I created a short video of the Cache Register widget for those that couldn’t make it to Bell Buckle, Tennessee to see the demo at GeoWoodstock VII. Check it out here or by clicking on the screen shot below…
A few answers to good questions that have come up since I created the video…
-The widget is cross platform, it will work on your Mac as well as your PC!
-Cache Register will work with all of our PN-Series devices.
-The widget will cost $9.95 and will be downloadable from our website.
-You will need a premium membership if you want to make Pocket Queries on Geocaching.com’s site.
The ability to load 500 geocaches at a time is well worth it and you get all the hints!
-You will be able to load GPX files with your custom filters from GSAK.
-Cache Register is scheduled to release on our website this week! Edit: Released!
Edited to add: -Cache Register will also transfer the Additional Waypoints for geocaches with the associated cache name as a prefix to help you keep track of waypoint and geocaches!
Let us know if you have any questions about the new Geocaching widget. We’re very excited to hear what everyone has to say once they’ve had a chance to try it out!
Thanks,
Chip Noble
Team DeLorme
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For folks with both a Mac and a PC, will the $9.95 cover just one install, or one on each OS?
Good question, I’ll have to check with our sales and marketing group. I would expect it to cover both but I want to confirm the delivery mechanism to make sure both setups are included. More on this tomorrow!
Chip Noble
DeLorme
That looks fantastic. I am excited. I have two questions.
First, is there a command line interface so that it can be automated into GSAK as part of a macro?
Second question. Will I be able to install it on both my Laptop and my main PC for the same $9.95 or will I need to purchase it twice?
I’m not paying $10 for something that should be free.
Chip,
Why are you guys charging for this software? When I purchased my PN-40 I was under the impression this was going to be free to PN-40 owners. It’s about 6 months overdue but I was patiently awaiting its completion but I must say I am very disappointed that there will be a charge for this when I, and I’m sure many others, feel it should be free. I don’t recall any mention of charging for this the whole time it was in development.
I love Delorme’s products and their open dialog that they have always had with their customers but this will not sit well with most of those individuals.
Please have the marketing team reconsider this decision!
Steve Bromley: We don’t have a command line interface although we are talking about ways to better support our GSAK users. I’ll have to review your install question, I do not recall any limitations on a user loading Cache Register on more than one machine if they both belong to the same user. Good questions, thanks!
GJ and Kevin M: I’m sorry to hear that you are not interested in Cache Register as a $9.95 download. We are charging for the widget because we have invested a lot of resources in the project and believe it is well worth that price considering the convenience that it brings to the pocket query syncing process. I understand that not everyone will agree and am glad that we also offer a Send to GPS plug-in to transfer geocaches to the PN along with Topo USA which can send GPX files to the device.
Thank you all for the feedback…
Chip Noble
DeLorme
Chip,
We talked for about 15 seconds at GW7. Because of what I saw, I purchased a PN-40 to replace my 60Csx and aging PDA. So far, I am impressed. I did the GSAK presentation at GW7 and looking for solutions that will automate the interactions between GSAK and the 40. I am especially interested in loading caches into the 40 from GSAK. Anything I can do to assist in that process? Is there a PN-40 development kit or a published set of API’s? I program for a living but haven’t worked with GPSBabel other than as a user. That may be your best avenue. Have you had any discussions with Robert Lipe?
Chip – a clarification. Does CR access the Groundspeak PQ servers “real-time” – ie, if I have a pre-defined PQ in my account, and have not scheduled it to run on any given day, does accessing it thru CR cause it to run at that moment?
Followup to that – do you know if Groundspeak will still maintain the “NMT 5 PQs per day” for users accessing the server “directly”, ie, thru CR?
I was wondering the same thing. Is the data from the PQ’s being pulled from GC.com servers or is the data being loaded manually by taking .zip files emailed to me, store them somewhere, etc etc etc – similar to GSAK.
One other question: will a single install CR be “tied to” a given PN device? For example, I have a PN-40SE, and it looks like my wife will soon have either a 40 or a 20 to feed her benchmarking taste…can they both utilize the same install of CR (we geocache under a single gc.com account name, however, so no need to track mx accts)
seems like a good value for only $10. I pay for a premium membership to GC.com. I pay for GSAK… why not pay to support this software? Thanks for making this happen!
I can’t wait to get it. Like Jim says, I have paid for a lot more expensive things than this to make geocaching convenient, and this will be a well-spent $10. You are probably aware of this and other options, but Camtasia is an excellent product for creating live desktop videos to demonstrate software capabilities. We use it in my job to create videos to train teachers in software for the classroom all of the time. I got my TOPO 8 today, so life will be excellent on Wednesday when CR is ready for download. Thanks, Chip
From where do I purchase/download this widget? I searched for it at delorme.com to no avail…
Thanks
Downloading now! Woo Hoo!
I asked last December if Cache Register was going to work on my Mac PowerPC G5 using OS X 10.4.11 and the answer was yes. I see the requirement now shows that I need an Intel processor…Will Cache Register work on my Mac or not?
Thanks
Rod Says:
December 5, 2008 at 4:11 pm | Reply
I have a PowerPC Mac. Can someone outline the steps for geocaching if i owned a PN-40 today and what i can expect in the future. If this info exists in another post please point me in the right direction. I’ve read everything i’ve found and it sounds like i need a Intel Mac that can run windows. I prefer not to buy a new computer or a Garmin unless there are no other options. Thanks.
Chip Noble – Design Says:
December 6, 2008 at 10:34 am | Reply
Rod: We are working on a Send to GPS plug-in for the Geocaching.com site that will be cross platform. After that is complete we’ll finish our Cache Register widget that is being designed for the Mac and the PC. You do not need to buy a new computer, tempting as that is with all the new technology out there! Just give us a little time to finish things up. We’re on schedule for the holidays still, just a matter of finishing up our exchange features.
Sorry Rod, my reply back in December was that you wouldn’t need to buy a computer that can run Windows. We found during development that the PowerPC platform would be difficult to implement. We polled our users and did not get a significant response for the PowerPC. I’m sorry if this limitation in support prevents you from runnig Cache Register.
Chip Noble
DeLorme
I just bought a brand new PN-40, paid my $10 and downloaded the widget, and all it does is crash. Luckily it does not crash anything else. I have a power PC mac G4 running Tiger. Is this not supposed to work with my system. I had such a great (free) program for downloading to my old Garmin I am terribly disappointed that this looks so hopeless already.
I am considering buying the PN-40 or the Garmin 400t. The concern I have is my friends all have Garmin units and I want to be able to share our waypoints. Will it be possible to transfer their waypoints to the PN-40 with this widget (on a Mac)?
I’ve been using CR with my PN-40 for a while now. Just recently, when I’d sync a PQ, the caches would show up on my GPS as waypoints. Not as caches. How do I get them to show up as caches again? I really enjoy the paperless caching but it’s not working at the moment.
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