Android Geocaching App - Part 5
Final thoughts
I use it more an more now as time goes by. I do not think I would have been this kind had I written the review a week ago, but as I use it more and more and take the time to play with it, I am really pleased with how it works.
The biggest drawback for me was loading a gpx file. When I spent 15 mins for a small 500 cache GPX I was starting to worry about the program. I liked everything else. But i was really disliking that one thing. I decided that I was rarely going to use it. Then when 1.0.1 came out I decided that I would take the time to do it again. 2 mins or a little less.
Apparently there was a crash on the droid systems. I am guessing that the UI was interfering with the phone. Until Google gets a handle on those kind of issues it will plague all android devices. If they let every phone manufacturer tinker with their own version of the UI you are just asking for disaster. That was a good example.
I think the biggest failing now is with those from other countries. Once again Google strikes. There is no market to pay for apps in other countries. This means that people in most of the non North American market will not be getting a paid app for some time. Time to get on the ball Google.
Geocaching could do something on their own, but it requires that the owner of the phone turn off a security feature that keeps a bad program from being loaded on the phone. Phones are set by default to only be allowed to download apps from the app market. Anything else is trudging in grey areas. You do not know what you could get. They may have to play on the workaround.
After playing with 4-5 software suits c:geo, geobeagle, geohunter, columbus, and another that I cannot remember. This is my favorite so far. There are features of others that I liked but this appears to be the best considering that it is a 1.0 version. It is fast and easy once I got the hang of it. The others seemed kind of messy.
I will be more happy when you can pick up and drop off trackables. It will let me pick them up in the field and that is something i want now. I was playing with an app that would do that, but gave up after a little bit.
I have not had a crash since 1.0.1 so hopefully that luck will continue. I find myself using my Oregon less and less. I do not field note on my Oregon at all now. I log directly from my phone. I sometimes will post a note when I want more than a line to the cache owner. If I want to post a bigger story I will wait until I get home.
Love my phone, love my android, love my caching. It all seems to come together.
Android Geocaching App - Part 1- Initial Impressions
Android Geocaching App - Part 2 - Searches, Trackables, and Settings
Android Geocaching App - Part 3 - Geocache Navigation