that). New phones do not need cell coverage to have good accuriate GPS location. In fact, often to save battery, I will put my phone in airplane mode.

 

I have a "new", but relatively low-end Motorola droid. The GPS accuracy seems excellent in offline mode using the gps only (foreign Country, although only Canada, and only 50 miles from home). As an 11 year cacher and longtime handheld GPSr user, I'll always tout what I believe to be their advantages, but those advantages are easily overcome. My only problem with smartphone cachers is, and always has been, their near universal tendency to post lame cache logs with them from the field. :P

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The whole discussion smartphone vs GPS makes no sense. There's no single device that would combine the advantages of both.

 

Smarphones have short battery life, because their display is draining a lot of power. GPS can work over 20 hours with display ON (it's always ON when the device is ON). They are very fragile - the 'modern' ones like Samsung Galaxy are terrible - even falling from a half a meter on a rock may break the display. With GPS, you have no stress you'll accidentally drop it (as long as it not fell down from the cliff ;) or smash against something.

 

On the other hand, the functionality provided by the GPS is very rudimentary. No internet, no google, no dictionaries, no geocaching tools like cross total or calculator... So you need a smartphone as a supplementary, unless you're making only traditionals.

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The whole discussion smartphone vs GPS makes no sense. There's no single device that would combine the advantages of both.

 

Smarphones have short battery life, because their display is draining a lot of power. GPS can work over 20 hours with display ON (it's always ON when the device is ON). They are very fragile - the 'modern' ones like Samsung Galaxy are terrible - even falling from a half a meter on a rock may break the display. With GPS, you have no stress you'll accidentally drop it (as long as it not fell down from the cliff ;) or smash against something.

 

On the other hand, the functionality provided by the GPS is very rudimentary. No internet, no google, no dictionaries, no geocaching tools like cross total or calculator... So you need a smartphone as a supplementary, unless you're making only traditionals.

You seem to be living in the past. The 'modern' ones like the Samsung Galaxy now even have IP ratings. Then there is the ruggedized Samsung Rugby. Battery life is not a problem with most Android devices because you can easyly and quickly swap out the battery.

 

As for stand alone GPS functionality, the new Garmin Montera line runs Android. So, it have the exact same functionality as a phone. You could even use WiFi tethering to get all the usual spontanious mobile caching benefits of a phone.

 

The two worlds really are getting closer and closer togeather all the time.

Edited by Andronicus
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Yesterday my OH and the kids started geocaching. We had loads of fun and the kids loved the "treasure hunt". We used the Groundspeak geocaching app on our iphones. The battery on his phone didnt seem to last very long so we were thinking of getting a device specifically for doing this. What would you guys advise?

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

 

Well, it depends on your app, as well as the phone type. You have a G5, so you can do what I sometimes do. Use my phone app (CacheSense) on my GS3 to download caches near me or wherever I have the map on the phone displaying. Use OTA cable to connect phone to Garmin GPS. Export GPX from the app to the Garmin. Turn off phone or go airplane mode, and use GPS for navigation/caching. A little clunky, but I then have the best of both technologies available.

 

Some or most of the 3rd party geocaching apps support import/export of GPX files. The Groundspeak app does not. It will only fetch raw PQ's from the web site and does not support exporting.

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

 

Well, it depends on your app, as well as the phone type. You have a G5, so you can do what I sometimes do. Use my phone app (CacheSense) on my GS3 to download caches near me or wherever I have the map on the phone displaying. Use OTA cable to connect phone to Garmin GPS. Export GPX from the app to the Garmin. Turn off phone or go airplane mode, and use GPS for navigation/caching. A little clunky, but I then have the best of both technologies available.

 

Some or most of the 3rd party geocaching apps support import/export of GPX files. The Groundspeak app does not. It will only fetch raw PQ's from the web site and does not support exporting.

You just blew my mind! You transfer caches via GPX directly from your phone to you garmin GPS using USB? Can you give me some more info? (I have a GSII Skyrocket HD).

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

 

Well, it depends on your app, as well as the phone type. You have a G5, so you can do what I sometimes do. Use my phone app (CacheSense) on my GS3 to download caches near me or wherever I have the map on the phone displaying. Use OTA cable to connect phone to Garmin GPS. Export GPX from the app to the Garmin. Turn off phone or go airplane mode, and use GPS for navigation/caching. A little clunky, but I then have the best of both technologies available.

 

Some or most of the 3rd party geocaching apps support import/export of GPX files. The Groundspeak app does not. It will only fetch raw PQ's from the web site and does not support exporting.

You just blew my mind! You transfer caches via GPX directly from your phone to you garmin GPS using USB? Can you give me some more info? (I have a GSII Skyrocket HD).

I use both phone and a gps both work great for me! If I could get more information on this process it would be great! I just recently bought a Samsung Galaxy s5 active and I love it! But this my opinion and personal preference!

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

 

Well, it depends on your app, as well as the phone type. You have a G5, so you can do what I sometimes do. Use my phone app (CacheSense) on my GS3 to download caches near me or wherever I have the map on the phone displaying. Use OTA cable to connect phone to Garmin GPS. Export GPX from the app to the Garmin. Turn off phone or go airplane mode, and use GPS for navigation/caching. A little clunky, but I then have the best of both technologies available.

 

Some or most of the 3rd party geocaching apps support import/export of GPX files. The Groundspeak app does not. It will only fetch raw PQ's from the web site and does not support exporting.

You just blew my mind! You transfer caches via GPX directly from your phone to you garmin GPS using USB? Can you give me some more info? (I have a GSII Skyrocket HD).

I use both phone and a gps both work great for me! If I could get more information on this process it would be great! I just recently bought a Samsung Galaxy s5 active and I love it! But this my opinion and personal preference!

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

 

Well, it depends on your app, as well as the phone type. You have a G5, so you can do what I sometimes do. Use my phone app (CacheSense) on my GS3 to download caches near me or wherever I have the map on the phone displaying. Use OTA cable to connect phone to Garmin GPS. Export GPX from the app to the Garmin. Turn off phone or go airplane mode, and use GPS for navigation/caching. A little clunky, but I then have the best of both technologies available.

 

Some or most of the 3rd party geocaching apps support import/export of GPX files. The Groundspeak app does not. It will only fetch raw PQ's from the web site and does not support exporting.

You just blew my mind! You transfer caches via GPX directly from your phone to you garmin GPS using USB? Can you give me some more info? (I have a GSII Skyrocket HD).

I use both phone and a gps both work great for me! If I could get more information on this process it would be great! I just recently bought a Samsung Galaxy s5 active and I love it! But this my opinion and personal preference!

Well I am not sure of the details, but I just bought off ebay a µUSB to miniUSB OTG cable. I plan to figure it out once the cable shows up in the mail.

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The main advantage my Galaxy S5 has over my GPSer is that I don't have to load caches into it!

 

I can start caching anywhere I happen to be, in any town, county, state, or country without planning ahead and running PQs and loading them up.

 

If there's a way to avoid that with my GPSer, I'd sure like to hear it, then I would use it instead of my phone...

 

Well, it depends on your app, as well as the phone type. You have a G5, so you can do what I sometimes do. Use my phone app (CacheSense) on my GS3 to download caches near me or wherever I have the map on the phone displaying. Use OTA cable to connect phone to Garmin GPS. Export GPX from the app to the Garmin. Turn off phone or go airplane mode, and use GPS for navigation/caching. A little clunky, but I then have the best of both technologies available.

 

Some or most of the 3rd party geocaching apps support import/export of GPX files. The Groundspeak app does not. It will only fetch raw PQ's from the web site and does not support exporting.

You just blew my mind! You transfer caches via GPX directly from your phone to you garmin GPS using USB? Can you give me some more info? (I have a GSII Skyrocket HD).

 

Wow...what's that, a three + year old device? It's a senior citizen in tech years!

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...

You just blew my mind! You transfer caches via GPX directly from your phone to you garmin GPS using USB? Can you give me some more info? (I have a GSII Skyrocket HD).

 

Wow...what's that, a three + year old device? It's a senior citizen in tech years!

I got it 2.5 years ago, just before the GS3 came out. It still works fine, but I want the GS4 Active. Unfortunatly, I don't have $ to always have the latest phone...

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