Geopher Lite

Groundspeak's new API

2011-08-17T12:26:00.000-06:00

So groundspeak has their 3rd party API available. There isn't a lot of information about it out there other than "email us and we'll work with you".

Does anyone have any opinions about this API? On the one hand, if I were to use it, we could get rid of manually typing in cache details. On the other, it looks as though there are many restrictions on basic users. I hate to turn Geopher Lite basically into advertising for groundspeak's premium member services.

Thoughts?

(Also Wim, I haven't forgotten about GCBuddy compatibility. I got to the point where I'd pretty well have to restart my coding on that feature, so it's sat on the backburner for a while. I do plan on getting that working again, but it's not as simple as flipping a switch.)

2.0 released

2011-06-17T23:22:00.000-06:00

Yep, I finally got off my duff and fixed the last few remaining issues, ignored the half-done GPX importer, and sent this into apple. I hope the last few of you still sticking around likes the update. As always feedback, good and bad, is appreciated!

Apologies...

2011-04-04T21:50:00.002-06:00

The update has gone on far longer than I had planned. If you have been waiting for a release and not yet seen anything, feel free to drop me an email, I may be able to set you up with a beta version to play with.

Free Chirp?

2011-02-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

Opencaching.com is giving away a chirp a day for each placed cache. There aren't a ton of active users on there right now, so your chances are pretty good if you cross-post a bunch of caches. Check out the rules and make sure your caches are marked as entries in the contest!

User Questions

2011-01-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

I've taken what I have done with the iPad version of Geopher Lite and been working on what is essentially a rewrite of Geopher Lite, that is closer to the original vision I had of the full version. There are plenty of things on my list left to do.

You can see the results of my work here.

I have kept putting off my changes for Geopher Lite because to do what I wanted would essentially be a rewrite of the app. I do have changes, and I have made some improvements, but nothing I am satisfied with. I believe that I will only be comfortable with a full revamp.

I was also holding out hope that groundspeak would eventually open up more to 3rd party developers now that they are dominating the market for geocaching on the iPhone. I do know they are working on a 3rd party developer API, but it is invite only. Because I directly compete with them in the iPhone space I don't expect them to contact me. (Though I would love it if they would!)

I'm going to have to assume at this point that this won't happen. So where does that leave us?

I would like to take many of the changes I've made for the open caching port and put them into Geopher Lite. This will lose the skin support but should bring the app more into the modern iPhone world. For example, settings will be contained in the app itself. I will likely move forward with this and have an update submitted in the next few weeks.

As always, thanks for using Geopher Lite!

opencaching.com

2010-12-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine tipped me off to this site this morning. It looks like Garmin is going to host their own geocaching site. I'm very interested to see where this is going.

I normally don't mention stuff like this here, but one of the big deals about this is that they have an open API to interact with. I do need to read the terms and conditions, but it's likely that Geopher Lite will be able to directly interact with the site. That's a big deal.

Work continues on the iPad version with a few features that will enhance the functionality quite a bit. Some exciting stuff, especially when combined with the above. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, go create an account and check out this new player in the geocaching community.

As I suspected...

2010-11-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

...not a peep about the iPad version. I'll probably polish up what I have and release it as a separate app in the app store. I've heard nothing other than what my friend has told me in basic usage on his iPad. If anyone would like to beta this version let me know.

The changes to the regular version are underway and I'm trying to decide if I should make the original a universal app or not. If anyone has an opinion on this, again, let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Teaser

2010-11-08T00:12:00.000-07:00

No official timeline, or even if I plan on releasing it officially, but a few weeks ago I sat down and got serious about an iPad port because a friend was bugging me about porting Geopher Lite to the iPad. I still do not have a 3G iPad, but I was able to get some stuff working. Rotation has been a headache and does not work yet as expected, but otherwise maps, coordinate entry and target screens appear to work fairly well other than that. (The map screen doesn't show the target or current coordinates correctly either and is missing an icon for the current location in the top left, but those are minor details)

On an unrelated note, I've been able to finally see a problem I keep hearing about in reviews but have yet to reliably reproduce, which is the compass screen not working properly. I am toying with the idea of a major facelift for the app as it's not obvious to me what might cause this. Well, that and among other things the code could really use a face-lift now that I'm a better iOS programmer. I have a few ideas, but if you have a wishlist for Geopher Lite (or iPhone/iPad geocaching in general), the next few weeks would be a good time to shoot me an email.

As always thanks for using Geopher Lite!

2010-03-08T00:17:00.000-07:00

So, I'm thinking of making an ad supported version of Geopher Lite. I wonder if it would make any difference.

I've been thinking about this since I had that 24 hour (ish) sale and made the app free. I don't think that it actually did anything other than get about 800 people to try the app out. That was a huge spike in one day.

With an ad supported version I think that some people out there who might use Geopher Lite if there were no up-front cost.

Obviously I'll post here if/when it happens.

As for the iPad, I've not gotten much feedback, and what I have got is mostly that people wouldn't want to use it on the iPad anyhow. So I doubt I could even pay off an iPad with the 3G chip if I ported it anyhow. I still may do so, but it won't be at least until late summer.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Opinion

2010-02-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've not had a single email about iPad support as of yet, so I thought I would find out any interest here. Would you be interested in an update for Geopher Lite for the iPad 3G version? And if so, what would you like to see in that update?

If anyone missed it, the 3G version will have GPS, I suspect because GPS is part of the 3G chip that apple is using. the non-3G iPad will not have GPS available.

Feel free to drop me an email or comment here. Thanks!

Tablet

2010-01-26T23:36:00.003-07:00

Things have been quiet around here lately. Did everyone fall asleep? Oh wait, sorry, that was me!

Apple is announcing a new device tomorrow, reportedly a tablet computer of some sort. If it has a GPS init, I will be updating Geopher Lite to be using said tablet. I'm itching to do a number of projects on such a device. Don't hold your breath, but if the tablet is as capable as I think it might be, I will likely update Geopher Lite to a full version of Geopher, with all that that would entail. If I do so I'll announce it here once development is under way.

I have to say, even though my plan of working with geocaching.com didn't go as planned, it's been a fun and interesting ride to watch paperless caching come into it's own as a real paperless option. Thanks to everyone who have helped make this happen, not only with Geopher Lite, but with the many options that are available!

Holiday sale

2009-12-21T16:17:00.002-07:00

Hey all. For any of you who have been waiting for some oddball reason to get Geopher Lite, it is now on sale for FREE for the next 24 hours. Enjoy!

Haitus

2009-11-11T23:44:00.002-07:00

Due to personal reasons development has slowed on Geopher Lite. Don't count me out yet, but don't expect much in the next while.

Just for fun, I've changed the price to $0.99 U.S. for the time being.

Thanks for stopping by.

What's next?

2009-10-08T23:53:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been a couple of weeks and I've had little feedback on the new version. How is it treating everyone? Anybody notice anything odd or out of place? (Or even better, anything that works better than you'd hoped?)

I've been looking into caching the last viewed website, but it's an uphill battle. I actually had code months ago to do this, but I never got all the images and such to re-display properly. So I'm looking at that.

I'm also thinking about doing something with the download links on the geocaching.com webpage. It would be nice if you could press the download button for a LOC or GPX file and get the coordinates that way rather than typing them in.

That's about all that's happening on the Geopher Lite front at the moment. As always, suggestions, comments and complaints are welcome. Thanks for stopping by.

Released

2009-09-17T13:22:00.002-06:00

Geopher 1.1 has been released in the app store as of this morning. Please let me know if there are any issues that need resolved. I'll probably be a bit slower on updating, but I have no plans to shelve this and close up shop either, so suggestions are welcome.

Thanks everyone for using Geopher Lite!

Still no word

2009-09-04T11:23:00.003-06:00

...from apple on approval.

No news I suppose is good news.

A note to users who may be seeing the new screenshots on the iTunes store. These screenshots represent the new pending version. Apologies if this causes any confusion.

edit: Firday, Sep 11, still no word from apple. I'll post here when the update is available.

Doh!

2009-09-02T16:49:00.003-06:00

So I got an email back from apple a little while ago.

Apparently it's not a good idea to have a blank google maps interface or a blank search box when a user has no internet connectivity. I've got to add an alert or something to notify the user or this "could lead to user confusion".

They sent me this screenshot back to make the point.

I guess I don't think you all are that ignorant, but I could be wrong. =)

I actually appreciate this about apple, though it is slightly annoying. I never particularly thought this was an issue, but I suppose that some might consider it confusing. I'm glad they are working to keep apps as quality as possible. It is, however, just another obstacle to get my changes to you guys, that's the real downside. Ah well, at least the rejection was fairly positive and suggested that I re-submit the app after this was taken care of.

I'll update with this in mind and resubmit this evening sometime.

Done

2009-08-29T19:45:00.000-06:00

Geopher Lite 1.1 has been submitted to apple for approval.

Thanks for being patient with me everyone. Hopefully it was voluntary patience and not too forced. =)

Here are the update notes, broken down a bit for more detail than what you'll see in the store:
- Added in-app map support. This has a pretty straightforward interface, with a button to go to your current location as well as a button which shows the target location. The target location button will alternate between zooming out to show both points and centering the map on the target position. There's room here to have it zoom in as well, but I didn't get that far and that's minor. Maybe later.
- Added 3GS compass support. I actually fixed a couple rare case bugs with the compass system due to looking at this for so long. 3G compass support is unfortunately going to remain the same. Let me know if the filtering is too extreme. Usually it's been OK for me but indoors or under heavy cover it's pretty bad. I've got a 3GS now so this likely won't change unless one fo you guys gets involved. =)
- Added a few preferences. These include magnetic or true north (effects the 3GS compass only) and an option to continue to use google maps for mapping as opposed to the in-app mapping support.

- Bug with coordinate saving fixed. This was caused by the waypoint field being less than 5 characters.
- local preferences crash issue. This was caused by things happening sometimes out of order when the application quits. Also a potential cause of coordinates not being saved.
- Fixed a problem with URL linking not behaving quite correctly. I'm not sure if anyone is even using this right now, but it now works a bit cleaner. I probably won't touch this again unless there's good reason to do so since it's such a niche feature.
- Cleaned up the FAQ/Help quite a bit.

Future improvements that I have in mind, which are things I'd like to get around to, but are not pressing include:
- allowing for a download of a LOC/GPX from the geocaching.com webpage. I'm a html n00b so I'm not sure what to tweak to get the UIWebView to support capturing the download. It simply doesn't give any feedback last time I checked so I'd have to go spelunking in apple's private API to try and figure that out. Not something I'm terribly comfortable with. Well, I do have the option of writing my own web browser from scratch, but I'm not looking forward to that either.
- fixing the zoom on the target button (and possibly the current location button) to be more automatic. This means zooming in and out a bit better in some circumstances. Someday if I can ever think of a way to add GPX support short of writing my own email client, it would be nice to add saved geocaches in this space.
- web page archiving. I have preliminary support for this, but it looks kind of bad because it doesn't save the entire page, just the text. This would be a bit time consuming, but be great to have around for general purpose stuff.
- Better skins. I keep thinking I need to revisit my default purple arrow and maybe the default compass as well to help things look a bit nicer. I did this once and actually made a couple things look worse. Is hould get a real artist to help. I'd also like to do a bar style compass as well as a better outdoor black and white compass view.

I'll post again once we are approved. Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

News!

2009-08-28T16:55:00.002-06:00

First off, my apologies for the dearth of news. I've been busy, distracted and out of sorts lately. But I'm back. And I didn't forget about you guys, despite the lack of updates.

A couple of weeks ago I made the decision to not release an update until I had the compass rotation working properly. It didn't feel right to release a 3.0 update without better compass support. My apologies for the delay, especially for those who are waiting for the coordinate saving bug fix. I know it's annoying and less than ideal.

I've been struggling with the compass rotation for an embarassing amount of time. I didn't have a 3GS until a few days ago, so I wasn't able to do a lot of actual testing. The little that I did get to do, the compass worked quite incorrectly. Sure the compass spun, but it didn't spin where I expected or where I wanted to go.

So I took today off of work and decided to make it my goal to get the compass working today. It's working. And the code has been updated in the SVN repository for those of you following along at home. Assuming anyone is.

For you aspiring developers out there, I want to let you in on a little CLLocation secret. When the description of a property says this:

"The value in this property represents the heading that points toward the magnetic North Pole, which is different than the geographic North Pole. The value in this property is always measured relative to the top of the device, regardless of the device’s physical or interface orientation. The value 0 represents magnetic North, 90 represents magnetic East, 180 represents magnetic South, and so on. The value in this property should always be valid."

This paragraph means that the heading 0 is NOT relative to the top of the screen, which I incorrectly understood, but that 0 is always relative to the direction that is NORTH. Or magnetic north in this example. Big difference. Hopefully you can see how I misunderstood this information with the example above. I'll have to send a note to apple about that.

So what does that mean to you guys? Well, long story short, I've spent a number of of evenings and a half a day today trying to figure out why my compass wasn't working. Well, unbeknownst to me, it WAS working... assuming that 0 was the top of the iPhone regardless of where it was pointing. Which is not the case. I simply had to do some correctional math and viola... working compass!

I feel kind of dumb now.

But here I am hoping that sharing my folly with the world does some good for someone. =)

So, that out of the way, I still have one problem to tackle relative to getting the release out. I thought I had the map view completely working but the titlebar is now showing up funny. Funny as in there are two that are overlapping improperly. I suspect this is due to the new SDK I am using with snow leopard, but it's difficult to say for sure.

On a side note, I've not seen a ton of snow leopard so far, but what I have seen I like! For $29 it's worth the upgrade price, if nothing else for the wake/sleep speedup times on my laptop. =)

Anyway. Once the above issue is taken care of I will add an auto-zoom the map view. When it's opened it will show both the target location as well as the current location. It shows only the current location right now, but I'd like it to zoom in/out far enough so that it shows the current location and the target location both on the same map screen appropriately. I think I know how to do this; it will just take a little math and playing around with the API to make sure I'm thinking about this correctly. I almost left this for another update but couldn't. Like the compass it just wouldn't feel right unless I get this working okay for the update.

Oh, and I've added a preference to choose to see magnetic north or true north, with the default set to true north.

Once I submit the update I'll post again and reiterate the feature list for the new version.

Suggestions, comments and criticism are always welcome. Thanks for dropping by!

Back!

2009-07-28T09:23:00.002-06:00

OK, I'm back from vacation and getting going again on this update. I'm hoping for a submittal by friday. If I can't get the compass rotation on the 3G right then I may submit an update that only includes the map. I'd like to have it all together, but I don't want to make you all wait too long if I can help it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Delay

2009-07-18T22:18:00.003-06:00

No good way to say this -- the release isn't ready. I've done some testing and while I've found a bug, and fixed it, with the map view (and I think it's pretty solid now) the compass rotation isn't cooperating.

I had a chance to borrow a friend's 3GS for an hour or so and play around with some things friday. The compass rotates with some tweaking, but it's not accurate like I'd expect and acts differently than the built-in compass app that apple has. I'll have to do a little messing around with that. Unfortunately having my own 3GS is about a month away, unless someone wants to give me $200 to get around waiting for AT&T to let be be upgrade eligible. =) That's not going to stop the update from happening, but it's proven to be my biggest hindrance so far. Having a device to test the code on is extremely valuable.

I'm still considering the settings in the main bundle and I've even looked at some coding here. I'm still not sure I'll finish that off, most people don't seem to mind where they are once they know about them. There's already a section in the help menu about where the preferences are, I'll have to at least update the help to have that be closer to the top.

As always, I'm open to suggestions and criticism, thanks for stopping by!

Map finished

2009-07-13T11:38:00.003-06:00

Google maps are now inside of Geopher Lite basically as you see it below, replacing the current "map" button on the set target screen. The differences being that the tooltips have good information, the current location dot is blue and as you'd expect, and the coordinate text at the bottom is centered instead of right justified.

I found and fixed the semi-random coordinate saving bug. One workaround until I get the next update is to enter something into the waypoint location on teh target screen -- this will force an immediate save of the coordinates once you leave this text field. Honestly I'm shocked that I haven't had more people report this as it would only sometimes save coordinates unless you entered in the GC tag, which would then force the coordinates to save. I had 4 people over the last 6 months report coordinates not saving and it's been a bug since the last revision. All of those people I gave a few suggestions to try and I'm assuming they never got it working but just didn't tell me. Please, if you see a problem let me know so I can fix it! I can't fix what I don't know about. =)

I'm going to take a good hard look at the compass next and see if I can get that working a bit better. For starters I'd like to either fix up or outright remove the filtering if I can, using apple's built-in API for the compass. I'd also like to turn on the rotation by default. I'm seriously considering keeping the rotation on at all times for the compass view. I don't think this view gets used as much as I had planned originally, and as it's currently defaulted to off, I think many people don't even turn it on and think it's just broken.

I'd like to submit an update by this weekend, we will see how much time I get to work on the compass. I'm considering a delay on the project to move the settings into the app itself, and that certainly won't happen this week. I'll let you know by the end of the week if I go that far or not. =)

Thanks for dropping by.

Screenshots!

2009-07-11T00:34:00.004-06:00

So I did some looking into the map view this evening. To get a google map embedded within a view is stupid easy. Pins and such are apparently another story. I can't seem to get the pins to be anything but red, I'm probably missing something obvious.

Here are some screenshots of my sample mock-up program I'm using to play around with the map settings.

The target and circle buttons will center you on your current location or your target, respectively. Back will take you back to the target entry screen. Type will cycle through the 3 types of maps -- map, satellite, and hybrid. I need to make a note to allow setting the default type in the preferences.

I should note that a few nights ago I was able to finally reproduce coordinates not saving. Assuming I can pin down the problem (since it seems random), I should have that fixed with the next release as well.

Forward

2009-07-07T23:43:00.002-06:00

It's an interesting time of year for me. Last year at this time I was frantically trying to get my first revision of Geopher Lite to apple to try and make the initial app store deadline. I missed it by two days, delaying my app for what seemed like ages after the actual app store opened.

Later, Apple had me take out some features that seemed to be no brainers, due to the fact that the app acted too much like a web browser. Groundspeak was also contacting me (actually asking me to pull my app) shortly thereafter. While I was on vacation.

Fun times.

This year I hope that July goes a bit more smoothly. I'm again going on vacation in the later part of the month and plan to have the next update to Geopher Lite submitted to apple before I leave. I'm fairly close on the compass code, I just need the guy at work with the 3GS to let me borrow his phone for a few hours to do some testing and debugging with it. Wish me luck. =)

I've not done a lot with the google maps API, but I expect that to be fairly straightforward as well. It will be nice to have that feature embedded in the app itself without closing things down and heading off to another application.

I'm toying with the idea of revamping the settings and moving them within the app itself. I'd like to also finish off the process by turning the compass rotation on by default, possibly just removing the option entirely to keep it off. Opinions and concerns are welcome here.

I'll keep you guys updated. As always thanks for using Geopher Lite!

Quick Comment

2009-06-10T13:30:00.003-06:00

I'm at work so I need to make this brief, but wanted to mention something to you all.

I'll be looking at the embedded google maps inside of Geopher Lite instead of the link to the maps application. I will also be looking at using Apple's new heading variables for the compass in 3.0. This will work on the old phones as well as the new ones, likely similarly to what I have going now. When I tried it with the initial new beta last fall I didn't get any noticeably changed results with apple's code as I did with my own heading calculation. I don't know if that's because their code was very preliminary or if I accidentally have really good heading code. =) Either way, expect the compass to get revamped a bit as well as the maps feature embedded.

Does anyone have other specific suggestions they would like to see in the UI of Geopher Lite?

Thanks everyone for the support.

Quick update

2009-05-27T20:53:00.003-06:00

Hey all.

I've been a bit distracted the past few months from iPhone programming and haven't done a lot. Life is busy. Long story short, I've unintentionally feature-locked Geopher Lite. I'm considering starting up development again if there is interest.

With 3.0 of the iPhone OS coming out soon I will likely release an update. I've got a few minor things to tweak to make Geopher Lite look a bit nicer with the new version of the iPhone OS. In the meantime, If you're using Geopher Lite and would like to see a change, drop me a line, either here or in my email posted to the left. I make no promises, but if there's something that enough people would like I'd be happy to look into adding it.

Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

Battery Pack

2009-02-28T01:31:00.002-07:00

I was talking with a friend recently and was reminded of this battery charger idea that I thought I would share with you all. It's got a better than average charge capability, runs on 2 AA batteries (regular or rechargeable), and fits neatly in your pocket. Nothing like some minty fresh GPSing with your iPhone!

This will take some technical know-how, but if you've never done something like this before, chances are you know someone who can help you if you'd like to give it a go.

I first learned about this neat device here. The kit as linked above is roughly $20. Enjoy!

Update submitted

2009-01-08T00:53:00.003-07:00

Hey all.

I submitted a minor update of Geopher Lite this evening, which includes the following changes:

- Changed compass images to contain rotated text.
- Fixed a couple of potential crash bugs
- added code to allow reverse-URL linking (jumping back to another app via a URL) to use Geopher Lite as a compass only.
- changed the coordinate saving code to reduce the chance of coordinates not saving properly in rare cases.

Thanks for stopping by.

Geopher Lite opens up

2009-01-01T11:47:00.005-07:00

Hey all.

This project is killing me. There are so many things I'd like to do here and so little time I have to do them. So I've decided to take a big leap and open up the source code to Geopher Lite.

Yeah, you heard right. If you are so inclined, you can jump in and make some changes to the sourcecode.

That said, I am going to continue to work on Geopher Lite in my spare time and continue to update it. As soon as a nail down a bug with URL linking I will be making another official release on the app store. I will probably change the price to the lowest price point if not make it free entirely. I'm not giving up or shelving this project, but this will give people a chance to jump in and get their hands dirty if so inclined.

In other news, I've had a user request Geopher Lite to interact with geocaching.hu, which is apparently a geocaching site that is much more popular in that area than geocaching.com. I've sent them an email, we will see what happens there.

The source code can be found here, via anonymous SVN checkout:

http://geopherlite.beanstalkapp.com/geopherlite

edit: use this link if you'd prefer not to sign up with beanstalk: http://geopherlite.svn.beanstalkapp.com/geopherlite
I hadn't realized that you needed to log in to get to the other page. I had a few people point that out to me, thanks!

Oh and I am relatively new to objective-C, cocoa, and the iPhone platform. Beware. =)

I want to give a special thanks to Branden Russell, Wim Verhoef and all the previous beta testers who have helped with some of the background work of Geopher Lite. Thanks guys!

Thanks to everyone else for your continued feedback and support. You know who you are.

Happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-18T20:12:00.002-07:00

Hey all.

I hope you're having fun geocaching out there! I've taken a couple weeks haitus on working on Geopher Lite, but I am now back at it. The dust is settling on a new addition to our family, hopefully after Christmas things settle into a real routine so I can make some real headway on the full version.

Quick update, for the moment I'm abandoning in place the web archiving. I've sunk a ton of time into this and it's not getting me the results I would like. There's still hope for this feature, and I'm seriously thinking of putting it into a beta state like I did the compass rotation. Drop me a line if you're interested in this if I get more than one or two people responding I'll stick what I have into the next release as a beta feature.

I've done some testing with the new 2.2 APIs for compass rotation and the results have been less than stellar. I'll be doing some more testing with this and see if I can polish up the compass rotation as I find the time. It's still less than ideal and a bit less accurate than I'd like it to be.

Speaking of the compass, I am working with another app developer (The guy who has done the free Geocaching Toolkit) on a newly released app called Geocaching Buddy. The author has added support via URL linking to Geopher Lite for the compass rotation! I'm pleased and honored that he would do such a thing and I am working to improve The URL linking to be even better. He has also graciously given me a copy of the application. I'm looking forward to trying it out on my next multi-cache. There's been a lot of thought and work that has gone into this app and I'm excited to put it to use.

I've received little to no feedback in the past 6 weeks or so (other than spam from t-mobile wanting me to develop for their app store as well as adMob spam), with one notable exception. I had one user ask about textmarks via coord.info, and I thought I'd let you all know I am looking at this for the full version of Geopher Lite. I had originally planed on simply filling out notes and a link to the log page forwarded to the mail application for final submission later, but this would allow more on the fly entry of such things. If anyone uses this system (or would like to) I'd love to hear your feedback on how you'd like to use it.

I would also appreciate any feedback about what you do and don't like with Geopher Lite in regards to other Geocaching applications for the iPhone. My original plan of what I had envisioned really isn't realized yet. TO be clear, from some of the integrated options I have looked at are very tech-oriented in GPS's. What I'd like to do is go the other way some and simply focus on geocaching and making that as easy and as fun as possible. Cross your fingers, it's time to re-dedicate myself to this languishing project.

Thanks for your patience. As always feedback is encouraged and appreciated!

Good and bad

2008-11-14T12:30:00.003-07:00

So, I have some good news and bad news.

The good news is that apple has recently released some sample code that allows saving web pages for offline viewing. This is exactly what I've been trying to get working with cURL but have had mixed progress with. To bring you up to date, I've gotten cURL working with mixed results. The web page saves, but the images and such do not easily, so I was having to write all of that manually. This should help a lot with that. So if all goes well the next release of Geopher Lite will have web archiving capability. For those of you who are developers and curious, you can check out some of my initial work with cURL here. It's not everything I've done, but the initial part of getting it working.

That said... Yesterday my 3 year old "cleaned off" my iPhone in the toilet. It was still on when I grabbed it from her, I think she just dipped it in and was wiping it off when I got to it. Still. I turned it off (the touch screen wasn't working and flickering on and off) and quickly stuck it in a bowl of dry rice to try and wick away the water as much as possible. I'll let you all know tomorrow morning when I dare try turning it on again if it actually works still or not. So that may be a setback to getting this next version released, I'm going to try and not have it be though. I may have to rely more heavily on my beta testers for this one.

Always something. =)

S-L-O-W

2008-11-11T20:07:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone.

I have to be honest, my drive behind Geopher has had a gunshot wound to the head and it's slow going what with everything else that's happening in my life. However, I still want a better solution than what is out there for the iPhone, so I am not giving up, it is just taking a bit longer than I had planned.

I'd like to get an update to you all by thanksgiving (That's towards the end of november for you non-U.S. folks) on Geopher Lite in between other things and I'll see what I can do there. This would include the rotated compass graphics (which have been done actually since the end of september, shame on me for not getting those to you sooner), probably the GCxxxx on the main target screen and the new outdoor skin. There are other potentialities for that release, but I won't promise anything else.

Hang in there and thanks for stopping by!

Quickie

2008-10-13T23:26:00.001-06:00

Hey, just a note to let you all know that I'm still here, I've not forgotten about you.

Lots of stuff happening for me lately, so I've not done much of anything for the iPhone in about a week.

I left work tonight at 10:15 PM. This isn't unusual lately, I think I need to talk with my boss.

Good news on the web archive front, I've made some progress there. Someone has also suggested allowing field notes in the final version, I have thought about this and wanted to get some feedback on it. For the moment I'm thinking of allowing you to add notes and then giving you the option to email yourself the notes with a link to the cache that they are attached to so you can log them or do whatever you need. It'd be great for logging bugs and coins and the like.

Groundspeak's app finally hit the app store this weekend. It's worth checking out, but I'm a bit disappointed in the initial offering -- I was hoping for a bit more than that. Still, there's tons of potential with it.

I'm planning on posting my thoughts about the current geocaching software that's out there and what a user's options are. At the moment things are very usable, and there are a number of choices. Some decent options at the moment, though nothing anyone is dying over. I think that groundspeak has the best shot at that, but there's plenty of room for competition.

Thanks for stopping by, as always drop me a line with feedback or questions, I'm happy to help where I can.

Conclusion

2008-10-02T19:53:00.003-06:00

Before I say anything, I want to say thank you to magicwaldo. That was a humbling thing to read directed at me and I thank you for it.

On another note, for those newer to the program, the compass WILL rotate. I've seen a few comments here and there that this doesn't work. It needs to be turned on, it is off by default. I will be turning this on by default in the next version.

I've been thinking about a lot of things the past week or so, and many of those thoughts had to do with Geopher and Geopher Lite.

I have decided to continue on with Geopher. In the coming weeks I will post on what the initial version of Geopher will be. There's a lot I want to do and likely everything I want to do will not make the final cut. I have lost some time here in my indecision, and I'll be stepping things up to get back on track.

In regards to geocaching.com -- I won't be able to ever do what I originally wanted to do with Geopher. However I think I can make a simple, clean app for dealing with GPX files and offliner caching, while keeping things in line with the feel of Geopher Lite.

In regards to Geopher Lite. Instead of following my own priority list in my last post, I've been looking into a way to archive the current web page. The short answer is that there's no quick way to do this with apple's SDK and I am looking into a way to do this myself.

Many things are on the plate, and my last post summarizes a lot of what's going to happen in the next while. As always, drop me a line via email or in a post here. Thanks everyone for your comments and support!

Groundspeak announcement

2008-09-27T17:15:00.004-06:00

Check out this link if you've not heard yet.

Remember when I had said I was speaking with groundspeak? I was, but it wasn't what you may have thought.

It took over 3 weeks to get on the phone with them after they agreed to talk with me. When I finally did, they had me sign an NDA, which took another week, and then
another week after that to talk to them again. After all that, they told me that the
terms of use would continue to apply to me and that I was welcome to
continue as I was, but nothing would change in the near future. That was... difficult. =) They also told me about their project (no details, just that there was a project in the works). I've been sitting on that for weeks and it's been rough not saying anything to you guys.

Congratulations to them though, from the looks of it it will be a very capable caching system, in some ways very similar to Geopher Lite but with a better UI than the web view and with a saved cache list. And it sounds as though they will continue to add features.

So.

The big question is, what does this mean for Geopher Lite? And more importantly to many of you, what does this mean for the full version of Geopher?

I'm not really sure. I haven't ruled out completing it, but I also wonder what the use would be. Groundspeak is doing what I would have wanted in the ideal of Geopher. That doesn't mean that it would be useless, it would still have it's pros, but also it's cons. I'm leaning against a full version at this point.

However that's good news for those of you who have already purchased Geopher Lite. I will likely make more updates to Geopher Lite than I had intended. It's funny how that has worked out. I had originally planned for Geopher Lite to be free with a basic interface similar to what I had done here with the UI. Now here we are, the free demo is $1.99 and I could pour more functionality into it, bump the price, and make it the full version. That may or may not happen. Life is often unexpected that way.

Sorry, I'm rambling... I'll give you a sneak peek at what I'd like to get working (or rather, what I am working on) with Geopher Lite.

The next version already has the compass letters rotated like you would expect. This has been requested by a few people since the initial skins and I finally got around to doing that a week ago. In addition, I am adding a skin that will be more clear outdoors. It's not where I want it to be, but it looks okay. If anyone would like to donate a good black and white compass rose and arrow I'd be most grateful. I've done a few myself and... well, I'm not an artist. My images would get the job done, but it's not all that hot. =) I'll do what I have to do though, so this isn't me begging, just if you're an artist, bored, and want a better outdoor screen you have the ability to help. =) So that's coming, slated for 1.0.6, which has no real date yet.

I am also working on a way to allow for hitting the .GPX or .LOC buttons on the geocache listings and having them download the file, parse the GPX/LOC file, and then auto-fill the target coordinates. I can't get around a few limitations with apple's web view (or it would be done already), so I may take more time than I'd like to get this done. But that is the goal, and would be a legal way for me to auto-enter the coordinates without doing anything out of the ordinary in regards to the terms of use.

I have considered allowing these GPX files to be saved, but no promises here. That would be nice, and I'd like to see that, we shall see. At the moment that has a higher possibility of happening, but again. I MAKE NO PROMISES. =)

I would also like to find a way to use wap.geocaching.com, but again, that's been made to be intentionally difficult to use and groundspeak has indicated that it is what it is -- I won't be getting any help there. I have some ideas and I'd like to see what I can do here, but it should be an interesting process to get done without breaking any of the rules. I'm going to give it a go though.

Compass rotation will be revisited, but I'm not spending tons of time there. I do have an idea of stopping the compass rotation when not moving and I'll be working on that, but the theory is that apple will be adding to their GPS functionality in the near future and I'll be using their data to rotate the compass, not the simple math that I'm currently doing. I am making a (big?) assumption here that apple has access to better data than I do for this. I guess we shall see.

Oh, and I registered the domain geopher.com a while back, and I have had a kind soul offer to help with getting a webpage going for me once I make time to get the hosting figured out. So that may be coming soon, depending, again, on time.

Also I'm keeping an eye out for the links on geocaching.com to work (i.e. the map link) as well as saving the webpage. These are annoying, but are currently not at the top of my priority list. I also have some code for sun/moon directions as well, but I'm on the fence if that should be added or not. I'm sure there's more, but this is all off the top of my head, so I guess you guys will deal with the rest. =)

On a more personal note, my time at work has been more demanding lately and I'm not sure how long that will continue. Additionally, my wife is 7 months pregnant with our 4th kid (Yeah, I know. It's our last. We love our kids but soemtimes I wonder about having another. =) ). This means that my job as a dad will take more time in the near future as well. On top of that I've decided to start on another iPhone app which I will likely briefly mention here once it gets released. So time will be streched. Don't expect all this to be available in a week or two.

As always I'll keep you updated with what's happening.

Feedback, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Despite groundspeak competing in this space, I'll still be around maintaining Geopher Lite, so no worries there. Thanks for using Geopher Lite and being part of the iPhone geocaching community!

Geocaching on the iPhone at apple

2008-09-24T12:18:00.003-06:00

Here's a big THANKS! to the Geopher Lite fans at apple. I'm honored, and I hope that you're loving it!

Quick Update

2008-09-22T10:51:00.002-06:00

Things are going slow and steady for the moment. Geopher Lite isn't getting the full attention of my limited spare development at the moment, so the next update will take a bit longer than what has been normal. The amazing lack of feedback with this release means one of two things to me. Either everyone has moved on to other programs or we've hit the "good enough" phase of Geopher Lite's development. I have a few things in the works, I will hopefully post some screenshots later in the week.

In the coming weeks I hope to have an announcement here also. I'll try to post at least once a week.

As always, questions and comments are welcome. I'd particularly like new feedback on the new version and how I would make it more usable. Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

1.0.5 is up! (Yeah, old news)

2008-09-10T10:12:00.002-06:00

If you haven't heard or read the comments in my previous post, the new version is out. If you don't have it and you're reading this what are you doing here? Go get it!

A few miscellaneous comments for you.

Since Apple rejected and I had to resubmit my app, there are two other things that got into the release that had been slated for 1.0.6. Not a big deal but here they are anyway:
- Less restrictive URL linking.
- changed status bar to black
- changed buttons on top bar in target to be both black and the names to be "More" and "Return".

As a reminder, the waypoint field is for entering the letter/number codes for an individual geocache. You can find these in the top right portion of the geocaching page on geocaching.com. An example would be something like GC12345.

I have just downloaded the new official 2.1 SDK. It appears that apple has not actually delivered some of the features that were in the early beta with core location. From what I can tell it hasn't changed in any useful way (to us) with 2.1. Because of this I will spend some more time with the compass code and see if I can smooth it out a bit more. I'm a bit disappointed here, but I am still glad I took a wait and see approach to this. Expect more changes here.

I'm planning on revisiting the maps link from within the webpage with 2.1 and see if that is taken care of or if it is still a problem. I'm not hopeful, but it's worth checking out and seeing if Apple has fixed this issue.

As promised, here is the URL scheme for sending coordinates to Geopher Lite:

geopherlite://setTarget;lat=12.345;lon=6.789;waypoint=GC12345

You can actually type something like the above into safari and test it out if you'd like. You can embed links like this in web pages and it will open in Geopher Lite if you are on the iPhone. You can also call Geopher Lite with this URL scheme from other iPhone applications if you're a developer and wondering about that. Go crazy, I'd love to hear what people do with this.

Kai, one of our beta testers, has written up a tutorial that you can see here which will allow you to get a web page set up that redirects from safari to Geopher Lite. I want to note here that he has a jailbroken app do some of the lifting, but I am working with him to see if we can get this information via Geopher Lite instead of having to rely on a jailbroken app. And you can still use this method without jailbreaking your iPhone, you just don't get current coordinate distance. Thanks for the work on this Kai!

As always, post comments, suggestions and feedback here. Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

Still no word from Apple...

2008-09-08T13:58:00.002-06:00

I have to say, I was expecting something by today. Maybe I'll get lucky and 1.0.5 will get approved tonight. Not holding my breath.

Rumor has it that iPhone OS 2.1 will be released tomorrow at the apple media event. Here's hoping that happens as well as the 2.1 features that apple has previously pulled from their beta software will be available -- that will mean good things for compass rotation and update calculations. Which, I am hoping, will translate into battery savings. Though at the current rate will not be for a long time in an update. =)

A quick note on my call with groundspeak. I may have more news later, but for now the answer is that the terms of use are in full effect. I'm disappointed, it sure is annoying to have to do that. I'm working on a better solution that is within the terms of use, but everything that has been thought of or suggested is not trivial to make happen. I'll keep you updated on this.

Also, in case anyone missed this the first time, the new version will support URL linking. So that means that if you have a website that has cache information, you can embed links that open up Geopher Lite when clicked. One of our beta testers has a (somewhat complicated) means of making up a website with links that point to Geopher Lite, and it works well. If he's agreeable I may link a tutorial for that here.

Back to the waiting game...

Quick update

2008-09-04T11:35:00.002-06:00

I heard back from apple last night. They rejected my latest submission due to the "Action" icon I used in the top right. I changed it and re-submitted within a half hour, so it's back to the waiting game. I'll post here when the update goes through.

Also, I have a phone call with someone at groundspeak tomorrow. No idea what they will say, but it's progress. Wish me luck!

1.0.5

2008-08-30T11:07:00.006-06:00

Since we a re waiting for 1.0.5 to be released by Apple I thought I'd post some screenshots and the changelog. Enjoy!

Geopher Lite 1.0.5 Changelog
- Added a preference to turn on and off the compass rotation. (Default is off)
- Added a preference to turn off auto search and added default HTML in it's place.
- Added a preference to keep the GPS on at all times.
- Changed the navigation buttons on the top of the target selection screen and moved them around.
- Changed the FAQ to be a local page instead of loading a website in safari.
- Reorganized the target setup screen buttons and added stop/back buttons.
- Re-Added log button and waypoint entry.
- Added URL linking from other applications.
- GPS Location Updates more frequently.

Per usual, I'd love to hear feedback, problems and suggestions!

Almost Ready...

2008-08-25T10:41:00.003-06:00

Hopefully this evening or tomorrow evening I will submit the next update to apple. So give it a week or so.

I've touched up the buttons and such since I posted the last screenshots, I'll post some other screenshots in a couple of days. (Have to have something to do while we wait for the review! =) )

I'm planning on making a preference for continuous updating. (This may or may not make it in this version) It's probably a battery drain, but things seem to be much more responsive when the GPS is sending updates continuously. The currently released version only sends updates every few feet of movement. I think adding the option is a good compromise between battery life and accuracy.

Compass rotation is elusive. I've added a preference to turn this on and off because people keep asking me for that. I want to state that I'm still not in love with it, but I'm not sure I can wait on apple -- who knows when the 2.1 firmware will come out, or what features it will have. We are nearing the end of august and Apple still doesn't have what I would expect in their beta for (presumably) september so I will be interested to see if they keep their september deadline with some of their promised functionality. Anyway. Sorry I'm rambling... Compass rotation will be in the next release, but may not be any better than what is there now. I'll see what I can do, that's my focus for this evening, to smooth that out.

I may also add URL support for Geopher Lite. This won't mean much to you guys probably, but if I do this it would allow other applications to send coordinates to Geopher Lite. For example, clicking on a google maps link in safari will send you to the google maps application. Adding in link support similar to this would allow other developers to send target coordinates to Geopher Lite. I think it could be a good thing for everyone if other developers choose to use it. It ay also be a waste of time, we'll see. =)

Things are coming along. I am already into development of the full version of Geopher and that will gain more and more development time. Geopher Lite is getting to be fairly polished for what it is and I'm pretty happy with it. That doesn't mean it's perfect though -- keep the suggestions and comments coming in!

New pictures

2008-08-21T09:45:00.004-06:00

Lately mostly what I've done is hit my head against a brick wall trying to get a makefile compiled library to compile for the iPhone. And I don't know a lot about makefiles, just enough to be dangerous. It's been pretty painful.

However, in my moments of needing a break from that I've managed to change a few things on the target selection screen. I've also added a preference which will allow for turning off the auto-load of the search. The "reply" button in the top right actually rotates through the different kinds of fields. I'l probably change "save" to "done" as the fields auto-save once you are done editing them. I don't like misleading UI.

Here, have some screenshots for illustration.

I changed the top of the bar so that we now have the log button back and can rotate through a few different options.

I'm thinking of adding some additional information in a text field at the bottom, is there anything you would like to have information about that Geopher Lite doesn't currently provide?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and support!

Request

2008-08-18T09:50:00.002-06:00

Quick update and a request today.

First off, thanks everyone for your feedback. I've got a couple of things in the works that should help the target selection screen some.

Much of the development has turned to the theoretical on how best to make a few things work in the full version. Expect things to slow down some, though not stop completely. I have a surprise that would be great if I can make it happen. As long as I can navigate the twisty maze that is apple's SDK while avoiding the issues with geocaching.com's terms of use. Once I find a clear path I'll announce it. In the meantime, keep going with the suggestions. Feel free to repeat yourself if you feel strongly about it. =)

I'll probably post a screenshot or two here later in the week.

As for the request.

I don't feel like many of the reviews are totally accurate on the itunes store. I'd like your help with that. The top reviews that show up in iTunes really don't represent Geopher very well at this point. If you guys could go over there and rate some of the reviews as helpful or non-helpful I would be grateful.

That said, and this is important!

I don't want anyone to lie or fanatically promote geopher. If you write a review, be fair but honest. If you say a review was helpful (or not helpful), be honest.

As a reminder, Geopher Lite isn't meant to be a full geocaching supplement. It's for those times that you want to go grab a cache and haven't prepared for it in advance. I understand that many people want it to be more than that. That's what the full version is being developed for. Give it time. =)

Thanks everyone for your help and support in moving this forward.

It's up!

2008-08-14T20:08:00.002-06:00

The new version is up. Go get it!

You know the drill -- post feedback here. I want to hear your comments, both good and bad!

Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

Edit: For those of you curious, check the main iPhone settings for skin selection. If there's demand I can move these into the app itself, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. =) Apologies for the confusion.

While we wait...

2008-08-12T20:01:00.004-06:00

... for apple to approve the update, here are a few more screenshots of 1.0.4.

I plan on revisiting the compass in the future to make it less uni-directional (i.e. move the letters around a bit, so that whatever is at the top looks right). That will likely come with the compass rotation. Which I may not get done to my satisfaction until Apple releases their 2.1 firmware that is in beta. We shall see. Wish me luck on that one. =)

I'm planning a smaller release cycle this time around and will focus a bit more on the target setting page. I'd like to revisit the look of the buttons and see if I can squeeze a bit more space out of there. There's not a lot to work with, but I have a couple of ideas, none of which are particularly new to the iPhone. But new to Geopher Lite.

If you could pick one feature that Geopher Lite could have, other than saving multiple targets, what would it be? (Look at the next post down to make sure your request isn't already added -- I had a 2 star review in the app store recently that has 2 of 3 issues they had with Geopher Lite already submitted with 1.0.4)

As always, thanks for the feedback and thanks for stopping by!

1.0.4 official changelog

2008-08-09T19:28:00.004-06:00

Here is the official changelog for 1.0.4:

GPS is now turned off when not in target mode to save on battery.
Target Latitude/Longitude text fields are now more helpful when entering coordinates.
The Map button now does a pin drop on the maps application instead of directions.
Fixed a crash bug with entering coordinates and some cosmetic bugs.
Target screen now does not go to sleep.
Changed animation between views.
Added accuracy and bearing to target screen.
Added application preferences including:
Added Different looks to choose from for Geopher Lite's target screen.
Added preference for feet vs. meters.
Added preference for found caches in search.

One thing I did not officially add here is compass roatation. My beta testers have a version with compass rotation working, but I've not heard any details back from any of them about it. I am not personally satisfied with the compass rotation.

However.

in 1.0.4 type "rotate" into the latitude or longitude coordinates and compass rotation will be turned on until you quit the application. I likely won't mention this again, I hate to make the general public unwilling beta testers. I've gotten a lot of requests for this and wanted people to see some progress without me forcing this on everyone. Hope someone appreciates it. =)

As a reminder, the rotation works fine if you're moving around quickly, but walking around in a small area has problems. There are limitations just due to how a gps compass works. Until I get the problems that I can fix worked out it won't be live.

I neglected to mention a thanks to jamie for supplying an additional skin that is a part of this release.

Between victor, jamie and myself we now have 4 different target screens to choose from. There's the one listed in the previous post by victor, an additional skin by victor, my (modified slightly) original, and this look:

Thanks Jamie!

Sneak Peek

2008-08-07T01:13:00.003-06:00

The next update is getting closer.

It's been too long since we've had screenshots on here. We need some more.

Once the compass starts updating then there is also a bearing that shows in the bottom left corner similar to the accuracy.

Special thanks to victor for two excellent new target screen faces that can be used with this upcoming version.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Keep it coming!

Opinions

2008-08-04T09:21:00.002-06:00

Okay, I need some opinions from you, my fellow geopher lite users. And because of that I have now turned on comments by anyone, you don't need a blogger account to comment.

I have a rough compass working. It works great if you're travelling in a car. If you are just walking around in a small area it is wildly inaccurate. I'm not giving up and still have some ideas on this. However, until l can get that working in a place where I feel good about it I'm not going to release the compass rotation.

That's where you come in.

I'd like to hear your opinions on if you would like me to make more regular releases to apple and have geopher lite change over time or would you rather have me take a bit more time and just release one or two updates that get it all right? There are pros and cons both ways.

I'm not making this a democracy, but I would like to know a general feel of what you all would prefer. You know, other than have it all done tomorrow and all working. =)

Thanks for your continued support. Additional feedback is always welcome.

Update in the works

2008-08-02T17:01:00.002-06:00

Currently I have a couple of minor fixes working in the next release, including google maps working more as expected and an easier way of entering latitude and longitude coordinates. The new arrow interface is coming along nicely. I want to take the time to get the compass working correctly so it's taking a bit longer than I had expected. Patience will be rewarded. =)

I have also signed on a handful of people as beta testers to help out. Additional beta testers may or may not happen, I am not looking for more right now though.

Per usual, please post your gripes, praise and suggestions.

Thanks everyone for your support.

Time Flies...

2008-07-31T19:18:00.002-06:00

... or seems to.

It's been just over a week since Geopher Lite was released. In that time we've managed to get an update from apple through the works and get everyone's hopes up. And dashed. =)

Yeah... about the google maps thing... Long story short, I kept hearing about how people were using the google maps directions to do geocaching. So, I added a link using google maps directions. Little did I know that it snapped to the closest street. What can I say, I was so happy about developing geopher that I've used that instead of google maps for geocaching. =) I'll fix this with the next version.

In the meantime, may I suggest using Geopher Lite's target screen to get you the rest of the way to the cache if you need to.

I've already got the next version well under way. I'll be doing some more coding this evening on the next update. I'm not going to rush it into the review process like I did the last one. I'll get it in there in a timely manner, but it won't be like last time, within 24 hours of the launch of Geopher Lite.

Keep the comments and critique coming. =)

Geopher Lite 1.0.3 Now available

2008-07-30T21:20:00.004-06:00

... or is it?

About an hour ago I got an email from apple. The relevant portion is here:

and here:

I haven't seen any change on the iTunes store and it's still listed as in review, but it's not really...? Odd. Keep an eye out, hopefully that changes here soon and the update will really be available. Keep your fingers crossed! =)

Update: the updated app is now available via the iTunes store.

Update

2008-07-30T00:43:00.001-06:00

Quick update.

I am a bit disappointed that apple hasn't released my update to Geopher Lite yet. I was hoping that it would be today. No such luck.

I've been pretty busy the last few days and haven't had much of a chance to work on Geopher Lite. I'm losing a bit of sleep tonight and tweaking a few things here and there. I've made some headway on the battery life, but probably lost all that I gained due to not having the device go to sleep when on the target screen. I've also throttled back the location updates from continuous to every few feet. And lastly I've added some tweaks to the coordinate entering system -- it will now auto-fill your direction (NESW) and the hours portion of the coordinate.

I've also started down the road of changing the compass to rotate and given some thought on skins. I am planning on spending more time tomorrow evening on Geopher Lite, I'll let you know more then. Also, once I get some more visible changes I'll post some more screenshots. It's getting a bit dull in here. =)

As a side note, I took my iPhone 3g with me geocaching today and found two caches. Everything worked smoothly. Geocaching at it's best; logging the cache as you are standing there is quite nice.

More later.

Q & A

2008-07-27T11:40:00.000-06:00

A number of suggestions and comments have been posted, I feel like I should address a few.

Regarding battery life. I am in the process of changing the way that Geopher Lite gets updates from the GPS unit, as it is more frequent than it needs to be right now. However, this may not be enough to take care of the battery problem, the GPS will still be on in the background. I may change this so that if you are within a certain distance from your target the GPS is on all the time (like right now), but before that it turns on and off for updates. The big problem comes in when turning it on or off, if the GPS will be as accurate or not. I'm playing with a few things and am working on this, I'll keep you posted.

Regarding Inputting coordinates. This is a concern and I've done a few things to make this easier, but it's still not great. Without writing my own keyboard, I'm not sure how much I can do here. I am planning on at least auto-entering the NESW letters depending on current location for the user, that way it's all just the numbers portion. I have also tried splitting up the single text field into multiple text fields, but it seems to me to be harder to use that way. I haven't tried using the menu-type scroll picker, I may look at that as well. I'll keep playing with this and see what I can do. No promises, but I'll try to have something for the update after the one that is in review with this in mind.

Regarding downloadable maps. I believe some of the bigger GPS companies (like TomTom and Telenav) are looking into making a more general purpose GPS software solution for the iPhone. I can't compete with that and don't really want to -- these companies do that already and they are very good at it. I'd be shocked if we didn't see something in the next month or two on this. If it gets extremely bad I could look into something like this, but it would be a ton of work for potentially very little benefit. If you're out hiking somewhere you might be better off with a regular GPS than just the iPhone. (But if you do use geopher out and about please let me know how it works! =) )

Regarding copy/paste. Supposedly apple is working on this right now. It would not be trivial for me to take care of this myself. I'll keep my ear to the ground on this one, I agree it would be very useful to have.

Regarding sporadic updates and losing the GPS signal. This is on my list, I am a bit uncertain on how to go about this. If I do it incorrectly it will cause Geopher to not be as accurate. If I leave it alone it sounds like it will be problematic in certain situations. I'll do what I can here, but it will take a lot of tinkering and using my changes to make sure it works.

Regarding the google maps link from geocaching.com in Geopher Lite. The theory is that this shouldn't work any differently than in safari. I'll keep my eye open and see if I can find out what's the problem here, but no promises -- there may be nothing I can do about this short of rewriting the web view.

Regarding compass rotation. I will definitely have something here with apple's next firmware update, assuming that's more than a week or two away. =) As I mentioned before in practice this was much more annoying than I expected, expect something to happen here.

Along with the compass rotation I would like to have a better way to indicate accuracy on the target screen. I've not figured out the best way to do this, but it is on the list.

Someone also asked about cookies for the web view and remembering your user on geocaching.com. If you choose the remember me checkbox when you log in to geocaching.com inside Geopher Lite it will remember you between sessions. That is already working.

To reiterate, In the currently under review update, I have made the web view a bit bigger and added a google maps button on the target screen as well as saving coordinates. Those are somewhat minimal changes, but they will alleviate a lot of concern and pain of use until I can get some of the other details worked out.

Whew. Big list. Thanks everyone for your patience and understanding. I hope that something is better than nothing and that I made the right decision to release this when I did. More later.

Okay, I lied.

2008-07-25T21:19:00.000-06:00

I just can't leave it alone. ;)

I took my new iPhone 3G out for it's first geocaching run this evening. I left my magellan at home to see how it worked.

I intentionally drove a few miles. My work on saving coordinates paid off, I got to watch my testing coordinates move my target arrow down the road.

With the 3G phone I was able to quickly pull up the first traditional cache I could find. What luck, it was about 200 meters from me. In a park that doubled for a water basin along the road a block away. There were a bunch of kids there so I decided to look for another cache. I picked a cache that I recognized and had previously wanted to hit but hadn't had the time. I drove nearly right to it and wandered around for a minute. I didn't know how much to trust the GPS in the iPhone, so instead of trusting it I looked first where I thought the cache would be. After a minute or two I gave up and followed the coordinates, not really believing them.

And there it was, right where the iPhone said it should be. Within a meter. Guess I need to be less trusting of the haters out there that have trashed the GPS in the iPhone. =)

I came away from this experience with a couple of things.

First, it's much more annoying than I thought to not have the compass auto-rotate. This will be much easier to do with the new firmware that apple has in beta, but I may do something here sooner than that. Did I mention it was annoying? =) I wish I had had access to a 3G iPhone sooner, some o fthis would have been taken care of via testing like this.

Second, the screen going dark and locking is terribly annoying. I know how to fix this, but I didn't believe that it would be a huge issue. I hated this. Mark that one down for the next update.

Third, the arrow and coordinates are updating a ton. And I mean a TON. I may actually throttle back the updates, it really doesn't need to happen more than once or twice a second. It's nice, but it's got to be a battery drain.

Fourth, the accuracy is more of a problem than I thought. With no indication of accuracy I was never sure really how close I was to the cache. Once I lost the GPS signal and my range jumped to almost a kilometer then back again fairly quickly. I'll have to add something for both of these in there.

Gotta love usability testing. =)

Oh, I have added a FAQ here. Please post any questions and/or answers that you feel would be appropriate for geopher lite.

Again, I'm planning on doing a Q/A response to some of the comments here soon, but I won't force you to sit through that at the moment.

Thanks for stopping by.

1.0.3

2008-07-24T23:43:00.000-06:00

Some needed updates submitted just a few minutes ago. I wasn't so sure about the google directions thing, but after playing around with it I can see the draw. It's pretty well done.

Geopher Lite 1.0.3 Changelog
- Added a map button that will open the maps application with directions to your current target.
- Changed the keyboard popup for the waypoint to have a clear background.
- Added saving functionality to current and target location and waypoint information.
- Added help button (FAQ).
- Removed the Log button and waypoint text field. (May be re-added in the future)
- Reorganized the target selection screen.

My next focus will be the compass screen and what we can do there to make it more usable. I wasn't able to complete the skins implementation to my satisfaction so that will have to wait as well. (Sorry Victor!)

I may not do a whole lot the next few days, I have a lot of other stuff going on. I'll nibble at the compass screen UI and functionality while we wait for apple to approve this next update. I'll probably post tomorrow or saturday with some feedback on some of the comments you guys have left as well. I may not be able to keep that up forever, but I'll do what I can until it becomes unmanageable.

Per usual, feedback and comments are welcome. Thanks for dropping by.

What goes down...

2008-07-24T00:25:00.000-06:00

...must come up?

I think I'm going to lose more hair on this project than any other I've done to date.

Good and bad news.

First the bad. I've had some further discussion via email with the groundspeak guys, and there will be no changes. I can't do anything particularly useful with the geocaching.com site other than display it.

However, the good news is that I can keep the app in the app store. As long as I don't infringe on their terms of use we will be okay. (Geopher Lite as-is is not currently breaking their terms of use) That includes things like auto-entering coordinates. (Sorry) I can tell already that this will be the number one unfulfilled request. It's a pain, but there is little I can do here, at least in the short term.

This means a few things for geopher and geopher lite. One is that geopher lite may become geopher full, simply because I won't be able to do what I'd like to do with the data. I understand in a way why groundspeak is so protective of their data. It's hard-earned. As a geocacher I am disappointed that I won't get any sort of functionality like geocache navigator on the iPhone. (And I didn't even know that that software existed more than two weeks ago) Regardless, I am going to continue to work on Geopher Lite and continue to update it, both with functionality and bug fixes. If they will actually merge I haven't decided, but this makes that a much greater possibility.

As I am back in town I will be picking up my iPhone 3G tomorrow, assuming the AT&T store isn't closed for a state holiday that falls on the 24th of July. That would be just my luck. =) However, as it's a state holiday I have tomorrow off of work and plan on spending it for the betterment of Geopher Lite. Look for an additional post tomorrow about what I have done, likely in the evening.

If you have purchased Geopher Lite, please leave feedback on if you are having problems with the arrow not moving problem that has already been mentioned. I have only been able to test this with a first generation iPhone, however the arrow has moved properly for me when driving around in a car. (cell towers don't get me that reliable of a fix on the first gen iPhone) I would be interested in hearing more on this. I know of a possible workaround to force updates more often in the code, but it's not recommended by apple and according to their documentation what I have currently should "just work".

I would also like in general to have feedback for the application. What you do and don't like, complaints, concerns and praise are all accepted. I won't promise I'll fix your personal gripe, but I will promise to read it and ponder why you are saying what you are saying. =)

Also, to answer a few questions / comments.

I will not be allowed to directly access .GPX or .LOC files regardless of premium or not status. That is against the terms of use. (I can't even grab the target coordinates off of the web page and pre-fill the text fields with that information... I am pretty restricted on gathering the data)

To enter coordinates you can use decimal coordinates or hour and decimal minutes coordinates. Geocaching.com uses hour and then decimal minutes as a format, that is the default that is displayed in Geopher Lite. Look here for more on how this works. I should also mention that full hour, minute, second input and display is on the list as is an option to choose the default coordinate style. Also you don't need to enter the degree symbol, just use a space there. The text field will auto-format once you are done and that will help give you feedback on the data you enter here.

Miles versus kilometers is on the list. It's not a high priority, but it's there.

Additionally someone on the app store reviews inferred that the compass itself not rotating was an issue. That is on the list.

My highest priority is saving the target information between sessions. That's an annoyance that should have never been there and I apologize for that.

One last thing. Would it be more harmful than helpful to put a link up inside the app to the google maps directions based on the currently selected target? What do you all think?

Apologies

2008-07-23T14:56:00.000-06:00

And the roller coaster continues.

I just checked my mail at lunch and found a reply from groundspeak.

Not only did they deny my request for obtaining information in ways other than loading a standard web page, they also have asked me to not distribute Geopher Lite in it's current form.

Let me make it clear that I've been very careful in my initial offering to NOT infringe on their terms of use. For example, the reason that you have to manually enter in coordinates from the web view is that I have to "scrape" the coordinates off the web page. Geopher Lite is somewhat annoying to use precisely because of the limitations I had in groundspeak's terms of use agreements. It's not that I am a bad coder (javascript being the exception there due to inexperience =) ), it's that there's not a lot of other options on how to get this accomplished within the current limitations of their terms of use.

I won't post the email here as I'm not sure it was intended for public view, but I don't feel bad about posting a couple of snippets. It said among other things "the fact that your application is commercial (read: for sale) is not acceptable" and "we are not currently willing to provide permission for the commercial use of our data on an iPhone".

So.

I've sent an email to apple legal to take down Geopher Lite from their site. I am uncertain if Geopher Lite will continue to exist after this. I may pursue this again in the future, but for the moment it is on hold until things change.

That said, I am still planning on making a geocaching application with some of the aforementioned features still to come. It will not, however, involve groundspeak's website directly unless I hear otherwise from them. It will be just another PDA style geocaching helper. Which is disappointing to me because I know it could be so much more. Ah well. This other application will be coming, though I'm a bit discouraged at the moment.

I would urge you to make your voice heard over at the geocaching.com forums about getting something going on the iPhone. I'm not going to put up a link here, I don't want to encourage spam. I would encourage anyone who wants something like this to post and let the geocaching.com people know that there is demand for this on the iPhone.

As always, I'll keep you updated. I'm not done yet.

Success!

2008-07-23T09:50:00.000-06:00

After hours and hours of back and forth with apple, we are finally in the app store!

I have changed the price to $1.99. I am also intending on making feature updates in Geopher Lite. I'll be posting an update to apple in the next day or two which will contain some of these.

It was interesting to find out I was posted on the app store by people yelling about the price. I had changed the price to $3.99 to try and get apple to look at the app faster. That succeeded, as a few hours after I had changed the price they sent me an email asking about some of the functionality. I never got to readjust the price (I forgot frankly) and the last word I had from apple was that the web view didn't add sufficient functionality above and beyond safari. Meaning that Geopher Lite was not to be posted to the web store. I *REMOVED* some features and resubmitted, expecting nothing short of a miracle on getting approved. Apparently apple relented but I still would not have known that anything had changed here other than seeing my app up on the store.

Rocky start I guess. What else is new? =)

I am still out of town but will be home late this evening. I'll get an update in when I can.

For those who are worried or nervous:
The app available hasn't particularly changed since July 9th when I originally submitted it to apple in an attempt to get something out there as quickly as possible via the app store. More development has been planned for the lite version irregardless of the main Geopher version. I hadn't expected to be jumping through so many hoops with apple the last few weeks.

Also for those who have been following the blog, I have heard back from groundspeak and currently have their OK to use a web view to get at their data. According to their terms I can't go any farther (or at least it could be considered against their terms of use to go farther) until I work something out with them and that is in the process. They didn't give me (initially) any more approval than what is already stated in their license agreement. I'm doing what I can (legally) to make this all happen. Please be patient, I am optimistic that we are getting there.

Until then thanks for sticking around.

any javascript gurus out there?

2008-07-20T20:29:00.001-06:00

Still not approved by apple. Doesn't surprise me, I'm expecting moday at the earliest. I did get news today that my iPhone is on it's way to my AT&T store, so I should have it in my hands by the end of the week. Having the GPS will help immensely for testing the compass rotation. I've had to test the arrow movement while driving around town in the car with a 1st gen iPhone. That's less than ideal.

I also want to give you guys a heads up, I will be out of town for a couple of days, so updates may be sparse. I'm taking my laptop, but I'm not sure if I will have internet access or not. I'll try to check and do what I can to at least find out if I get approved or not. =)

Technical stuff to follow, if you're interested.

I've been working on getting the geocaching.com content via other means than making the user choose links and enter data into text fields. I'm doing pretty okay so far, but I've run into two hangups.

First, I need to figure out how to complete the login process on geocaching.com via javascript. Being brand new at javascript I feel a little in the dark, but it doesn't seem terribly difficult. I just don't have anyone to ask questions to, so it's slow going at times. =) I have code that I thought would submit the login button, but it seems to be rejected for some reason by the webpage. the submit call isn't happy. I can load the text fields and the "remember" checkbox, but submitting the button is giving me an error. I must be missing something fairly simple.

The second is the ability to get a portion of a webpage via a javascript call. I have access to javascript on the page, but not necessarily direct access to the content. So I need to figure out how to grab data from the webpage with javascript. For search listings for example, I need to have a list of surrounding caches that you get in real-time from the website. I can load the page easily using some of apple's technology to do so, but getting the data back out of the web view is another matter. I've looked at document.body and document.documentElement. It looks like documentElement has the best chance at getting what I need so far, but it seems like there should be an easier way. Guess we will see.

Any javascript gurus out there that can point me in the right direction?

Edit:

After reading the groundspeak licensing agreement, they specifically have a clause in there saying that I will need their permission to do this. So while I may get this to work, I may not be able to use it without permission. Ugh, the red tape. =) I Guess I am waiting to hear back from groundspeak and apple both.

Still no word

2008-07-19T09:28:00.000-06:00

I've heard nothing from apple. I'm a bit surprised that the approval process takes so long. I suspect that geopher lite has been bumped to the back of the queue or something.

In related news I have sent an email to groundspeak asking what their thoughts were on an iPhone app that integrated with their site, but I've received no word back yet there either.

I've decided to move forward anyway and work on an alternate form of navigation to caches. I have to make the assumption that apple may reject the current form of the web view in geopher. Which means that I'll have to do the work of parsing the HTML myself. Not an overnight task, at least not right now -- this is a part time thing that comes at the expense of my full time job and family.

So.

On my short-term list of things to implement are the following items:
- saving target information between sessions
- revamping the navigation to caches so that apple will be happy with it.
- multiple "default" skins to choose from.
- an option for compass rotation to point north regardless of direction you are moving.

Longer term items (which will likely go in the non-lite version) include:
- implementing a skinning method that will be available to the end user.
- GPX parsing and importing
- managed cache lists
- advanced search features and possibly saved searches

There are more things as well I'd like to do but these are for sure on the list. I'd hate to announce other things and then not deliver.

I apologize, I had wanted to get something complete and in the store for people to use until I could get more features done. I guess we'll all have to wait a bit.

Also I want to thank victor for providing some skins that I will make available in Geopher Lite as soon as I can. If the current version that is approved gets accepted I'll integrate them into that with the next update. Otherwise they will have to wait with the rest of the short term list to be completed.

As always thanks everyone for your support and encouragement.

Q & A

2008-07-17T11:12:00.000-06:00

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I am planning on making this app happen, I've certainly not given up. I resubmitted the app last night around 11 PM Pacific time. Hopefully apple will get back to me before the end of today with a response.

I want to answer some questions asked in the comments recently.

Q: do you sign in to it like you would on the Twitter or Facebook clients (which are in the app store now)?

A: Currently you use the web interface to sign in to geocaching.com. For obvious reasons I may have to change that, but to get the information you will need to be signed in, either though my app or geocaching.com via the web. (Unfortunately cookies aren't shared between safari and applications, so you have to sign in separately with both. Which means with the latest changes you definitely want to check the "remember" checkbox when signing in!)

Q: Out of curiosity will you be able to look at a map (perhaps google maps on geocache.com) and be able to view all unfound surrounding caches as if you were using a query?

A: I do have links set up and ready to go for looking at the map view of geocaching.com. I played with that some and unfortunately I can't actually GET data from the web view or safari. So while I can provide a one-way interface
to get to the maps version of geocaching.com, it's not really useful -- you can't get the data entered easily. I do want to do something here, so I'll keep playing around with it. On my desktop machine I almost exclusively use the map view to find nearby caches, so I understand the appeal.

Q: I have one question though, as I do not have a 3G iPhone would I still be able to use the software as an offline tool for paperless caching, e.g. load my gpx file into the software and then use it to get cache descriptions, hints, etc. while using my GPSr to find the cache.

A: GPX support is interesting. I am working on a way to get GPX files directly from geocaching.com (assuming you are logged in), but I haven't gotten that down yet. I am fairly new to web programming, so I'll need to brush up a bit on some javascript to do more there.

As far as offline caching. That is planned, however it is not done yet. That was going to be for the non-lite geopher version. I'll have more details as that gets closer. I do plan on supporting an offline mode, and being able to sue that on a touch or any iPhone. Geocaching and GPS use in general tends to happen out of service ranges as often as in service range, and it would be silly to limit the app to online only.

Q: I take it geocaching.com doesn't have an API to allow more direct integration with your data for recording logs etc?

A: Geocaching.com has no public API that I am aware of, other than the POST codes that I've been able to glean from general usage of the site. In the non-lite version of Geopher I was planning on not ever seeing a web page -- you would just use the app and be able to log caches, manage cache lists, etc all from within the application, oOnline or offline. I have plans to contact groundspeak about this once I start developing this more -- until the lite version is approved (which uses groundspeak's web interface instead of it's own) I've held off. I don't want to do a bunch of development and have apple deny me. Again. ;)

Thanks again for the support everyone.

I'll post again when I hear back from apple, hopefully later today.

ARG!

2008-07-16T22:37:00.000-06:00

So, I heard back from apple this evening.

Here is what was said about geopher:

Hi [Geopher Developer],

Your application, Geopher Lite, cannot be posted to the App Store because it violates section 3.3.5 of the iPhone SDK Agreement; "Applications must comply with the Human Interface Guidelines and other Documentation provided by Apple."

Geopher Lite duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Safari without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. The app should launch Safari when the "Go!" and "Log" buttons are selected, instead of navigating within the app.

Uhm.... wha?

I am a bit upset at this development. I totally didn't expect this one.

So.

I'll be removing the forward and back buttons from the bottom of the toolbar. I will make the log button take you to safari to enter a log instead of staying within geopher's web pane. And I will resubmit the app with my reasons and arguments for using the web pane for entering target latitude and longitude.

If they still disallow it after that I'm not sure what will happen to geopher. Without that it's... well, it's likely not worth paying for thats fur sure. Or possibly even using -- you lose all the convenience.

How frustrating.

I'll keep you updated.

New screenshots.

2008-07-15T23:51:00.001-06:00

Even though things aren't all the way through the app store process yet, I decided I couldn't wait to make a few improvements. I've again swapped around some of the buttons and text fields, cleaned up the user interface some, and made it a little spiffier in general. Here are a few screenshots of the new tweaks, most noticeable in the set target view.

We're getting close, I can feel it. =)

Tick Tock

2008-07-15T18:15:00.000-06:00

Another quick update.

I talked back and forth with someone at apple today to get the app through the chain. There was a misunderstanding of some of the functionality -- he was entering his username in the waypoint field. Which I have labeled currently as geocache ID. Guess I'll have to change that. The resolution to that email conversation was that my app would continue forward in the review process. However that works.

Slowly but surely.

I am looking at finishing a few minor improvements that will hopefully be done this week. Mostly polish stuff.

Slowly but surely.

More Info

2008-07-15T01:16:00.001-06:00

So I got an email from apple this evening that I somehow missed as well.

Looks like a form letter. Here's the text:

Hello Geopher Developer,

Your application, Geopher Demo, cannot be posted to the App Store because it is a demo version. We are not accepting any demo, trial, or pre-release versions, as all apps must be fully functional. You may append Free or Lite to the name, but still must remove all references to Demo in the app. You may point out that there is another version within your app's info panel. All buttons that are not active in this version must be grayed out or removed.

Developer Technical Support

Unfortunately, Geopher Demo WAS fully functional, it was just a sort of preview of things to come.

So.

Geopher Demo is now Geopher Lite. And I'll let you know when it makes it BACK through the submission process. :/

Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, drop me a note with desired features and functionality if you've got it. Thanks for following the drama. =)

Quick note...

2008-07-14T16:45:00.000-06:00

Another quick note... Since my app seems to be perpetually "In Review" I have changed it from the free pricing tier to be $1.99. I am hoping that this will allow for the review process to be sped up -- Apple will actually be getting something out of this now.

This also means that I will be updating the demo a bit more before I move on to full Geopher development. I have a few ideas, but I am also open to (small) requests in relation to the demo. Big requests will likely be combined into the full version of Geopher.

Thanks for dropping by, more later.

Edit: I had some family things to attend to this evening, but when I came back the Geopher Demo's status had changed. It read "Rejected". Doh! However, it asked me to rebuild and re-submit it. I have done so and it is again in review. I think that if things have been done correctly, we will see Geopher Demo in the app store sometime tomorrow. Guess the free vs. paid made a difference after all. Well, that or I'm a bit superstitious. But then, wouldn't you be?

Update

2008-07-13T23:33:00.001-06:00

Just a quick update before I go to bed.

Geopher Demo is still not available via the app store. It is still marked as "Under Review". I expect that it has made it past any automated testing on apple's part and is sitting in someone's queue waiting for human approval for the app store.

In other news I've made a breakthrough of sorts in getting cache information without actually displaying a webpage. Or at least getting the actual HTML of any url (web page) I want via the iPhone. It looks very possible to deliver on my favorite geopher feature -- a "go!" style button that searches geocaching.com and then automatically targets the closest cache for you. I knew this would be possible, but didn't expect it to be quite as quick of an answer. There are a number of details to work out on exactly what the best criteria and such to use with this button, how to access this feature, etc. But that's just logistics at this point. Design details. Anyhow.

If you didn't understand any of that let me sum up. Good news, we're making progress! =)

I'll keep you updated.

Geopher Lite FAQ

2008-07-12T01:00:00.006-06:00

Question: What is geocaching?
Answer: Read this, it answers that question better than I could.

Question: Why do I have to enter my own target coordinates into Geopher Lite? Why not fill them in for me?
Answer: Geocaching.com's terms of use do not currently allow 3rd party applications to use data from geocaching.com in any way other than through a web page. Auto-filling the coordinates for a geocache would violate this agreement. I have spoken with groundspeak (the company that owns geocaching.com) and they have asked that I keep their standard terms of use agreement until further notice.

Question: Why doesn't Geopher Lite keep me logged in to geocaching.com?
Answer: It can, but it works the same way that a web browser would work. Make sure to check the "Keep me logged in" checkbox when you log in and Geopher Lite will remember your login. (Once you have entered your username and password, zoom out and this checkbox is right underneath the username and password fields)

Question: What format can I use to enter target latitude and longitude coordinates?
Answer: Currently Geopher Lite supports decimal degrees and Hour with decimal minutes. Geocahcing.com's default format is in Hours and decimal minutes. See this link for more details on latitude and longitude formats. Since it can be a pain to enter the ° symbol, geopher uses a space instead. Geopher will auto-format the data in Hours and decimal minutes format. This gives you immediate feedback on what Geopher Lite thinks you have entered. Currently Still a bit confused? Me too! =) Look at the examples below.

Example of hour and minute degrees:
(normal) N 40° 05.849 W 111° 39.395
(in Geopher Lite) N 40 5.849 W 111 39.395

Example of latitude and longitude degrees:
(normal) N 40.097483° W 111.656583°
(in Geopher Lite) 40.097483 -111.656583

Note: Geopher Lite only understands the following characters: ".-1234567890NESW ". Geopher Lite substitutes all characters other than these with a space. If it is more convenient you can use something other than a space when entering coordinates.
**Update: With 1.0.4 Geopher Lite enters a partial latitude/longitude based on your current location to make entering coordinates easier.

Question: Can I change the layout of the compass screen? What about the graphics?
Answer: In version 1.0.4 (now released) Geopher Lite will have a limited number of options to choose from when displaying the compass screen. Support for a general skinning method is being considered.

Question: Where are Geopher Lite's preferences?
Answer: The preferences are under apple's settings app towards the bottom. If there is demand I can put the settings inside of Geopher Lite to make them more easily accessable.

Question: What are some other preferences I can change?
Answer: Currently you can change from metric to standard measurements, toggle on and off previously found caches, and change the appearance of the target screen. More preferences may be forthcoming.

Question: Does the compass point north or just at the top of the screen all the time?
Answer: The compass points to the top of the screen. The iPhone does not contain a real compass. However there are plans to create a preference to rotate the compass in a future update.

Question: What about the arrow?
Answer: The arrow overlay points in the direction of the cache as it relates to north. So if you point your iPhone north, the arrow will point towards the target you have set.

Question: Can Geopher Lite save a list of geocaches for me to reference?
Answer: No. Something like this to a smaller scale is being considered for an update, but may only be implemented in the full version of geopher.

Question: Does Geopher Lite support .GPX or .LOC files?
Answer: Syncing these files to Geopher will be in the full version, but probably will not be in Geopher Lite. Keep an eye on things, you never know.

Question: Do you support more sites than geocaching.com for geocaching information?
Answer: Not currently. I am open to supporting other sites, but in my limited research other sites do not have enough data to be very useful for an on-the-go type of geocaching software like Geopher Lite. If you feel differently, please contact me about it. I'd love to hear of alternatives for tighter integration. (wap.geocaching.com is being looked into, if you have experience with this site and would like to help with the URL formatting please contact me)

Question: Will I be able to upgrade Geopher Lite to the full version when it is available?
Answer: Currently apple doesn't allow this. I am looking into the possibility of doing this in other ways, but for the time being Geopher Lite will stay as a Lite version.

Question: The app doesn't work!
Answer: Apple has a few bugs in their software still. Sometimes applications won't launch or the GPS won't work quite right. Try rebooting your phone (hold down the lock and home button both for 5 seconds to shut it down then turn it on again). If the problems persist try deleting the app off of your phone and re-syncing or re-downloading the app. If all else fails, email me!

This FAQ will be updated as questions are asked. Thanks for using Geopher Lite!

Wait for it....

2008-07-11T10:16:00.000-06:00

According to ars technica, it may be a bit before geopher demo is submitted to the app store. I guess we will see.

At least it's still in review after a couple of days rather than rejected.

It sounds like the first wave of iPhones are sold out at nearly every store as well, with a ton of customers preordering one for next week.

If you are looking to get the new iPhone this weekend, best of luck!

Apple store submitted

2008-07-09T18:15:00.001-06:00

Geopher has been submitted to the apple store.

I've made some significant changes, but time is short. I'll post more details about the state of geopher demo soon.

In the meantime, have some screenshots.

Like a puzzle...

2008-07-05T20:01:00.000-06:00

... everything is starting to come together.

Because of the self-imposed time crunch, I think this is very close to what the initial demo will look like. However, signifigant progress has been made.

The application is now a "flip" utility, meaning it has two panes you flip back and forth between. This was surprisingly more effort than I expected, though obviously doable. I can also tell that the sample code I looked at for both what I had and what I moved towards were written by two very distinct people.

This main screen hasn't changed much. I wanted to keep this as simple as possible. The bearing still needs fixed, I just can't bring myself to do that this evening. Maybe tomorrow. I have yet to get back to tweaking the images, I may do more o fthat this evening if I am up to it. I am also somewhat skeptical of the distance displayed between the current location and the target. Either my default position is much closer than I expected or the math there is off as well. Did I mention I never had a head for math? I suspect it's not as much that as how math is generally taught. Anyway.

This screen has had the biggest breakthrough yet. A web interface in a sub-pane. This will allow for quick searching of caches based on the current location, allowing the user to spontaneously whip out an iPhone, search on the current location, and choose a cache to make their target. This isn't quite ideal, however I'll save the one button press geocaching for the real app, not the demo. Assuming the geocache ID is entered properly, you can also jump straight to the log page and quickly mark the cache as found.

The flipside is remarkably cramped compared to the main screen. There's really just not the real estate I'd like for all the functionality. That or my UI design needs improvement. Maybe both. I'll be cleaning that up as much as I can for the release, but that may not be much between now and then.

The little black info button in the bottom left will bring up a splash screen touting the wonders of the full version which will be Coming Soon™.

More information to follow. Stay tuned!

Progression

2008-07-05T12:07:00.000-06:00

It's getting there.

Lots and lots to do still. It's been since junior high pretty much since I did latitude/longitude conversions to radians and a 360 degree circle sort of layout. Wish me luck on my math! As a sidenote here, apparently apple already did the haversine calculations and has a method available to calculate the distance between two latitude/longitude points. That was a waste of time to code up myself. Live and learn.

If all goes well, I'll post more updates this evening. The deadline for initial app store availability (presumably July 11th) is in approximately 48 hours. Wish me luck, I'll need it. =)

Early preview

2008-07-04T13:40:00.001-06:00

Well, after a lot of thought and some development, the geopher demo is vaguely functional. Here's a picture for history of a pre-alpha in progress shot of goepher's demo.

The arrow and compass need some work. Graphically I like the compass, though I might not keep it blue and it needs better designations for N/E/S/W. The arrow needs some attention, but it will server it's purpose for now. Eventually the arrow will point the direction towards your selected target location, though it just points north currently. Expect better things here. I've not decided if the compass itself will rotate to indicate direction or if the arrow will. I might have to make that a preference, from the few people I have talked to it's a pretty split decision.

The target input fields need a redesign and will likely not be on this main page. I will be adding a bearing and/or heading on this page. If a geocache is selected as target I may add information about the cache with a "log it" link.

Hitting the map button goes to your current location as a map on geocaching.com, in apple's safari. Possibly later I'll add a frame within my application that will do all of that without having to go to safari. Maybe. Much later.

The overall design needs a lot of work, but it will get there. I had best get back to work, I need to add some Haversine Functionality.

Geopher demo

2008-06-27T00:51:00.000-06:00

Geopher currently exists in my mind. That is about to change. Initial steps have been started, the ball is rolling. More coming soon.

Geopher Lite

Groundspeak's new API

2.0 released

Apologies...

Free Chirp?

User Questions

opencaching.com

As I suspected...

Teaser

Ads

Opinion

Tablet

Holiday sale

Haitus

What's next?

Released

Still no word

Doh!

Done

News!

Back!

Delay

Map finished

Screenshots!

Forward

Quick Comment

Quick update

Battery Pack

Update submitted

Geopher Lite opens up

Merry Christmas!

Good and bad

S-L-O-W

Quickie

Conclusion

Groundspeak announcement

Geocaching on the iPhone at apple

Quick Update

1.0.5 is up! (Yeah, old news)

Still no word from Apple...

Quick update

1.0.5

Almost Ready...

New pictures

Request

It's up!

While we wait...

1.0.4 official changelog

Sneak Peek

Opinions

Update in the works

Time Flies...

Geopher Lite 1.0.3 Now available

Update

Q & A

Okay, I lied.

1.0.3

What goes down...

Apologies

Success!

any javascript gurus out there?

Still no word

Q & A

ARG!

New screenshots.

Tick Tock

More Info

Quick note...

Update

Geopher Lite FAQ

Wait for it....

Apple store submitted

Like a puzzle...

Progression

Early preview

Geopher demo