Geopher FAQ

Question: What is geocaching?
Answer: Geocaching is a global treasure hunt. People hide different kinds of containers at a certain latitude and longitude, then other people try to find them. Some are easy to find, some not so easy. Some you have to solve a puzzle or riddle first. When you find one sign the logbook and the virtual log on geocaching.com.

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. Since it can be a pain to enter the degree symbol, Geopher Lite 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

Geopher Lite enters a partial latitude/longitude based on your current location to make entering coordinates easier.
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.

Question: Can I change the layout of the compass screen? What about the graphics?
Answer: Geopher Lite has 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. This may move in the future to be inside the application.

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.

Question: Does the compass point north or just at the top of the screen all the time?
Answer: Compass rotation is supported depending on device and the rotation setting in the preferences. For 3GS Phones the compass works through the magnetometer. If you are having trouble with the compass on a 3GS try waving the iPhone in a fgure 8, this helps to calibrate the magnetometer. For 3G iPhones the compass works only through GPS coordinates changing, meaning the compass is much less accurate (but still useful!). On a 3G iPhone the faster you are moving the better accuracy the compass has. This is less than ideal for geocaching, but is still helpful in getting closer to a cache.

Question: What about the arrow?
Answer: The arrow overlay points in the direction of the cache as it relates to north.

Question: Can Geopher Lite save a list of geocaches for me to reference?
Answer: Not currently. Something like this to a smaller scale is being considered for an update. Please send me an email at geopherdemo@gmail.com if you are interested in this kind of feature.

Question: Does Geopher Lite support .GPX or .LOC files?
Answer: This likely 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 at geopherdemo@gmail.com 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 at geopherdemo@gmail.com)

Question: The app doesn't work!
Answer: 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 at geopherdemo@gmail.com!

For more information, see the Geopher Lite Blog at http://geopherlite.blogspot.com.

Thanks for Using Geopher Lite!