1:00 AM
El DiPablo
It's been a while since I've posted about one of my favorite past times which is Geocaching. Geocaching, if you didn't already know, is a sport or game where someone hides a container somewhere in the world, then posts the coordinates to the container on a website like Geocaching.com or Opencaching.com. People like me try to find these containers using GPS enabled devices. I prefer to find my caches using my HTC Evo Android phone.
When I first started Geocaching, I was using my Palm Pre, and the Geocaching app for the Pre sort of sucked. When I got my Android, I discovered C:GEO and my life changed. It was a free app, but had many of the features available in the official app by Groundspeak which costs about $10.
What's the deal then? Well, a while back the original developer of C:GEO stopped working on it, and turned his code over the the community, and C:GEO Opensource was born. Well, in my opinion, that version sucks. I can't log my finds directly from the app when I'm in the field any more, and for some reason, it won't let me login to my Geocaching.com account. For me that makes the app useless.
Well, today while out with the family, I decided to check the Android Market for a viable alternative. I still didn't want to fork over $10 to Groundspeak, so I searched for a free app and found one. It's called Columbus!
Here is a description from the developer's site:
If you have mobile internet access, you can easily locate the nearest geocaches. But even if don't have a mobile Internet, by importing gpx files you gain offline cache database. Google maps shows all geocaches stored in memory until the number of 500. Simple, compass leads you to the cache. Columbus also allows inserting and editing points. So you can modify the waypoints in a multi or mystery cache.
Here are some screenshots:
I like that with this app I can login to my Geocaching.com account, and log my finds as I find them just like I could with C:GEO. It also supports accounts from Opencaching.us and Opencaching.pl (Neither of which I had ever heard of until now).
Long story short, if your looking for an alternative to C:GEO, or even the official Geocaching.com app for Android, check out Columbus. What apps do you like to use for Geocaching? Why do you like it? Let me know in the comments.
del.icio.us tags: free, geocaching, app, android, cgeo, columbus, alternative, review
