Playing with GeoSphere on my IPad

GeoSphere Iphone App on Ipad 2

After re listening to this weeks Geocaching Podcast. I remembered the discussion I was having with Darrylw4 about the use of GeoSphere on the iPad. The actual discussion was why we would most likely NOT use the iPad 2 out in the field but because of it's use of Google Maps and having the ability easily to see all of the Geocache prospects at the same time and how it would be highly useful IN the car. That being said I took the plunge and purchased it. This is really just some first impressions and not a fair review. Since you have seen me play mostly with Blackberrys and Androids in the past I thought you would get a kick with me dipping into the Apple world.

Right off the bat I can say that there are currently no really satisfying Geocaching apps for the iPads. iPhones there are a good selection but not for the iPads. Yes I am aware of the one or two wannabes but they are not in the running with the big dogs. So when you install GeoSphere you are installing the iPhone version. Here's the issue with that. When you install an iPhone app on an iPad it is running an iPhone emulator. So you end up with the screen of an iPhone in the center of your iPad. If you attempt to 2x the screen the text of GeoSphere is very blurry and almost impossible to read. So the alternative is to zoom into the text with your fingers which does keep the clear text but you can then only see part of the screen within the iPhone emulator. I choose this as the lessees of two evils. At least you can read what you need.

Since GeoSphere does not have the ability in of itself to load the nearest Geocaches it takes you directly to the Geocaching.com website. So if you want to utilize your Pocket Queries you have to access your email (which GeoSphere actually provides the direct access) and then download it directly into the application. Nice feature but you have to take all these extra steps instead of wham bam - go. Not a show stopper.  Once you load your .gpx all the bells and whistles turn on and it runs very similarly to other Geocaching apps.

I won't have time to go Geocaching during my lunchtime today but I was able to load my Lunchtime GotD .gpx file and observe my next possible finds with a single glance. A very nice feature from GeoSphere I plan on using a lot.

More to come...

-HHH

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