Ready to chunk my old PalmIIIxe !

[mountainborn]

Cables, com ports, docking ports, hot synching, what a pain, I had forgot how touchy my old palm actually was.
Is it much easier to use a wifi pocket pc and download pocket queries directly to it ? Can they be read directly ? Or do they have to be converted to cachemate readable ?

[BSA534]

I don't know much about anything but Palm. But if you are in the market for a new pocket pc you might want to do some research and find one that supports those new "whereigo" caches.

[Team Panda]

I can't help you out with your questions, the IIIxe is state of the art for me and is likely to remain so for quite some time but if you decide to upgrade from the IIIxe and don't know what to do with the old one, my brother in Maryland is just getting starting in caching and has hinted to me repeatedly how he'd like to have a IIIxe all set up for geocaching. (His hints are not particularly subtle.)

So, if you upgrade and have no further use for the palmpilot, figure out how much you want for it and give me a holler maybe?

Thanks

[Gaddiel]

We use a PocketPC with Windows Mobile 6. While it's possible to download the pocket queries directly, it's been our experience that it's easier to download them to the PC and sync to the PocketPC. That being said, it is nice to be able to download a query when we are on the road and away from our PC...

I don't know if Cachemate will read the .zip or .gpx file directly. If you decide to purchase a PocketPC, you might look at GPXSonar, which is able to open the .zip file directly. Only problem with GPXSonar is that I believe that it is no longer being supported....

Wayne

[RGS]

Is it much easier to use a wifi pocket pc and download pocket queries directly to it ? Can they be read directly ? Or do they have to be converted to cachemate readable ?

This is like the old Garmin/Magellan or Ford/Chevy arguments. Both will do the job, but...

I think the Palm out of the box is easier to learn than a PPC, but the PPC is more powerful once you get to know how to use it.

I've got an older Toshiba PPC (no wifi or bluetooth) that works great for caching. So for your first question, yes, you can D/L your PQ's using wifi to receive your email. Then the GPX can be read directly by GPXsonar or Cachemate. When syncing from the desktop, the GPX files can be loaded directly or just copied to the SD card.

The direction now seems to be a PPC with wifi and BT. This allows you to buy a Garmin Bluetooth X10 GPS and load Garmin maps (same as a NUVI) and use the GPS for caching and navigating w/o any wires or cables. Then Cachemate interfaces directly with the maps and GPS so you can toggle between the maps, cache page descriptions, and a compass for navigating to the cache. The newer smartphones that run Windows Mobile 6 will work the same as the PPC, and the phones with the GPS built-in won't need the X10 BT GPS.

RGS

[mountainborn]

Update: My old Palm IIIxe seems to have somehow taken a whole new outlook on life. Late last night the old Palm was sending text massage after mesage to another computer that was identified as Julie. Though I am sure that the returning text messages were automaticly generated, ( out of office type ), I am not sure that my old Palm understood that.I may have to reconsider my options at this point. 8O
p.s. Is there any chance that a Palm Pilot might be effected by a virus or something that could cause it to become evily possesed ?

[Geezer_Veazey]

I may have to get me a Palm IIIxe. I'll bet that massage feels good after a long hike.

[OldRiverRunner]

Sounds like you need an exorcist! -- ORR