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Some months ago Google changed its charging structure for third-party use of Google Maps, which meant heavy users, such as Geocaching.com, had to ditch the service or face significant costs.

But now Google Maps are coming back …

After Geocaching.com’s planned site update of Tuesday, May 22nd, premium members will once again have access to Google Maps through the Beta Maps page. Best of all, there will be no extra charge to players and all of the current maps (MapQuest etc) will still be available.

More details will be released with the Geocaching.com site update notes next Tuesday.

Personally, this is welcome news. I completely understood the company’s need to move away from Google Maps – the cost of keeping this option was going to be millions. Yes, we did have a number of different workarounds, however being a user of many different computers I found it a little frustrating to keep installing the scripts or, occasionally, find myself in a browser that didn’t have them.

On the other side of the coin, it did bring back a little of the mystery in geocaching that has been lost over the years as technology has improved. Let’s face it, using Google Maps means we know almost exactly where the cache is before we leave home.

But that’s only a minor niggle and I’m much happier knowing that this service will soon be back. After all, who wants to spend ages looking for an urban mint tin!?

Hat Tip: Groundspeak

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Click here to view the video on YouTube.

It’s geocaching, Jim, but not as we know it … Or at least not as Groundspeak’s new A Brief History of Geocaching video clip portrays it.

This “nostalgic”, black and white version was created by Fox & Bee – aka Vancouver Island artists Shawn Pigott and Kim Bannerman – during Week 23 of their 52 Weeks project.

Since last September, the duo have been releasing a new video every week and will continue to do so until they’ve reached Pigott’s goal of 52 examples. “He wanted to use the project as a good excuse to explore a variety of styles, genres, filming techniques and stories,” Bannerman says. “Plus he’d written a large catalogue of music and he could use these videos as a way of matching visual images with sound.”

Each clip lasts for one to five minutes and focuses on whatever subject has taken their fancy that week – whether that be a short animation about Pigott eating toast, a sock-puppet show, glorious footage of the moon or a sweet love story between two toys at a garage sale.

Their concept for Week 23 is no surprise when you learn the pair (GC handle: moko_marana) have been geocaching for about four years now.   “It’s a great activity for the family, and we’ve visited so many spots we might never have otherwise seen, if it weren’t for the promise of a cache there,” Bannerman explains.

But their interpretion of those early geo-days owes much to her latest novel, Bucket of Blood – a Victorian murder mystery, which she says has been positively received by the Steampunk community.

“A mash-up of these two ideas led to the subject of Week 23. We had house guests that weekend, so we knew we had access to a small cast of actors;  they’d brought a couple of bags of clothes with them, so we knew we had lots of crazy costumes too. All of the actors are geocachers so everyone was really eager to trudge around in the woods, being filmed, and we kept our eyes open for geocaches as we went.” 

Most of the couple’s 52 Weeks videos are filmed on a Saturday afternoon, before Pigott edits them “over the course of a day or two”. “We have a very fast turn-around and Shawn has a strong sense of staging – he knows exactly what he wants to see, so he doesn’t waste time with experimenting. He doesn’t film scenes that may or may not be used; he pre-plans exactly how each scene will be filmed, much like animation,” Bannerman explains.

For Pigott, that eureka moment for Week 23 came when this line popped into his head: “Times were tough, but no one complained or they were shot and eaten. Nothing was wasted.”

The pair say reaction to their history of geocaching has been overwhelming. “People have been really supportive and positive, and the number of viewers has surpassed what we’d anticipated.”

*You can read Shawn Pigott’s account of filming Week 23 – and the rest of Fox & Bee’s 52 Weeks clips – here. There’s 18 weeks left until the project ends. 

Continue reading »]]> Not one, but two suspected pipe bombs dogged Canadian geocachers (and law enforcement agencies) this week.

VICTORIA

A quiet Saturday afternoon at work became a pipe dream for Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Vancouver Island when they responded to the country’s second geo-bomb scare in three days.

The offending geocache, Gingers Walk #7

Emergency crews evacuated an area near Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre in Colwood about 3pm yesterday after a suspected pipe bomb was found in a tree.

The Vancouver Sun newspaper reported that “the object looked like a pipe capped at both ends. RCMP, Colwood fire and military police attended, and the bomb squad in Vancouver was consulted.”

“What it turned out to be was a geocache that had been poorly disguised,” said West Shore RCMP Corporal Bryson Hill, once authorities had cleared the scene just after 5pm. “Someone made the wrong decision on how to disguise it. Once you dismantle it, it was filled with trinkets.”

According to a local player, the actual listing was GC3A61Q Gingers Walk #7. It has yet to be archived by owner cachefortwo.

TORONTO

Toronto police 1, geocaching 0 – that was score on Thursday after officers detonated a cache they feared was a home-made pipe bomb.

At 10am, police, fire and ambulance crews responded to a call of a suspicious package taped to a utility pole on a traffic island in an exclusive west-end neighbourhood of the Canadian city.

Witnesses told CBC News the item resembled a piece of plastic plumbing and was attached to the pole with plastic zip ties.

Residents of Prince Edward Drive North and King Georges Rd were confined indoors for three hours while the police bomb disposal unit used a robot to detonate the suspicious package.

The crime scene: Prince Edward Drive North.

Constable Wendy Drummond advised media that the object was most likely a clue used for geocaching. It had been spotted by a Toronto City Works department employee. “From an emergency management point-of-view, we have to investigate. [People] have to be aware of the inconvenience and the time and money this caused.”

Police would continue to investigate and hope to collect fingerprints off the remains of the detonated package, she said.

Constable Wendy Drummond

However, any PC-savvy player could tell her the cache in question was GC3H5Y0 Urban Island, a 1/1 traditional by newcomer thetimmorland. It was placed less than a month ago on the day after he joined GC.com and logged his first find. When disabling the listing, he wrote: “Sadly that’s the end of this geocache. I didn’t think it could possibly cause this much trouble.” 

The contrite cache owner later explained on the GC forums they ”had no idea anyone would think it looked like a bomb” when placing the container. “I am only a kid and coming home from school to find out what had happened was probably more frightening for me than the geocache ever was for anyone else.”

So much so that “the whole experience” has put the youngster off his new hobby.

*Video footage of Thursday’s detonation can be seen here.

Continue reading »]]> Nobody could ever say that the cat has got Melanie Lipka’s tongue.

When the 22-year-old Bavarian doesn’t have her GPSr in hand, she’s creating popular geo-cartoon Die Mietzecacher, based on her caching experiences with her partner (and occasionally their furry feline).

It’s been nearly a year since Lipka (GC handle: Mietzecacher, which means ’puss cacher’) published her first installment in German last July 15 and she’s enjoyed watching her creation develop in that time – notably with the addition of an English-language version provided by a Canadian geocacher.

“Stage 1 was only available in German first, with a really crappy translation in the artist’s comment. At this point I didn’t intend to translate it. But on September 27 of that year, Stage 1 also appeared in English and since that time every strip has been released in two languages.”

Each stage of Die Mietzecacher is posted to four locations – Lipka’s DeviantArt gallery, her Facebook page, the Geocaching-Franken website and the GC.com forums (in both the German Speaking and Geocaching Topics sections) – giving her access to a broader readership.

She says the most common reaction to her work is: ‘Oh yeah I recognise myself in your comics!’ “and I love that”. “Many people post pictures of their adventures showing scenes from one of the comic strips. Of course, there are also comments like: ‘Keep up the good work!’, ‘I love your drawings’ etc. At the beginning there were also people who corrected my English but since Richard (GC handle: dfx) began translating the comics, those comments have stopped.”

Although this is her first regular strip, Lipka has been dabbling with comics for some time. “The first comic strips I made were for a contest of an online game. Then I made some comics about university and especially maths because my teacher was a really funny guy and that inspired me to doodle onto my maths notes.”

Each Die Mietzecacher plot is produced in a similar fashion, she says – waiting for inspiration and then writing it down “immediately”. “Most of the storylines only take two to five minutes but I really have to write them down promptly when they come up.  When it’s time for the monthly comic, I take that scrap paper, pick one story and plug my graphics tablet in. From then on , it takes about 30 minutes to an hour to finish each strip.”

And while Lipka is proud of every strip, her absolute favourite is the final panel of her Stage 5 cartoon. “I love that weißwurst costume (weißwurst = bavarian veal sausage).”

When not drawing or caching, the university student is “working hard” to become an electrical engineer. “I know that’s a funny mix but this study path is more creative than you would expect.”

*If you’d like to discover Melanie Lipka’s big cat-themed travel bug Mietzecacherin, the code is C627RK.

Continue reading »]]> You can tell Dawn Van Curan is hooked on geocaching just by looking at the afghan blankets she crochets.

Since making her first geo-afghan three years ago, the Texan has gained official Groundspeak approval for the design, which she now sells on international webstore Etsy.

Dawn van Curan

Van Curan (GC handle: Re2dog) says the inspiration for that original blanket was a birthday quilt she received from her best friend in Washington state. “I decided I wanted to show her what I could crochet. As she is also a geocacher, I decided to try to make the geocaching logo on a granny-square afghan. I had made many aghans using initials, a Texas State flag and even a few with a running/hopping kangaroo - all of which I designed - so how hard could it be?

“I got out my graph paper and started designing the geocaching logo in the same way I had done with the others. It took me several days to get it the way I wanted. I knew it wasn’t exact but it was very close. I think it took me around 18 hours of work time to get my pattern.”

With her first blanket successfully completed, Van Curan opted to submit the design to Groundspeak  for permission to sell her geo-afghans. “When I first heard back, I was told I needed to add the ‘circle R’ in the upper right corner as it is a registered trademark. That was fairly easy to incorporate. I submitted the new pattern with the ‘circle R’. A few days later, I got a response and was told that my outer circle for the design was not round enough to pass their inspection.”

That’s when things really got tricky, she says. “Rounded lines in a granny-square afghan are a little more complicated. I originally squared off the three parts of the circle as it was easier. The part that is the person’s leg was good as it doesn’t have much of a curve. The lines followed the logo but weren’t rounded enough. I almost gave up on the idea of getting permission to sell this afghan as I wasn’t sure I would be able to get those areas round enough.”

However, the Killeen resident perserved, printing out a copy of the company’s logo which she placed under graph paper and “just worked one of the [circular pieces] out until I had it right”. “Then, the other two were easy as it was just a matter of copying the first one in the correct areas. I ended up making the circle lines a little wider than it was originally, to accommodate the extra rows that make it rounder.”

Since then, Van Curan has sold three of her geo-afghans on Etsy, with each taking about two weeks to complete.  “As I have to change colour so often, there are many ends to knot off and sew in, which is more time-consuming than the actual crochet time,” she explains.

Customers pay US$189 (NZ$247) for one of her worsted-weight creations, though the pricetag is higher than she would like. However, it reflects the fact that van Curan has “to pay Groundspeak a hefty royalty to be able to sell this afghan”.

When not working on her latest crochet project, she’s often on the trail with her husband, who is now retired from the military. The couple began geocaching in July 2007 after reading about the hobby in their local newspaper, and has since logged 2255 finds in 40 of the 50 American states as well as four countries. When on holiday, they prefer to “drive as much as we can” – after all,  “this is a perfect stop and stretch your legs activity”.

It’s Not About The Numbers is picking Van Curan has the perfect travel rug to bundle up with for when the pair get cold too.

*To buy your own geo-afghan for US$189 (with free shipping for American customers), visit Dawn van Curan’s Etsy shop, Dawn’s Afghans.

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Tag, you’re it … Or you could be if you enter It’s Not About The Numbers‘ giveaway for one of two GeoPardners travel tags.

After we profiled this inexpensive, new TB range by USA Geocoins, owner Eric Kirkland kindly donated two of his Bushwhacker Bob designs as prizes.

All you have to do is tell us what your travel goal for Bob would be if you’re lucky enough to win.
Entries close on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 at 12 noon (NZ time). Normal INATN rules and conditions apply.

Enter the competition by filling out the form below!

*(denotes required field)

Name:*

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Answer*

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*If Lady Luck’s not on your side or you don’t have the patience to wait till Wednesday, you can always purchase your own Bushwhacker Bob travel tag for US$4.99 through Eric Kirkland’s GeoPardners webstore.

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Whether the Geocaching purists like it or not, smartphones are being used more and more for Geocaching. In fact, it seems to be a common set up in this day and age to have a smartphone for urban caching/cache database with a dedicated GPS unit in your caching bag for those ‘deep in the outdoors’ trips. So it’s important that you have a geocaching app on your smartphone that does the job well.

But picking the best app can be a difficult thing when there are lots of choices in the market, which is what I found when I jumped the smartphone platform fence and started using an Android.

Searching ‘Geocaching’ in the Android market, whoops, Google Play Store (or G.P.S. ),  brings up over 400 results. So picking one of the best can be a tough choice.

In order to make a little more sense out of the 400 options we’ve picked INATN’s Top 5 Best Android Geocaching Apps. So, presented in no particular order, here they are:

CacheSense

The legendary Blackberry Geocaching app (the first app to be licensed to use the Geocaching API) now on Android. I’ll admit now that this is my favourite app and wins my overall best geocaching app award.

Why?

Well, it seemingly has everything you need…and if it doesn’t have it it’ll likely be coming in an update soon. This is the major plus with CacheSense – it’s not that it is almost perfect as a geocaching tool, it’s that the responsiveness of it’s developer, New Zealand based Bruce at ZitaFarms, is far beyond any other.

But it’s not just problems that get responded to with lightening speed – the updates and feature development of CacheSense are significant and frequent.

In fact, I’ve been trying to write a decent, in depth, review of CacheSense for quite some time…but then another update comes out and I have to start working on it again!

Speaking of that review, one of the tasks I set myself was to list all of the functions of CacheSense and then use it to compare and contrast with the other geocaching apps.

What this extensive and time consuming task is showing (it’s not completed yet, I’ll share it when I’m done) is that the difference between CacheSense and the other apps is not major functions, but all the little stuff that seems to make all the difference.

Case in point: CacheSense and NeonGeo, the two post prominent paid geocaching apps outside of the gc.com app, both have the ability to sync with your gc.com pocket queries. This is really useful as it allows you to set up your PQ’s to more easily keep your app database current without having to download and import.

But CacheSense doesn’t just allow you to directly import the PQ, it also allows you to choose the PQ file type (Summary, GPX zipped, GPX data, or full) and gives you options automatically importing PQ’s, including whether this should be wi-fi only, roaming on the data network or just when charging.

Rather than present a summary of all the cool tools and functions in CacheSense I’m going to suggest taking advantage of the free 30 day trial they have. This is the full app, yours free for 30 days to try before you buy.

The full app is only US$5.

Overall this app is excellent and well worth trying out before paying for another app!

c:geo

Arguably the best free, dedicated geocaching app for Android and one that has been around for quite a while now.

c:geo doesn’t use the official Geocaching.com API, but rather scrapes the information from the gc.com. For those without a GC.com Premium membership this appears to be quite useful as it gets around the limits placed on standard members in the API.

So all that lovely cache data can be yours.

One of the cool little voyeuristic social functions in this app is the Go 4 Cache service that allows you to see other c:geo users location and what cache they are going after. Very useful if you are out FTF hunting, but it is still a little creepy and does rely on others using the app.

It has a great set of features that allow you to make the most of the paperless caching experience. It immediately feels a lot like NeonGeo or CacheSense, but seems to lack some of the database and other features of these apps.

In fact, it really seems to act a lot like a free version of the geocaching.com app…

Overall it is a great little app that is well worth using if you don’t want to part with $5 and don’t have a premium membership.

Geocaching

The official geocaching app for Geocaching.com from Groundspeak. The most noticeable feature of this app is that it is the most expensive paid geocaching app on the market (I don’t count ‘Geocacher’ as it doesn’t really seem to be supported anymore…plus it doesn’t even rate).

At nearly US$10 it is basically double the cost of arguably better apps. But it does provide a well put together and basic app for the newbie cacher.

It’s style is in keeping with the geocaching.com cartoon style, which really lets you know you are working with (through?) the mothership.

The app is targeted a little more that the find info on the go side of things, rather than utilising a database of cache information. Of course this can lead you into trouble if reception is poor where you are caching and you haven’t already accessed the info.

You save the cache to an ‘offline list’, but as the name implies this is more of a list than a database. That’s not to say it doesn’t have some database functions.

Overall another great app for the beginner, but one that would likely be more attractive if the price was dropped. If you want to be with the mothership then this is the app for you, otherwise spend less on another app and use the change to buy yourself a coffee.

Neongeo

This is an excellent app and one that certainly rivals CacheSense as an all round geocaching tool. It’s US$1 cheaper than CacheSense and, quite sensibly, they also provide a free 30 day trial version.

The app is well put together and is certainly well supported with fairly frequent updates.

Like c:geo it also has a voyeuristic social function, ‘Follow Me’, which shares your location and allows you to see others on the map as well. It also allows you to select an icon to be displayed and, wisely, gives you options to ‘clutter’ your coordinates and prevent others from knowing exactly where you are.

You also have the option to send others using Follow Me a message, which must be a great way to enhance the social side of geocaching (which you must admit is sorely lacking) especially when you’re out FTF hunting or caching on the weekend.

The app has a simplicity to it that probably doesn’t fully represent it’s full functionality, however this makes it very easy to use.

One of the other interesting features of Neongeo is that when you select a cache to target the compass appears as an overlay on the map page. As you can see in the image (right) this is a useful function if you don’t want to use Google Navigation.

A:DRAKE

A newcomer to the geocaching app market this free app has gone in the other

direction to c:geo with a focus on having a cache database for offline use. It still has access to the Geocaching Live API so you can download caches/GPX directly.

It claims to be able to work with huge cache databases, 30,000+ according to the listing in the G.P.S., which is quite an impressive feat.

The app also integrates with Geoget, the free GSAK

alternative, so you can really have fun playing with that data (if you’re that way inclined).

Certainly worth a look for those who maintain an extensive database or if you’re looking at a big caching road trip. Probably not a suitable app to start geocaching with or if you’re not interested in using a database manager like Geoget.

Notable Mention: Locus Pro

This app would have easily made it into the top 5 but for one technicality: it’s not just a geocaching app.

I thought long and hard about what this particular top 5 was supposed to represent, that being the top 5 best geocaching apps. The problem I came to with Locus was that it was so much more than a geocaching app that it tended to cloud the issue.

It is certainly a very powerful ‘Multi-Function Tourist Navigation’ app that has a huge number of features, many of the geocaching related, But this is one of the issues.

There is so much going on with Locus that you have to really love waypoints, mapping, POI’s etc etc to want to use it. You have to wade through lots of other stuff before you can just find a cache.

But this is one seriously powerful app that is well worth a look by the data geeks among us.

It also has some pretty cool geocaching tools, including the ability to draw a circle of any radius fro a defined place. Oh, and it connects through Geocaching Live and has a free version.

Conclusion

However, all the best geocachers still choose CacheSense.

What’s your favourite Geocaching Android app? Let us know in the comments below.