Hi All,

If anyone is interested in working with geocaching.com Pocket Querys on their BlackBerry device there is a new application currently in beta at: CacheBerrry - GeoCaching with your BlackBerry

The app allows you to keep Pocket Queries (and GPX files from cache listings for non-premium members) on the device and search for caches, view details, logs, hints, inventories and attach memos.

At this stage it requires Windows (for USB transfer) but support for Mac and Linux will be added soon.

Cheers,
Bruce

Hi
what kind of timeframe are looking to add SD Card support? Q2, Q3, Q4?

regs,


PDM

Hi PDM,

I hope to have SD-Card support (and multiple databases) next month sometime.

Cheers,
Bruce

This is really slick - I don't geocache myself but have some buddies who are into it, I know they have cool software like this on their Windows Mobile devices. Kudos!

Hi Bruce,
many thanks for the response. Unfortunately, my trial will probably have expired by then... ;)

ciao for now,


PDM

Hopefully not, it is a 30-day trial.. in any event your 8800 should be able to handle a large number of caches listing in Flash, probably serveral thousand, it's just that the time taken to "merge" updates into a very large database starts to creep up. I have 550 caches on my 8320 device and the app is still very fast.

ooo, nice. will you be integrating GPS into it as well for us built in users.

Hey mrking,

Funny you should mention that

Actually I'm developing a GPS application targeted toward geocaching and hiking etc which will work with inbuilt GPS and Bluetooth GPS and which will integrate with CacheBerry. Also I will be adding basic location based sort and filtering to CacheBerry sometime before this.

Cheers,
Bruce

Why will you later charge for a geocaching service that is actually free?

Anyway, looks like a nice app. Will give it a try!

Hi funkym,

Actually Pocket Queries are not free, you must be a Premium member of Geocaching.com to get them - but anyway I'm not charging for the service, I'm charging for the application which I hope adds a lot of value to the service for BlackBerry users and will add even more with some of the features I have planned for it (and bearing in mind I will never charge for updates).

Having said that I'm always interested in user opinions including opinions on value, the suggested price of $15 is not cast in stone at this point. Let me know what you think after you have had a play with it..

Cheers!
Bruce

It doesn't work.

I clicked on "Find...", entered "Treasure" and clicked on the "Find" button. The program did nothing and immediately returned "No matching items". What did I do wrong?

You're kidding right?!

no, i am not kidding. there is just this dialog box, nothing else.

Hi funkym,

We should probably move this to email, but I assume you have downloaded the "CacheBerry Desktop" program to your Windows PC and used it to transfer a GPX file (for example a pocket query from geocaching.com) to your Pearl via the USB connection as outlined in the "Quick Start" section of the download page?

You should then see a list of geocaches, the "find" function allows you to find a listing by searching for a keyword in the cache title/description and/or owner name.

Regards,
Bruce

PS. there is a contact email link at the bottom of the beta download page.

I installed it via OTA. The installation went fine, nothing to setup at. It just does not show anything when i press 'find' :(

You're halfway there.. you also need to download the small "CacheBerry Desktop" windows app (first link on the download page). This utility transfers geocache listings in GPX format (the format used by geocaching.com) to CacheBerry on the blackberry device. Until you do this CacheBerry will indeed be "empty".

Please read the "Quick Start" section of the download page.

Regards,
Bruce

I think I'll download this one, as soon as GPS support is integrated. I don't wanna waste the 30 day trial without using this feature.

Ahh ... I get it. The desktop application downloads the caches from geocaching.com and I can then transfer them to my bb. So the cacheberry app is "just" a viewer for the gpx file.

I so hope you can keep developing this. Right now I use the Trimble software (which is very good), but a single-pay program rather than a subscription model with certain features could easily compete. The key features: Use of GPS location (both internal GPS and external puck support) and the ability to download my GPX files without the desktop. I could take or leave the maps, but a tracking feature would be ideal. If you're familiar with the Geocaching software in the PPC world, I'd first shoot for a BeeLine GPS-type program rather than a Backcountry Navigator-type program.

For us Mac and Linux users, is it possible to just place the GPX files on the SD card, then move them into place on the device memory using the File Explorer? Or is it that the Windows tool converts the GPX data into another custom format for use?