Dear Geomate.jr Community

What can we say – this good thing has come to an end. We are no longer able to offer the Geomate.jr for sale or continue the Update Zone service. We do hope you’ve had as much fun geocaching as we’ve had working with everyone.

To help keep the adventures happening however, we have made some software available here that will allow anyone with an Update Kit and a PC to load a Pocket Query from Geocaching.com to a Geomate.jr.

Regrettably,

The Geomate.jr Team

Via Geomatejr.com

• Garmin StreetPilot Onboard USA: $39.99 instead of $49.99
• Garmin StreetPilot Onboard North America: $49.99 instead of $59.99
• Garmin StreetPilot onDemand: the annual subscription is $19.99 instead of $29.99
• NAVIGON USA: $39.99 instead of $49.99
• NAVIGON North America: $49.99 instead of $59.99
• NAVIGON MyRegion: $19.99 instead of $29.99

Here’s the full news release:

Garmin® to Showcase Growing Lineup of iOS Apps and New Social Features at Macworld | iWorld 2012

OLATHE, Kan./January 25, 2012/Business Wire — Garmin^® International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced that it will showcase its newest iOS app innovations at Macworld | iWorld 2012 in San Francisco (Jan 26-28, booth #836). Garmin offers a wide range of location-based apps for iOS users spanning aviation, fitness, tracking, treasure hunting and turn-by-turn navigation. Among the newest features, Garmin will demo social search and check-in capabilities for the StreetPilot® onDemand navigation app as well as a new function for the Tracker™ app that allows users to share links to a live tracking map.

“We embrace apps in all of our business segments to support the increasingly mobile lifestyles of our customers and to complement our hardware offerings,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “At this year’s Macworld | iWorld, we will showcase our growing portfolio of iOS apps, including new features that help our users to stay connected and share location-based information with their friends and families.”

Check in with your navigation app: Among other new features, Garmin will demo social media capabilities for the StreetPilot onDemand app that integrate Wikipedia, Facebook and foursquare. Users can easily display locations from these networks on the map and check in upon arrival at their destination. Clicking on one of the Wikipedia icons on the map will reveal detailed information about a location, such as the identity of an interesting building or landmark. Also new for the StreetPilot onDemand app are some fun features that make driving more enjoyable, such as a variety of voices or vehicle icons to choose from as well as visually refined 3D renderings of buildings to provide a better overview. The latest versions of the StreetPilot Onboard and the NAVIGON turn-by-turn navigation apps will also be on display. Garmin acquired the German navigation provider NAVIGON in 2011.

Track what’s important: The Garmin Tracker app tracks what’s important. The app works in conjunction with the GTU 10 tracking device to display its location on a map, making it easy to virtually follow anything, from your loved-ones to valuables or the family dog. Users can set up a geo-fence to get alerts when the device crosses in or out of a defined area. The latest version of this app now also allows a continuous tracking mode, and enables users to send out map links to others, so they can follow the location of a device too1.

Get fit with your iPhone: The Garmin Fit™ app turns the iPhone into a powerful training tool. The app keeps track of current walking, running or cycling stats. Users can easily upload, review and share their activities on Garmin Connect™, a vibrant online community of fitness enthusiasts. With an optional ANT+™ iPhone adapter, users can also pair this app with Garmin fitness sensors like a heart rate monitor, foot pod or speed/cadence sensor.

Go on a digital treasure hunt: The free OpenCaching app provides a fun way for families, nature lovers, hikers, or scouts to go outside on a digital treasure hunt. Geocaching, a popular activity worldwide, takes digital technology away from the couch and out on the trail. Hidden treasure troves – known as caches – have been hidden around the world. Their coordinates have been uploaded to online communities, such as the free website Opencaching.com, along with details and clues. Garmin’s app allows users to participate in this treasure hunting game by hiding, finding, logging and sharing cache information right from the iPhone.

An iPad app for pilots: Garmin’s roots are in the aviation business and today the company is a leader in this space. Garmin Pilot My-Cast℠  is an aviation-centric weather and flight planning application designed specifically for general aviation, corporate and commercial pilots. The app provides pilots with a paperless cockpit, weather and flight planning along with navigation.

Macworld | iWorld Discounts on Garmin Navigation Apps

Garmin will reduce the prices of its North American turn-by-turn navigation apps by $10 during Macworld (Jan 26-28, 2012). The NAVIGON in app purchase FreshMaps is 50% off (exact price depends on app version).

• Garmin StreetPilot Onboard USA: $39.99 instead of $49.99
• Garmin StreetPilot Onboard North America: $49.99 instead of $59.99
• Garmin StreetPilot onDemand: the annual subscription is $19.99 instead of $29.99
• NAVIGON USA: $39.99 instead of $49.99
• NAVIGON North America: $49.99 instead of $59.99
• NAVIGON MyRegion: $19.99 instead of $29.99

Find details about Garmin’s other smartphone apps for a wide variety of activities at http://garmin.com/apps.

With today’s topic, I’m starting a new series, a follow up to my Handheld GPS 101 posts. Are you ready to move on to the next class? Alright then. Today’s topic is mapping software — and I’m not talking about maps for your GPS here, but rather desktop or laptop software that will turn you into a power user.

Why use desktop mapping software?

First of all, the scale is much larger, giving you a better feel for the overall area you will be traveling through. And in general, planning a trip is much easier on your computer than on a GPS. A side benefit I’ve noticed is that planning on the big screen helps you gain quite a bit of geographical awareness before ever going out in the field. Depending upon which software you choose, you can do the following with it:

• Create waypoints for trailheads, destinations, trail junctions, geographic features, benchmarks, etc., and then transfer them to your GPS (using the cable that came with your GPS)
• View tracks of trails; these can be hand-drawn or downloaded from various sources online, and transferred to your GPS
• Create routes and transfer them to your GPS
• Toggle between USGS topos and aerial photos
• Download your track and marked waypoints after returning from a trip to keep a record of your travels and stats

My favorite mapping software options

TopoFusion

This is my favorite mapping software for Windows. TopoFusion comes in a free demo version that never expires, as well as $40 and $69.95 versions. I love the ability to toggle between aerials and topos, and it has the best track importer around (shown in the screenshot below). Download the free version for that if nothing else. Now if they’d only produce a Mac edition! Click the image below for a full size view.

National Geographic TOPO!

The price on this one was recently cut in half; you can now get the National Geographic Topo state series for $50 or less, and sometimes that includes multiple states. While I’m not a big fan of how they handle routes and tracks, this is my favorite software for printed maps. And there’s nothing quite like having a hard copy of a map in your hand with the same waypoints you have on your GPS. Great for Windows; the Mac version sucks.

Garmin BaseCamp

While BaseCamp isn’t the most intuitive thing Garmin has ever created, it is free, and it’s the only way to get BirdsEye aerial imagery or BirdsEye topos on your Garmin. Plus, you can use free topos from GPS File Depot with it. Available for both Mac and Windows.

Other options

There are many other options out there, including programs like Topo North America for DeLorme owners and ExpertGPS, but I’m not going to try to list them all. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to try a Mac program I’m happy with that has the capabilities of TopoFusion and/or National Geographic TOPO. Those programs are why I keep a Windows machine around.

Stay tuned. I think we’ll look at downloading tracks from the Internet in the next installment of Handheld GPS 201.